tAstE oF lifE........

life pushes you around , few fight, few accept and few quit!!!!


After I joined pune that was the time I came across various options available in life , like the concept of part time job which was something I never heard before , for me a job was something for which one has to appear in a entrance exam followed by a interview. One day Anish asked me very casually for joining him in his job, the job was to deliver packet milk of AMUL to the houses its basically a campaign where we were supposed to take the feed backs of the free sample of the packet milk which we delivered a day prior, , for instance that was very awkward for me but the way anish told me sounded like a normal everyday task as he has already done a lot of such short term works so he use to see it just as an alternate source of income . I have always imagined job as a long term fixed income source thing and there can never be a alternate source of income when you are studying still I said yes, I wanted to experience and learn things, we started the work, everyday in morning we use to collect 40 packets of milk from a dairy and then go to particular society in particular locality to distribute it, guided by our team leader who was an MBA marketing. Early in the morning it was us and the other doodlwala , who were the only people seen around pressing call bells of different houses, the doodhwala use to give us a very angry look as if we are his competitor and are going to affect his business. Most of the times we were like unexpected guest early in the morning, many a times we were abused for disturbing the sweet sleep of people as no body was interested to listen to our flowery English so early in the morning, few refused to take the milk as it was a free sample thinking it as some plan of robbers to poison them and then robbing their stuff and similarly few shamelessly use to ask for two more samples as it was free. Slowly we learned the job, actually learning the job means learn to fool your superior, we started filling the feedbacks by own without actually distributing the packets. All the free samples we use to dump it in a “chai ki tapri” in front of our college and in the bargain we had free tea for the day. I remember Anish has also planned of body building seeing the availability of free milk everyday. But as u know the wrong things doesn’t sustain too long the campaign got over as I am sure the company would have not received an excellent response to their product and god knows about the job of our team leader . What I learned there was mental psyche to work as I regularly use to get up at 5 o clock in the morning which I never did for my college, somehow that sincerity for doing a job in me or may be the excitement of free milk was there which has taught me to stay regular in my job.

For few months there was no job during this time I was basically learning how to get a job or to look for a job and suddenly one day I landed up in PYRAMIDS, PYRAMIDS is a departmental store in convent street pune, and a walk-in interview was scheduled there I took a print out of my six lines CV where I have proudly mentioned my expererince with Amul and entered the room. My interview went excellent, may be because the HR was a beautiful female her name was Anuja and suddenly seeing her my responses to her questions where so excellent as if I am trying to win her heart and not the job, whatever the case I was selected for a full time job this time it was from morning ten to evening eight I knew it was a long working hour and was sure its going to be tough but still I decided to have a taste of it. They said for the first month they will pay me 3,500 rupees, as during that time it was the experience which I wanted to have was more important then money and even I calculated it financially if from morn ten to evening eight I am blocked inside a building where am I going to spend money so for that my parents money was sufficient for me. I was given men’s formal section, with a specific brand “zodiac” to take care of it sales actually the management has the policy of giving one brand to each individual so that all the spirit/loyalty of the sales personals is there towards it and will Endeavour to increase the sales of his brand and in bargain the business of all brand use to go up equally , this brand loyalty system in first month has ended up making more enemy to me then friends as I was aggressive in selling my own brand . zodiac was given to a new recruit as the brand already has one sales rep from the company , his name was zaved bhai, Zaved bhai was a great marketing personal I have come across. Though he has not done any MBA or course but his stunts and styles where mind blowing. I have seen him saying with utmost confidence that the next customer who enters this room will take everything of zodiac and he literally use to convince the customer in buying shirt , tie. Trouser, socks and handkerchief all of zodiac. I have learned a lot from him like he told me never show zodiac in first go as from the first option customer is never satisfied try to listen his requirement till then show other brands and then finally take out the zodiac as if it’s the one he was talking about and the moment zodiac is out take it as if there is nothing else left in the store and be aggressive till he finally submits it to zodiac all the options shown after zodiac should be something inferior and out of his taste, his tricks where very layman but it actually worked every time and by the end of week it always zodiac with the highest sales. I personally have learned a lot from him though he was doing all that for his personal benefit so that he gets an extra effort from a sales man towards his brand. Whatever, I was finding it a good learning, I even started liking a girl there but she use to react towards me as if I am a stranger or a new face and cannot be relied upon after few days I started feeling that in this job routine I am actually missing my original focus and that is a college life , college friends, so I decided to leave but in the over all process I have learned a lot the biggest was the marketing strategy or reading the customers mind from zaved bhai, also about different brands there production and the complete cycle of there sales. I even learned about various textiles like cotton, polyester polymer, and nylon and attained the efficiency of telling the texture by touching it telling the waist size, shirt size and trouser length for alteration just by seeing and above all standing from morning ten to evening eight was itself a hard work to do.


And then I joined Shoppers Stop, it’s again like a same departmental store but with more value and also my personal favorite, because of my experience of pyramids it was easier for me to get through the interview. I have even learned to put forward my conditions related to timings and pay package this time I was a part timer in which I have to work from evening five thirty to night nine thirty after the tedious routine of pyramids it was like a cake walk to me and that too with a handsome pay of 4000 rupees a month perhaps my focus was changing slowly I wanted to earn some money not withstanding the fact that I have the will to learn more and experience more. The process started with 14 days of training for a group of ten, we all were recruited together and this time I had a company of friends from the beginning unlike pyramids where I was stranger. during my training only I involved in a affair with a girl named Akansha , after 0930 in night I use to sit with her at shivaji nagar station till her local train arrives. At times I even dropped her to her place also. I was placed in lingerie section initially, the section was a haunted experience in for me, studying so long in boys school I never thought I will be interacting with females through out and that to asking about there BRA and breast sizes, it was very embarrassing for me and I remember my face use to go red when some lady asks for measuring her size, akansha was in ladies section next to me and she always use to laugh seeing my state while measuring females waist and chest size. I have developed a bad habit of staring at female’s breast in college, thereby checking my proficiency by guessing the size like 30C and 32 B, the various new concepts I learned there was cup size, padded, upliftment etc. I even recollected when I was kid I have seen a adult movie poster in raigarh the name was 36D, I was confused that why a porn movie has such a coded name which later in shoppers stop I realized the emotions behind it. Overall I was not comfortable in the section and I approached my floor manager for change of section.
Listening to my genuine problem, she laughed at me initially but later convinced, akansha was unhappy with it as she thought I am trying to go away from her.

I was shifted to men’s formal section and brand given to me was "provogue", I was doing reasonably well in the section as I was well aware about all the clothes and brands, I remember I purchased a Tiffin box from my first salary so that I can have a company with other employees during the break in the dining room, I use to buy some vada paav and take it in my Tiffin box, as hostler the actual food was not possible for me. The tenure was going very well, I was shifted to cash counter during diwali, it was again a great experience handling huge amount of cash approx 20 -30 lakhs in a day. Imagine during peak season the store use to do an overall business of 2-3 corers a day. I was then shifted to customer care desk where I have interacted with various film stars, visited the store for shopping. Fortunately akansha was also shifted there and we were again under the same roof, few of the employees who joined with us even got married to each other the brightest example of workplace romance! And I guess it was one reason that akansha started expecting some words of commitment from me and finally our relationship ended as she was discouraged by my response towards marriage and long term plans. My college exams for second year were also approaching and so I decided to leave the job. But shoppers stop gave me the overall experience of a job to me a routine, relationship with other employees, a boss, a manger, targets, incentives, appraisal everything., by the end I have even learned how the merchandiser use to deal and where are the garments being produced and what is there actual cost of manufacture and what was the percentage of profit store earn on selling it. One story I will tell you which I came to know after joining the store, you all must have heard about the brand “SPYKAR”..,,,, spykar sounds totally English name but its actually a brand raised by few maharastrian brothers who have a dry cleaning and sand wash to denims shop in streets of Mumbai the shop name was spinning dry cleaners, which they later decided to launch a brand so the “spy is from spinning” and “kar is the maharastrian title which mostly ends with kar”. That’s how it makes spykar and that’s why we call it Indian levis.

In third year, not much of motivation left with me to learn and experience things I was rather focused towards the money or may be my vision towards it has changed like anish and I started taking it as alternate source of income so after that I did few short term campaigns like marketing for castrol diesel standing in front of a multiplex, organizing games in a five star and few more that too when I required few extra money . Tata indicom walky was my last campaign where I roamed all around pune in that marketing wala truck, later I started preparing for my UPSC exams.

Today I am a Army officer “ the sarkari naukri after all” ….but I am sure the things which I have learned in my life will surely help me some day as I believe the learning and the experiences of life is never a waste it always helps some day sometime !!!!!!!! Hope you will enjoy my taste of life.