“7 am sharp you all should be in office” was the order made by the CEO Aamir Qutub.
After waking up at 5,
spending 15mins in washroom and gulping breakfast respectively (latter first), dedicating
30mins to dressing up (15mins make up; 15mins trying different tops) travelling
10kms and reaching at 7:25 am to office, I realized even after being late by 25mins
I’m the first one to make it to the office.
While settling down and
logging to Zoho people (Attendance Tracking application), Ankit (VP of
Technology) banged in with his red bagpack which had his expensive MacBook.
“Good Morning Ariba”
“Morning Ankit”
Were the exchanges of words
we had at 7:35 am, waiting for other two members of the team who live somewhat
nearer to the office.
The sound of hastily
opening the door stroke to my ears and it was Neha(Chief of Staff), who lives
just 10mins away from the office. She looked drowsy and unwell but on the
second glaze it was she merely without an ounce of makeup. For another 10mins
Neha locked herself in the bathroom and Wow! She looks primo now.
The three of us indulged
ourselves in our daily tasks and strategizing how to achieve monthly targets.
Where Neha knowing exactly what she has to do; Ankit already figured out how he
has to do; I (VP of Content, PR and Comm.) was juggling with both the questions
what and how.
As the clock hit 9:30 am
something speedily passed two doors (first main gate then room door) and
dragged the left chair beside me, and got seated. He was VP of Sales and
Marketing aka Sir Ji alias Uzair who brazenly ignoring the time displayed on the wall clock
devoted himself to work.
As the smaller hand of the
clock touched 10 and larger one reached 6:
Neha– Kaun Kaun chai
piyega? (Who all will have tea?)
Ankit- Depends kaun bana
raha hai (Depends… who is making it)
Ariba- Mein bana dungi
(I’ll make it)
Uzair- Yaar paapey ke saath
lunga mein toh (I’ll have it with rusk)
Ariba- Hahahaha What?
Pappey? In office?
Neha- Yes! We have brought packed
ones.
Ariba- hahaha guys… (With a
taunting face)
Before we could continue
this topic of rusk any further Neha got busy on a video call with Aamir (No
Sir, No boss, only Aamir; that’s how he likes to be addressed)
Aamir had left a message on
the Wall of Zoho Connect, a web application which works as Facebook for the Enterprise Monkey
members. The post was addressed to Ankit, Ariba, Neha and Uzair, and it
questioned the punctuality of the VP’s of the firm. Unfortunately, we all
ignored that post consciously or unconsciously which worsened the situation and
infuriated Aamir.
Aamir gave a good time to
Neha over the call expressing his disappointment and astonishment with our
behavior. Midst of the call Neha huskily asked us to comment on the post to
show acknowledgement to which Ankit had the best question “Like kardu post
ko?”, leaving all of us ROFL.
It’s 3pm:
Ankit: On skype with a
client
Neha: Scheduling Aamir’s
daily five minutes meeting with the team
Uzair: Talking, laughing,
talking and again laughing over a video call with Aamir.
I: Scratching my head, not
because I’ve lice in my hair but the technical terminology was giving me a
tough time.
At 6pm we all decided to
leave the office (for the day). For Ankit and me, we were already late because
we usually leave around 4pm; For Uzair and Neha, they were leaving quite early
as they keep sticking to office chairs till 7:30pm.
As we approached to the
main gate, to our astonishment it was raining heavily. Since the office was
almost locked and every equipment was switched off, we decided to sit in the
conference room for the time being.
I comforted myself on the
boss chair while Ankit and Neha sat opposite to me. Uzair took over the white board,
acting as a strict teacher that he was once upon a time.
Neha, Ankit and I acted as
notorious children of the class who pass derogatory comments over their
teacher’s personality and always answer back, embarrassing the teacher.
Neha to Uzair: Please
explain that theory of five P’s that you were telling Ariba the other day.
This made me burst into
laughter reminiscing the time when Uzair and I were discussing that theory. I
had corrected him saying there are 4 Ps of marketing according to McCarthy i.e.
Product, Price, Promotion and Place. But Uzair added one more P for People
without quoting the source. During that meeting Uzair also mockingly accused me
of abusing a colleague (complete baseless) which made Neha utter “Hawwiee” (in
Punjabi accent).
Taking Neha’s suggestion
fervently, Uzair started teaching us about 5 P’s of marketing and being the blatant kids of the class all three of us started laughing our lungs out.
Uzair, taking his character seriously, asked “Where is my rod with two horns?”
‘Rod with two horns’ is an
internal joke, the origination of which is unknown to me. But we often used
this phrase to humorously threaten the other team member.
Amidst all the jests,
giggles, mocks and cackles the rain ended, and so our day at the office.
