Sweat dripped from Hari’s chin despite sitting straight under the AC as he was on the verge of completing his biggest and most difficult iOS app he has ever developed till now. He has been coding for the past 37 hours. His eyes were as red as his face was, four years ago, when Karthik first touched his hands. His colleagues were staring at him as if he was some sage performing penance at the middle of the road. His manager has been keenly watching him from the beginning, from his cabin. The office has never been so silent lately.
Hari has been trying to impress his manager for a long time but he just doesn’t seem to care. His manager, who has connections up to the CEO of the company, is any typical strict guy you can find in every other company who doesn’t get easily impressed by anything. But once impressed, he will do things beyond one’s imagination. A couple of days back, Hari overheard that this particular iOS app will take this company to another level but he just can’t find the right person to develop it. He has been working on it hence.
And after 45 hours of break-less coding and enormous amounts caffeine, he finally saw the output screen. He immediately looked at his manager’s cabin. He couldn’t care less about the people cheering around him. All he wanted was to see his manager’s reaction. And it seemed like he actually was impressed. He could see his manager walking towards him from his cabin. Hari has been waiting for this moment for a really long time. “Excellent work Mr.Hari. I have never seen anyone code with such intensity. Ask anything that you want and it shall be granted right away” said his manager.
Despite being befuddled by his weird language, Hari started telling his manager his long list of boons that he had prepared long back knowing that this day would come someday. He initially asked his manager if he could abolish all the android phones in this company. As his manager said he didn’t have the authority to do that, Hari continued asking
“Okay then here are my requests. Nobody should be developing android apps in this company hereafter. Only iOS apps should be developed, tested and maintained. As a result everyone will be forced to buy iPhones. Nobody ever speaks about android in this company. And I shall never be asked to use an android phone ever. And I shall never change to an android phone after being told by anyone. Ever. And finally, I should be promoted to a position such that I won’t have to answer to anyone else other than you in this company.”
Too impressed by Hari’s accomplishments, his manager didn’t give a shit about how ridiculous his requests were. He permitted everything that Hari asked for, which were in his hands.
It was all downside in that company thereon. Hari was the master of everything. He was the authoritarian. He ridiculed everyone who used android phones. Ordered them to buy a brand new iPhone and terminated everyone who disobeyed him. Replaced all computers with Macs. People found it difficult to get used to the change of OS. Most of the work they did depended on softwares in windows and android. But Hari didn’t care about those. All he wanted was revenge for the death of his brother’s Rs.40,000 android phone due to a meagre ‘software failure’. He wanted the company to be filled with Apple products. And all it took was a couple of weeks to bring everything under his control.
People working in the project couldn’t tolerate Hari. Though apple products were awesome, they needed windows computers and android phones to do most of their works. They tried talking Hari out of being an Apple-tard but it didn’t work out. They tried complaining to their manager about Hari but that didn’t help either. They didn’t have any choice but to follow all of Hari’s absurd orders until one day when a new employee joined them.
His name was Prathap. Experienced guy. Well read. Prathap chose this company after being intrigued by Hari’s rules and how people working in this company blindly follow them. He decided he wanted to save those people. So he accepted everything that Hari asked for during his interview. He got the job.
Prathap also initially used iPhones and Macs. Once he got used to his co-workers, he started bringing his android phone. Though being eluded first, people started seeing him as a hero later on. Word of mouth about Prathap slowly reached Hari. Even after several intimidations and pressures from Hari, Prathap didn’t care. He continued using his android phone and windows computer. Hari’s several attempts at terminating Prathap also went in vain as he knew every nook and corner of the rule book. And he also had contacts up to the CEO.
Prathap now started educating people in the project as to why they don’t really have to follow Hari’s orders and they can use whatever phone they want in the office. People started changing slowly. Hari didn’t like this. He tried more intense methods to remove Prathap from the company. Nothing worked. After a few months, every single person in the project threw away their iPhones and started using android. Hari just couldn’t tolerate this. He threatened everyone in the project that he would destroy their lives but now that Prathap is by their side, they didn’t listen to Hari’s rants. So Hari decided to have one final confrontation with Prathap.
“What is there in android that is not there iOS? In all ways imaginable, iPhones are much better than all those cheap android rip-offs”
“Well, first of all, not all android phones are rip-offs. And secondly it is not about which one is awesome. It is about which one you like and makes your work easier.”
“What is it that your android phone can do that my iPhone can’t?”
“There actually is many and you will realise that soon” said Prathap as he slowly closed Hari’s cabin door.
Hari was humiliated. Frustrated. He just wanted to punch Prathap in his face but couldn’t. Every single person in his company was using android except him. This frustrated him even more. Days passed. iOS 7 was released. Hari upgraded his iPhone. Now he started to realise. His phone started to look different. This was not the same iOS he used to love and worship. He found it difficult to navigate to places, take notes, organise his files and use most of his apps. He didn’t want to change to android but now it seemed like he didn’t have a choice. As all his co-workers were on android, they started to work on android related projects. And his most favourite iPhone wasn’t the same anymore.
So he finally gave up.
He didn’t fight.
He switched.
To Windows.