Out of the Box Training… Learning while Doing

We make a Team

Friday, 13th! The date, considered as a bad omen and vices in many parts of the globe. However for me it was an absolute flipside. It all started when my CTO summoned all of us for a meeting session and started briefing us about the project we’ll be working on for the next week. Once he was done with the briefing and detailing , I was struck by what I call absolute bewilderment. Regaining my senses and getting back to my conscience, I asked him Errr. Rest is ok. But did you mean one month? Because I thought I heard you say one week.

His easy reply was “You heard me”

He left the room and with the sound of the wooden door clanking against the frame I was snapped back to reality. Ok, It was a mammoth of a task. Think of it as a cricket test match timed to the duration of a T20 format. It didn’t take long to get us started and exploring the tip of the iceberg which was yet to be covered.

With a blink of an eye it began, the coding, the brainstorming, the intense technical discussions and the endless scuffles with eclipse. And with all this, began the one week of endless excitement, insomnia, learning and hunger. Team Opus and team Beans. That’s what it was about, the battle of being the best. Where the job of the two team was to design a software.

The first two days went in a jiffy, I was confused yet committed, had no idea where to begin yet was sure have to do it, was uncertain yet passionate. I guess that’s what the advantage of being with the right people is all about. Once sorted out we started with a rough blueprint. Driven by an internal spirit and an eternal fire, we kicked it off. In the next two days we had lost track of time, nearly blanked out how the sun looked like, had nothing to do with the outside world, stayed wired in all day all night. Office soon turned into our second home, desks became our beds and notebooks became pillows. Every morning at 10 we would be on our toes and this would continue till 4 the next day. Swollen red eyes, sore fingers and loss of appetite were ignored and muted. The reward and the hunger outdid them. Eventually the progress showed up, there were moments of despair, disappointment and dejection but never did they overwhelm anyone. The team I was a part of soon became my second family. We ate, drank, slept, and worked our brains off together.

Finally it all culminated on Monday the 23rd. The judgment day, the call of duty would be answered today. As we started off the presentation, the judges were all ears. Listening to us narrating the entire project and giving them all the insight, they could easily make up the hard work that backed it. And after due acknowledgment and recognition they didn’t hesitate to give us a loud round of applause.

Finally, when the results were announced, the team Beans had outdone us marginally but it didn’t matter back then because by then, each one of us had already won. It was a moment of thrill, energy, passion and enlightenment. The best moments in life are when you see yourself overcome the biggest of all challenges and this was one for me indeed.

At that point of time all I could think of was the fact that how grateful I was to be a part of this wonderful team and how proud I felt being one of these members of Drishti. All I could hear were these eternal words :

Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle… when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.