Rahul Verma: My Petty Bits

Has it ever happened to you that you think you are sleeping but really aren’t? Your brain is still doing its job but in ways you weren’t really controlling it?

Today’s sleep was like that for me. Something must have clicked somewhere. Something must have had a deeper impact on me in the past few days.

I had decided to write an article with this subject line of Testing vs Tester as a Testing Professional some days back. However, I had no idea I’ll start it this way.

Here are three fables for you. I’ll not draw any mapping. I think my mind is still in the same mood of saying very little out loud as in my article: How did we become distant from Testing?

A Box of Sweets

Someone brought a box of 16 sweets to a classroom of kids.

The parents, teachers, professors, books had all taught them about all the sweets and how well they taste except one – the pink sweet delicacy. They had mentioned about it once for the sake of completeness.

The pink sweet was an unknown.

When the kids pounced on the sweet box, all of them wanted to grab a sweet of choice.

As expected, all the sweets were gone in less than a minute.

All except one – the unknown pink one.

One of the kids who really wanted to eat something sweet, whether or not he liked it, picked up the pink sweet and ate it.

There were still other kids who did not get anything to enjoy. They were a bit disappointed. They mocked the kid with the pink sweet. And this kid said – “Atleast I have a sweet, losers!”. The “losers” laughed, at least externally and said – “Haha.”.

Next time, when a new box of sweets was brought, although still at the end, the pink sweet was gone along with the rest of the sweets.

The kids had accepted the pink sweet as Plan B.

Some kids who knew they will be pushed around in case they take an attempt at any other delicacy, developed a strategy. As soon as the box was in, they tried to go for the pink one as nobody wanted it as first choice.

“Why?” someone asked.

“I am passionate about the pink sweet.”, the kid who picked up the pink sweet replied.

The pink sweet looked at the kid with an element of surprise, before it was bitten with a half heart.

The kids who ate the pink sweet grew up. The story got transformed over time.

The pink sweet was still an unknown. But these kids had chosen for this unknown out of passion. They had always wanted to have the pink sweet. It was their first choice.

Blind People’s Elephant

Some blind persons are trying to figure out about what is an elephant.

Historically, this has never worked.

But these are special.

These are smart.

They now talk to each other, exchange notes.

They do brainstorming.

They have a whole net of knowledge that can help them unravel all mysteries.

There is a high chance this time, that they will figure out the elephant, oder?

Two Cats, a Monkey and a Bread

Two cats got hold of a piece of bread. They were debating about it.

They wanted to settle on what it should be called before they eat it. As they didn’t seem to settle on what is what, a monkey came in to resolve the matter.

“It’s a manually created bread.”.

“Oh, is it?”, the monkey asked. “Let me taste and confirm”, and took a bite.

“It’s a bread created with tools”.

“Oh?”, another bite.

“No, no. Breads are supposed to be created by hand.”

“Hmm”, another bite.

“Come on, did the bread bake by itself? Some tool must have been involved.”

“Yummy”, another bite.

The piece of bread was gone. The cats were still debating.

The monkey thanked them for consulting him and said, “Next time you get hold of another piece, let me know. I’ll be glad to resolve all your dilemma.” Tasty dilemma I must add.

The cats, more hungry than ever, started their search for another piece of bread.

The monkey was waiting.

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That’s all for now.