Guest Post: Second instalment

I couldn't say I wasn't flattered. I had received an email from Institute X
in India inviting me to apply for a faculty position. Not only was Institute
X prestigious, but I also had an old connection to them from the days
of high school. There were two caveats though, first my heart was set
on taking this short term dream position at a dream place which would
delay my return by at least a year. The second was, if you don't mind
taking me seriously, the fact that I did not know the local language at
the place where X was located. Not that I wasn't eager to learn, but this
meant it would be difficult for me to lead that nation changing political
movement I always planned to lead :) I am only half-kidding.

I wrote about my first caveat to institute X and they assured me they
would be flexible. So, that was that. Secondly, certain political events
in India had started unfolding around the same time that assured me
my services would not be required immediately. It was time to apply.
However, knowing that life has a way of playing practical jokes on me,
I decided to make another application to Institute Y. Institute Y was very new
and located in a "mera gaon mera desh"  type place where I knew I would
be very happy.

Both institutes X and Y wanted to put me through 2 rounds of interviews.
For X, the first  round would happen on Skype, but for the second
round, I would have to fly to India. Being new, Y was ready to do both
rounds on Skype. In the course of these events, I realized how easy
it is to interview on Skype. There is no pressure to make eye contact
and if you trip up and need a moment to craft a response, you can always
blame a flaky internet connection to buy some time.

But for round 2 at Institute X, I had to fly to India. By carefully studying
breaks in my teaching schedule and their proximity to the weekend,
I devised a plan that would allow me to interview in India by missing just
1 day of teaching. The catch was, of course, that I would have to fly
halfway across the globe, spend less than 24 hours in India and fly
right back. But as a veteran Greyhound traveler and airport floor sleeper,
I was ready for it. The lady at the airport check in thought I was crazy
to fly to India with no checked luggage, but the whole experience was
remarkably easy and untiring. I was introduced to everyone in the
department, I made my buzzword laden presentation, the audience clapped
dutifully, I had a sumptuous dinner and I was on my way back.

On my way back, I was in such a good mood, I would have been whistling
if I knew exactly how to (I have never really perfected the "seeti"...what
can I say...I am a gentleman :P). Since I was changing planes in one of those
insanely, obscenely rich countries in the Middle East, security for my US
bound flight seemed more paranoid than usual, but it was ok.  On the last
leg of my journey, I even decided to strike up a conversation with my
fellow passengers. I started with the jovial looking person to my left. To my
dismay, he seemed grumpy (why does this always happen to me?).
Time to try again, this time the dude to my right with the thin mustache was an Indian...IT professional...and with a fake accent! Bingo!  I treated him to a fake
French accent for a while to throw him off his game (seriously, try it... it's
way cooler than the fake American accent)  but it was good fun all the way.
Life does get better :)