An evening in London

Venue – Bromley South, Kent
Kent is a home county for London. 7 such counties surrounding London have been identified as Home Counties which constitute some kind of a Greater London. It is similar to having a National Capital Region in India. London lies in the South East of England.

Craig: British from Preston, Lancashire (It’s the same county for Manchester). Lancashire is in North West England. The size of this island (including Ireland) is quite small; it ranks 78 on the list of countries sorted by area. The distance between Preston and London is somewhere between 200-300miles. The distance between Agra and Lucknow is 225miles. The reason for giving all these statistics in Craig’s introduction is that Craig very deeply felt that people in the North West are far better than the people in South East. I was amazed at how difference could arise within a matter of couple of 100 miles. A distance which is hardly significant in a country as large as India.
Craig quite openly expressed how ‘up in the north’ people think logically where as in the South they are so illogical. ‘It is so difficult to make them understand’. As an outsider I can never imagine one English man to be less logical than another just because he is from down South. He had been completely stressed out by the London Tube (which can be bewildering for any first timer I must admit) and almost cursed the City.
The entire ordeal seemed to be worsened by the fact that it was a sunny day at 19 degrees. He was red and sweating (like a pig?). I was quite suspicious of his several sneezes due to spreading Swine Flu.
He must have been in his late thirties and looked like one of the many victims of recession in this country. Though his demeanour was nothing like a victim. He tried to assert himself and tried to make his presence felt by asking for adjusting the air conditioning of all the rooms we were taken to, water and tea. He mentioned how much he had been working on the tests and could solve any problems thanks to his logical thinking. Even between tests he felt necessary to announce how he did so well and that it was so simple if you could just think logically.
This could well be an animated effort from the numerous videos on internet telling you to be at ease and confident about yourself at assessment centres. My reaction to him ranged from pity for he had to come to a graduate recruitment to ‘please shun this attitude’.

Imran: I cannot comment on his nationality. Reason being he had come to England as a toddler perhaps from Pakistan. He was also from Manchester, but a different Uni. I had seen him outside the venue sceptical of entering the building. Finally when he did come inside and I tried to give him a smile but he was clearly quite uneasy and started looking in a different direction after a sheepish smile. It took another boy and 10 minutes to finally get him to tell his whereabouts.
I think his appearance needs to be described here for the sole reason that it was a big part of his personality (and I doubt, his existence). He wore large glasses in an outdated frame. He had longish hair forcibly combed backwards to appear clean. He had a beard which was jet black in colour and went way down his chin. His suit gave away the fact that it was borrowed from a healthy, taller person as he was extremely thin. He was evidently a little withdrawn from other candidates and had been looking for a job for more than a year now.
I didn’t get to spend much time with him as we were divided into different groups. But as soon we were taken for the first test he folded his trousers up to reveal his mismatched socks and ankles. I do not understand this habit/requirement of Islamic dressing but it did feel a little awkward to do so in a formal environment while wearing a suit.
Imran was a kind of person whom you feel like knowing about because some how he seemed to have held so much behind those glasses and the beard.

Chaitanya: Fellow Indian from a remote place at 4 hours distance from London. I am yet to familiarise myself with the naming conventions for places in England. There is a Salford in Manchester, so I am not sure if there could be a different Salfordshire County somewhere in the South.
I saw him too, outside the venue. He sat under a tree waiting for the time to go in. I believe both of us had arrived a tad too early for British standards (You got to be on time, not a minute before not a minute late).
I suspect he made an effort to exchange a smile before going in but I escaped behind my red book. Chaitanya is from Hyderabad, AP (I can tell a Hyderabadi from a distance fairly accurately:)). He saw my name on the visitor’s books and started the conversation. He was pleasant to talk to and frankly made me ease out a bit. However during the group activity though he was unexpectedly passive. I deliberately tried to include him in the discussion on 2 occasions which I think he took pretty well.
At the end of the day we left the building together asking each other to be in touch. (Just a casual British pleasantry to exchange)
Chaitanya is pursuing an MBA and I was surprised that he applied for this job.


Daniel: British from Cambridge. Cambridge is not far from London. But it may take an hour and half with public transport. He reached late and I met him directly in the exam room. This pretty much limited our interaction.
Nothing to do with him, is my excitement of meeting anybody named Daniel. It started well before coming to UK when during one of my numerous therapeutic conversations, S(P) and I decided that I would meet a Daniel here who would be my knight and S(P) would be enchanted by a Sophie :).
So with the name Daniel I associate some expectations. And when I do meet some Daniel, I smile to myself remembering our random conversations and the good it does to me – always :)
But this Daniel seemed to be particularly unlike my Daniel. He had a running nose (another suspicion of Swine Flu) and was shivering (out of nervousness?). He had a freckled face and curly red hair. Not a fault of his of course, but somehow I feel that red hair are too doll-like. I blamed him for not being the Daniel and then laughed at my own stupidity.

Xang (assumed) and MEA (name not known) were the other 2 candidates. Xang was from Birmingham and hardly spoke. MEA (Middle East, Europe & Asia) has been so called as he appeared from a Middle Eastern country with an accent. I could be wrong and he could well be an East European with dark hair. I didn’t have much chance to talk to them.
They were pretty much a part of the group, rather than individuals.

I think the best part of coming to UK so far has been to be able to meet so many different people both in terms of nature and nationalities.