The Pacifiers

After a month break, I have joined a new job and I am working on client site for more than a month now. I have worked on such process model multiple times, have served multiple multinational banks as my clients, even they treated me well, but this place is so warm and welcoming. Moreover, people are very professional and understanding, no ill-sarcasm, no judgmental taunts.

I got system access and it was time to show my skills, to win my client’s confidence as I am replacement for Deepen who is five years more experienced than me and today he is my client manager. A very skilled and responsible man who has been managing his role pretty well. He assigned me very first task to send escalation mail to around 80-85 recipients. I drafted mail as directed and clicked on ‘Send’ button. Within five minutes I get a call on my VoIP,

‘Hello Arpita! This is Anil here from Finance Reporting Team, rest I will introduce myself later, quickly recall that mail, there are wrong recipients marked in there.’

Oh my God! What the hell did I just do? ‘I am sorry! I should have got it reviewed before sending,’ I apologized.

‘It’s okay Arpita! There are multiple people with same name, not your fault. Recall your mail and give me a call on same number.’

I called him after recalling my mail, majority of the copies were already read by recipients but nothing much I could do about it. I made all the amendments pointed out by Anil and sent my mail again. In the meantime he gave me background of the issue and also briefed me about various teams and users I had to follow up with. ’You might have to follow up multiple times with this guy,’ he said. ‘So I should mark him as bad,’ I giggled while categorizing teams in excel.

‘He’s not bad! , he laughed. ’They have their own priorities, they are busy people’.

‘You are such a positive person, so patient,’ I said.

‘Well I am not positive, but I started understanding people after working with them. You will learn it soon.’

After few minutes, I get a reply on that mail from Anil which said, ‘Well done! Thanks J’. Never thought a client would appreciate me post such blunder, but it felt good, I felt appreciated, he’s right, he understands people. What could have been the consequences, had it been someone else, I wonder. Well let’s not recall the bad experiences from the past and rejoice this moment.

Around 7:15 PM IST Deepen came to my desk to handover knowledge transition documents.

‘Go through them and let me know in case you need something. It will take some time as it’s a vast project but I will be around so not to worry. Feel free to ask queries,’ he kept them on my desk.

‘Thanks Deepen!’

‘Now leave for the day, your bus is at 7:30, you will get a direct drop to Navi Mumbai,’ he said with that peaceful smile which I don’t know how he maintains it in spite of such a busy schedule. I hardly find him free in office and let’s not even talk about his perfection. I am already impressed by the quality of handover documents and trackers. Seriously, never thought I will ever work under a person whom I would theoretically call organised and scrupulous and not to forget his humbleness. Finally found a mentor to learn from, especially work life balance.

I wrapped up my stuff and rushed towards the lift. There he is, my lift companion, who always holds the door for me. This grey-haired man has the best dressing sense; well he does thinks beyond white, blue and black. His skin looks young though, hairstyle shows George Clooney’s influence, those nerd glasses suits him the best, but his smile, that’s infectious. Only words we have exchanged are ‘thank you’ and ‘after you’. No, he’s neither flirting nor he’s making any move, he just respects people around. He waves and gives smiles to his colleagues, vendors, pantry staff, housekeeping and even security guards. May be someday I will ask his name, even name of the perfume he wears.

I swiped my card to open flap barriers and got my bag scanned. ‘Good night Madam! Take sufficient rest’, said security officer, who ensures we don’t miss our bus. I just can’t ignore this caring man, no matter how much in hurry I am. ‘Good night Uncle! See you tomorrow,’ I started walking towards bus stop.

I must appreciate punctuality of shuttle service, always on time, sharp 7:30. There comes the beauty, I mean what else we need after a long tiring day? A peaceful ride back home in blue dim led lights, my solitude window seat in third last row and my note pad to pen down all the moments I experienced few hours back. I can recall days when I was advised to be more patient, adaptive, to bring down my expectations, to come out of my shell, my own dreams and be open to others perception as well. But somewhere I knew these dreams were rational enough to be chased. There is a world which will accept me the way I am and will meet my expectations. There are people who respect others, who belong to my ideal world, who bring in the peace. Yes! An ideal world does exist. All I want to say to my dear life is- ‘Thanks for not letting me settle for the less. Well chased! ;) Now come and give me a hug!'. I played ‘Good Life’ (by G-Eazy and Kehlani) 20 times in a loop.

Life is full of shocks and surprises,

I wake up and find myself on fire.

To heal and in search of peace,

I find these angels whom I call

‘The Pacifiers!’

                                 ~ Arpita