‘Hey. Budhoose! Do you want this?’ My boss shouted from across the office.

He is a real kanjoose and does not give away things just like that. His old trusted ink jet printer had given up the ghost and was lying around as a piece of junk. I suppose he had no choice but to offer to give it to me. If he had to ask some one to take it away and dispose it off, he had to pay him for that. I knew that and so I was not surprised to get the free offer of the printer.
‘What will I do with it, boss?’ I asked him.
‘You are a good kanjoose and I know you will squeeze the last drop of the juice out of it’
‘I shall take it if I do not have to pay for that’
‘No. You will have to pay one rupee as the book value’
‘I will pay you that one rupee if it works for at least one week. Other wise I will bring it back’ I said.
‘Fair enough’
I took the dead printer home and tried it on the old machine. No luck.
I switched over to Linux and connected the dead printer and mother of all wonders! It started to print as if some one woke it up from deep slumber. Clear, sharp black letters on the page!

But now I am in a dilemma. If I tell my boss about Linux and the printer, I will have to pay him that one rupee. If I do not let him know of the success, I will not be able to tell him of the power of Linux. (My favorite past time, apart from the arguments against fossil fuels) I will get a ‘high’ out of evangelizing on Linux, which is worth a bit more than one rupee. But still, one rupee is one rupee.