TRAVIAN TRAVESTY

Author: Ratika Chauhan

Author Introduction: About the author-Facts are always stranger than fiction,I say.Hello to the fellow bloggers,I am new to the blog world,but not to writing,I write at Asteria's canvass and this is my effort to improvise upon my writing.Hope its worth spending your time.

Story:

LANITA 1-"We are running out of crops...our military troops are shrinking like never before,we dont have barracks and siege engines..we will lose our village to Romans"

STRIDER-"I am aware of the fact but if we dont balance our crops and iron we will not have anything to barter with Toutons or Romans."

LANITA 2-"I guess we should be on the look out for Natars and their land.That should help us expand and reach Wonder Of World."

STRIDER-"We dont have enough troops to foray in their land. Lanita 1 and 2 you both look after your villages,they are the base of my clan.Make alliances with the Romans. Once we do that we can easily defeat Toutons."

What appeared like some corporial jargon of military was indeed the hot conversation on the thread of discussion forum of the latest rage in MMORPG,TRAVIAN.

                                                           ********

The wood-paneled,heavily lit with Italian chandeliers,air-conditioned board room of NASCENT CORPORATION was buzzing with numerous expectant faces of the employees waiting for a change in their fates as the CEO of the company, Mr.Shubodeep Rathore was announcing the annual promotions.

"And for the post of Vice-President,or shall I say my left hand,Im pleased to announce Ms.Meghana Kapur.",boomed his voice .

Many unwilling and frowned congratulations were thrown at her only to be greeted with a curt nod and I-knew-it-would-be-me smile.The ever efficient,gauche, Meghana was already planning on to her next strategy.

"Last but not the least, for the position without whom our company would crumble like cookie, the person who can blackmail all of you coz he is privy to your net activities,Head of IT dept our own,and well deserving Arup Bhattacharya."

Even Meghana's nonchalance took a break to crane her head and see who was it the crowd was cheering more than it did for her.

"Oh!I have seen this guy...", she muttered a little too loud for her neighbour to react "He is a darling,is'nt he?"

While the hi-fives were thrown in air,another pair of eyes were seething with rage in the farthest corner of the room,oblivious to the jovial crowd.

                                                             ********

LANITA 1-"Im stuck in an impasse. My village is surrounded by Toutons."

STRIDER-"Gauls dont give up so easily!!! LANITA 2, do you have enough crops to build new troops 

or make allies with the Romans."

LANITA 2-"Affirmative, but Im short of armour and siege engines."

STRIDER-"There is a whole new land released by Natars, today LANITA 2 will employ her troops to gain the land. Once we do that we will grow crops to exchange troops from Romans, and make alliance with them.Then we will recapure LANITA 1'S village.Romans could be taken care of some other day.

LANITA 1-"sounds impossible!!!!!"

STRIDER-"Its all in the mind.!!!" 

He logged out leaving LANITA 1 of the virtual world better known as Meghana in the real world,in awe of his strategy formulations and out-of-the-box plans.

                                                             

                                                                 ********

"Meghana!! this is serious", barked Mr.Rathore.

"Its only two months since you took up the post of VP,and its third time our competitor has snatched the contract from right below our nose."

 Meghana was equally perplexed with the recent glitches that were happening.Mr Rathore had already indicated his displeasure at two ocasions in not so subtle tones.Every time Meghana worked her project, her quotations were either copied with modulations or the competitors lowered their prices.

Mr.Rathore had made it clear that "her ass was on her way out of her office if she didnt find the fault."

Meghana's mind was running helter-skelter to find the solution of the problem.IIM-B did not tell how to tackle this mishap,she thought.She had put her personal life on hold for this dream job,despite being 30 she did not want to marry.At this crucial point some snitch wanted to shatter her dreams,no not even on her dead body.

She summoned her PA,the feckless and incompetent mouse for a female.

"Get me the IT head NOW!!!!".

"Who mam?"

"Are you stupid? or you are doing this to irritate me even more.Whats his name..........Arup.Call him

NOWWWW!!!!!!"

A moment later Arup walked in sheepishly only to be barked upon,

" I want to have a full account of every employees mail box for the past month,inbox,outbox,drafts...everything.Can you do that ?"

"Sure Mam." answered Arup.

"And yaa,one more thing I want to have a look at their personal mailbox as well."

"Sorry Mam,that would be illegal and unethical.That is against company policy."

"You dont teach me about company policy.I can get you fired for not obeying my orders,and trust me Mr.Rathore will have no issues with that."

"Mam,I cant do this.I will open all the official accounts for you,but not personal."

"I will deal with you later Mr.Arup.You can leave."

Arup left the office a little too haughtily for a person who was shouted upon,that too for no fault of his.He was wondering what must have gone wrong for such a pretty girl to turn into a corporate monster.He had never seen her smile or even converse politely with any of her co-workers.But then she was reporting directly to the supremo.A little courtesy was expected of her but in vain.His own life hadnt been that easy he thought.He still remembered those days when he used to be the errand boy in this same office.His father's untimed paralysis had forced him to quit his studies and work.But he never lost hope and continued his work along with distance learning programmes.He shook his head of the past difficulties and reminded never to let people like Meghana get the better of him.

                                                                   ********

STRIDER-"Whats wrong with you LANITA 1. I cant keep jeopardizing other villages because of your inefficiency.This is the second time I saved your barracks today."

LANITA 1-"Im sorry STRIDER. Its just some official nuisance bugging me."

STRIDER-"May be I can help.Tell me."

LANITA 1-"Actually since three months our all contracts are getting sabotaged by the other companies."

STRIDER-"Have you considered net intelligence.I mean you can always get the systems and mail boxes checked."

LANITA 1-"Of course,but one of my junior is just too adamant to break the company policies."

STRIDER-"I too would have refused to do it openly.Any ways you can find World class hackers out here in Travian who will do what you want only for a substantial amount.If you want I can drop in a word."

LANITA 1-"Cant you do it?"

STRIDER-"I would have but I already have some urgent official work to do."

LANITA 1-"Thank you so much.You have helped me a great deal."

STRIDER-"Let your work be done,then thank me.And please save your village , we are very near to constructing Wonder of worlds."

LANITA 1-"Its all because of your well planned strategies."

STRIDER-"Its a team work.I have left you few mail adresses in your inbox.Contact them ,they will do your work.I have to log out early today,have some important work."

Meghana was again left alone thinking about strider.He has to be a management guru,may be even CEO.His strategies reek of corporate.And today Meghana was indebted to him for not only he saved her in virtual world but also real world.His choleric plan was leading to their clans victory.Now that would be a man to date ,not those duds in her office who had no acumen for business.

                                                                     ********

The next day when Arup entered the office, he could sense something negative in the air,he could see people whispering at him.He was already bleary eyed due to a late night,may be he was imagining things.He opened his cabin to listen to the shrill voice of intercom.

"Hello."

"Arup,come to my office immediately." Meghana sounded irritated.

When he entered Meghana's cabin,there were seated all top priorities of the company,even Mr.Rathore.

"Arup,you have 30 minutes to clear your office,submit your laptop and get out of this office."Mr.Rathore said almost grinding his teeth.

"Meghana has found some incriminating evidence showing your mail id and IP adress used in sending sensitive information to our rivals.You are the perfect person for it,you have access to everyones system.But I did not consider you to degrade to the level of a rat."

For 2 minutes Arup was stunned into the deafening silence surrounding him.

"Sir,you have known me since the day I worked here as an office boy.You know I have worked hard to get to this level.I wouldnt dream of ditching my own company."

"Your ambitions got the better of you Mr.Arup." 

This time it was Meghana's voice burning with hatred.

"Please submit your laptop right now and leave the office premise or I would not hesitate to call the police.I have refrained myself from doing so only on Mr.Rathore's insistence."

Arup had no choice but to leave.How could this happen to him.God has weird sense of right and wrong.What would he tell his family,where would he go,which company will employ him after such a maligned record.

                                                        

                                                                ********

LANITA 1-"Where the hell is strider?We are about to win and this is the time STRIDER chooses to abscond."

LANITA 2-"We can not do this alone.We need STRIDER to cover for us only then will we be able to capture the Roman village."

LANITA 1-"I wonder if he has had an accident or may be some emergency."

LANITA 2-"You have fallen for STRIDER or what."

LANITA 1-"Nothing like that.Im just amazed at his absence,so it must be something serious."

                                                          

                                                             ********
                                                             

Meghana was irked on the progression of the TRAVIAN,and the thought that she had to scan all the mails and files on Arup's system to find the level of damage did nothing to lessen the irritation.On reaching her cabin,first thing she did was to switch on Arup's laptop.She had no time for damage control.

While scanning his regular accounts she hardly found anything substantial.But then again he was the IT head,sly enough to hide the evidence.

She had hardly reached quarter of the files when one account flashed at her like a bolt of lightening.The account was named Travian passwords and strategies.She smirked,any one plays Travian now a days.Out of curiosity she opened the account and was stunned to see the name Strider staring at her from across the screen in bold letters.Arup was strider!!!!!No ways,how could such a sly,rat of a person be strider. Then she saw all the recent plans which she had blindly followed to the T.Seriously man,nothing could be said about a person now a days.Such a harmless looking person and such a shrewd mind.What was more puzzling for her was the fact that most of the passwords on Arup's system was on her name,MEGHANA. For a while Meghana thought what if she made a mistake and Arup wasnt the snitch.But then she remembered the fateful phone call from THE HITCHIKER,hacker of the top order in the virtual world,when he told her the mails she was looking for were send from one Arup Bhattacharya of her office.Funny,if Arup would have known Meghana was LANITA 1,he would not dare to help her.But thats what you get for taking short cuts in life.

The only thing she was worried about was the fact that no one was their to lead them in TRAVIAN.They were so close to victory and just because of this moron they would have to start from scratch.

She had Arup's password and his plans,may be she could play as strider and would lead their clan,the GAULS to victory.

                                                          ********

STRIDER-"I command all the village leaders to disperse and surround the enemy in a tight circle so they wouldnt be able to escape."

LANITA 2-"LANITA 1 is missing, who will take over her village."

STRIDER-"I will,you all just take care of your village."

LANITA 2-"No offence ,but thats one dangerous move,we are endangering all our troops and at the same time. Dont you think we should wait for LANITA 1 to return.This way we all could vanquish."

STRIDER-"Im the strider for a reason. Just follow what I say and in no time shall we emerge victorious."

Within few minutes of these orders,whole of the Gaul clan was attacked and shred to pieces,their engines and barracks looted,and the Romans emerged victorious.

                                                                ********

Meghana could not digest the fact that because of her the whole clan lost.She followed Arup's plan still...

Anyways a new day and she had a lot on her hands to worry about the game right now.

Hardly had she reached her office when her blackberry started vibrating in her purse.

"Hello."

"This is the hitchiker speaking,there has been a mistake.I might have prematurely called you about the IP adress, actually it was a very clever fraud done and Arups IP adress was encriminated.When I probed deeply,I found some hidden files which told me the fraud has been committed by  a Mahendra Soni."

Meghana went pale as her mind tried to understand the significance of the words being uttered on the other side of the phone.What had she done,blamed an innocent person of such a heinous crime and forced him to leave the office.How could she be so blind to overlook the fact that Mahendra who was due for a promotion as the IT head,planned to malign Arup.She had to rectify her mistake.She called her PA and asked her to connect to Arup's home.

"Mam,no one is responding at his home."

"Give me his no.I will call him.You are useless." barked Meghana.

After like 1000 rings,someone picked up the phone at Arup's home.

"Hello,this is Meghana,Arup's senior from office.Can I talk to him."

"No beta!!" sobbed a soft ,frail ,female voice.

"Arup committed suicide yesterday.God knows what went wrong with my son."

and the person broke down on phone.