One Lakh Fifty Thousand

Those were the heydays of technology boom, also known as the dot com era. Nasdaq was at its all time highs and new ideas were getting funded at the drop of a hat.
It was circa 1999.
India too felt the reverberations of the boom, perhaps in a more resounding way than even the US. While for US it was another zenith of the cyclical wheel of boom-bust machine, for India it was the first morning after the socialist nuclear winter, a shot of hemoglobin after an era of anemic 5 year plan ideology.
Indian IT industry caught this wave and the first surfers of this were the H1B visa holders, forming a beeline at the several US consulates in India. It was a mad gold rush… or shall I say sand rush?
Anyway, I was one of the several, trying to make hay in the shining sun. Already a lucrative job offer under my belt, I was looking for a backup job driven by my quintessential Indian hoarding mentality.
Luckily my first job was a permanent position in a handsomely paying telecom startup, so for my fallback I was going after just about anything to requite a mental checkbox.
I saw this Ad in the Wednesday’s Ascent and after having called them first, I drove up to this “Software Consultant’s” office for an “interview”. As I was trying to navigate through the crooked by-lanes of Mehrauli slums, I quickly realized that I had made a mistake in responding to this Ad. By then I had already invested 3+ hours in this, including the morning rush hour commute, so I decided to follow through it.

It was a residence-cum-office of a middle aged Sikh gentleman who had setup a body-shopping rig. Mr. Singh was a corpulent thickset person, wearing a buttoned up hand knitted green cardigan and a suit with red tie tucked in his cardigan.
Mr. Singh admitted that he was not technical and so he introduced me to his cohort for a technical interview.
This other gentleman was from Andhra and was probably one of Mr. Singh’s selectee. “All set for a glorious career in the land of opportunity” in the words of Mr. Singh.

He grabbed my resume and ushered me to his office with an air of authority.
I don’t know if it was my IIT background or my bored looks that mellowed him down considerably. He did not ask any “technical” question, all he asked was how many years of experience I had for stuff he nervously read from his checklist – “C? C++? Java? Oracle? HTML?...” and that was it. He then started to talk about what other offers I have, where I want to go in US etc.
Only when I began to get restless and started to look at my watch did he walk out and let Mr. Singh in.
“So I hear you are technically solid” – Mr. Singh said. “You lack experience, but don’t worry you have come to the right place. I have openings in Fortune 500 companies; very soon I can put your career on the fast track”.

“Ahem. OK” – is all I could say.

“So I have an opening with a multinational bank where.....”

“Wait. Did you say bank? Because I am not interested in financial sector” – I interjected.

“No no it is an IT job, you see you will be writing software”

“But it is still a bank, I don’t want to work for a bank”

“You don’t understand you are going to work for us and you are going to write code as you would do anywhere, it doesn’t matter if it is a bank”

“Do you have anything else?”

“Oh don’t worry, I can place you with a credit card company”

My head dropped. Let me get out of here is what I thought – “OK, so what compensation should one expect in that position with my background and experience?”

Mr. Singh smiled then leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head.

“Tell me, what are you getting monthly?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean what is your monthly salary?”

“Well I make enough, but this is a company in India, what does it have to do with a US job?”

“Just tell me.....OK let us assume 40,000 per month, right? Or say 50,000 per month, round figure?”

“Hmmmm” – I could not think of what to say in the situation.

“What if I give you One Lakh Fifty thousand? (150,000)” – Mr. Singh started twiddling his handlebar moustache with a smirk on his face.....perhaps expecting some reaction from me.

I jumped out of my chair – “Wow! I will take it......Wait you mean 150k USD Right?”

It was Mr. Singh’s turn to look astounded. – “NO NO NO” – he violently shook his head leaving his moustache half twisted.

“No I mean 150,000 Rupees” – He said slowly.

“Ah! So this is a job in India with Rs. 150k per month? Sounds great!”

“NO NO you don’t understand. Not even the President gets that salary. I meant Rs. 150k per month in US”

On the way back from Mehrauli, I found it hard to drive as my eyes were all tearful from the convulsive laughter I was having.

Now every time I see someone with the handlebar moustache and a paunchy disposition, Mr. Singh’s words echo in my ears -
“What if I give you One Lakh Fifty thousand?”