It was a usual hazy day. We were nearing the weekend. Heard from another Indian friend who I knew worked part time with an agency (he actually worked a bit more than he studied here) . . ''Hey! There is this one day part time job offered in with my agency nearby race-course''. I did not even asked how much was the wedges and pay per hour. . and straightaway showed interest in the work as I was loaded in M.Sc. Second semester as well as on my wallet was taking quite a bit if beating.
I had to call that recruitment agency first and register myself. Then I had to let them know about my availability on the fixed event date. After this process completion hey informed me that I gotta be present black trousers and black shoes. Even though I said Okay I gulped; as I knew I had only brown ones and which means at least 5 pounds gone!
I stood along with my other university mates most of whom I did not know at the waiting place of the D day. The instructions from employing agency was to stay near a city centre square and wait for the bus to come which will transport us to our work place. Everyone was wearing black formal trousers and black shoes . . . as it was prerequisite to have one (I managed temporarily from my friend) I too mixed into the waiting crowed because of identicalness. Finally the bus arrived and we were off. The place was approximately an hours drive from my city according to the experienced people accompanied with me. After few minutes of journey the bus stopped. Few teenager kids climbed into our bus. Decked in complete black attire. They were especially girls exceptionally loud on the bus. You kind of experience the role of progesterones and estrogen from these little kids as they just don't behave. Believe me its very prominent and can irritate you. The fellow sitting beside me informed me that since this is vacation time, these kids are working to earn...which only created just a little bit of respect for them in my mind.
Finally we reached the place. It was a huge racecourse. The weather was gorgeous. It was within English country side …. and kind of small forest land of southern or eastern India. The cold weather made it look denser. The racecourse was a huge structure. Along the side of lush green course there were multiple complexes. Eventually we got out of the bus. There was a huge pendall. At the entry there were 4-5 giant he-mans literally overseeing (as they were around seven and half feet tall) the security aspect. As part of their work, they were informing all the people to deposit their valuables prior to entering. I went inside, did all the rituals as per instructions and marked myself present. The lady at the desk directed me to next hall. As I turned up there, I saw a huge table. It was full of black colored shirts and black caps. I managed to catch hold of a few my sized shirts and caps, and tried their itself in the open. Shirt was fitting fine, but I think my sized cap is something I have never seen. I hopelessly put some effort to wear that kippah sized cap and tried to fix on my head. While putting it on my head I said to a couple of people around me, ''Is this thing necessary? I have never worn hat in my life even if the temperature on my head is 42 degrees.'' I was saying just trying to cover myself up so that people wont laugh at my funny face. It looked like an elephant wearing a normal sized hat.
There you go I was man in black. Right from head to tow except my body color there was juts blackness over me. We then gathered at the previous hall. Most of the people were ready. People belonged to every other race of the world were gathered in the same hall. It was a black uniformed advertisement of Benetton. By now it was pretty clear that this is going to be either waiting staff or bar staff job.
We were now divided in groups. A name badge was given to everyone of us. I don't remember the exact number groups but surely there were quite a few. One bar/cafe was allotted to my group. We went as directed. At that moment I realized the structure of the racecourse. Along side of the course there were many hotels, pubs or bars to serve the guest who can blissfully have a look at the hoarse racing while enjoying their food, alcohol, their girl-friends while sitting enjoying themselves. One of such gallery bar was ours. We finally reached there after a 15 minutes walk. My group had 7-8 people. My manager was a cute British lady, believe me she was the cutest manager I have had in my professional life! Her name was Anne. The other people in my group were 2 Kenyans, 1 British teen aged but mature couple, 1 Korean who was the slowest to react and 1 British black young woman who soon left the place after some kinda emergency .
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