Things I Learnt Today

I realize that I dont usually offer much by way of wisdom to my readers, so I thought I'd share some useful information with you for a change.
Lesson #1
When you book a train ticket for a journey that involves a change of trains, make sure that you make both reservations using a single reservation slip. Write the starting and final destination on the top, and then write the train number and name of the train for the first part of your journey. In the space where they ask for onward/ return journey details, enter the details for the second part of the journey. By doing this, you can actually save quite a lot of money on reservation charges, etc., as I learned this morning. They issue two separate tickets but the second is not valid without the first. Hope some of you will find this useful.

I am quite sure there were some more lessons that I'd learned today, but the only one that springs to mind is this:
Lesson #2
"Crapulous" means overindulgence in eating and drinking. For some reason, that makes me giggle every time. The reason I know this (the word, not the giggling) is that I am preparing for my GRE exam, which is on Monday. After one of my friends (not so...ok, strike that out) gently scolded me for taking interviews too lightly, I have turned over a new leaf completely. No more taking things lightly. Which brings us to..

Lesson #3
I am not incorrigible. Yipee!

Unforgettable Interview

I have lost count of the number of interviews I've been called for this year. But today's experience was something I will never forget. In fact it may by something I never want to forget. It has me in stitches every time I think about it. I consider getting out of that interview room with a straight face one of the greatest achievements of my life. Yeah, enough with the introduction, let me begin the story..
So, like all stories, it started innocently enough. We had a written test, which was a cakewalk except for the current affairs section. Current affairs, according to this company, means knowledge about the stockmarket, gold prices and expansions of acronyms. Because I usually skip the business section of the newspaper, I really did not expect to be called for an interview. This, by the way, is my only excuse for not being prepared.
So, I arrived at the venue completely unprepared and slightly out of breath (this in spite of the daily exercise I am getting..more about that later) to find that I was next on the list. I took a deep breath, entered the room and as far as I can remember, this is the way it happened.(And just so that we are clear, I did NOT say any of the things in the brackets):
Them: Hmm.. your grades are good, so you are a..
Me: Masters student
Them: (surprised) so, why did you apply here? Any special reason?
Me: (in truth mode) Not really.(Oops!)
Them: But you are in a good field. You can get better paying jobs in your core area.
Me: Yes, I realize that. But right now, the job scene doesn't look so good.(eeck)
Them: Ah, so you see this as a temporary stopover, before you get a "real" job?
Me: (Yes!) No sir, I am genuinely interested in what you do and I think I have a real talent for this kind of work.
Them: So, do you know what it is that we do?
Me: Er.. finance related work (it was the current affairs section, what was I supposed to think?). Maybe you would care to add a little to that.. (oh my God!! I'm asking them??)
Them: Maybe you should have gone through our website.
Me: Yes sir, I did, just this morning (I actually did open the page, was too lazy to read though)
Them: Thank you, we will let you know.

In that book I was going to write, I think this anecdote will occupy an entire chapter. But really, why bother writing anything else at all? This constitutes a fool-proof plan to not crack an interview. That said, I am still waiting for them to call me for the next round. Yes, I suppose I am shameless. :)

Inconclusive conclusions

I read a book last week. It was Roald Dahl's 'Beware of the dog'.  I pride myself on being an avid reader and it was really embarrassing for me to finish a story and not understand the ending. For the uninitiated, the story is about an fighter pilot in WW2 who is injured in action. He wakes up in a hospital and soon begins to suspect that he is in enemy territory. Although the doctors seem to be British like himself and they tell him they are in England, there are minor details that bother him like the hardness of water in the region, the nurse with shifty eyes and the sound of German fighter planes. He painfully gets to a window on one leg, and upon looking outside, sees this sign on an adjacent property, "garde au chien" which is french for 'beware of the dog'. Anyway, he remembers something his commander told him about not revealing anything more than his name, rank and squadron number in the event of capture. So, when the an officer comes to take his statement about the accident, he tells him just these three things. And there the story ends abruptly.

See, this could mean one of many things. He might have been captured by the enemy, who were trying to deceive him. If that was the case, he had done the right thing by not telling them anything. On the other hand, what if he was just delusional from the loss of blood (and one limb)? Besides, wasn't France a part of the allied forces? I couldn't rest till I found out what the author intended, so I did a google search and found a site with a discussion about this story. What I found out was that he had left the rest of the public as confused as myself. Maybe this is one of those stories where you are expected to draw your own conclusion. Well, I guess this will be eating my head for quite a while.