The Sleeping Engineers.

I was working as an engineer at a very important site of a very popular organisation. It was my first job as an engineer after completing B.Tech in computer science. I was happy because I was able to qualify interview of that organisation by my own efforts. There were three rounds and I qualified all the rounds successfully. Everyone in my family was happy that I am going to join a great organisation. My father shared this news with everybody known to him. Everybody among the friends, family members and relatives started congratulation me,  online and offline, both. I was the most blessed person at that time. 

When I joined that organisation, I came to know that after completing our 1 months training it is going to be a 24/7 job. I completed my training regarding the project and the project started. For 15 to 16 days it was a nine to five job. But on 17th day my boss told me that it is going to be a 24/7 job in which engineer will have to work in morning shift, night shifts and afternoon shifts as per the time table prepared by the organisation. I was working as an optical fibre Engineer at that time. The project started and initially we were very happy in 24/7 schedule. It is because initially there was not enough burden as we were freshers and our seniors and superiors were always there to help us. Cafeteria of the organisation was always open 24/7 so that we should not face any trouble in night also. All my seniors and superiors were highly friendly and supportive.

One day me and my friends were working in a night shift. It was 1:30 AM. Since we had finished our task, we thought that let us take a nap for a while. We started sleeping and gradually fell into deep sleep. Some senior was on round to see that engineers are not facing any problem. He came to our cabin and ordered us to wake up. We got scared that now the senior is going to say something scary. But the senior was very polite and gentle person. He said, "See engineers, I know that you have just passed out from Engineering College. In college, life is very cool, but here we have to work for the organisation. And doesn't matter what are the timings of the organisation, you must show dedication towards the place where you are working. It is your moral and ethical responsibility." Listening to the words of our senior we felt that this person is really genuine. We felt sorry and said that it will not be repeated again.

Next day as usual, we were on night shift and again at 2:00 a.m. in the night, we felt sleepy and started sleeping as there was nothing to do. Our task was already finished. Once again the same senior came on round and he again saw us sleeping. Again he said the same thing to us with a smile on his face, "engineers, you are the face of this industry. If you sleep it will spoil our reputation in front of our clients. So please be careful."
Saying these words he left the room with a smile.

We started feeling guilty that we are so non serious engineers that we are not listing to such a polite and kind senior. We decided not to give any chance to our senior for pointing out our mistakes. But ufortunately next day the same blunder repeated. Again the senior came at 2:30 AM and he saw us sleeping. Without being angry, he said,"come with me engineers. Let me show you something".  We started following that senior.

He took us to the airport where certain civil engineers were doing some kind of construction at the pillars. He said, "Look at those civil engineers. If they stop maintaining the structure of the airport everyday, the building will corrode & airport will fall down." Moving few steps ahead, he stopped us at another place where there was a food stall. He said, "from the airport pilots to the engineers, maintenance workers and ground staff, most of these people take their dinner at this particular place. This person who is running this canteen, unfortunately he is the only person who takes care of giving food to everyone during night hours." He asked us to move towards the runway where the flights were standing. As we reach one of the flights he pointed towards a person who was busy in shining the outer body of the aeroplane with some machines and equipments and few more people were there. The boss said, "Engineers you might have seen beautiful pictures of aeroplanes in magazines and newspapers. The aeroplane looks extremely beautiful standing on the runway also. These are the people who are responsible for this. They are involved in shining the body of the aeroplane and inside structure also 24/7."

Then our boss said that we have been travelling for a long hour and let us take a break. At the extreme corner of the boundary wall of the airport,he took us  to a very small tea shop. A very old man was preparing tea over there. That old man was having difficulty in walking also. My boss said, "Baba, chai milegi" The old man replied with the soft voice, "Ha beta, abhi banata hu." The boss"Nahi baba, agar pehle se bani hai to theek hai. Bas garam kar do." The old man said, "Nahi beta, customer Bhagwan hot hai. Use purani chai nahi pilate.  Aap logo ki wajeh se he to mera dhanda chal raha hai." 

Listing to the words of that shopkeeper, our boss looked towards us and give us a smile. Our eyes were down out of shame. Without saying a single word to us, our boss explained us that how hard the entire world is working and how much dedication people are showing towards there responsibilities which we will not showing. 

On that day we promised our boss that never again we will show lazy attitude towards our responsibilities. It was work the best lessons ever learnt for all of us. Dedication is the key to success.