It all started when I was in seventh standard. My favorite teacher Mary said, “Study well for exams because seventh standard is a crucial phase of your life. Once you complete seventh and move on to high school you are no longer a kid and nobody give a damn about your studies except you”.
This resounded in my head and I scored ninety percentile… But the storm did not abate.
Next came tenth or senior secondary exams, “Pass tenth and enter into college, you can be your own master”. But as the saying goes, history repeated itself during twelfth, “Clear your pre-university and get into a decent engineering or medical college. Your life will be transformed”.
Final nail was hit on those blissful days during Bachelor of Engineering, “Struggle for four years or else you will be struggling for the next forty years”.
How is all this for motivation? Boys like me believed teachers, lectures, advisors, parents, elders… so on.
This is when I decided most of them are losers and for lack of better things to do, were on an advising spree.
Four years of college went in a puff. I graduated with distinction. 80% in degree is no joke and I even managed to get into a “prestigious” IT company through campus recruitment. By now I believed that the song “I’ve got the whole world in my hand” was written only for me.
Enter the so-called creamy, buttery but in reality a ‘dubious’ world. Everything is so crystal clear here in the virtual world, the matrix is already laid. If you are not one of them you are terminated. Agent Smiths of all kinds are on the prowl here. Recruiters, human resource and middle tier managers, all involved in a conspiracy to make you live for just 2 days a week.
Typical day starts off with mom yelling “Get up it’s already 6:00, won’t you go to office today?”
IT professionals have their own customized fresh up procedures – “On the fly, dress up”. Get up, run to potty. If constipated, run, have a quick shower for a maximum of 5 minutes. A privileged few eat home cooked breakfast while the others wait till they reach office. Then decide to skip it.
Just then walk, jog, run or even hire an auto with fussy drivers just to reach bus stop on time with the shower gone for a waste. Then take a roller coaster ride in Dakota express having old buggy bus drivers on superficially laid roads. (I would have put Bangalore roads but it is the same everywhere.) The floor is now set for hip shake!!!!
Reach office on time. Yes this is a must, reach office ON time. You walk, jog, run, hire an auto, fly, or better still stay overnight after the previous days’ work, but you need to be in office on time. Who cares about letting you go home on time? Coz my home is no longer home. More on this later…
For the unfortunate lots who have no home-cooked food have it at the cafeteria. Yesterday’s left-overs, do taste good some days.
Browse through email, most of which would be controversial or humorous ones on work. Add to these, a few mails tagged “careful”; only 5 percent would be official. Scan through most mails quickly and some thoroughly (these would be the ones tagged “careful”). Take your first tea break of the day, lasting anything between 15 minutes and an hour.
By now managers would be dropping in with the most pleasant faces ever to be seen. Even a 10 year old kid would not get fooled and notice that they are all shaken up in morning. Reasons can be anything from getting up late, fight with wife or with cabbies, truckers, rikshawawallas on the way to office. Seeing them some people promptly pretend to with work but only till the stock market opens and chaos begins with ups and downs of sensex.
Indians are becoming more accustomed to sensex life than sex life nowadays. Everyone wants to make easy money but with no risk. Share market could be compared to orgies. People want maximum returns with lowest investments and no risk of getting infected. No wonder they are called broker houses.
Suddenly a mail pops up from manager “Is this our issue? If so, address this ASAP (IT jargon for As Soon As Possible). This is highly visible by the customer.”
Then starts the actual work. No body knows what the issue is; nobody knows what’s causing that; nobody knows how to resolve the issue. But everybody knows it is hot and the customer will whip our asses if this doesn’t get resolved.
Now is the best time to view the difference in characteristics of a new joinee and experienced person. “Expertise” means just one simple thing - new joinee skips his meal to work on this issue while the experienced person gives a rat’s backside for whatever is happening. How’s that for an experience?
One more tea break and few hours of extra slogging results in end of day. This is the routine from Monday to Friday.
Every Friday I remember the words my lecturer said when I went to visit him a few months after I had graduated. “So you are also into IT. You also live for 2 days a week?” It couldn’t be truer. With no time spent with family and friends, just returning back home for dinner and sleep. Home is no longer a home, but a guest house.
With all this left behind and the best days of my week nearing, I leave office with a bit of joy. Just then my cell buzzes with the message, “Suresh, you left for the day? I just received a priority 1 issue; you might have to come over the weekend. Let me know if you have any issues - Manager”.