Swami Tales- Swami in New Delhi... oops rather in Delhi

Series Opener and Introduction:- Swami is a character from the figment of my imagination and we take a look at his adevnhtures during his FMCG career after he passes out from a famous B-School in Pune. The events depicted as part of Swami Tales have no resemblence to any reel life event and any similarity is purely accidental.

Swami had passed out from a famous B-School in Pune and was all set to join Confetti Confectionaries Pvt Ltd. It had been his dream to join the FMCG sector from B-School and he was quite thrilled to have fulfilled his desire. His friends from the Konsultancy episode (http://mbajunction.blogspot.com/2007/05/kahani-paanch-konsultants-ki-story-of-5.html)at B-School had already joined and were having a gala time at Bangalore. Be it Excel Raja, Rang Joyal, Dubbu or Arihom Arora.

It was June, and Swami's joining too came close, he soon landed in Delhi for his induction into Confetti and drove to the palatial Confetti Guest House in Gurgaon lovingly called "Gurgava" by Haryanvis.

Swami coming from a conservative Tamil family was quite god fearing and prayed everyday. His prayers nowadays revolved around the location Confetti would send him to. As per Confetti policies, getting his home zone looked difficult atleast in the training period for Swami, but Swami was only praying for a safe and sound location, where he can get a glimpse of his friends once a while.

The weather in Gurgaon was quite hot for Swamis comfort but the Air conditioners at Office ,guest house and in the pick cabs ensured that he hardly encountered them. The management meanwhile had ensured that all trainees are prepared for the worst of locations, by narrating thrilling experiences during the induction program.

The first stint Swami had to negotiate was sales and now after hearing the folklores from the HR folks and Top management Swami was scared. He felt he might be banished to far-fetched locations with little to do besides work, but then he was quite brave enough to wade through such temporary fears. He conviced himself that situations might not improve but he might get used to it!

In the meanwhile Swami gathered good knowledge about Confetti and also visited the gum factory. He made good use of the visit by tasting the different candies in office and factory. Confetti amazed him with its Unique distribution Network, marketing and advertising functions. His friends had already started booking their quota of freebie candies and Swami was hence interested in finding out policies for sample quotas for employees.

The Management Trainee party at Confetti ensured Swami gets a hang of free Booze and though he did not make much use of it, his collegaues from other B-Schools made sure not a drop of booze was wasted.
By the time he found out about the free samples schemes, the induction period at the Corporate Office was coming to an end and Swami was alloted the North Branch. Swami was quite relieved that the location suspense was finally coming to and end.

Swami soon travelled to the North Branch office to meet his Boss along with his colleagues Sneha and Indu for specific location and orientation of sales function. After much wait and gyaan Swami was finally alloted the state of Uttar Pradesh and Kanpur as his location. Swami was thrilled and at the same time apprehensive since he had hardly travelled to India's largest state.

He had only heard of the state for its politics and criminal records and it being an Uttam Pradesh. But then he remembered the Adverisement where Big B of Bollywood himself vouches for safety in Uttar Pradesh. Swami thanked his Boss and left office with plans to enjoy the Sunday before he left on Sunday night for Kanpur. Just as he was getting ready to leave office, one of the seniors called him and his mates to his office. After the customary gyaan Swami was given a big book of rules and regulations which he must follow while at Confetti. Swami was also instructed to finish reading the book before he left else his tickects would be There was no way Swami and his colleagues could say no and inspite of repeated questions on whether they were scared by the Book size, Swami was saying No to his senior.

Swami was petrified!, rules and regulations had somehow never spared him be it graduation college or B-School and just when he thought work would be without reading regulations, here he was handed a big book of it. He looked at Sneha and Indu, both of whom were also having similar thoughts about completing the book. The Sunday plans had gone down the drain since there was no way they could finish it before office ended on saturday, not even if they sit till late as would be the case now.

It was already six in the evening by this time.This did not dither the enthusiasm to learn though, Sneha, Indu and Swami began reading the journal.They even decided to come on Sunday afternoon and complete the same.

Swami and Sneha did finish reading the journal and were ready for their departures to Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, while Indu was set for Punjab and was keen on checking out girls in Punjab. Swami's reservation ticket Read "Delhi to Kanpur" and he made sure that he consult his freinds which station in the city was it, since in the little he knew about Delhi, he had an idea about the multiple stations there.

His royal treatment at Confetti ensured that he had cabs to his service all the time for travel in Delhi on official work. He was soon dropped at New Delhi railway station at around nine in the night.He landed on the Ajmeri gate side of New Delhi Station.

Swami has arrived much earlier to his train timings and hence moved around the station. Time passed and as the time of his train came near, Swami kept a track of the display board at the Station. Fifteen minutes for the train, but there was no sign of his train on the board.

Swami now was nervous, what had happened, he moved up the staircase and saw the name of the train on the platform on which it was supposed to arrive. The name was there!Rajendra Nagar Special train....Rajendra Nagar was a place near Patna in Bihar. He moved on to the platform,but he was quite perplexed to find only himself at the platform 5 minutes to the train time.

He was confused and now feared if the train was on time! On enquiry a police officer told him that no train was scheduled there. This really scared him and he ran near the display board where the train name was written, where to his worst fear the time read 15.30 next day and not 23.55 in the night. He approached the ticket checker at the corner on the stairway.

The ticket checker asked for his ticket and pointed to the blunder, the train was from "Delhi" Station and Swami was at "New Delhi"! Swami was taken aback. It was already well past the train time, and the ticket checker too told him " Bhai sahab, ab toh aap Mauj Karo"........Swami realised how he was misguided and was now in the lurch!

Next Part:- What does Swami do next to reach Kanpur? Keep logging on to mbajunction for more on Swami's Adventures and his stint in Uttar Pradesh!