A long road ahead: Job-aspirants alighting from special buses at The Hindu Opportunities Fair at the Trade Centre in the White Field Industrial Area in Bangalore on Saturday. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

BANGALORE: Braving the hot sun and what appeared to be unending queues, tens of thousands of eager job-seekers thronged The Hindu Opportunities Fair on its first day on Saturday.

The wait was worth it for most of them. Not just for those who received job offers or call letters for interviews later. A young woman who had come all the way from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh said: "We could not have otherwise come in contact with so many tech sector companies all in one spot. The written tests showed what potential employers are really looking for today."

A few thousands opted for on-the-spot registration; close to 20 per cent were those with some job experience and the others, fresh graduates. There were to be two lines for them but the larger turnout meant three lines and corresponding registration desks had to be arranged quickly. Then there were some 57,000 job-seekers who had already registered online. Sunday's turnout is expected to be larger.

The two Employability Seminars held separately were packed. The speakers, who dealt with topics such as preparing winning resumes and facing job interviews, had to answer a number of pointed and intelligent questions.

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation met the challenge of ferrying all those young men and women and, in some cases, their parents, admirably. In addition to the 40 buses regularly running on the routes to Whitefield, 60 special buses were operated to the venue at the Trade Centre in the Whitefield Industrial Area, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., running several trips. Return trips were scheduled to run from 5 p.m. onwards.

The Hospitality Sponsor, Hotel Bangalore International, found its hands full. Friday night's heavy rain meant catering arrangements could be finalised only the next morning.

Sources at the hotel said they are gearing for larger numbers on Sunday. In fact, much of the arrangements at the stalls, interview rooms and test rooms could be completed only by the morning because of the downpour on Friday evening.

The Bangalore City police rose to the occasion as the crowd turnout was obviously more than initially anticipated.

Reinforcements were brought in to make sure the long queues moved smoothly and the more impatient persons pacified and kept orderly enough so that all could get in without undue delays.

"Keeping the lines moving is most of the work of good crowd management," as one police officer explained. The private security personnel doubled up as "enquiry counters" when the occasion demanded it, supplementing the efforts of the volunteers from The Hindu staff.

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