OPENING SPELL…

This is the 8^th time I am deleting what I wrote and starting all over again….coz what you will just read is something very vital and significant to me: My first day at work. Here I am describing you the strange day I just had….

I was gazing at a 12 storey tall building which will be edged in my memory for ever and ever. “Ashoka estate” a place I went to work for the first time. I got into the lift pushed 10 and was standing as if this was the longest lift ride ever in my life, I was numb. The door opened on the left was a signboard staring at me “IPAN”. Yes this is it, my 1^st work place, a PR agency, said to be the first professional PR agency in the country. So I went in, the person sitting there asked “yes?” I replied “I am the summer trainee n I know I am quite early!” it was 9 am and the office starts at 9:30. So I sat there waiting …

It was 9:45 somebody asked me to come in I walked along a passage, a lot of people staring at me…then there was a sound “Here’s your desk” hmm quite surprising I have my desk, my workstation too!!. So I sat there and was amongst 5 girls, they were quite chirpy, and it was good in way I felt light there. Then came a phone call, my boss on the line, yes we had interacted earlier on email and now I was talking to her on phone… she said “ Welcome to IPAN I will be in office in a while till then somebody will be briefing you about the company and the work here.” So then I was called by ASEEM Sir who called me and he asked me to wait in the meeting room number 1. I went there had a brief conversation he asked me questions about me, my work before and so on and said we’ll create work for you, don’t worry.

So my boss arrived at around 10:15 and I was called in…her name Mrs. Surekha Pillai, she wore a salwar kameez brown in color, she had real expressive eyes, she made me sit I waited for 2 minutes. I was gaping at the things around me, a glass cabin, people all around it. Then she said “so Nikhil, I don’t even remember … except your email id. Yes I’d sent her a mail a month ago where my email was nik_thegreatone@yahoo… So she said yeah it was unusual and made you stand out. I replied I have changed it, which is supposedly boring. She then asked me about myself and why I was here, I was supposedly an advertising person, so I went on n on, on the three major reasons that have called me all the way here…Delhi, PR and a women boss. Then she made me familiar with the company, the work they’ve done n so on. Then I was given a task, IPAN were pitching for a major client and I was asked if I could ideate something for the pitch…damn the room was freaking chilling and I couldn’t sit there any more.

So that was the work I did that day …at my own desk woking on an IBM workstation, was fun working on it and I prepared a small document and sent it to my boss, looked like college stuff but I thought the ideas were good, the language too simple. She called me asking “what is this?” though she’d liked a couple of them and she called other people to brain storm…was interesting ideating with people who had worked in the field for some while. So she asked me to work on the ideas and mail them the next day n I did, no idea she liked it or no…the clock ticked 5 30 and I went into her room, she asked again so how was the day , my reply fine, quite a novel one.i came back home amazed on how the day went by.

This was my 1^st day at work, all in all it was a fine experience, strange as well as exciting and yes I will probably never forget it… so if you guys remember your first day at work, I’m sure u will…just jot down how it was and share the sentiment. Till then have fun