So a headline turned my head’s line (thala vara)!!

So a headline turned my head’s line (thala vara)!!

By completing 8 months as unemployed (actually I was waiting for another call) one day I suddenly felt to make an enquiry. I was earlier informed about arrival of a leading English newspaper to Kerala. I just googled and tried its office number and asked about it.

“You are very late. Interviews are going on,” was the reply. But he gave me contact number of HR and asked me to try (thank you Mr.anonymous).
I called HR Manager, introduced myself and asked about recruitment. She asked me to reach Kochi next day with CV. When I boarded train, the only lines played in loop in my mind was, ‘an idiot bargained for an elephant. He may lose a word, but may gain an elephant.’

So I went to get my elephant and asked to take a test. Some usual ‘name the followings, prioritise the given news items, etc’. Then came my favourite section. Give suitable headlines to the following news stories. Out of that, one caught my special care. The question goes like this: “A Bollywood actress secretly undergoes abortion in a hospital in Europe. Her co-star in the previous movie is rumoured to be responsible for this. The heroine and hospital officials denied this.”

What should I write for this?? Suddenly some old filmy lines came to mind, thanks to Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om. Then I wrote, ‘Main tumhari bachche ki maa nahin banoogi..’ I enjoyed writing that line and started giggling. I decided to keep it and went ahead.

The interview began after the test. After usual introductions, they were evaluating my answer sheet. Why I chose this, Why I wrote like this, etc. Then they came to my HEADLINE. When one person read it others started laughing. I joined their laugh. I didn’t realise whether they were teasing me or praising me. Then another person said, It’s the best line they got for this question. I felt ‘OK’.

Two days later, I got my offer letter to join the company as trainee journalist. An offer I couldn’t refuse at that time.

After a month, I was sent to Chennai for training and went to meet the Resident Editor there. I then realised he was the same person who praised me for that headline during my interview. Later, he came to my workplace. Unexpectedly, he started to describe that ‘headline story’ to my colleagues. I wondered how he still remembered it and started feeling embarrassed. He added, that headline made your entry to this company.