Where are we headed?

Independence:
Too much’s been spoken already

Quite a few decades without progress:
Same deal

IT boom:
Lots of cash coming in. Everyone wants in. Everyone’s digging in. Engineers everywhere. Colleges all over the country.

The lull period:
Engineers just keep popping out. The country’s overflowing with them. No jobs.

IT Boom-II:
Jobs here, jobs there, jobs everywhere. Cash coming in again. Everybody has a job, Everyone’s happy. Yay.

Geniuses!!! Did anybody notice the Colleges all over the country deal?
People from all over the country come to the cities in waves. How many cities (or currently called IT hubs) in our country have the infrastructure to handle this influx?
Lemme give you a rough estimate… 0, zilch.

What are we doing?
Cheap chores the Americans or Brits don’t want to do themselves. At rates that they wouldn’t work for. But then, the amounts we earn are enough for us here… cool.

We are a lucky generation in a way. We got to see in a decade or so what our parents had to live out four to five to see. We don’t need to say something like, “30 years ago, we got dosas at like a 10th of a rupee for one”. We can say, I remember land being sold at 3 digit figures per square foot about a decade and a half ago. Now we’re at 4 closing in 5. Awesome. We earn way more than our parents did, and we pay in roughly the same proportion more. And we’re happy about the current days and all that.

The one huge difference being, our parents had 10-6 jobs to complain about.
The last month or so apart, I’ve no memory of leaving the office before dusk, or for that matter before dinnertime.

So in short, they pay me a decent deal and skin me alive, and the rates for everything are much higher anyways.
There’s a whole generation that slogs through the week and sleeps the entire weekend out. Too exhausted to go anywhere or do anything you see…

That’s one side of the deal.

We also have tonnes of people flocking into towns and the towns genuinely crumbling under the burden, Already spoken about.

Did anybody think about the rural sector? How many kids there really want to till the land or do whatever it is that’s to be done with the land there?
There’s an engineering college everywhere, and every college offers computer science. So everybody’s son is an Engineer. A few daughters as well, but let’s not brag too much, our country is still pathetic in that regard. So everybody’s son(s) and a few daughters.

This is alright for a generation or so, but what after that?

So we’re short on food supply and still quite content cause we’re getting decent salaries which are still incredibly low as compared to what, say, an American would earn for the same work. “I’ll starve for you, just gimme my cash!!!”

I just shifted my job and all that, it was a bit of a surprise to a few in that I had a good pay hike in the last appraisal. Now most people were more surprised that I didn’t go for a huge hike during my job shift. It wasn’t such a big deal for me cause I’m going home and all that, but people were genuinely concerned. Why go for a shift for a not so huge hike?

How about the concept, I’m alright with what I get, the work seems promising, the location’s good, etc etc. Why does it always have to be incredible hikes? Is anybody satisfied?

Now, almost everybody that doesn’t get about a 35-40% annual hike wants to leave the organization. That’s like at least 3 times the average hike in most other countries.

What if we someday (going at this rate) catch up with the salaries people there earn?
Would the outsourcing continue? They might still be forced into it cause they cannot produce so much manpower by themselves, they have to depend on us to an extent, but for how long will that continue? How long will they pay us the same amount? And we’ll still want the same hikes… Do you really think they’ll pay us more than they pay themselves? Frightening eh?

What then? What if they feel intimidated and stop outsourcing? What will we do with the entire IT setup here? What will become of the colleges that we have all over the place? Will anybody really want to get back to tilling (or whatever) the land?


And then there’re call centres or BPOs. I would’ve loved to have some extra cash on me in college. Damn tempting isn’t it?

Anyways, my colleague was a little upset about a load of work being dumped on her on a Friday evening, more so cause she had her plans for the day made and was free all week.
I suggested she make a clear stand and probably put it off till Monday since it wasn’t too important. She gave me a “do you place your head inside a church bell for a hobby?” sort of a look.

I got my headphones back on… The trial (Pink Floyd – The Wall (yeah I do listen to big hits as well)) was playing.

Crazy, Over the rainbow, I am crazy,Bars in the window.There must have been a door there in the wallWhen I came in.Crazy, over the rainbow, he is crazy.
Anyways, I wouldn’t probably have been telling her this had I not resigned and all that. Probably.

- Komodo Dragon