DEDICATION

TO EVERY PERSON WHO LOVES WHAT HE/SHE DOES

It was Monday and my boss called me. She was an elegant woman who I had come to respect in the last four months of work. Being a woman, I always believed she was more sensitive to the issues at my firm. That thought was about to be broken.

In two sentences, in 45 seconds, I was told that I needed to speed up my work. My seniors were happy with the quality of the work but my pace was slowing things down for many people. Mumbai, I was told, was not a place for the weak. As I walked out, I knew that was not a warning but an ultimatum.

I didn't feel sorry for myself. I didn't feel sad because I was "slow". I felt unhappy because I was misled. The very reason I joined this firm was because of the emphasis they laid on the quality of work. That, I now felt, was a recruitment gimmick. Did no one here believe that quality precedes quantity?

The reason I worked hard was because I wanted to learn. There was a client somewhere who was paying me for my time. I wanted him/her to have the best that I could give. Most of all, if I just did the work for the sake of doing it, I would lose my interest in the work and secondly, I would not learn anything.

I have decided that I want to love my job and give it everything I have. If this means I have to be mocked for being slow; so be it. I was in this for the long haul....