I don’t think this was revenge but let’s say karma. This happened during one of the most struggling days in my life. I was doing my graduation in 1997 when my dad’s company closed down for some shitty reasons.

So, there I was 16 years old doing college and no money for me or my family. As I had done computer courses in my school and secondary high school days. I was well versed with word, excel and primitive coding languages (Basic, COBOL, C). An accountant contacted me for freelancing work of migrating his book accounts to Excel for 500 Rs (6.66 $) per month. As I was in dire need of money I agreed and it was settled that I will work from evening 6 to 9 everyday at his house.

So, I used to travel every day to his house which was about 19 – 20 KM’s via bus which itself was costing me 100 Rs per month.

I worked for him for 35 days and there was no sign of payment, when asked he used to say let’s tally this particular worksheet then we will talk (BTW tallying was not part of the deal only migrating was).

There came a point that I ran out of money to even travel by bus. I told him the situation to which he replied that he was sorry and currently he was out of cash and will pay me tomorrow for sure. Disappointed I left for home just thinking at bus stop of how can I reach home, just when I saw my employer buying goods at shop just in front of the bus stop. The tipping point of my anger was when I saw him paying the shopkeeper with 500 Rs note and 5 mins before he has no money for me.

That day I kept my cool and walked about 2 ½ hours to my home hungry and dejected. The next day I borrowed some money from my neighbor’s and visited the accountant like nothing happened. I then zipped all the work I had done so far with a 14 digit password. When asked for payment I got the same reply sorry tomorrow, to which I replied I won’t be coming from tomorrow as I had enough. The employer said in that case you won’t get anything for me as there was no written contract, to which I said fine and left.

The next day employer realized what had happened and called me up for password for zip files, to which I said what work and who are you? He started cursing me and told me that you think you are smart enough I will get it cracked blah blah, I said best of luck and cut him off.

After a week he again called me up and said that he realized his mistake and to please provide him the password as all his client accounts which were tallied where locked. I said kindly send me money order of 36 days of work, once received I will provide him password. Next day he personally came to my home to give money and asked me what happened all of the sudden. I narrated the incident of bus stop and his face went pale. He said sorry for what happened earlier to which I said let bygones be bygones but don’t take advantage of other persons forcedness and gain from it. I gave him the password he wanted and hoped he learnt a lesson from this…