He was frantic. ‘How do I get it shipped ? It is going to be a tall order.’
Outside, there were still cars on the road. Most of them going back home. ‘I have to forget going back home tonight’.
Just as he thought of home, Sita came on the phone. ‘Ram, its already 9’O clock. How long?’ , ‘Sita, don’t wait for me, have your dinner and sleep, I am going to be late. Not sure when’ Ram answered without waiting for her to complete.
‘How late?’
‘Not sure could be past midnight or early morning’
‘Then don’t drive in the middle of the night, stay there and come by morning’.
‘OK’ Ram was already on the messages in his inbox. Sita knows that and she ended her call with a ‘OK bye’.
Ram was in deep shit.
He committed for delivering a piece of software with his small team in Bangalore.
The sponsor of that in the US was travelling to France to demonstrate that software in front of a customer the next day.
Everything was ready and people were at ease till evening. When Ram asked his team lead to demo it to him, he found some fundamental mismatch in the understanding. He had all along talking about it to his sponsor as ‘X’ and it is ‘Y’ as per what his team had done.
Now he had no choice but to get ‘X’. It was not impossible, but there is a lot of housekeeping changes after the main change is done.
He was looking at the messages from his sponsor who was sitting in the airport in Houston.
Let me focus on this. He was now deep into the code. His team mates barring Shyam had left. He just needed Shyam who had done the main piece. Shyam was trying to do a part of it in his cube.
Time went on. Outside the traffic was almost dead. It was a cold Bangalore winter. Christmas was not far off. Ram had planned to do a trip to NewZealand with Sita.
‘Why am I going through all this?’ The saintly corner of Ram was asking this question constantly.
‘What if I dropped this all now and simply walked off?’
These thoughts are not new to Ram. It occurs whenever he finds himself in situations that were forced on him. And it has been that way many a time.
Ram reasoned out that these are just some of the tricks his brain conjures up in defence of his situations. You look at a diametrically opposite possibility than the one you are undergoing. Sometimes it helps you to show the futility of what you are up to and help you drop things that landed on you somehow.
He was finding it hard to focus on the problem at hand. Somewhere the code was going into a spin. The recursion was not ending properly.
Coding should never be done under pressure. It is not anything different from the way you write novels or do a painting. It has to be constructed patiently line by line. Until everything small stacks up in its innumerable ways to show its grandeur.
His sponsor was on chat by now. He was a good man. He was feeling sorry for the pressure and making Ram staying up late. However, he had no choice either. The company they belonged had built a solid line of defence five levels up to keep the pressure distributed.
The sponsor was excited to be meeting the customer on the other hand. ‘All our efforts would be paid this year if we land up with this contract’. He said.
Ram acknowledged sleepily. He was thinking to himself. ‘These words no longer excite me’.
After several iterations of proving murphy’s law, several compilations, stupid coding mistakes and some changes Ram started to see the output he wanted to see.
It was 3:32AM.
He went up to Shyam and asked him to join for a stroll outside. ‘Some tea shops would be open at least. Lets have a lemon tea’.
The city lights had sufficiently polluted the night sky. It was not possible to see any stars. The Moon was visible. ‘What a life, can’t even watch the sky’ Ram told Shyam.
Shyam was feeling better with the chill breeze crossing his face. He said ‘ Yes, I suddenly went back to my engineering college campus, walking around with friends in the night’.
Shyam continued. ‘We used to go out after spending a long time in the computer lab to a shop outside the campus. Hot omelettes and coffee in the middle of the night. And a nice walk talking all sort of crazy things’.
Ram said ‘yes, I did not stay in the hostel. I used to stay with my Grand parents in a village not far from the college. It used to be so quiet after 6 PM and you can get a full view of the night sky , sometimes even the milky way galaxy in its splendour’
‘You seem to be quite interested in the skies, is it?’.
‘Yes, always, ever since we came here. Though it has been a long time and we have figured out how to live here, my mind has not left the time since our ancestors left earth. I have read a lot of the first trip to Mars and the way they established colonies here later’
Shyam said ‘Yeah, its a long time since then. It is so great that we do not miss any of the earth out here and we could create the exact same things with technology'
‘Yes, the space is different, the time is different, but we are ...’ Ram did not complete.
The lemon tea was ordered and the shopkeeper handed them two glasses.
Ram’s phone buzzed. There was a message from his sponsor. ‘Terror alert in Houston airport. All flights cancelled. Will touch base once I reach home’.
Ram sighed and had a good go at the lemon tea while staring at the Martian sky.
Outside, there were still cars on the road. Most of them going back home. ‘I have to forget going back home tonight’.
Just as he thought of home, Sita came on the phone. ‘Ram, its already 9’O clock. How long?’ , ‘Sita, don’t wait for me, have your dinner and sleep, I am going to be late. Not sure when’ Ram answered without waiting for her to complete.
‘How late?’
‘Not sure could be past midnight or early morning’
‘Then don’t drive in the middle of the night, stay there and come by morning’.
‘OK’ Ram was already on the messages in his inbox. Sita knows that and she ended her call with a ‘OK bye’.
Ram was in deep shit.
He committed for delivering a piece of software with his small team in Bangalore.
The sponsor of that in the US was travelling to France to demonstrate that software in front of a customer the next day.
Everything was ready and people were at ease till evening. When Ram asked his team lead to demo it to him, he found some fundamental mismatch in the understanding. He had all along talking about it to his sponsor as ‘X’ and it is ‘Y’ as per what his team had done.
Now he had no choice but to get ‘X’. It was not impossible, but there is a lot of housekeeping changes after the main change is done.
He was looking at the messages from his sponsor who was sitting in the airport in Houston.
Let me focus on this. He was now deep into the code. His team mates barring Shyam had left. He just needed Shyam who had done the main piece. Shyam was trying to do a part of it in his cube.
Time went on. Outside the traffic was almost dead. It was a cold Bangalore winter. Christmas was not far off. Ram had planned to do a trip to NewZealand with Sita.
‘Why am I going through all this?’ The saintly corner of Ram was asking this question constantly.
‘What if I dropped this all now and simply walked off?’
These thoughts are not new to Ram. It occurs whenever he finds himself in situations that were forced on him. And it has been that way many a time.
Ram reasoned out that these are just some of the tricks his brain conjures up in defence of his situations. You look at a diametrically opposite possibility than the one you are undergoing. Sometimes it helps you to show the futility of what you are up to and help you drop things that landed on you somehow.
He was finding it hard to focus on the problem at hand. Somewhere the code was going into a spin. The recursion was not ending properly.
Coding should never be done under pressure. It is not anything different from the way you write novels or do a painting. It has to be constructed patiently line by line. Until everything small stacks up in its innumerable ways to show its grandeur.
His sponsor was on chat by now. He was a good man. He was feeling sorry for the pressure and making Ram staying up late. However, he had no choice either. The company they belonged had built a solid line of defence five levels up to keep the pressure distributed.
The sponsor was excited to be meeting the customer on the other hand. ‘All our efforts would be paid this year if we land up with this contract’. He said.
Ram acknowledged sleepily. He was thinking to himself. ‘These words no longer excite me’.
After several iterations of proving murphy’s law, several compilations, stupid coding mistakes and some changes Ram started to see the output he wanted to see.
It was 3:32AM.
He went up to Shyam and asked him to join for a stroll outside. ‘Some tea shops would be open at least. Lets have a lemon tea’.
The city lights had sufficiently polluted the night sky. It was not possible to see any stars. The Moon was visible. ‘What a life, can’t even watch the sky’ Ram told Shyam.
Shyam was feeling better with the chill breeze crossing his face. He said ‘ Yes, I suddenly went back to my engineering college campus, walking around with friends in the night’.
Shyam continued. ‘We used to go out after spending a long time in the computer lab to a shop outside the campus. Hot omelettes and coffee in the middle of the night. And a nice walk talking all sort of crazy things’.
Ram said ‘yes, I did not stay in the hostel. I used to stay with my Grand parents in a village not far from the college. It used to be so quiet after 6 PM and you can get a full view of the night sky , sometimes even the milky way galaxy in its splendour’
‘You seem to be quite interested in the skies, is it?’.
‘Yes, always, ever since we came here. Though it has been a long time and we have figured out how to live here, my mind has not left the time since our ancestors left earth. I have read a lot of the first trip to Mars and the way they established colonies here later’
Shyam said ‘Yeah, its a long time since then. It is so great that we do not miss any of the earth out here and we could create the exact same things with technology'
‘Yes, the space is different, the time is different, but we are ...’ Ram did not complete.
The lemon tea was ordered and the shopkeeper handed them two glasses.
Ram’s phone buzzed. There was a message from his sponsor. ‘Terror alert in Houston airport. All flights cancelled. Will touch base once I reach home’.
Ram sighed and had a good go at the lemon tea while staring at the Martian sky.
The story has ended suddenly. I would say that the story created an expectation while reading-that sonething is about to happen n it ended suddenly.
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