# 2. Beauty n Brilliance.....

“Can I send the next person inside, Sir ?”, Abdul peeked his head inside the Conference hall.

“Yes, please. We have just two more hours”, I said, as Arun nodded in approval.

“ Hope he’s better than the rest ”,  I whispered to Arun as he smiled and opened the folder with the evaluation sheets inside.

Our company was the largest retailer of ‘Lifestyle Goods’ in the UAE, and our IT department was in dire need of a well qualified Functional Consultant to take care of our software requirements.

We had just implemented a new software, and it was causing headaches every day.

The vendor’s support was available for one more year, but the users of the system at our showrooms had troubles very often. We needed an ‘in -house troubleshooting’ team for support.

Arun, the head of the IT Dept  had asked me to join him as an interviewer, even though I led the Services Dept., because of my greater experience in the Company.

So far, the results were leading us blind.

And that’s when Abdul announced the entry of the next candidate, who we hoped , would be better.

“ May I come in, Sirs ?”, the door opened to a female voice.

I threw a knowing glance at Arun, as he gestured her to come in.

I checked her out as she walked in gracefully .

Dressed in form-fitting formals, she looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Her long, straight hair was braided neatly, the end dancing tantalizingly against her hips as she walked.

She held a file in her arms, and oozed confidence.

A graceful smile lit her lips.

More importantly, her face was clear and devoid of make up, except for the faint hint of kohl that lined her large, deep eyes.

I couldn’t help feeling that she was special in some way.

She reached the table and shook hands with me first, and then with Arun.

“ Glad to meet you, Sirs.  I’m Mahita Varma”, she smiled and took the seat meant for the candidate.

The initial pleasantries over, Arun got right into the business, asking her questions related to the field of work, and she was crisp with her answers. She spoke about the jobs she had held so far, and her experience in the field. All her answers to Arun’s technical questions were spot on. Arun was satisfied, judging by his reactions to her answers, and his counter-questions.

All the while, I sat silent, smitten by this woman, wondering how soon she would form part of our employee base.

“ Do you have any questions, Vinod ? ”, Arun asked me, breaking the trance.

“ Aah, well, let me see ”, I tried to mask my inattentiveness by picking up her resume from the table and glancing quickly at  the subtitle ‘ Education’.

A Chartered Accountant. With a Masters in Computer Applications. And specialization in over five programming languages.

Good, I smiled to myself.  “ How come a CA, is in love with the IT field ? ” , I asked her.

Her smile made me doubt if my question had been dumb.

“That’s the difference between profession and passion , Sir“, she answered with a sincere smile.

Beautifully brilliant. Or was it brilliantly beautiful ? Whatever it was, she clinched the job effortlessly with that answer.

Later that day, as we sent the details of the new recruit to the HR, I couldn’t help envying Arun.

She’ll be working with him, under his leadership. Lucky guy.

Will I ever be that lucky ?

To be contd….