The Rock Flower (Post 3)

It was the last day of my 12th board exam and the last paper to be attempted was Math II, I had an aversion for math from my school days can’t help it, and it still hasn’t changed a bit. Well I attempted the paper and there I was out of the examination hall feeling relieved.

All my friends including me were supposed to go for a movie on the last day of exam, but I had to give them a silly reason about attending a pooja so that I could be able to go for an interview in an international call center. It was more than a year that I and my family were staying without my father. No one to earn in the family and two siblings and a mother whom I had to look after, this was the reason for attending the interview.

I got through the interview and then after that day my life completely changed. The Call Center, this term was new to me, I only knew that we still were working like slaves for the British. The British outsourced their work and earned profit, also had to pay the Indians in rupees and get all the work done in time. Well they knew from a long time back how to rule and get things done from us, it was not new for them. Working in the call center I learned a lot. The British accent was one of my favorite. We had to give mock calls to the team leader and my mock call was the best of all the recent new joiners. I was the youngest of all the people working in the call center. And my general manager appreciated me a lot for putting efforts and getting very good sales for the company.

The company had arranged a small function where the employers were supposed to be appreciating their employees I thought I wouldn’t be getting any appreciation because I was just a fresher, the team leader was hosting the function with loud music on the floor, everybody enjoying to the max, working in call centers you hardly get to enjoy apart from parties and appraisal functions. The team leader was about to announce the next award now and that was the Best Agent Award of the month with the highest number of transaction clear sales, which means that the agent who’s sales were quality check clear and the agent who’s given the highest number of sales in that month. To my surprise it was me who won that award. I was extremely happy that day, because I was rewarded and appreciated for my work which I was craving for. It was difficult working in a call center, the agents work at that time when all the rest of the people are fast asleep in their bed.

I would recognize the noise of our sumo car that came for a pick up at my house from a long distance away because I was so used to listening to that noise everyday. It was 3pm and time to go to work. The same old briefing of the team leader everday and she warning us if there are no sales no dinner break for you guys had become a daily routine now. I cleared my 12th standard and had to take admission not knowing what I want to learn ahead. I got myself an admission in the college where I applied for a bachelor’s course in Information Technology as I thought it was an emerging field. It had become a lot more difficult now. The college in the morning and the call center in the night. This is how my day began..

I woke up at 5 am to get ready for college as I had a morning college and a 7 am lecture to attend. The college got over by 1 in the afternoon, I always had to miss the last lecture because I had to reach home before 3, have lunch, rest a while and then wait for the sumo car to arrive and go to work. My call center shift ended at 12.30 pm sometimes it was even 1 am in the night, the time was not fixed as sometimes I had briefing sessions with the team leader after the shift also. It was almost 5 hours I slept at night everyday. It was becoming difficult day by day the night shift and my college studies everything just messed up. The Situation was getting worse in the call center, very less sales now. I thought as if my life was just coming to a standstill. The tension of clearing the math paper in the exam and whether I would get a sale today at the call center were the thoughts that wouldn’t let me sleep even in those 5 hours that I slept.

Well I cleared my math paper and it just got worse at the call center. It was a year and a half at the call center now and while I was working I was promoted as a Sr Agent and then as a Team Coach with more responsibilities followed by more stress and also working under a lot of pressure. One day when I was at my college attending a lecture, I didn’t sleep well the last night just thinking about how my day was going to be at the call center. I just went unconscious in the classroom , all my friends gathered around me to see what happened to me. A friend of mine had to come home to drop me as I was feeling weak, it was a horrible day I had at college, but I still had to go to work because I couldn’t afford to loose that day’s pay at work. It was a long nightmare I was just waiting for this nightmare to come to an end and yes it did come to an end after a year and a half. This 1 and half year nightmare ended when I decided I am not continuing anymore with my job because it was impossible for me to study and work. I had to be serious with my studies because I had to appear for my IT final exam and it was not a cake walk. I left my job when I was to appear for my 4th semester exam, just a week later I had my 4th semester exams and I ranked first in the college. I had a lot of time to study as I was not working anymore and was extremely happy that the nightmare had come to an end.

I completed my graduation and I am working at a software firm now. You must be wondering why I have named the blog as “The Rock Flower”. Its because my name means a flower and a flower is so fragile and so was I, but I became as hard as a rock after going through this phase in my life where I had to struggle for living and feeding my family. Its not easy for a girl who’s just 18 to live without a father, take responsibilities at such a young age. I had to work my ass off when all my friends enjoyed their college life, watching movies, hanging around with friends and all I did was just sleep for 5 hours at night , take calls, hear bad words from the British people on the calls , ruin my health. Life was just hell but being in hell was when I learnt the lessons of life. How hard it is to survive in this world, but I am thankful to my mother and secondly to God who gave me the strength to survive. That fragile flower became a flower but it was no more fragile but as solid as a rock so that explains my story and why I named the blog as
“The Rock Flower”.

Thanks And Take Care..and no matter what happens in your life..be strong and face it!!