Experience is the best teacher; I read somewhere and obviously didn’t pay much attention ;-). There has been a vicious cycle of Weekdays and Weekends from past couple of months. It seemed to me that both the Weekdays and the Weekends are running out at the Fast-Track rate. You wake up on Monday keeping the hardly opening eye on next Friday. Friday comes, brings the joy, happiness and ever lasting peace (for the next two days :-)). There is a kinda non-religious, non-national festival which all of us share on every Friday. You can call it a truly human festival ;-). But, as we already admitted, it is a festival and every “Tyohaar” has an end. Every Sunday night brings the fear of going to office the very next morning. You, your desk, your PC, your extension and a brand new Monday. If Mondays could speak, it would have said “It’s not my problem if I come after Sunday”, but it does, and that’s our problem :-).
As always, someone coming from nowhere and meeting me somewhere will put an ignition into my already overactive mind to think about the other side of the coin (to which, obviously, I am least interested). A person selling our all favorite “Chana-Zor-Garam” is a rare sight in our area. Grabbing a 10 rupees packet from him appears to be my sole duty and ardent responsibility. Bound to my other duty, I started a conversation with him. The small talk with Jugnu happened to be one of the most revealing conversations of my lifetime. He told me that his monthly income is around 2500-3000, he walks around 12-14 kms daily and above all, (I think, this is the most revealing) he has not taken an off from past 7-8 months. The last off from his work was only due to the severe fever which stopped his movement altogether. Even if I assume that Jugnu was exaggerating the situation, this is a fact that we have several thousands of Daily Wage Earners in our country. Some roam around like Jugnu, some work for other owners, and some don’t know what work they would be doing the next morning. For all of these people, there are no Mondays, No Fridays……there are only Days, which probably provide them with an opportunity to earn the livelihood for them and their family. As a matter of fact, we are surrounded by these daily wage earners, the milkman, the hawker, the household help; the “kirana” shopkeepers, the “Chat-ka-Thela”… list is endless.
The IT revolution has revolutionalised our lives. It took the purchasing power of a normal Indian beyond the Clouds. We have earned in Dollars and spent in Rupees. (Atleast for the onsite people ;-)) We have never worked out of the AC offices from past couple of years. Some of my associates also claim that they feel very uncomfortable if AC is not working. There has been a gradual shift in the living standard of an average Indian. No doubt, there has been enormous amount of work and unending efforts of our countrymen in bringing the IT to everyone’s Job Inbox. IT and ITES have been the staple diet which our ever-growing Bull has fed on. It also brought a hitherto unknown culture of 5 days a week and changed the way we looked at our Calendars. Though, we work for 6 or sometimes even 7 days a week when the Project demands, but, again we get either the Comp-offs or extra incentives for the same. It’s a Win-Win game for some and “Oh-no-Not-Again” for the others. On one hand, we find several stories of people explaining about the (positive) change IT brought in their Life, and on the other hand, there are gloomy signals of an IT-ite getting caught up with several diseases. Pros n Cons, you know.
My perception about the industry has changed remarkably in the past couple of years, and I am sure, it will keep on changing. But, looking towards the more-hardworking lot of people (atleast on the physical side), it appears to me that I have been working in a pretty comfortable environment (atleast, I know [;-)], what to do next morning) and I am demanding for more pleasure, more comfort and more facilities. Looking it the other way round, I may be deserving (may be Destiny :-)) for all these luxuries, looking towards the grilling path I have come across to attain them. But still, the question arises, Should I be demanding for more, or whatever I am getting is appropriate and most important of all, Will that “MORE” be sufficient??
