“Just in Time” yet again

4:30PM – Consumer Behaviour individual assignment far from over. Cricket match ends and there is a general feeling of happiness as India won. Then there is a realization that the assignment submission deadline is 5PM. Franctic efforts get underway and I somehow manage to complete whatever I can by 4:53PM. I hit File > Print and then sprint to the printer room just to find at least 10 more people looking anxiously at whatever is coming out of machine. As always all of them are engineers.

I join the crowd. Suddenly the sound of printing stops and doesn’t restart for a long time. Panic strikes everyone and the printer says “paper jam. open front cover … blah .. blah … blah”. I open the front cover, close it again without doing anything and it starts working !! (So much so for messages given to the user). Wonder if the little pat given to the printer in appreciation of its efforts did the trick !!

4:56PM – Still no sign of my printouts ….. and wait … the next sheet seems to be mine. But the assignment submission cover page hasn’t come out yet.

4:57PM – All pages seem to have got printed. I collect everything and start my sprint to the acad center.

4:59PM – Wow !! I am in front of the assignment submission box in record time and submit mine. Turn back and see at least 6 more engineers rushing towards the box. Feel proud to be an engineer ….. completing stuff at the last minute is a trait.

Assignment submitted “Just in Time” (Toyota guys must be proud of me). A feeling of having accomplished something big sinks in. A pat on the back reminds that there is a lot more to be submitted in the coming days. Suddenly my mobile phone starts ringing … “Where the hell are you? Where is our group meeting for the ##### assignment?” …. Oh shit … where did this come from? ….. “OK … I am on my way there”.

….. and life goes on ……