Corporate acapella

It was a "make believe" serious day in the office. The reason was that our project head, Swati, who was based out of Delhi office was going to visit our Mumbai office. There were several meetings conducted with all team members by the managers to instruct how to behave on the day when Swati would be here. "You are not kids. You are working professionals. You are not supposed to scream, shout, or sing as you do every day. When Swati is here show some respect and discipline. Maintain the decorum of the working space" this was the common message of all meetings.

Finally Swati arrived at 9:30 AM and all leads and managers were called in a meeting room. Our manager warned us "behave all of you". We tried it to maintain the silence on the floor, but we soon failed.

My colleague Era came to me, "My face is really dry. Do you have calamine lotion?" She asked while standing at my desk.

"Not today," I responded while working with my regular low voice.

"Do you have any moisturizer?" Era insisted.

"Vicco turmeric", I replied in a flat tone but somehow that became the beginning of the chaos.

"Nahi cosmetic," said my colleague Kaya who was a woman of few words. I and Era both were shocked that Kaya had started something fun like this.

"Vicco turmeric ayurvedic cream" Rahul sang who had seated opposite me joining the bandwagon.

"Ding ding ding," sang Kavita who sat next to Rahul.

"Keel muhason ko jad se mitaye," next line was sung by Vinay who sat at a desk behind Rahul.

"Haldi chandan ke gun isme samaye," next in line was a singer of our team Sneha who did full justice to the line with her classically trained voice. Another colleague Vedant added beat box.

By this time everyone on the floor understood the assignment and everyone decided to join the last chorus. The whole team of 30 sang together, "twacha ki raksha kare ayurvedic cream. Vicco turmeric ayurvedic cream". This resulted in total chaos. The corporate acapella got loud enough to be heard by the management group in the conference room.

A manger, Akash came out of the conference room. His face had turned red. With clenched jaw he shouted, "guys what is happening? Is this how you behave? Why are you singing songs instead of working? You guys are so loud we could hear you in the conference room. Do you have any idea that we are in a very important meeting and we are getting disturbed by your antics? At least give a thought that Swati is here. What opinion would she make of all of us? That we are behaving as if we are in a park and we do not care about business. Get serious guys," Akash was fuming.

This is when Swati came out of the conference room, calm and composed. We were frozen to think what was going to happen next. Most of us thought that it was going to be our last day in the office. Swati looked at us and then turned to Akash "this seems like a fun crowd. Akash why are you scolding the kids? Let them have fun while working. We need to maintain an atmosphere where team members enjoy and grow. We want humans not robots who come and work without speaking. I see we have a young and vibrant team here. Let us keep that spirit team. But just be little quiet, so we do not get disturbed," she said with a smile and returned to the conference room.

It was indeed a sigh of relief. It was a lesson to have fun but to be little quiet. It remained as a memorable day when a corporate acapella made waves enough to be noticed by the management.