Inductions’ Mania
An unreliable retelling of the Choosing Ceremony of Festember!
Try-anka is an ambivert of a fresher whose personality and socializing nature is purely dependent on her surroundings. Here are some anecdotes from her rare and valuable manuscripts for aspiring Festember teams’ inductees.
Tuesday, 9:55 PM:
Exhausted after a long day of classes, lab, and inductions’ briefing, she sought refuge on her bed. The 420 unread messages beeped from her phone. Attempting the humongous task of reading each one of them and perhaps replying to a few, she realized that she was even more exhausted. She did know that she had adequate patience to look through some of the status updates posted by her friends (from a safe distance)! Ignoring the mass posting of clubs’/teams’ initiatives, she accidentally clicked on a redundant post.
It contained a long text that concluded with Register for Festember Inductions! and a link that led to the website.
‘Interesting!’ she thought and tapped gently.
Her eyes followed her numb fingers that were scrolling through the page. After a few seconds of pondering over each team, skipping a few team descriptions, reading a few, and a few moments later, skipping them altogether, she realized it was 2:30 AM already. With her eyelids drooping helplessly, she managed to fill in her preferences and complete the long and rather obscure questionnaire.
‘ABC or BAC, how does it matter?’
Saturday, 3:30 PM:
1 new message…
“Your PI is scheduled for tomorrow at 5pm in Orion. Be on time and acknowledge this message.”
“Sure, I’ll be there!”
Sunday, 5:00 PM:
Walking towards the panel of interviewers sitting at the vaguely familiar Orion desks, she gathered all her confidence even though an inkling of her being was giving away symptoms of anxiety. The first question sounded simple at first, but as she phrased her answer, she realized how intricate it was.
‘How would you introduce yourself?’
For the first time, she felt that she wasn’t quite aware of her own self.
After a few ice-breakers, a new member was introduced into the panel who was eagerly waiting for a chance to shoot his questions. After a round of HR questions and poker-faced nods, she was allowed to leave.
Heaving a heavy sigh of relief, she entered the next room and all was still for that moment. It was perfectly awkward, if not for a familiar senior smiling back at her. Here again, she was asked the question she dreaded so much — to introduce herself. Thus began another round of questions with another equally intimidating panel.
Monday, 5:30 PM:
To go or not to go? That is the question!
After a tedious set of interviews the previous day, she assured herself that her next one would be more taxing. She decided to conveniently forget her scheduled interview and if called, she would slyly reply that she didn’t receive a message. There! She had a fool-proof master plan!
An hour had surpassed the scheduled time, she didn’t receive a call. Now, she was worried.
Am I making a mistake? Am I just an inch away from getting into the team? Should I call them up?
No, she possibly couldn’t spoil her master plan! Two hours later, she couldn’t help but reach for her cycle keys and rush to Orion. There, she was welcomed with another dreaded question,
‘When was your PI scheduled?’
Tuesday and the rest of the week:
Meanwhile, tired and completely drained of energy, team Festember still had the unfinished herculean task of selecting potential candidates. The first list of selected candidates was circulated to be approved by everyone in the team. While there were a couple of nods initially, one of the members put forward his objections. In a matter of few moments, there was a parliamentary discussion that involved a group of members showing their support for a candidate to be approved, others opposing the idea, and a few who played it safe and remained spectators.
Before the situation began to get any worse, the heads of the team cleverly dissolved it with the mention of a ‘treat’.
After a wholesome meal and a tranquil discussion, the skeptical members agreed to trade one applicant for another. Sigh!
Now, there came another problem! That candidate was another team’s choice as well. Thus, a new inter-team conflict was triggered. This involved two days of solid discussions regarding the potential candidates in each team and several ‘treats’ in case of rage among members. Finally, the list of selected candidates was drafted to suit the likes of every member in the team.
With that came together the Festember team, welcoming the next group of inductees to take the teams forward!
Judgement Day:
A myriad of thoughts crossed her mind. Some of her friends had already received messages that informed them of their selection into the team.
Was my name missed while messaging a lot of people? Should I call them up and remind them? Did they accidentally delete my name from their database?
After a lot of contemplation, she checked her phone. She was disappointed. She couldn’t sleep.
The day after:
1 new message…
Congratulations! You have been selected to be a part of Festember 2020. Welcome to the team. We wish you an amazing journey ahead!
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to hurt any individual’s feelings/sentiments and contains fictional characters. It was written purely for one to relish/revive one’s inductions’ experience.
