Well well well, this post is going to be really long! (I am hoping its as funny as the real incident!! :P )
My boss handed me over the most boring assignments of all (degrading to me considering my experience and my degree :P ) but, I took it up, why? Because I did not have an option!! Recession has hit us, so you cant complain, keep thanking god that you still have a job which pays you!! :)
My task was to visit a huge campus of a Multinational Company, which consist of four buildings, named by continents (its weirdly funny because there are more than four continents , but apparently only four buildings, which leaves me thinking why in the world must have they named these building, "Americas", "Africa", "Europe" and "Asia")
So I actually had to visit all these buildings, each floor (that makes 25 floors!!) and mark the Fire extinguishers on paper, their type, weight , etc!! Being an Interior Designer by profession (a proud J. J. School of Art student...my morale was really shattered to do this kinda work) Thankfully my boss had been kind to me to have given me assistance! So we began our quest (I was trying to make it as interesting as possible in my head you see :P) on a fine morning. It took us two hours to get into the security system, the access cards and other formalities. Finally we were set and reached the first floor of Asia! It was about 50,000 sqft. of area guys!! So many people working, and amidst those we both had to go on and on, searching for fire extinguishers!! People were staring at us like we were some weird looking creatures arrived to disturb them, time and again I had tell them, "We are locating the fire extinguishers around all the buildings, to make a fire exit layout for you!!" We travelled Asia, and we were done for the day!! I mean i needed to go home, feel my home!!
But the next day, the so called quest began again, we finished touring America and headed towards Africa, in one of the floors in Africa, I realised that certain part of the floor, I was not able to access, so I approached the person in charge from their end to help me out, he informed that we would have to enter the fire exit staircase on the second floor to get to that secluded area on the first floor! Gosh I was sick!! I mean what the hell yaar...first of all I am not suppose to do this kind of work, I was speaking to myself, cribbing about the whole situation!! But then did I have an option?? We did just as he had said, and reached our destination, did our so called research and climbed down the staircase, opened the fire exit door on the ground floor, and basked out to get some fresh air!! I was relieved that the task of the day was finally over. Only one building remained!! We made our way towards the exit of the main campus....and my cell phone buzzed!! I picked it up, it was an unknown number. The voice spoke, did you just walk out of Africa from the fire exit staircase??" I promptly replied, " Yes we did, we...", the voice interupted mine," Did you notice that the fire alarm buzzed due to you!!"
I mean "Whhaaatt!!!", I said to myself! I was screwed up!! I could not find words to answer him, somehow with the battered confidence of my heart,I finally spoke,"Oh God, I am so sorry, really!! I thought they were disconnected! I caused a lot of chaos..I am really so sorry!" The voice broke out, "Well, the situation is under control now, I should have intimated to you.Anyways keep that in mind for the future!" and he cut the line.
After a little silence,I began laughing till my stomach started aching, till tears rolled down my cheeks...I mean, I had actually even managed to check their fire alarm system!!The boring and unwanted situation had suddenly turned into a hilarious one!! Though I was embarassed, I was somewhere happy too....:P I had ended up having a little pleasure mixed in work!! :)
Thats exactly when the little girl inside me becomes happy!!
