THE HUNT FOR THE ALGOS…

Episode 1:” Two Great Friends Turn Bitter Enemies…”

“Singing ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,

Ay oh ay oh,

And we danced on, into the night…” is what slashDOT’s singing just when the landline phone of the Kalsoft developer rings. The CLI says it’s Rafiq and slashDOT picks the phone up…

”Hey, what’s up? What you doing these days?” says Rafiq.

SlashDOT: “Hey there, my friend! I‘ve got to tell you something very important and unusual. And it’s damn confidential…!”

 Rafiq: “What is it?”

SlashDOT: “Have you heard about the pioneer programming prodigy, Marcus Clarkson?”

Rafiq: “No. Who’s he?”

SlashDOT: “Hmm…Long story…Ok I’ll tell you in short…Know how Microsoft became what it is today? How Google marked its presence on the IT industry? The answer is Marcus Clarkson…A Jewish computer programmer from the mid twentieth century, who fell prey to Hitler and the Nazi tyranny. While he was escaping Germany and was on his way to America, he got to know that he had no chance of remaining alive anymore because the Nazi tyrants had almost chased him down, so he buried some of his most revolutionary and mighty complex algorithms in the islands of Malaysia…Borneo to name one. And soon he became a victim of the Holocaust, just as millions of other victims of the World War II…”

Rafiq: “Hmm…I’ m getting things quite a bit…But this is not the answer to how Microsoft became what it is today…”

SlashDOT: “Well, I don’t know how, but Mr. Bill Gates did somehow got track of some of these algos…It’s not just one island that Clarkson restricted his legacy to…It’s numerous little islands, in which he buried these priceless treasures…”

Rafiq: “So what are you up to now? What are you trying to tell? ”

SlashDOT: “The thing is that…The larger islands have already been vanquished by Microsoft and Co. Now what’s left, is the little ones…People like you from Avanza or I from Kalsoft can really make a difference to our lives and bring a tech revolution to Pakistan…”

 Rafiq: So you mean you’re gonna go there and hunt it up?? You nuts?”

SlashDOT: “Yeah, I am nuts…”

Rafiq: “Ok, who the hell did you get this nonsense info from?”

SlashDOT: “It’s again a long story!! Do you know about the Pakistani Don, Deadenstein? Oh, you surely will! Our Faizan, from the university days..He’s the Don…and he’s at every place where he can smell some money coming his way…And I forgot to tell you, that our very own Genie (Mustafa) is with him in the gang…”

Rafiq: “Goodness me! Faizan’s turned to mafia??? And Genie’s turned to evil as well? Oh gosh…!”

SlashDOT: “Hmmm…Some miseries that both faced turned them that way…But whatever they may be to the world, they are close friends of mine and they have helped me in real low times…I‘ll tell you that later, but for now, Good bye…It’s a whole lot of work to be done before we get to the hunt…”

Rafiq: “Ok then, bye.”

But then starts the misery as Rafiq, who is in no mood to go for all which he calls “nothing but a nonsense journey”, gets to know that his last call had been traced and recorded…Traced by his boss, the CEO of Avanza Solutions…

He is called for a private meeting and cautioned to go for the hunt, on behalf of the Avanza team, perhaps not with slashDOT, but on another ship, with a separate crew…The deal is put in front of him. This is what’s most important about it:

“Once we get the algorithms, just as we implement them up, 15% share of the profit will be distributed evenly among the employees, while the rest of the 85% will be equally divided among you and me, the CEO Avanza Solutions.”

 Pushed by the vigor of dollars, the honest bearded Rafiq, agrees to go for the hunt, when he sees millions of dollars coming his way.

Next, slashDOT gets his request approved from Khurram Kalia, CEO Kalsoft. All FASTians working in the software house are to go on the hunt expedition. And SlashDOT calls his fast friend Fari, the premier writer and editor from DAWN, to support him through the journey…

Kalsoft’s Cruise ship is ready to leave the Gwadar Harbor…slashDOT is the captain of the ship, Oun is on the rudder, Irtaza is the chimney man (controls the fuel of the ship), Tabish’s the cabin boy…Tasmiyah is the cabin girl…JB, Basit and SlashDOT himself, is in the digital tech department of the ship…While Deadenstein, Juni, Hassan, Hamza, Akif, Aqib, Danyal, Ali Iftekhar and Robin take care of the artillery and ammunition…Saira, Arifa, Anum and Beena take care of the food stuff…In short, each and every FASTian who’s working in Kalsoft, is aboard….

But there’s another ship, anchored at Port Qasim, “the ship of Avanza”, on which…Rafiq is the skipper…Arqam, Robot, Battakh, Amna and  Rafiq himself, is  in the digital tech dept. of the ship…Shoaib’s on the tiller…Qasmi is the chimney guy…Nerd’s the cabin boy…Farhan, Ali Riyaz, Green, Asim, Buntu and Mohsin Butt take care of the weaponry…while Sakeena, Salma, Urooj, Noureen and Lalarukh are the foodstuff organizers…And just to put the icing on the cake, Rafiq bribes Genie to come and join him on the mission, in return of heaps of dollars…This news of the splitting of the Deadenstein gang dents slashDOT’s spirits even further, both, because of the breakage of the  gang and that even Rafiq, his close friend, could turn against him, just for the sake of money…In this way, two great friends turn bitter enemies…

[Continued in Episode 2:” The sailors play a dreadful game..."...Coming soon!]