When Passion Calls | #MBAIITKanpur

So this was one of the incidents that occured to me which sent me into a tailspin.I had been working in an organization for the past two years and had become a critical resource for them in the project. Naturally, the team started expecting more from me day in and day out.

I have always been proactive with sports and have been a football lover since childhood.I have taken the field on every opportunity that I got as it was something that I was passionate about ever since.

So one fine day I get a mail on my office email stating for an inter-team football tournament to be organized at the city level. I was jubilant with the prospect of having an opportunity to play at a city level tournament.I naturally give my consent for participation without thinking twice. I had glitches on my phone so I had uninstalled Whatsapp for some days and had no way of communicating other than messages and calls.

Things went as per business for the next couple of days. One evening, when I was enjoying my evening tea with my colleagues outside my office premises, I get a call stating that our match is scheduled for the next day evening during office hours as informed on the Whatsapp group and that they expect full participation and no backouts will be entertained now.I had not informed my manager and leads about it beforehand as I was unaware of the dates. For a brief moment, I felt out of sorts. I recollected my thoughts and decided on informing them the next day. I thought of going to the office a bit early that day as I was already having ants in my pants just with the thought of playing in the tournament.

The very next day, unfortunately, there just had to occur an urgent production issue at work and the entire team was busy with it. Despite reaching office before time, I had to get straight to work. From delirium to despair, my hopes dashed as I realized I might not be able to show up for the match due to the urgent work that fell upon me. I knew that was the wrong time to ask for leaving as I had experienced a similar situation beforehand.

A similar incident happened only a couple of months ago when I had asked my project leads to allow me to go for an intra-organization basketball tournament. I had waited with bated breath then for my leads' response but he refused my request citing the immediate need to deliver my work as the reason. As I had my hands full, I took up my work and started focusing with every passing minute on resolving the issue.

I skipped meals and worked effortlessly to get the task done. I could only see one way out and that could not have been the most conventional one. I had to improvise and I thought of making up some time for the match. I completed work before time but did not inform my team about having finished my work. I then asked for taking up some break for having food as I had not eaten anything the whole day and I also lied about having to go to the railway station to pick up my sister. This would buy me some time to go for my match. My leads subsequently agreed on the condition that I come back and finish the work the very same day. I knew they wouldn't allow me to go for a match had I asked for it. So I decided to keep it with me. I had a quick fruit break to get my energy level up. Then within no time, I changed into my playing shorts and tees and went to the football ground. The entire team was extremely excited about the tournament as we regularly practised on weekends. We were extremely confident going into the tournament and each one of us wanted to perform to their fullest. We played a full match there, giving it all that we had.

After the final whistle, when we were almost tired to death, I knew I had unfinished business back at my workplace. So I changed back to my office attire in a hurry, came back to the office and completed the rest of it. I finally sent the final mail to my manager and leads informing that the job was done. They were satisfied with my work and I was satisfied with my effort of not giving up on something that I love. No love lost as they rightly say. It may not have been the right way to go about it, but it sure was one that worked for me that day. Maybe in future, I'll handle a similar situation more efficiently, but however things panned out that day gave me a lot of happiness.