Monday, August 30, 2010

A Midnight Story!

"You are stealing from your company". I shouted at Mr. D, the taxi driver. He looked helpless. I couldn't read what his face expressed.  One hour to midnight. I walked towards my home.

Two hours to midnight. Bangalore International Airport. "Sir, I will take you to your home for Rs. 700/-". Mr. D said. If I commute by bus and finally in an auto-rikshaw to my home, I may have to shell out around Rs. 600 for 3 of us, me, my wife and my mother-in-law. Rs. 100/- extra for a comfortable taxi travel is affordable.

"Ok", I said. We walked towards the taxi.

"Sir, without meter I will get you there in Rs. 700/-." Mr. D said. Thats the catch. I know that the actual fair will be around Rs. 900/-.

"Ok". I said. Mr. D will not put on the taxi meter. The Rs. 700/- will go to his pocket. I felt guilty in my mind. It was almost midnight. Its getting colder. Travel in a taxi will be more warm, comfortable and takes less time to my home.

We reached home in an hour. I handed him Rs. 700/-.

"Sir, give me Rs. 50 more. I had to travel 7 extra kms." Mr. D said.

"How come, I told you the destination and you told the price" I said.

"Sir, Just Rs. 50/- more"

"I told you Rs. 700/-. We had an agreement. How come you break it when you reach here?" I shouted.

"Why should you tell all these things when I asked only for Rs. 50 extra?" asked Mr. D.

My anger fumed inside me. "How come you change your word on will. You asked Rs. 700/- I gave you what you asked."

I walked towards my home. I turned back to him, "You are stealing from your company".

I am a software developer. A software has an architecture similar to a city. A software will have one software architect who defines the initial set of rules the other software engineers to follow during the development of the software. This initial set of rules of the software can be called as the software architecture. The  engineers will write code based on these rules. If it is difficult to write code based on these rules, the engineers start to break the rules. Engineers write code which is easier to write. This is a human tendency. An important feature of a good software architecture is that it should be easy for the engineers to follow the architecture, than to break it.

When I look back at the incident, I can see that I was Mr. D's helper when he stole Rs. 700 from his taxi company. When I shouted at Mr. D, I was shouting at myself.

I wish it was easier to follow the rules than to break them!