Chameleon

Chameleon

I reached Gurgaon form my house at Pashchim Vihar just in time for the interview. I was one of the experts hired for interviewing candidates for an IT enabled service company. We were to select a couple of mangers to head the departments. My friend Gulati completed the first round of introductions between us interviewers.

We allotted 15 minutes to each of the candidates; we were three so 5 minutes to each of us to ask questions. The interview started and we could manage to interview three candidates in one hour.

The fourth candidate with slight stoop entered, smartly dressed, French beard, specs and wearing a dark suit with matching tie. His biodata indicated him to be 40 years old and having a brilliant academic career with requisite experience in an IT company in Bangalore. He was carrying a lap top.

After the preliminary introductions, we started our interview. I was the last to ask question to him. Somehow I got this uncanny feeling that I had known this guy intimately somewhere during my service time, unfortunately the name, experience and the place of his work was not matching with my work domain. The twwinkle in his eyes and the mishivieous smile was familiar.

“Were you in Calcutta in 1990?” I asked.

“No sir, of course I have visited Calcutta many a times,” was his jovial reply.

“Do you have a brother who used to stay in Ballygaunge Station Road area?”

“No, I am the only son of my parents,” was his cryptic reply.

As this thought of knowing him was nagging me so I could not proceed further with my questioning.

At the end of the interviews in the evening when we sat down to assess then the fourth candidate, whom I thought I knew came out to be the best and he was selected.

After returning home the feeling of knowing that guy kept on haunting me. The eyes were known and I thought during the interview once he winked at me, that might be figment of my imagination. Then it came to me that about fifteen years back near my house in Calcutta there was a club. They used to hold various puja functions and also stage dramas. Once for one of our office plays we had hired Pratul for the main role. He single handedly carried the drama through. After that he used to come to my house regularly. He was working as a clerk in a private company. He had no ambition.

“Why don’t you join one of the professional theatre groups in north Calcutta,” I enquired.

“I don’t want to do the same role day after day. Haven’t you noticed that the same drama is staged months after months,” was Pratul’s logical reply.

“You know; I don’t know how my manners switch when I change my dress. Supposing I am wearing dhoti, kurta and sandal then I am a typical Bengali babu. If I am in jeans, Tee shirts and Nike shoes then I am one of those party hopping youth’s when I am not doing any drama then still I start acting the character as per the dress I am wearing on that day. My parents feel disturbed about it as they feel I have split personality but I feel it is natural” he explained passionately.

That was the last talk I had before they moved out of our area. This fourth character at the interview whose name was Probal Ghose, somehow reminded me of Pratul Dey.

I woke up from my reverie by the shrill ringing tone of my land phone. I took the phone.

“Hello uncle, this is Pratul, I am sorry about today and I want to meet you tomorrow,” he pleaded.

“So it was you?” fumingly I said.

“When I meet I will explain you everything.”

“Ok, come at 10 am, do you have my address.”

“Yes, I got it from that office, see you then.”

Next day with baited breath I waited for him to arrive. He came just on time, I could recognize him instantly then, the stoop was gone, and there was no beard and specs. He was wearing a full sleeve sweater over his blue shirt and a black pant, sneaker. There was no trace of Probal excepting the eyes. He came and touched my feet; I became emotional and hugged him.

“Probal is my close friend; he got stuck at Bangalore so he contacted me in Calcutta that whether I can attend the interview on his behalf. Getting the job at Delhi was very important for him as he is from Delhi and his parents need him. He knew my ability of impersonation, he paid plane fare and here I am. Your choice is right because all the records are his and I became him for those fifteen minutes of interview,” he explained while sitting down.

“But this is not ethical. You have put me in a spot,” I argued.

“Look uncle this is nothing compared to incompetent people getting selected through the back door. Please tell me in India which selection is fair. You are in Delhi you know how business is done here. I understand in many governments companies the employees after giving attendance go out and manage some other business. You once mentioned that at Farakka Barrage most of the employees are the owners of the shops at the Farakka Barrage market,” he argued with me.

“Are you still a clerk or moved to some drama company.”

“No, now I am running a consultancy firm. I have specialized in attending interviews. Many of those Bengali boys though they are brilliant but are not fluent in English because of the skewed education system, they come to me. I train them for interviews for those IT companies coming up in Salt lake area.”

“How the hell in a short time you can brush their spoken English,” I asked.

He hesitated to answer this question of mine. On my prodding he replied “I have trained some boys who have studied in English medium, these boys are smart but not good in studies but can sail through those interviews. They attend the interviews on their behalf. Let me warn you that if you give them any software work then they will flunk. Luckily mostly call center jobs are coming. These young boys trained by me are very good. I am proud of them.”

“Where else do you use your acting capabilities,” I asked gleefully.

“I act as father of other’s kids and attend interviews in the English medium schools where they interview the parents also. You know many people have made tons of money in business but can’t speak English, like your previous land lord Malakar the jeweler. These are the people who are mad for admitting their kids in English medium schools and as a result of this, English medium schools are coming up like anything, so through this route I get good business. There are many such avenues where I use my acting talent which you may not like to know,” was his considered reply.

“I remember you told me that the dress you wear influences you to act as per that. Then your wardrobe must be full of various types of dresses.”

“No that is easy, I borrow these from a friend who runs a dry cleaning shop in our area,” he replied with a wink.

This was preposterous.

“I have some more future plans, looking at the need of the modern society. I am shortly opening a branch at Salt Lake City for providing grandparents for the nucleolus families. There are so many young parents with one kid but they are not keeping their own parents with them as they are not hep like them, they are from the suburbs. I will provide them with smart set of parents whom they can introduce proudly in the upwardly mobile society. These smart old people have good stock of bed time stories, the dadis can sing lullabies. They can do babysitting for the kids of these new generation couples. The charges will be hourly basis; the client has to provide transport, food etc for that period. Uncle if you are free then I can put your name also in the panel,” he said teasingly.

I was not interested to know more about his nefarious activities but I could understand that the consumerism has thrown open fresh opportunities for him where he is hard selling his talent. Let us say that you have to attend some silly statutory office personally then probably a guy like Pratul will be handy. He can be you to face those dull moments and you can save your precious time and do something more useful. In this fast moving world many a time one is faced with this dilemma of attending too many things at the same time. Then almost all of us must have thought at some time or other that we wish we could be like Lord Krishna to be present at all the places at the same time. Saddam had been practicing this openly and hoodwinking the whole world. I understand most of the dictators were using double. Pratul left his business card with me in case if his talent is required by someone.

The name of his company is Personality Provider, located in South Calcutta. He can be reached through me.