Super Rani

This short story is about one of our colleagues. His name is Rani. Since I started working for this company, he was there before as the major employee in IT division.

His reputation has spread a long time ago as the best programmer in the company, talented with many skills and participated in many projects.

We were juniors at that time and did not ask mush about these projects. We just wanted to get our job done in the best possible way, and to acquire new knowledge to cope with the fast developing world of software and IT.

Rani was quite separated from us. He hated the idea of sharing his skills with others, and we respected his feelings since he was the senior employee in our little IT division.

As the market changed, the company devised new policies to stand on its feet again after a long depression. One of the main tasks in this long-term strategy was to create a new software that can compete with other similar projects trying to reach the biggest share in the market. This came to the surface after the failing of all negotiations with other companies to provide such software with a reasonable price. Therefore, our company chairmen decided to rely on their own to provide that level of luxury and dedicated Rani for this kind of a task; critical and requiring the best experience available among the staff.

Rani indeed started this new project in no time, and as it was expected, he preferred working alone. He said, "No help is needed. This software is a piece of cake". We were not in a situation to argue with that, even some of us were really hoping to get some of his knowledge in database design, data management, networking… etc.

We didn't hear mush from him later. Nearly a month passed and we realized he's still working in the project. Then another month, and a third one. He gradually increased his efforts as more time passed, so as to deliver the project as soon as possible.

After more than 4 months, Rani spoke to us at last and asked for our help. We were happy first, but for our great astonishment, he stated that he needed data enterers, not programmers. Nevertheless, some of us agreed to help him hoping they may get their names included in this project.

Things changed since then in IT division. Paper work increased because this approached, devised by Rani, was based on printing data on paper for further analysis. So, our team became printers instead of programmers.

Another month passed and we realized our critical need to some new volunteers to help in archiving a ton of papers.

We heard rumors about substituting Rani with any other employee to finish this never-ending project, but company master chief put an end to this in his last meeting with heads of the departments. He announced Rani as the only person capable of achieving this task and all company divisions must count on him.

I think our company had spent more expenses on wasted paper for the next couple of months than in its entire life. More employees were needed to carry on with the increasing need to "analyze data", as Rani always called it.

Every new employee was happy with that. They finally got a job from nowhere. Even if it was boring and frustrating, they got salary for it. Not me… of course. I realized that I was wasting my life in a meaningless festival, so I quitted the instance I found a well-paid job in another company.

News still reaching my ears about Rani and his software. My old colleagues were still contacting me to tell stories about everything. One night, a friend told me that his master is still betting on Rani to deliver an astonishing software that can make a shock in the market as soon as it is finished.

"And when is that?" I asked him.

He said, "Rani always show us he is in the final stage".

"That's what he said last year. Remember?" I asked.

"Yes, that's right, but then he was analyzing fake data. This year, he began dealing with real company data!"

Hi everyone. Did you know that the appearance of a person could be very deceptive?

Here is a short story to show you what I mean by that.

This is Rani, the programmer, or that what they all call him.

He is quite sure he knows everything about programming, database analysis, data structure building… and much more.

So, he always sais "Yes, I can".

Nothing seems to be impossible to him. You only have to ask for any software, and consider it done in a very short period.

They all count on him. The boss, the big boss, the grand boss, the grand big boss…

You name it. They do not trust anyone else. Or do they?

Sure, it must be hard to work day and night with no rest…

That is because he has so much to do and they all need his great work.

From the other hand, he doesn't seem to be exhausted at all.

He is the only one I know that works in 8 programs simultaneously. I guess this is world record.

How can he divide his thoughts among multiple tasks? Some people even think this is impossible!

He can manage his time efficiently whatever the load was.

So, his bosses did not have to wait for him to finish a project. They simply give him another project, then another, then another… Now you can see him diving in many projects.

And he keep saying "I can. I will…."

Therefore, he devised a plan to run them all at the same time. No one can blame him for any delay. He says "All these projects would be ready for all customers before they knew it."

He is simply exchanging code between projects! Isn't that amazing!

That innovation alone is a unique one. The same pieces of code are going to be used here and there and everywhere.

Everyone says: "He can do it all with no help at all".

Who needs help when he can manage his time and strength?

"Do not bother", he said, "I can, and I will"

Projects increased in number and complexity, and he increased programming time accordingly.

Now, he is doing the job of many programmers all by himself, like one person with many heads. Isn't that cool?

They are fascinated with the guy who never complains, and that is what they want.

He knows how to convince them about the results. He is brilliant. Or he isn't?

Since he knows it all, he did it well. No one should say otherwise.

No one has the right to judge him. He is precious and one of a kind.

So, when Martin mentioned the leak in data and bad security, no one believed him because Rani himself said "Everything is fine"

And when James talked about the lack of consistency, no one believed him because Rani himself said "Everything is fine"

And when Tony showed evidence about past failures, no one believed him because Rani himself said "Everything is fine"

Rani Indeed knows everything about programming.

He even knows about the leak, the non-consistency and the failures. He saw it all and lived it all, yet keeps saying: "Everything is OK".

When the due date came, all the projects were ready to start working. The customers were amazed by the results. They had never seen before such a fast programmer like Rani.

Generally, they have zero experience in programming and Rani knows everything about it, or doesn't he?

But Rani suddenly disappeared after all the hard work he had done for them. He was deeply convinced that he deserves much higher gratitude and appreciation, so he decided to get a new start somewhere else.

By the way, he would have another Martin talking about the leak, and another James seeing the lack of consistency and another Tony guessing the cause of failure. So at the same pace, I bet he would still be saying, "Everything is fine".

They must be wrong, no doubt, because he is doing all what he can to get the job done by all means. That is what they call "persistence".

So please, ignore whatever they say. Rani can lead us to new programming techniques, not yet invented.

He can show us the way to another level of programming in a way, which is so clear and non-doubtful. No programmer could be misled anymore.

He should consider writing a programming guide, so as to spread his knowledge to all fresh programmers. Indeed, they deserve having such a guide.

This was a story of a programmer that depends only on himself to achieve success despite of all difficulties and rumors.

That's all folks. I wish you understood what I mean.