Meeting Renu

The markets were hitting rock bottom with the budget speech + US recession and my porfolio was showing a lot of negative growth of late. A good time to invest in some good funds. Thanks to my broker most of my previous fund applications had been rejected so had some money to do the investing. My broker's blunders drove me to CAMS where incidentally you also dont get any entry load!!

Final year engineering in Trichy. Time of the year to give those MBA interviews if you were one of those types who did not fancy a job coding software and drinking free capucinno. Made the grade yet again for an interview for a B-school in Mumbai. Was not exactly cheap but worth the shot. Ticket to Chennai booked.

ICICI Infrastructure - A fund that has been doing quite well lately and one that I planned to invest in. A slightly aggressive and Energy focused fund. But my portfolio needed one such aggressive fund. Thought of going in for an one time investment instead of a SIP as the markets probably would not go so low again in the coming months. After the rapid slide on Black Monday after the FM''s budget speech, I wanted to invest on Tuesday itself to capitalize on the dip in the markets. That meant I would have to leave home early, hit CAMS office by 9:30 so I can reach office before 10 AM.

The train chugged into Chennai on a nice cool morning. Dressed in formals with a tie, I was at the venue on time. Lot of Gujju babes around. The MBA institute was a Gujju college with ample reservations. One of the main reasons for guys to make an attepmt here was Mithibai College (the breeding ground for Mumbai models) which was the adjacent building. A GK test was first on the cards and there we were, waiting in an empty classroom awaiting our turns for the GD and Interview. It was than that I first saw her.

9:15 AM - Out of the house. 9:20 AM - fighting the traffic at Ulsoor. 9:30 AM - parked bike in the parking lot adjoining Manipal center. 9:35 AM - walking back to the parking lot empty handed. Sadly CAMS did not accept ICICI fund applications for whatever reason. As per CAMS they had to be done through the broker (God forbid!) or the ICICI Fund house on MG road. Well back to office and some other day to capitalize on this market slide. But.. 9:40 AM - A sudden change of mind and I was taking a brisk walk towards MG Road.

She was simple. A neat chudidhar. It was her eyes which caught you - Shy, expressive, smiling. Typically mallu! She came into the classroom. Walked over and chose to sit in the bench behind mine. Soon she had a set of admirers. A discussion was on about the answers for the GK test. GK was one strong point so couldnt sit simply while the group debated wrong answers. Turned around and soon rattled off most of the answers. As I walked towards the interview room and then back to the station I realized that I did not even know her name. The walk to the station was over before I knew it.

I had walked quite a distance and still didnt see any ICICI building. Kept walking. My only landmark was that it was opposite Vijaya Bank but it looked like I needed a landmark to find Vijaya Bank. More than a kilometer of walking but still no sign of any kind of Bank or fund house. Thankfully I had not brought my bike, the morning rush hour traffic in the already constricted MG road was suffocating and walking seemed faster. And there I saw it. ICICI Prudential office right at the Trinity circle.

Next interview was at TAPMI, Manipal. Was not too keen as I had made it into Somaiya and a couple of other Institutes by then, but my friend had not and persuaded me to come. Took a day train and reached Mangalore late night.Forced to spend the night in the Mangalore railway station platform since their bus stand was shut down for the night (can you believe that??), we managed to hit TAPMI by 9 AM and rushed to the GD rooms. My GD group had atleady assembled, I rushed in and was getting my credentials checked by the supervior when I scanned the room. Only one chair was empty. It was mine. And next to it, there she was. I walked over, sat down, she recognised me. This time we introduced ourselves first. Her name was Renu and soon we had a mini GD going on in full swing till the main GD put a stop to it.

ICICI looked as if it was closed. I was damned if I had to wait till 10 AM till these guys open. Closer inspection revealed that it was open and there were hardly any customers. One young lady was occupying one of the chairs meant for customers, otherwise it was empty. That was nice. I could finish and go back to office early. There were two customer service reps and one was apparently busy attending to the young lady so I went to the other. He directed me to the other service rep. The young lady regarded me with a light smile, I quickly turned away in confusion. Maybe she was also an employee of ICICI Pru and that was their customer friendliness smile. I gave the customer service rep my folio number - the young lady got up and walked behind the counter confirming my suspicion that she was a staff member - and then I gave my name.

We were in the same group so in between interviews and lunch and tea we would talk quite a lot and got along rather pretty well in that short time. My friend, well I had no clue where he was and I dont think I ever searched him out.Anyway when we left back to Trichy, we had exchanged email IDs and promised to stay in touch. We kept up the promise and had a mail correspondence with Renu discussing colleges, admissions and both of us chose colleges in Mumbai. We kept in touch but rather infrequently. We got jobs our conversations became further apart. We changed jobs and we lost touch. Last I heard from Renu some 2 year back,she was in Hyderabad.

No sooner had I said my name, that young lady who was looking me over called me out and said remember me now. I was zapped. Yes she was no more a teenager, yes... but the eyes were the same. Shy, expressive and smiling.

It was my friend Renu!