The Game of Reflection

Arjun was born with a silver spoon. He had all the luxuries one could ever imagine since childhood. He was the 3rdchild of the family with 2 elder brothers and 2 younger brothers. The five brothers formed a strong army amongst themselves and the entire neighbourhood feared them the most. Each brother had his specialization. Arjun specialized in the field of Information Technology, he was a tech wizard.

While others just operated high-end mobiles, Arjun would learn the insights of the configuration of the mobiles, he would find out the grey areas in the upcoming technology and used basic handset for his requirements. He knew that every high-end mobile was susceptible to hacking. He trained himself to be an ethical hacker. He spent hours specializing in his art of hacking. He was regularly called by the Cyber-crime police to solve high profile cases.

The only weakness Arjun had was his madness for the online games. He would lose money on online bets initially but to make good the loss, he would hack the opponent’s moves and illegally win. His lifestyle was very poor and so was his health, as he never had a regular schedule. His eating habits were bad and his sleeping times were worst. He would wake up at odd hours during the day, have some fast food, get into his PC and never knew when he would come out of it. Either a phone call from a friend or the voice from his mother or brothers could break his trance.

He learnt all the coding languages and mastered every existing software. 

This real genius was first identified by the Master of Computer Languages, Techguru Drona. The first touch of the computer in his teens made the Techguru understand the potential of the young tech-wizard. Even when the basic courses began, Arjun mastered every module in the least expected times. Drona was mighty impressed with this young fertile mind. He wanted to prove to the world arrival of this genius star and also his desire was to be called a World Class TechGuru.

Many upcoming stars challenged Arjun at every step. A few of them were having better expertise than Arjun had but the TechGuru Drona ensured that Arjun got prominence at the World stage and featured Arjun as the Nextgen tech-wizard through his regular Insta-live shows. The live shows ensured that the craze for Arjun crossed barriers of countries within a few months. The number of followers Arjun had across social media was soaring each passing day.

The one name which rose to similar heights along with Arjun was that of Karna. In his every live show, Karan would openly challenge Arjun for a one-to-one virtual game. He went to the extent of declaring that the moment Arjun won the game, he would stop his live shows and accept Arjun was the biggest Techguru in the world. The fans and followers loved this competitive spirit of Karna. Karna’s was jealous of Arjun owing to two reasons. One was the fame of Arjuna while the other was Techguru’s support.

Earlier, Techguru rejected Karna’s offer to be accepted as a discipline because he had seen the undercurrent and was sceptical about better qualities Karna possessed than Arjun. This did not deter Karna from upgrading his knowledge spectrum. He approached Maha-Techguru Parshurama for his guidance. Though Mahaguru did not accept any disciples those days, Karna deceitfully forced him to teach him the insights of the technical world. Karna had such a strong foundation, that he felt confident to challenge Arjun and his Techguru at any competition.

As the saying goes, “bad times fetches bad company”, a hacker by profession, Mr Duryodhana offered unconditional support to Karna and also funded his learning. Karna was a great friend and valued friendship above everything. Though he knew that the source of income of Duryodhana was dubious, he pledged to support him in the best possible manner. A few times, when Duryodhana was arrested for cyber-crimes, Karna was the front runner to get him bailed out. The friendship between the two became the talk of the town. Karna was itching to have a go at Arjun and prove his superiority but every time Techguru would come to Arjun’s rescue.

After a hiatus, the MD of a multinational Tech company announced a vacancy for a CEO (India) position. The news spread like wildfire because the MD announced the Indian lead would be eligible to be his son-in-law and offered the hands of his daughter Draupadi if things worked out positively.

No doubt, every eligible bachelor was interested and Arjun was interested to get this coveted position. This offer was irresistible, it promised a wonderful career, a beautiful wife, and also declare his supremacy in the field of technology. The tech guru was confident about Arjun fetching the position comfortably.

The preliminary rounds were conducted and then there were 2 finalists as expected – Arjun and Karna. Everyone waited with bated breath to watch the winner of the position. Ms Draupadi rejected Karna outright because he was in the company of a criminal hacker and hence, not eligible for this top-notch position. The MD made this decision based on a secret Whatsapp message received from the company trustee and a close aide, Shri Krishna. Karna felt insulted and vowed to revenge for the same whenever he got an opportunity. Duryodhana stood beside Karna at this crucial moment and vowed to revenge the insult whenever possible. The bond of friendship deepened between the two friends.

With the profile for being the Indian CEO matched, Arjun needed to prove his worth by clearing all levels of a virtual management game. The game was specially designed with many management problems. Though it seemed to be a cakewalk, there was a hidden challenge. The game was so developed that there was a mirror image of all items. The things seen on the screen were ‘Reflections’. The situation needed to be analysed multiple skills – the management skill, the technical skill, the communication skill and the analytical skill.

So Arjun’s challenge was to decode the reflections into actuals, understand the problem and then move ahead to solve them. All these to be done within time limits framed by the company else he would be timed out. This was far from easy, so was the position to occupy.

Arjun accepted the challenge. Using all his skills, and training, he hit the bulls-eye within the time frame successfully.

Arjun was the CEO of the company – An undisputed Winner!!!

Author’s Note – This is pure fiction based on imagination of the author. There is no intention not demean or hurt any kind of sentiments. Hope this writers’ forum accept this fictional tale with the same spirit as it has been written.