A Virus Inside The Heart!

The hardware engineer looked at the young man standing before him. He should be in his early twenties. He had just finished his schooling. His English was horrible.

Communication skills were conspicuous by their absence. Even if the boy was ready to work for free, which he really was, it was not worth hiring him.

The boy fell at his feet all of a sudden.

“I want to be your peon, Sir. Your disciple. Will just carry your tool-kit when you go for servicing. I don’t want any salary. Just teach me hardware engineering. I will work from 8 to 8.”

The hardware engineer after all had a soft heart. The boy was hired.

The first call they made on that day was to a house in an extension area. A lady’s computer had conked and the Engineer was there for three hours to fix it.

While servicing he was explaining things to his new assistant.

Ten minutes after they returned to the office the lady called. She just said, “You two be there. I will come in a minute.”

And come she did.

“Engineer Sir my mobile is missing.”

“Madam?”

“No I am not blaming you. I know you are clean. I know it’s your new assistant.”

The Engineer did the wise thing. She let her inside the room where the boy was dabbling with some old computers. He stayed outside lost in thoughts.

The smart lady simply told the boy that she was going to the Police and that he would be named the prime suspect.

The boy took the phone from his pocket and gave it to her.

The lady thanked the Engineer and left the place.

What would the Engineer do now? If I had been in his place I would have hit the boy, shouted at him and would have driven him away.

But the computer engineer viewed human beings as hardware systems. If a computer does not work or throws up some junk, then it should be due to some virus.

Nobody throws out a virus-infected computer.

The hard disk is formatted and the operating software loaded again. If an old desktop having a resale price of about Rs.5000 deserves that treatment, why not a human being?

The only difference was that in this case the infection was deep and the virus deadlier.

When the next customer called the Engineer spoke to the boy as if nothing happened. “Come let’s go.”

They went to an office in the heart of the town to service a printer. This time the Engineer kept an eye on the boy. Well, the boy was quite moved by his action and behaved well.

It went on for a week.

One day the boy was eyening at an old computer lying in the service area.

“If only I had something like that at home…”

The Engineer heard the boy. He serviced that system and gifted it to the boy when he went home that evening.

“You wanted it. Have it.”

The boy was moved to tears.


One day when they were having lunch at a nearby town where they had gone for servicing the Engineer asked about the boy’s family.

Poor fellow, his mother had died when he was quite young. His father had married another woman. He had a step sister too. The problem was not with his step mother. She took care of him.

The problem was with his father. He used to always shout at his son. He had never spoken a kind word to him for he thought that somehow because of the boy he had lost his first wife.

The ill-feeling between the father and the son was so much that the son would never go home for food if his father was there. He would go late. His step mother used to keep the food hot for him.

Now the Engineer knew the name and nature of the deadly virus that was on the boy’s operating system.

An attempt to remove the virus might even injure the mother board. The Engineer was praying for a divine intervention. For his part he was ready to take the risk.

More than anything else he was curious to know, when it came to human beings, whether virus removal was at all possible.

His prayers were answered after a year.

One of his friends had opened a mini-departmental store in the heart of the town.

He wanted somebody to take care of the shop. Twelve hours of work for six days in a week. A monthly salary of Rs.10,000.

The Engineer decided to take the risk. He had been observing the boy for almost a year. The boy’s hands were clean now.

Time to take some risk. Time to do some delicate virus removal operation. Time to do some chemotherapy.

“I have a boy with me. He is suited for the job.”

“But can you guarantee his integrity?”

“I can. If you want I’ll give an indemnity bond for him.”

“No need. Your word is as good as the bond.
Ask him to join me on Monday.”

The boy was stunned. He told him he wanted only to learn hardware and that he was not interested in that job. The Engineer asked him point-blank,

“Are you afraid you’ll steal again?”

The boy was silent.

“No, you won’t. I have pledged my name for you. I am sure you won’t let me down.”

“But hardware engineering..”

“Come here before you go to work.. I’ll teach you. Sunday I will take you on rounds.”
The boy joined the Department store.

At the end of the first month the boy came running to the Engineer. He gave his entire salary to him.

“Sir, it’s yours. But for you I would not have got this job. But for you I would not have been good today.”

“When you say it’s mine do you really mean I can do whatever I want with it?”

“Yes, Sir. The money belongs to you.”

“Good. Now please do me a favour. Take this money and go meet your father. Give him this money. Tell him that it is your very first salary.”

“Sir..”

“Please do it for me. If you can’t do it, well, let this be our last meeting. So long.”

The boy came running to the Engineer the very next night.

He was crying.

“Sir I gave it to my father. You know my father never had any hopes on me. He never thought I would come up in life. But when I told him it’s my first salary and it’s all his, he broke down and cried.

"Then he hugged me and cried for a long time. He is such a nice man, Sir. I was an idiot who never understood his feelings.”

The Engineer was speechless.

“You know what he did? He took me to a store and got me this mobile phone, Sir. See Sir, isn’t it cool?”

The Engineer wrote in his diary that night.

“Successfully removed a deadly virus from a man’s heart. A very risky operation, but definitely worth my while.”

 

My Dear DD,
I am happy that this week's blog starts with a fb from my daughter.
I am happier still that you liked it.
Yes, will surely convey mother's day greetings to Indhuma.
love,
Acchan

 

Thanks Spiderman for coming in. Whenever I write about a good soul I contrast him with myself.

See when you want to present a seven feet tall man in a press photograph you make someone of average height stand by his side so that you will know his full height. I played the role of average man for this good soul.

Thanks to those kind souls who think differently the earth continues to spin on its precariously tilted axis without falling down.

regards,
sridhar

 

Thanks a lot, Sunitha. I am happy that at last I did write something that was worthy of the great Sunitha's entry.
Thanks for the nice words and the nice quotation.
sridhar

 

You are most welcome, meenakshi. And thanks for coming in after a gap of about five centuries in between.
Hope everything is fine at home.
sridhar