(12:22 PM)

Both Meher and Indu remained silent. They do not knowhow to react to what Ishwarya said.

After few seconds, Indu broke the silence replying “Okay Ishwarya.”

When Meher heard that, he also responded saying “Okay Ishwarya.”

“Good. For today, I want both of you to prepare an understanding doc on the project before we go forward with the following things. Meher, as you are working on this from the last few weeks, I want you to work on that. Indu can help you when required” said Ishwarya and then looking towards Indu, she said “Indu, sit with Meher and try to memorize the procedure. Once he is done with the understanding doc, I want you to go through that before you both submit me the final version.I want everything to be documented and every procedure should be performed as per the procedure guidelines that were set up for each of them. Is that clear?”

“Yes Ishwarya” replied both of them.

“I want the works to be done quickly and efficiently. I should not see any minor errors, especially human errors.Be careful with every single job you perform. This is not a development project where testers will do a test before moving it to clients. Here, this is a support project and you have to be very careful in everything you do. One single mistake can make a huge loss. So, please be very careful before moving it to live.”

Ishwarya is explaining things in very detail and motivating them to perform their work more efficiently as she wants to make sure they don’t run into problems.As they both need to work on a high value maintenance project where things should move fast, she is boosting them in order to align things well. And also they both are juniors; they require a good deal of motivation and reinforcement from the seniors. Ishwarya is exactly doing the same. She is not only motivating them, but also making them understand that they can reach out to anyone if at all they need support.

“Look Indu and Meher, if at all you are struck in the work anytime, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your seniors or me for any kind of help or advice. We are always ready to help you out. Okay.”

“Thanks Ishwarya” Indu replied with a little smile on her face.

Meher remained silent without replying anything. Some opinions are running in his mind.

(Everybody says the same thing in the starting few days. And then later on, they get busy with their own projects and responsibilities.They will not even have time to concentrate on their works, how they will help us?I am fed up with these kinds of false promises.)

These lines were running inside Meher. He is trying to remember his academic days and the initial days in this project. Most of his seniors said the same thing on the first day when he joined the project and then later on none of them used to respond to him whenever he used to go for any clarification. They used to reply him saying that they are busy and so come later or ask someone else. The most common reply from any of them is “Why don’t you google it Meher?You can get things done easier.” Those times, Meher used to feel like “I don’t even know what to google and that is the reason I am approaching you for help.”

When Ishwarya observed Meher is silent and not responding to her words, “Meher, are you there? Did you understand what I said? If you do have any clarifications, please don’t hesitate to open up. Bring it to the table, we can discuss about that.” Said Ishwarya and started waiting for reply from Meher.

“Ya fine Ishwarya. Sure we will approach you if at all we need anything” replied Meher hiding all the questions inside him.

(12:59 PM)

“Okay then, you can leave now. Get back to your works. Thank you.”

“Thank you Ishwarya” said Meher and got up from the seat to leave.

“Thank you Ishwarya” said Indu and followed Meher.

After they both came out, Meher is walking in the front towards his desk. Indu followed him till his cabin. They both discussed about the task they need to work together and then continued working on that. After 15 minutes, Ishanth came to Meher’s desk to call him for lunch.

“Meher, are you planning to eat work for today?”

“No Ishanth. Please wait for 2 minutes. I am coming” said Meher and then looking at Indu, he said “Indu, this is Ishanth our team mate, he is one year senior than me. Ishanth, she is Indu, she will be working in that maintenance project along with me.”

Ishanth and Indu shook hands, smiling at each other and “Hi Indu” said Ishanth and “Hello Ishanth” replied Indu.

“Okay Meher, you both carry on. I will be waiting in the elevator lobby. Okay”

“Hey Meher, please have your lunch and come back. We can continue the discussion post lunch” said Indu getting up from the seat.

(05:48 PM)

After lunch, Indu and Meher resumed their work. They both became really busy in developing the understanding doc which Ishwarya told them to work on.At around 06:00 PM, they decided to go and meet Ishwarya to update her about the status of the work which she assigned.

They walked towards her cabin, got inside and sat in the chairs.

“Good evening Meher, good evening Indu” said Ishwarya, greeting them with a smile.

“Good evening Ishwarya, the requested doc has been prepared and sent to your email” said Meher.

“Oh. Thanks you guys! Let me open it, we shall discuss on that.”

Ishwarya opened the doc and started going through that. She is keenly observing each and every single stock.After a few minutes, “Guys, I have gone through the doc.I have a few clarifications on that.Some of the details are not clear.”

Meher and Indu started looking at each other.

“What are those Ishwarya?” asked Meher.

“After reading the doc, I see that you don’t have complete knowledge of the project and also the process.This was not what I expected.If this goes forward, then it will be very difficult for you to work when change-requests come in production servers.”

“Ishwarya, frankly speaking, I haven’t worked on this project. I just used to work on the little tasks assigned by a senior. She resigned the company few weeks back and after that Quadhar tagged me to this project. I don’t have a complete viewof this. And besides I was never called for any discussion regarding this project.”

Ishwarya’s expressions changed a little bit. “But, Thyagarajan said that you are the one who is working on this project and you have a perfect idea of the process.”

“No Ishwarya, I dint even work on a ticket completely till today.”

“But Meher, when you are tagged to a project, you are expected to ascertain that.”

“Ishwarya, to be frank, I am not even from this technology. I recounted this to Quadhar and Thyagarajan many times. They never listen to me.”

Ishwarya took a deep breath when she heard those lines from Meher. After few seconds, “Look Meher, here, you should not be sticking to one single technology or process. You should be ready to work on any technology and process.”

@Seniors

Guess the story: Define Indu in few words?

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