It was with an utmost excitement that I ended one very interesting day last Saturday. It seldom happens that you get to not only listen to but also observe highly influential people waving their magic wands that spreads their charisma everywhere keeping fascinated people like me bound under their spells. Such opportunities make you look at the real struggles of real people in a new light that simply does not fail to motivate you.
Let me get to the event that I am talking about - Career fair and confluence especially for women by an organization known as Women Changemakers. This event was the second installment of such a fair the first one being already held a couple of months back in Bengaluru. I happened to come across this event by chance and in the beginning had very little intentions to visit the fair as I was doubtful about it being of any interest to me. How silly of me !!
This event is a career fair that is held in different cities and it mainly consists of guest speakers - both men and women - who believe in and would like to encourage the power of women employed in various job roles in corporates. It also has booths corresponding to the companies to which the guest speakers belong that are ready to discuss career options for women and diversity in their organizations.
I had registered for this event long time back and was not particularly willing to attend. After all who wants to be out and about during a long awaited weekend ;) However, the curious part of me didn't let me stay back and I decided to attend even after being late to the event by an hour or so.
It was held at a popular five star hotel of Gurugram and it took me a while to reach the hotel as it was an unfamiliar territory. The moment I entered the hotel I just....froze. The site was so mesmerizing that I was left with no option but to gawk at my surroundings. Such a wide and spacious hall that consisted of shiny and absolutely royal pieces of furniture. The waiters and attendants also seemed so well off in their attire and facial glow that I started feeling a little self conscious about my own appearance. This hotel was definitely frequented by either very rich people or celebrities.
I registered myself at the entrance of the ball room where the event was enfolding and went happily inside with a T-Shirt emblazoned with the women changemakers icon on the front and the back side. Later on I was highly thankful that the large sized T-Shirt fit me well !! The moment I entered the ball room I was welcomed with the strong and inviting smell of freshly brewed coffee. Everyone in the lobby was holding a cup of coffee and I felt myself desperate to rush to the nearest coffee vending machine and pester the attendant to pass me a cup as soon as he could what with the extreme heat outdoors making me forget everything else but....coffee. So you see how much in love I am with coffee :D Anyways I stopped myself and went to the nearest table and grabbed a mini bottle of water instead and gulped down the entire content within seconds. Then I went inside the hall where the amazing speakers were pouring their hearts out explaining how women have come a long way from being just a homemaker to being the best in their fields leaving men far behind and breaking the stereotypes like a boss. I had no idea that I would be so interested in what the guests were speaking but rather thought that I would just like to know what would happen at the booths and if I had any chance to get hired by those organizations. Rather, exactly the opposite happened. Once I started paying attention to the beautiful speeches that were being given there was no way I was going anywhere until it all finished.
The speakers were varied and some of the women speakers had been highly experienced. They had donned the hats of people being in varied roles before joining corporate including being the sole woman participant of Indian Air Force and also piloting army helicopters and planes. Their talk was so interesting and inspirational that you started believing that you, as a woman, whoever and wherever you were, were capable of doing unimaginable wonders. The power lies within you and not in the society.
Amidst these engrossing discourses I finally went and fulfilled my wish - I grabbed a warm cup of Cappuccino. This made me more alert and more interested in the talks. Before heading back in, I found a group of ladies swarmed around two ladies in the middle. One was younger and was telling about the extraordinary achievements of the other and much older woman. I couldn't catch much of what they were talking about because they were about to disperse. However, the most remarkable person in this group who was verbally in awe of the old woman's achievements was Ashish Vidyarthi - the TV and Bollywood personality who made me loath his mostly villainous characters in movies. I never knew that he was to be present at this event. But he was and once again for the second time that day I was spellbound. I never saw a movie star face to face and so close as a real human being. He was surrounded by many people and was taking groupies with his phone. I too got myself featured in one of the groupies although my wish to get a selfie on my phone with him remained unfulfilled. Later on I came to know that he too was a guest speaker at the event and had already spoken by the time I reached the event. Damn !! I missed something really interesting.
Finally the speeches ended and the booths were opened for the ladies. It was too crowded and everyone was rushing and making a ruckus to hold a talk with the people at the booths. I was reluctant and hence went outside for some time and had a quick snack available outside. Then I went inside and could not hold my excitement when I saw the American Express booth. I am currently working in a project with the client base belonging to Amex that naturally made me proceed to the booth despite the crowd. I knew there are many opportunities for Salesforce developers in Amex and hence went to that booth first. Opportunities and talks notwithstanding, Amex was the only booth that was distributing free goodies to almost all the ladies who came there. Hence, two things made me highly excited - the potential to learn more about opportunities at Amex and also very interesting freebies that were not available at any other booth. But, subsequently, those were the very things that made me highly disappointed about the whole event.
Firstly, after making my way to the front of the booth with great difficulty, I came to know simply that there are opportunities for cloud computing technologists at Amex but I would have to visit their website mentioned on a pamphlet being distributed very enthusiastically to everyone and look for the same and apply directly at their website. For that purpose, I was supposed to type an entry on a laptop giving my name and email Id which I did. Fair enough. Then I stood there expectantly looking at the person waiting for my free gift. But to my dismay, he moved on to the next person and ignored me. I had no choice but to leave empty handed. My bad luck.
After that, the crowd dispersed very soon. And as a result I easily went to each of the other booths and made the same inquiry everywhere - opportunities for a software developer specifically in Salesforce and got the same response - I need to visit their website and look for the openings and apply by submitting my resume. In one of the booths I even submitted a hard copy of my resume. At last I took my leave with my hands full of pamphlets from each of the booths and small goodies like stickers and key-rings plastered with the respective company's logo. But I never left without having one more cup of steaming Cappuccino :D Can't help myself what to do.
It is impossible that you do not visit the famous Ambience Mall of Gurugram when you are present in such a proximity of the shopping center. And it is even more impossible that you do not visit the biggest book shop of the mall as the first thing when you enter the mall. As soon as I went inside the book shop I knew I would spend the next couple of hours there only. The shop is huge and consists of all varieties of fancy notebooks, pens, pencils, paints, sketchbooks etc apart from books. Even though I came out of the shop after purchasing only one book, I couldn't take my eyes off the beautiful stationary.
Finally I returned to my place after having such an interesting day. I never knew I would enjoy myself so much. And the coffee !!
Looking forward to more such interesting escapades.
