Winning Lockdown

Chapter 3: Conquering The World During Lockdown

The meeting ran longer than Shivya had planned for but eventually she was able to convince everyone and create a more feasible plan of action. She also was able to incorporate a few ideas contributed by her team members that she felt could be a winning advantage. After dividing the major tasks to each member and sending them confirmatory mails about the task assigned to them and getting their replies, Shivya pushed away from her desk shaped prison.

Her teammates felt they should try the idea before completely commitng to it and Shivya asked them to try for a few days but to keep her posted on daily basis of how it was going. Kyra had been asking for more tasks to do and hadn't realised that she was actually practicing different writing strokes while helping her pirate find his treasure. Shivya knew the task was not an easy one but with Amma, Kanjan and Kiran supporting her she felt she could take on the world.

It had been two weeks since Mr Khatri had dropped his bombshell about either benching the full team or splitting them to different departments. All her team mates were really putting in long hours but quite a few were able to say that they were able to find a feasible way that kept their kids engaged while they were working by using their dummy platform. A lot of reworks were taking place. Visiting the drawing board had turned into a permanent stay as every few hours changes were to be incorporated, redone or completely wiped off. Shivya could feel the tension and fear sharpen their blades, waiting to strike a killing blow into everyone's heart if Mr Khatri doesn't approve of their proposal. Some of her teammates had been dropping hints of thinking about pulling out when they still could but shivya wasn't ready to give up without a strong fight.

Shivya prepared for the meeting Mr Khatri had called for. She had sent a detailed report about her project and all the data gathered from the trial runs to Mr Khatri the previous day and he had called her 3 hours later to fix this meeting. Shivya couldn't read the emotions in Mr Khatri's sound but was determined to stay positive no matter what.

As one by one her team members slowly log in, Shivya feels tension wrap her heart in tight coils. Suddenly the stark realization that her hard work could be worth nothing within a matter of minutes grips Shivya in a deathly embrace that makes Shivya's eye moisten and gasp for breath. Immediately Shivya blocks her camera and mutes her mic. She slowly gets up and paces around her desk trying to calm her nerves. She runs her work through her mind trying to convince herself that she has done everything needed and it won't go to waste. She keeps repeating it to herself while sitting down to join back into her meeting.

Mr Khatri was mid-sentence when Shivya joined back in and stopped abruptly to look at her. Her whole team fixed her with a questioning look and slowly they broke into smiles. Applause was not what shivya expected to hear as she looked at the faces on her screen in full confusion. Mr Khatri spoke in a relieved tone and explained how the team had stepped in to explain the proposed game and how they were able to integrate their tourism data into the game with Shivya's guidance. Since everything was clearly planned and drafted, even the demonstration of the proposed platform had been a hit. Some of the team members had even got their children to give feedback about how the past week of adventures were to them.

Mr Khatri was very excited and wanted to have a product launch with just the basic features by the end of the week since there were rumors of the lock down continuing for a longer time. Shivya felt like she was no longer in control of her body. As an animated zombie Shivya responded to everything being told to her with nods. She could feel tears running down her cheeks and her lungs gasping for breath. Speechless was the only word her mind could find to describe what Shivya was feeling.

Slowly as if coming out of a daze, Shivya started responding with thank yous and yes sirs much to the relief of her team who thought she had gone into shock. They already had a plan of action in front of them and was confident to take the next step. Shivya thanked them for their support and assured Mr Khatri that the product launch could go ahead as planned.

The rest of the week was a blur of contacting their various bloggers and asking them to review thier app and game site. The content team were rapidly working to create posts and content for the various platforms and push the app as much as possible.

They even got many beta testers to keep reporting about the app and its features. Many for other projects joined in to help speed up the level development.

Shivya was much relaxed and felt the adernalin pump in her blood soothing. All her doubts of being unable to pull this project off nw looked childish and stupid to her as she smiled and logged out for the day.

Not only had the app had a good launch with many joining in for trial but Kiran had called the previous night to tell that he was able to get a ticket on a fight headed home.

Finally, Shivya felt things turning on a positive note. Even Kyra had now been eagerly playing through her curriculum and was happy to write or read as much as needed if it meant getting to the pirates treasure.

Yes. This lockdown was not to weaken our spirits but to strengthen our mettle and prepare for larger battles.