It would have dawned upon those of you who read the news regularly that
software development is actually like a game of
chess. Oh, yes it is, contrary to what you may have thought all these
years. And you young, smart-faced, cheeky,
whipper-snappers thought you knew it all.
All we have been doing all these years is moving our pawns around slowly
till the eleventh hour. Nothing gets done because
your pawn is powerless and your king and queen and knights are rocking
away in their castle. And your opponent keeps
wondering what's happening. Everytime he threatens to change his vendor,
your knight does a little pirrouette, or your bishop
zips about a bit, and your he's satisifed. Finally, when its too late
for him to change vendors, you suddenly shout "cheque !".
He is now on his knees, he issues you a blank cheque, lets your pawn
whack his queen, lets your bishop bugger his rook, and
before anyone knows it, the game is over. And you think you've won.
The only thing wrong with this "game of chess" thing is that life is
not a game about winners and losers. Its either about everyone
losing or everyone winning. That's something Microsoft doesn't understand,
and that's something we don't either. And the odds
are 90 to 10 that everyone will lose.
But there is a humorous aspect to all this also. This "game of chess"
thing was just a coincidence. Long before V Anand,
Jhatpat tried to rope in Sachin Tendulkar. Had he not asked for too
much or not said no, Life would have been a "game of
cricket" instead, full of "strategy, corruption, satta, and a mouthful
of toothpaste..". Then Jhatpat tried to hook Shahrukh, and then Salman.
Life would have been "a movie" with a well thought out plot, a sudden
twist, and of course a lot of hip shaking and dancing,
pirated songs, and unneeded violence. Finally, Jhatpat tried Leander.
Leander insisted that life had to be "Love all" and nothing
else, which Jhatpat could not agree to since it wasn't peddling love.
Anand was at this point looking around - the suiting ads
weren't doing too well with his thirties ponch coming out. The bigger
companies wanted someone with more panache, more
marketability, there was only one company desperately looking around
- and so the two met. Anand wasn't asking for too
much, Jhatpat wasn't giving. Thus, the "game of chess" theory was really
a result of this long, unsuccessful search, this accidental
relationship - it could have been just about anything.
Or was it ? Or was it some deep sub-conscious truth that slipped out
like it always happens in real life. Ask yourself what life is
? I am sure you will say it IS like a game of chess. WE are the pawns,
all of us..There is just one king and one queen on top
who make us dance around and get slaughtered all our lives long. You
dance for one client and then for another, losing
self-respect and *your* credibility each time. You throw your life
away for the whims and fancies of that one king on top - who has his castle
and his
moat and his Merc (or Honda City) or whatever. How much longer can
you keep dancing for Laddoo Jhatpat and the rest of the Jhatpat family
?
How much life do you still have left ?
Raghubir "Raju" Jhatpat
Senior Programmer,
Jhatpat and Sons Pvt Ltd.
Andheria Mod,
New Delhi
Wanna commit suicide ? Easy, run your business on NT Server.