Danger Dave - Office Stories

After completing my MBA in Finance I got a job in an IT company as an Analyst. I was part of the Bank of America project which was the most confidential project in the entire company. Our team had a special closed cabin where only BoA team had access to entry. Everyone in the company was curious to know what goes inside this cabin. We had that special CIA agent vibe. There were 20 people in my team and all were unique characters. As much as serious and mysterious vibe our team had in the company, as much chill and playful we all were inside. Honestly speaking, I felt like I was again in my college. That was the best team atmosphere anyone could dream of. Regardless of all the work pressure & office politics, we used to have a great time throughout the day. I didn't see any professional behaviour from my teammates for each other. It was a college vibe where there were brutal jokes, messing around & playing pranks. With all this we never let our work suffer. Work hard, party harder was the thing of our team. They weren't my colleagues, they were my brothers & friends.

I used to sit in a cubicle from where I could see the cabin door. Sitting next to me was my friend Shashank. His stories, jokes & talks would make everyone laugh. At the same time, it was super easy to fool him into a trap. One fine day there wasn't much work so we were, as usual, doing some nonsense talks & having a good time teasing each other. Our manager was not in the cabin. But everyone was at their own desk doing the work. We had a few excel sheet based games in our systems. And we used to play them whenever our manager would go out of the cabin for a long time. So Shashank said to me, 'I am going to play Danger Dave game and you warn me whenever you see the manager entering the cabin.' I assured him to go ahead and play. He trusted the right person. That was his favourite game. He was obsessed with that game so much that he would forget who was around him once he got into his zone. In a short time, he was getting into the zone. He would jump into his chair and slam the desk shouting curse words to the poor Danger Dave as he would lose. While everyone else was busy throwing trash jokes & laughing at each other. The whole cabin seemed like a Las Vegas casino.

Suddenly, one of our friends entered the cabin signalling that the manager is coming. Everyone went silent into their work like tortoise goes inside its shell once it detects danger. Except for our Danger Dave Shashank, who was absolutely at the ultimate peak of his zone. The evil spirit in me got activated. How could had I lost that golden chance? Our manager entered the cabin to find everyone working sincerely with their heads down. Except for one warrior who refused to give up his freedom at the feet of injust IT Corporation and was fighting till his last drop of blood. I was trying my level best to control my unstoppable laughter as our manager walked into our cubicle, silently walking to his desk watching Shashank's screen. The moment Shashank saw the manager looking at him from his desk, he nearly had his heart come out of his mouth. He looked around, surprised by the silence in the cabin as if a moment ago he was in some other world. He looked at me angrily and kicked me asking why did I not warn him about the manager. I kept laughing putting my head down. Then silence in the cabin was broken by managers loud voice - Shashank, come here... Everyone was laughing in their mind out loud while Shanshank was walking towards the managers' desk.

Rest Is History.