The Devil Codes JAVA

Last week I, along with a group of friends were accused of playing politics, bringing in groupism into an arena, which allegedly hadn’t seen it earlier. If this incident were to happen four years back, I would be terribly hurt and probably on a soul searching mission, asking myself where had I gone wrong. However, four year down the line, I realise that I have changed quite a bit as a person. Allegations of politics and dirty games don’t seem to hurt me anymore. I will be cheating myself if I were to take the credit completely myself. The credit for not being naive, the credit for understanding what putting up pretence is, credit for understanding the only one who matters in this big bad world is ‘Me’.
When I got my first job, I was so sure I would never do anything that is ethically wrong. I would never do anything that would hurt the commitments I had already made. I was too idealistic. It took just nine months of the corporate world to change me. The work atmosphere changed me to some extent but people changed me the most. It is usually assumed that your work is most affected by your superiors or your team. I have a different take on that. I think we get most affected by the people whom we spend the most time with, the people with whom we share our deepest secrets with, the people whom we trust the most.
The best way to become smarter is to be fooled. I don’t know how many times I have been fooled or been lied to in my life. However, the ones I have known have been more than enough for me to handle. The first one to rush to my mind is being lied to, over and over by friends (atleast they still claim to be) about their plans and relationships. Manyatimes I would get a feeling that I was being used by ‘friends’ to achieve their own motives. I have no idea how much politics exists in industries outside software but I can tell you that politics in software is not soft at all. The only thing soft is the outer persona of people.
I once thought of writing a book about my experiences at ‘Nihilent’. I never completed it. Probably as I never knew what the end would be. Perhaps I know now. I notice that people in the West are obsessed with the concept of the devil. Take my word, I have met the devil. He\She changed me in a way that I would never be the same again. I don’t think I can ever claim the moral high ground but I am sure that I will be very successful in the corporate world someday. That day I will go back to the devil and thank him\her for the lessons I have been taught by the actions taken by some people I had once trusted. I recently wrote to someone that she will have bad and good experiences in her life but please treasure every bit of both. As we learn and grow with every experience for our own good. If you read this and cannot control your curiosity to find the devil and are wondering ‘where in the world is the devil’, then all I can tell you is that the devil codes JAVA, go find him\her sitting in some big corporate office making his\her way upto the top.