The Poster Ordeal

With great powers come the great responsibilities. But what to do when great responsibilities come without you having a great power, to be precise, no power at all. I have been given with this great responsibility of delivering a Poster from one continent to other.

Well, I am not a delivery boy, nor am I working in a courier company. I work in India and just travelled to US for few days to attend an annual summit that happens for my company. And there was one project that we did few months back, that somehow got some attention. So here comes the show off – a poster showing off what we did in that project. So one of our colleagues in US met me during the breakout session in between the sessions in the summit, so that I can take it back to my location and we can have it on our wall.

I just wondered, what the heck, just a poster, how much trouble can it cause? And then started the real realization of the power of that poster. Everyone started asking, “hey did you get the poster?”. I met my Senior Manager there and he asked me the same question. And then his senior told me that our Program Manager was asking whether I got the poster. And then when I logged into my mail, I saw an email from one of the leads at onshore, asking for the confirmation. Then I realised that how important a poster can be. And then I took the oath, to take the responsibility to deliver that poster safely and securely.

Well, it looked like an easy job to follow the oath I have taken. During the last day of the summit I got into the bus to take us back to our hotel. The moment bus started, I just realised something that my hands are feeling more free as compared to they were during the whole day. And I just stood up from the seat, asked the driver to stop the bus and let me get down. And then I just ran into the conference hall to pick up that important delivery that I forgot in the room. I was relieved to see that it was still there.

Then when I went to my hotel room, I made sure that I will keep the poster at some location so that i will be able to see it when I leave in the morning. I left it just beside my luggage. Then I woke up in the morning and was a little late. Quickly I was done with everything, including packing which I left to do in the early morning itself. Then I went to the reception, checked out, paid my bill, returned the card, and asked security guard to call up a taxi. And then suddenly, I had to run back to the reception and ask them, “Could you please give me the keys for a minute, I forgot an important poster in the room?” Well again I was lucky that I reminded of it in time.

After that, no mistakes, I didn’t leave it anywhere, not even in the taxi. I collected my boarding pass and then the poster was with me each of the places I visited in the airport – Food Courts and even toilets. Real trouble was when visiting toilet. Where to keep it when I am in the toilet as around wash basin area it can get wet, and if I just hold it then how many things can I hold at the same time? ( i hope you got what i mean). However, I managed it perfectly most of the times.

I had a 6 hours halt at Frankfurt airport. So, in order to pass my time, I spent most of the time roaming around at the airport. And then to keep my girlfriend happy I thought of going to an internet booth. As my girlfriend was not online that time, I left the booth after sometime. Then again I sat for a while with my laptop on, and after that just walked around the airport and then thought of having a nice lunch. I saw few people staring at me, and was thinking what these guys would be thinking about the poster I am carrying. And then again I was in real panic to realise that poster was not in my hand. Where did I leave it that was the question running in my mind.

Then I was thinking the situations are already tensed these days due to terrorism and security guys are not so lenient over unclaimed things lying in the airport. I was thinking what would they be guessing it would be – BAZOOKA or a Rocket Launcher? Well, whatever they might think but I needed to get that poster. So I started looking for it and fortunately I found it on the computer table In the internet booth.

Carrying this poster is a real ordeal in my life, and right now its safely lying in the overhead baggage compartment in the flight. I hope I do not forget to take it with me when I leave the plane.