one degree of separation or reparation

one degree not offered,

but experienced and learnt,

and be a learner still !

This was the fifth day and the thirteenth attempt. Set in a make-shift shamiana or marquee in northern suburbs of Mumbai. Nobody had a cue of the process or the filter. But everybody had a long queue … to deal with. I conformed, confusingly!

The heat kept pouring. Fans were working but not too. Much like most human actions that seem to be implementing solutions but they don’t seem to work or work partially.

There were two booms before this one that i was standing in months ago. Those earlier ones were medical transcription and dot com. At different times, I had tried to be the jockey, the horse and the trader … ended up being spectator and a jealous one.

Welcome to the turn of the millennium … Summer of 2003.

I was rejected at 12 call centers before this one. And the reasons were known to me and ill-described by “them” (the assessors or the assassins). Back in the day and night, i could hardly speak a single sentence in English. So much so, that i had to rehearse a hundred times before i spoke anything in English. And by the time i was ready (just about little more ready than also being unready), the context or the person would have passed already. And I would end up becoming a joke. And this is not to feel bad about or victimized. Its just the way it was.

I realized on this thirteenth attempt, what does it really mean to hope against hope. The determined fate was delivered to me after six hours of being processed through various grinding mills and boon … wait, what am i saying? it was mills and bane .

In some way, the moment the “rejection” came, two of my old friends showed up. Sadness and Relief ! Sadness because i was rejected yet again. And relief because i had overburdened my coolie-self to pretend to be a cool-self.

As i walked back, and my gait was different (i don’t know but over the years i have realized that we do not have a single gait in which we walk….we have a spectrum of them…gaits…and they keep changing owing to various factors inside of us and outside of us). All throughout, i was thinking about whether i should go for a “14th” or i should just stay shut and try something else.

Something dawned on me. I went to my neighbor’s place (Abhijit). He would generously offer his dial-up internet connection and the computer to me to help me. ( a deep gratitude to Abhijit for supporting me so selflessly in my earlier years)

And another fate was delivered to me that day as i opened my hotmail email account.

But before that,

i have this habit of writing to absolutely anybody in the world. Till date, in the last two decades, i must have written to almost 5000+ people whom i don’t know. And almost 20% of them were in the era of no linkedin or fb or anything. And i have been pleasantly surprised that nearly 50 of them have responded over the years. And those who responded have played some key role in my learning and progress. Those who haven’t, i only feel that we are all on this planetary journey and there are things beyond our understanding.

There was an email from Philip Cohen. It was a response to something i had written to him out of the blue—cyan-magenta-black. This was my one degree of separation (giving up on call center dream) or one degree of reparation (doing something about all my readings and analysis about the industry for last two years).

Philip Cohen, from Sweden, was the guy who was awarded by Michael Dell in 90s. As the guy who has contributed hugely to the calling industry. And Philip was to speak at Amercian Teleservices Association’s National Convention in Phoenix-Arizona that year. And he was doing a story on India. His colleague, Birgitta was to visit India and do a video report and an analysis document.

As luck would have it, I became part of the project. And Birgitta became a life-long well-meaning correspondences (deep gratitude to Philip and Birgitta).

That day … something happened. I can’t explain. But sure was at an inflection of one degree.

And these one degree of separation or reparation keeps chasing us in life. We come at this crowded crossroad so often. To give in or to give up !

There are no easy answers. Because there are no easy questions. There are just some stories to share. And here i am sharing one. Would like to know yours too…