Day 35 - While it has been a
quintessential week, 28th of March did bring about a new aspect of teams
to the fore.
For starters, I have been
involved with a project for last few months, that has been close to me in ways
more than one. Not that the project is huge – it is a typical project. But what
differentiates this project is the timeline in which this project was to be completed.
In an industry where it takes
a deal closure to take months, land acquisition takes another half a year and
execution takes another half, talks of any project that takes less than a year
from conceptualization to commissioning would have been a laughing stock a few
months back. Recent advancements in technology and processes have shrunk this end-to-end
time frame to 8-10 months.
However, when our Chairman
called me one fine day in Dec and told me that an opportunity could come up
where the timeframe available would be less than 3 months, it was yet another super
ambitious opportunity I was looking at, just like many others I had become
accustomed to.
I am actually a die-hard
optimist, and when I came to know that the deal could be real – I was excited
as well as depressed! Depressed because I heard from every nook and corner that
this project would not see the light of day; that it’s crazy to think of such
unrealistic timeframes, what with the political and tactical complications in
this particular deal. But at the same time, I was excited to the hilt. I was
being given the opportunity to run with this from the beginning to the end; This
was to stretch oneself beyond imagination. It was like a dream one can see when
wide awake.
What this involved wasn’t
really my cup of tea. I have not really been a field guy. I am not a marathon
guy, nor am I good at sprints. This deal needed someone to sprint a marathon,
100 metres at a time, and the next 100, and the next, and the next.
Any which ways, I ended up
running the first 100, and the next, and the next, and cutting long story
short, finally ran the final dash a week back.
It has been an unbelievable
journey, these last 3 months, and there are so many stories to be told.
However, this post has already digressed enough from the intended objective, so
here it goes back.
Day 35 - While it has been a
quintessential week, 28th of March did bring about a new aspect of teams
to the fore.
I arrived at J in the morning for
some finishing formalities for the project, and was supposed to leave back for
Delhi the same evening. However, during my usual site visit where I meet with
all team members who’ve been at site for last few months and take the status
check, I came to know that it was birthday of one of the team members.
He looked happy (of course, it
was his birthday, and he was still not 30!), yet disappointed (again, he was
away from friends and family – so I could understand why). One look at him, and
I knew I had to stay back in the evening. It’s not just about birthday of one
out of a team of 15, but about the feeling of having those who care for you,
close to you. And to add to it, about the feeling of having those close to you,
care for you.
So we did bring about cakes
and drinks and what not in the evening, spent the evening like no one from the
team expected to, smudged his face with cake time and again, drenched him with
drinks on various occasions, and did not bother if we were getting late for the
late night movie, while all this was happening. I just wish he didn’t miss his
friends doing the same to him this year, and he would remember this one for the
times to come.
The day ended with a smiling birthday
boy face, and the satisfaction was no less than I would have on my own
birthday. And I did realize that teams gel together, eat together, work together,
stay together all the time, but at an additional level, teams have to connect
together. After all, it is about moments we gather from wherever we are, whoever
we are with, at whatever point in time.
I met the guy again today, and
he was as jolly as I have ever seen him. For He's A Jolly Good Fellow....
And no, it is not day 35 at a
stretch – thankfully it is spread between Jan/Feb/Mar of this year.
