'Interview Victim' is a story, published in Six Seasons Review in April 2017. Pasting it below.
Interview Victim
The
woman simpered and spoke in that cloying tone of voice. She reminded Aarohi of
that disgustingly unpleasant Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter books. She
smiled ingratiatingly as she said “What happened, Aarohi? How come you didn’t
get a job anywhere till now, not even at your own college?” The ingratiating
smile and that cloying tone again. Aarohi sat across the table, opposite the
two women. She was appearing in an interview for a teaching job and this woman had
taught Aarohi, long ago, during Aarohi’s own college days. The woman, who lived
on gossip and drama was more interested in knowing why Aarohi had not got a job
in her alma mater than in asking any questions that were remotely academic. The
woman continued in her ingratiating tone of voice: “Something is wrong with the
college, Aarohi? Meghdoot college students don’t like to go back to Meghdoot,
Aarohi?” Aarohi squirmed in her seat. She went over the events of the past few
months in her mind. She wondered if this woman had any inkling of all that. Why
ever was she so persistent with her questions? She remembered signing the
affidavit which forbade her from entering the college for a fixed period of
time. Suspension, you could call it perhaps. Or expulsion. Except that it
wasn’t that really, because she had ceased to be a student long ago. But there
was no question of saying that here. Whatever was she supposed to say? “Errrm…
I still feel like a student there”, she replied, finally. “I think I will apply
there a little later, after some time”. This was, strictly speaking, not
untrue. Not for nothing had she been called a “college haunter” by her juniors.
Not for nothing had a teacher recently asked her jokingly at an alumni meet
whether she was a student or an ex-student. Suffice it to say, that despite
having been given multiple farewells, she had continued to haunt the place and
had refused to leave it. Well… well, until now, she supposed. She didn’t really
seem to have an option anymore. The woman in front of her, however, calmly and
coolly dismissed this answer, almost as if she could read her mind “No”, she
said “I do not believe this answer. Give me another.” It almost sounded as if
she knew Aarohi was making up stories and excuses. Did she… could it be
possible, that she really knew, wondered Aarohi. People asked her at times as
to how she could trust all the teachers of the entire college so much… how
could she be so sure that one of them at some point of time, may not give her
away? And when the cat was out of the bag, it would run wild. But… but but,
that was exactly the point. No cat had run wild. Probably, it seemed to Aarohi,
that Gita Gupta did not know, but was trying to know. She was hungry for gossip
and was trying to ferret out some information from Aarohi for her own
entertainment. An interviewee before the interviewer is no less than a lamb at
a slaughterhouse.
The
woman seemed deliberately bent on trying to humiliate her as much as possible.
“What happened to Kopilee ma’am, Aarohi?” she asked, her voice so disgustingly
cloying by now that it could cloy no more. She turned to the other woman: “Kopilee Hazarika was so fond of her,
you know. She was the teacher-in-charge too”, she said “why couldn’t she give a
job to her favourite student. Such a good student she was too. Kopilee praised
her so much all the time.” “Who is the TIC now, Aarohi?” With this question,
she turned back again to Aarohi. The insides of Aarohi’s stomachs were burning
and churning by now. She thought of just leaving the room without further
deliberation. She also thought of lying. She knew the inference to be made
would be that the new TIC was somehow against her and this would be so very far
away from the truth. “Priyasha Verma”, she replied, being abjectly truthful.
Gita Gupta did not know Priyasha Verma anyhow, so the name meant nothing to
her. It was Priyasha Verma who had asked Aarohi at the alumni meet as to
whether she was a student or an ex-student. She was the latter, of course, but
practically behaved as if she was still the former.
Aarohi
was getting sick of this humiliation now. She was quite sure that the woman
knew nothing and was merely interested in ferreting out gossip for her own
amusement. She always had been a bitchy, small-minded woman. She had been on
such bad terms with Kopilee ma’am and Durba ma’am. Infact, it occurred to her
that perhaps Gita Gupta was trying to get revenge. There could be two ways this
could work. One, that Gita Gupta may be nursing a nine-year old grudge against
Kopilee Hazarika and was using Aarohi, who she considered as Kopilee Hazarika’s
favourite student or sister or suchlike, as an easy target to settle her
scores. Settling scores with Kopilee Hazarika herself would be so much more
difficult than targeting a lamb in a slaughterhouse. The second reason could be
that Gita Gupta felt the need to settle scores with Aarohi herself. The only
possible reason for this was that some ten years ago, when Gita Gupta had
started crying in class and weeping and wailing as to how Kopilee and Durba
treated her, Aarohi had gone and told KH that Gita Gupta had started crying in
class. Kopilee Hazarika, being the TIC felt that she should act on the matter
though Aarohi had insisted that she had not told her in a formal or official
way. Kopilee Hazarika must have spoken to Gita Gupta after that at some point
of time. Although Aarohi had been assured that no names would be taken, it was
still quite possible for Gita Gupta to guess who might have told Kopilee
Hazarika. Aarohi was quite sure that this was a revenge tactic from a small and
mean mind and that the woman had no idea of real reasons and issues. Perhaps
she thought Kopilee Hazarika used to bitch about her all the time to Aarohi.
Who knows the strange ways in which petty minds work, after all. Aarohi was
enraged at the woman. So constantly did she talk about her being a student of
Kopilee Hazarika and Meghdoot College that she seemed to forget that Aarohi had
been as much her student as she had been theirs. She had always feigned
sweetness to Aarohi but slowly inner layers were revealing themselves.
The
fact of the matter was of course that things between Aarohi and Kopilee
Hazarika were no longer what they used to be. No longer the days of being a
“favourite student”, no longer the days when people raised their eyebrows at “some people get their election pamphlets
designed by teachers.” In fact, it was Aarohi’s obstinate and passionate love
for Kopilee Hazarika which had led to accusations of stalking and harassment,
and which had ultimately led to the affidavit. It had nothing to do with
Priyasha Verma at all, contrary to what Gita Gupta must be assuming at this very
moment. Or, of course, perhaps she guessed that something was amiss between
Aarohi and Kopilee Hazarika and that piece of gossip may be exactly what she
was after. Or else, she was either taking revenge against Aarohi, or getting
back at Kopilee Hazarika by seeing Aarohi as her extension in some way. Aarohi
could not read the other woman’s mind or fathom her thoughts. But she was
extremely indignant at this treatment. She had given interviews where Kopilee
Hazarika’s own friends were the interviewers and although they had not given
her jobs, (till now, in any case) they had been so completely decent, and
civil, and even nice to her. And the way this woman was acting just to find out
some gossip or to settle nine year old scores was pettiness in its extreme.
Later,
when the woman saw Aarohi, she attempted to act as if the incident had never
happened by putting on that same simpering, cloying, ingratiating smile on her
face. Aarohi absolutely ignored her at all costs. But that was later. For the
moment, the most humiliating interview came to its natural conclusion with the
woman announcing: “Oh! You are doing a PhD, so you can’t possibly teach
alongside that.” No matter that people pursuing their MPhils and PhDs were
currently working in the college. No matter that she had not asked a single
academic question in the entire interview. Aarohi, utterly humiliated, (even
the people who made her sign the affidavit had not humiliated her like this)
left the room, swearing and cursing the woman beneath her breath, crying and
vowing never to enter this damned college ever again.
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