IT world in 70s style

Our story starts with Vijay again. Vijay didn’t have to polish shoes in the childhood to make earning; Vijay’s life was much more brutal and tough. He had to go to school daily, and struggle for marks. Vijay’s life was tragic but he didn’t have much choice and after school he had to go to college to pursue an engineering degree. Those 4 years were very hard for him and he struggled to maintain a good degree because of his principles. Vijay didn’t like sycophancy and running behind teachers for marks, “ Mein feke hue marks nahi leta” his ideology always landed him bad sessionals still Vijay had an attitude and he was respected for that.

After completing his engineering, Vijay had no choice other than to do what every contemporary person was doing, a job in IT world.   Desk no. 786, where he used to work with his other mates and live a normal life, Vijay has only one dream left now, to make his brother Ravi a manager. Vijay worked hard to educate Ravi and get him an MBA degree. MBA is an expensive thing after all but for Vijay his brother’s dream was far more important than any other thing in life.

Vijay’s family used to go to a temple once in a while but Vijay never went inside, neither he took Prasad since the day he failed to crack IIT JEE exam, like many other people it came as a big blow to his belief and he stopped praying for any other thing from god as there wasn’t anything worth praying for if you fail in JEE. Ravi daily used to visit temple though as he got a seat in a good MBA College and that is not possible without god’s divine hand in India.

Life was going on normally until one day a new joiner was called on weekend. He was a new joiner; he didn’t understand the rule of this world. For him, weekend was a holiday time, something that should be spent on home or with family. So he revolted against his team lead Peter, Peter didn’t like it, not one bit.

Next day, Peter called him in his Cabin. He gave the same points, which were logical, but didn’t have any effect on the tin chest of Peter. All he can mutter was, “Weekend par kyu aau, mein yaha weekend par kam karne thode na aaya hu, ghar jaunga, 2 behene hai unke sath time spend karunga “  

Peter laughed a sarcastic smile and said “ Aisa karo, fir 2 din kya, puri life hi family ke sath spend karo, kal se office aane ki jarurat nahi hai, you are fired”.

“ Chup chap weekend par kam karne aa jata to kya hota, 5 sal se kam kar raha hu mein yaha par, aaj tak kabhi nahi dekha ki koi worker weekend par kaam karne se mana kare, said one of the old worker Rahim. But Vijay’s mind was pondering over something else; he was startled by the whole experience and the unfairness of the life on the common worker. Vijay was pensive and introspecting and finally he made a decision.

“ Jo 5 baras mein nahi hua wo ab hoga Rahim, agle hafte  ek aur worker weekend  par aane se mana karega”, Vijay said taking a sip of the free coffee from the coffee machine.

So next time when there were issues on weekend and Vijay was called, he didn’t show up and bluntly denied. This infuriated Peter, because he knew that if 1 worker has denied showing up on weekend then next 2 won’t show up, next week 4 won’t show up and eventually every worker would have guts to refuse coming up on weekend. Peter tried to find Vijay but couldn’t find him on his desk but he was surprised to see him in his own cabin.

“ Aap mujhe har jagah dhundh rahe the, aur mein aapka yaha par intejar kar raha tha”, said Vijay in an defiant tone.

“Have a seat”, said Vijay kicking a chair in front of his team lead. He stood up, locked the door and said that I would exit from this door only when you would ask me to exit. By that time, Peter has already called many other team leads, managers and directors for a group attack but our hero was prepared. What followed was a single man fight vs. a collective legacy of unfairness and domination which hitherto was unbeatable but today was different. As Vijay has maintained a very nice dependency on their project, Vijay knew he can’t be sacked and as he was not bothered about appreciation, escalation or bad reviews, he argued fiercely putting every point of a normal worker with sheer logic that can’t be denied by the management. Vijay came out of the door triumph and was cheered by his entire fellow workers.

However, Vijay faced a strong oppose from his mother back at home who was pretty unhappy by his rebel instincts.

“ Mein puchti hu, tujhe kya jarurat thi un logo ke muh lagne ki, wo GL log hai, teri rating down kar sakte the, promotion rok sakte the, site opportunity chin sakte the”, she said in angry voice.

“ To tum kya chahti ho ki mein muh chuppa kar shift kar jata” !!

A loud thunderclap sound followed by series of uncontrolled slaps until Ravi came between and took her mother away. She said in crying voice “ Unhone jo bhi kiya, tum logo ke liye kiya”

Vijay’s father possessed both the aggression of Vijay and calmness of Ravi at the same time. He stood up for the rights of workers. In every team meeting he used to raise the issue of rating, promotion, late night shift with no pays, weekend support. He used to submit an honest feedback of the management. He used to talk about team lead to manager and about manager to director. He was respected by his colleagues and was the only ray of hope against injustice.

One day he was called by the director. Vijay and Ravi were very young that time. The director told him that there are company’s policies by which they can sack him without any compensation and it would ruin Vijay’s and Ravi’s career as there are fees to be paid for school. Director warned him to stop all the anti management activities and gossip and not to create any hope among employee. The man got scared and accepted all the conditions. He knew he had betrayed his colleagues and he can’t face them any more so he decided to shift from the company and fled away without showing his face to anyone ever.

Next day in office, Vijay was called by a strange person. “ Ai tum, tumko manager sahab bula rahe hai”. The person led Vijay to another floor of his building but Vijay remained outside the cabin.

“ Tumhara hi naam Vijay hai, tumne hi Sawant ke GL ki publically uda di”, said the other person rolling his chair.

“ Kaun Sawant”, Vijay asked having no clue at all.

“ Tumhara manager, come inside, don’t be afraid, think of me as a friend. Vijay came inside.

“ Dawar, My name is Dawar; Weekend par workers ko bulane ke alawa bhi Sawant ke bahut sare dusre dhandhe hai, like fresher se starting mein late tak  kaam karwana, worker ko COMP OFF na dena, dusre projects se code churana, dusre managers ke acche projects hathiya lena”

“ Aur yaha se aapki aur Sawant ki dushmani chalu hoti hai”, Vijay said in a grave tone.

“Yes, I have heard about the stories of how you argued with the management, I need men who could bring better projects to me, I would shift you into my team as a GL, and you would work for me from now onwords if you agree.

Once joining Dawar’s team as a GL, Vijay quickly rose to fame and power. He did all kinds of code snatching, code stealing, code duplicating. He also engaged several new workers on weekend. He started eating their bonuses. He also started taking their credits by mailing their work under his name. He stole all the on-site opportunities and never let any other one to have a single on site opportunity. Due to his sheer arguing power and fearful image, all the good projects started coming under Dawar’s and they were able to earn more and more. They got promotions and appraisal pretty soon. Vijay bought a big flat on a large down payment and few EMIs and a car too.

 Meanwhile Ravi completed his MBA and got a job as a HR person in the same company as of Vijay’s. There were frequent unknown complains about Vijay’s behavior and ethics and Ravi was asked to review those complains. Ravi was a man of ethics and moral and although he knew that the world was unfair to Vijay but still he can’t approve his acts either, he decided to take a tough stand against it.

“ Bhai, aaj jin GLs ki complaint list aayi hai jo bonus khate hai aur code chori and projects hathiyate hai, unmein se ek naam tumhara bhi hai, you have to sign on this paper”, said Ravi in a grave tone.

“ What is written in this paper ?”, asked Vijay who had no clue about the paper.

“Is paper mein likha hai ki ab se jab tak 3 juniors site par nahi chale jate, tum site par nahi jaoge”, said Ravi with determination.

“Ravi, you remember how many nights we spent in our childhood awake and preparing for IIT JEE “

“ You are signing or not”

“Do you remember, mother has taken education loan for your MBA preparation on 14% interest”

“ You are signing or not”

“Do you remember every single taunt when we were rejected in campus placements.”

“BHAIIIII, tum sign karte ho ya nahi”, shouted Ravi.

“Haan mein sign karunga , mein jarur sign karunga

Lekin mein sabse pahle sign nahi karunga

Mein akele sign nahi karunga

Pahle us teacher ke sign lao jisne mujhe kam sessionals diye aur meri degree 75 ki nahi bani

Pahle us GL ke sign lao jisne weekend par bula kar comp off nahi diya aur on site opportunity bhi kha li

Pahle us manager ke sign lao jisne mera bonus kha lia aur appraisal nahi diya

Us ladki ke sign lao jo ye kah kar mujhe chor kar chale gayi kit um to weekends par bhi kam karte ho aur salary itni low hai, na time de paoge na paisa

Pahle in sabke sign lao fir mein jarur sign karunga”

“Bhai, dusro ke injustices ginane se tumhare khud ke injustices kam nahi ho jate, dusro ke ethical faults ginane se tumhare apne unethical work kam nahi ho jate ye ek sacchai hai, aur ye sacchai apan dono ke beech wall ban kar khadi hui hai, wall choro firewall ban kar khadi hui hai, aur jab tak ye wall hamare bich majud hai, mein is ghar mein nahi rah sakta, chalo MAA.

“Maa nahi jayegi, maa mujhse bahut pyar karti hai”

“Maa jayegi”

“Aisa mat bolo maa, maine job tumhare liye hi kiya hai”

“ Itna bada coder ban gaya hai ab tu, par dhyan se sun le, coder kitni bhi badi post par pahuch jaye, MBA wale se piche hi rahega, chal Ravi”.

The event really made Vijay alone; He decided to talk to Ravi once again.Vijay and Ravi met at their old house again below the bridge.

“ I want to ask first I am talking to a brother or an HR manager first”, Vijay said.

“Till a brother is talking, a brother is listening, when an unethical GL would start talking, a responsible HR would start listening. It’s always about morals and ideals bhai”.

“ What ideals and morals you are talking about, which can’t provide a worker offs at weekends, or site opportunities or extra pay for working late”, Vijay said angrily. Ravi remained silent.

“ Dekh rahe ho ye bridge, yahi se hum dono ne safar chalu kia tha, aaj mere pas sub-ordinates hai, projects hai, on-site opportunities hai, manager ka blind trust hai, kya hai tumhare pas ? “ Vijay shouted on Ravi.

“Bhai, mere paas, mere paas, HR mein sundar ladkiya hai, jo tum technical walo ko kabhi nasib nahi hoti”

This bitter truth infuriated Vijay to his core. He left from there angrily. Ravi kept on tightening things for Vijay. Meanwhile Sawant also had an eye on Vijay’s activities. Things were getting bad day by day for him, as he was completely alone in his struggle. Sawant somehow had an upper hand in the politics and he managed to relocate Dawar to some other city. Now Vijay was completely alone and he decided to punish Sawant for all his wrong doings. Vijay decided that if he is going down he will take Sawant with him. He wrote a lengthy mail to vice president of the company describing all the events and wrong doings of Sawant. As expected nothing happened, the VP didn’t even reply to him, perhaps he didn’t even check the mail. Then he decided to drop a mail to the HR head but he god no response from there too. So Vijay did what no one expected him to do, not even he himself though every employee once in a while always thought about doing it to their manager. He hacked Sawant’s account and wrote an abusive mail to the CEO of the company saying that the company is shit and he deserves better and he should be made CEO immediately. Sawant was soon sacked, vanished as if he never existed.

But Ravi was still behind his tail. Vijay got a ‘karan batao’ notice that day from the HR department. Vijay tired and frustrated went with that letter to the temple he left visiting long time back and found his mother there. His mother immediately noticed the frustration and tension on his face.

“Vijay, what happened, kya ho gaya tujhe”, She exclaimed.

“Maa, thak gaya hu mein maa system se ladte ladte, kabhi weekend par bulaya jata hu, to kabhi weekend par bulane par gali khata hu, kabhi GL ki chamchagiri karta tha, aaj dusro ki chamchagiri sahta hu, kutte jaisi halat ho gayi hai mein , no Sunday, saato din kutte ka kutta hi rahta hu, thak gaya hu mein maa, is jindagi se, mein ye jindagi chor kar jar aha hu.

“Vijay, aisi baat na kar mere bête”

“Maa, tension na le, mein mar nahi raha, marna hota to usi din mar jata jis din promotion mein meri rating kam hui thi, mein job chorne ka faisla le chukka hu.

“VIJAY, ye tu kya kar raha hai, job nahi karega to teri EMI ki kist kaise bharega tu, teri shadi kaise hogi, future ke liye paisa kaise jama hoga, bank credit card chin legi, thoda to soch Vijay.

“Nahi ma, is jillat bhari free ki coffee se khud ke paiso ki ek cut chai acchi, yaha ke subsidized food se dal roti hi acchi, maine faisla kar liya hai maa, mein paav bhaji ka thela kholuga, apni marji se aaunga apni marji se aaunga, rate bhi meri marji se decide hoga aur best thing would be ki mujhe koi order dene wala nahi hoga waha par.

Vijay established his PAAV BHAJI thela pretty well, and get it pretty famous as along with the paav bhaji thela he also used to sell navratan oil there for tension, Dairy Milk for kuch mitha ho jaye, Himami fast relief for all those who got back pain by sitting for very long time, and even Dabur Hajmola if someone has eaten lots of extra Paavs.

“I love my life, there is freedom here, no one to tell me when to come, when to go, what to do, what not to do” thought Vijay.

Suddenly a harsh voice broke his series of thought.

“10 minute pahle bola tha 2 Paav lagane ko, sunai nahi deta kya, jaldi karo ab”…………………