C H MAHADEVAN
A
conversation between a passenger and Software Engineer in
Shatabdi Train. If you read it till the end, you will not
only thank me and the person who shared this with me, but
you will see life
in a whole different way!
Vivek
Pradhan was not a happy man.. Even the plush comfort of
the Air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi express
could not cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project
Manager and was still
not entitled to Air travel. It was not the prestige he
sought, he had tried to reason with the admin person, it
was the savings in time. As PM, he had so many things to
do!!
'Are
you from the software industry sir,' the man beside him
was staring appreciatively at the laptop. Vivek glanced
briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop
now with exaggerated
care and importance as if it were an expensive car.
'Thanks,'
smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a look. He
always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man
was young and stockily built like a sportsman... .. He
looked simple
and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury
like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a
railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling
pass.
Vivek
smiled deprecatingly. Naiveness demanded reasoning not
anger. 'It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not
just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of
process that goes
behind it.'
'Everyone
just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work
we have to put in. Indians have such a narrow concept of
hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned
office, does
not mean our brows do not sweat. You exercise the muscle;
we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less
taxing.'
You
can book a train ticket between any two stations from any
of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the
country. Thousands of transactions accessing a single
database, at a
time concurrently; data integrity, locking, data security.
Do you Understand the complexity in designing and coding
such a system?'
This
was like the last straw for Vivek. He retorted, 'Oh come
on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder.
Responsibility only brings more work. Design and coding!
That is the easier
part. Now I do not do it, but I am responsible for it and
believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get
the work done in time and with the highest quality'.
He
continued, 'To tell you about the pressures, there is the
customer at one end, always changing his requirements, the
user at the other wanting something else, and your boss,
always expecting
you to have finished it yesterday.'
Vivek
paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with
Self-realization. What he had said, was not merely the
outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need
not get angry while
defending the truth.
'There
were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875
in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the
top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going
to come from
and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the
tri-colour at the top only 4 of us were alive.'
'I
am Subedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at
Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term
and can opt for a soft assignment. But, tell me sir, can
one give up duty just
because it makes life easier.On the dawn of that capture,
one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to
enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my
job to go and
fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain sahib refused
me permission and went ahead himself.
'He
was killed as he shielded and brought that injured soldier
into the bunker. Every morning thereafter, as we stood
guard, I could see him taking all those bullets, which
were actually meant
for me. I know sir....I know, what it is to be in the Line
of Fire.'
Vivek
looked at him in disbelief not sure of how to respond.
Abruptly, he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial,
even insulting to edit a Word document in the presence of
a man for whom
valour and duty was a daily part of life; valour and sense
of duty which he had so far attributed only to epic
heroes.
This
hand... had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger, and
hoisted the tri-colour. Suddenly, as if by impulse, he
stood up at attention and his right hand went up in an
impromptu salute....
PS
: The incident he narrated during the capture of Peak 4875
is a true-life incident during the Kargil war. Capt. Batra
sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he
commanded,
as victory was within sight. For this and various other
acts of bravery, he was awardeld the Param Vir Chakra, the
nation's highest military award.
