The Curious Case Of Rat Race..!

Pic Credit : Anant Kamat Bambolkar

‘I work in IT’. That’s my answer to anyone who tries to probe me about my profession.  The interrogation does not end there. As soon as the previous answer finishes, comes in the next question, for which I always come prepared for but never able to answer. ‘What do you do there?’ ..then comes a moment of silence…and a few more moments of silence. Never have I seen anyone ask an electrician this question or for that matter a carpenter or a doctor or an accountant. ‘Why only us?’ that is the question I want to ask to you in return.

Frankly speaking, there is rather a complicated answer to this simple question. It’s not like ‘I do electrical wiring of the buildings’ or ‘I cure people’.  Let me try and give you an insight into this enigma called the IT WORLD.

My day usually starts at the crack of dawn at around 9:30 in the morning. This might even extend a bit to 10:30 depending upon various important factors like weather conditions, engaging chat with a school friend on Facebook last night etc. etc. The next 2 hours is usually the busiest phase of my day.  I have to cramp in few vital activities like brushing, taking a wash or a full bath (if time permits), check if Mukesh Ambani has discovered an oil reserve somewhere in Arabian sea and its stocks have suddenly rocketed 100% so that I can book profits by selling a couple of my shares and of course getting ready for the office.

Travelling to office often represents a different sort of challenge and is no less than a war to me. Consider this scenario. 100 rats are simultaneously released from a trap but they have to pass a small hole to actually get free. Chaotic right? Now let us increase the number of rats to 1000. Haphazard isn’t it? And what if this number increases to 10000 and size of hole remains the same? My situation is somewhat similar to this except that I have a few potholes and traffic signals to negotiate. It’s a triumphant feeling that I get when I reach office and am really proud to say that I get this feeling 10 times each week!

The busiest part of my day gives way to the toughest hour in which I decide what I need to do in the next 7 hours. It is 11 o’clock and I start my day at office by “logging in my machine” and checking mails to see what my “deliverables” for today are. I see that I have a deliverable to be given to my “onsite folks” by “EOD” (End of Day). Onsite folks are no one but people like you and I, having their heart and brain at the same place as us. The only difference between them and me is the time difference. I prefer to spend a next few minutes to surf  the net just to check if the oil well has been found yet and if there are any critical updates on my Facebook page. It is already 11:30 and I need to have my breakfast now (yes you have heard it right). My nutritious breakfast consists of delicacies like vada pav, misal pav along with a cup of tea at the road side “Tapri” (Tea stall). We often discuss how this small time chaiwala earns a lot more than us and how unlike us, tackling the burden of inflation is in his own hands.

It is already close to noon and I better pull my socks up and begin to prepare the document which needs to be “ready for a review” by evening. Before that let me make my status as “Busy” on my office chat messenger so that people are aware that I am fully tied up. Now that I have opened the chat messenger, let me “ping” a few of my friends to see what they up to and tell them that I will be busy for most part of the day working on a “critical issue”  and not to disturb me today. A few crucial things like when the “appraisal” ratings going to be out and what is the expected hike are also discussed with my friends.

I see a few people leaving from their seats with their lunch boxes and realize that it is already lunch time. Lunch is usually one activity that I make sure I am punctual about. I accompany my “project team” for lunch which forms the most constructive part of my day. Serious discussions generally involve topics like how it is high time for Sachin to consider retirement and give way to youngsters, how Chidambaram should present his upcoming budget to improve our economy and why Singham should get this year’s awards for best cinematography and best editor.

I make sure I reach my “desk” sharp by 2 O’clock and immediately begin with my work. The siesta seeker inside me tries hard to get me to sleep for a few minutes but am very much determined today to fend off the temptation. I open up a blank word document, but then I realize I haven’t done anything since morning to catch my manager’s attention. This time I choose to use rule no. 420 from the book ‘1000 ways to make sure your Boss knows you are working’ by sending a couple of mails indicating how I am facing some “network issues”  today keeping my manager in “CC”. The manager in turn obliges with rule no. 420 by replying to the mail keep in his own manager in copy!

It is already 2:30 but I feel that I need to get rid of some of the distractions that were occupying my mind since morning. I pay off this month rent, my phone bill, some of the money I had brought from my colleague last month when I was “Broke”. Now I feel much lighter and kicked up to start with my work. Its 3 PM and stock markets are about to close. I need to see how my stocks fared today and how much rupee has weakened against the dollar so that I can calculate how much I lose each day I spend here rather than at “Onsite”. I put “visa initiation” as one of the things to be done this month in “to do” list of my new smartphone.

It is 3:30 and the sleep demon is again trying to have a word with me to see if I surrender. The only way I see to overcome this demon is to sip in a cup of hot tea and be as fresh as I was in the morning. I call up one of my teammate who himself is busy doing some “critical stuff” and we head for a break. We discuss the rules we put in use today from the above discussed book. We call it “knowledge transfer (KT)” or “knowledge sharing (KS)”

By the time we come back, we see our remaining teammates running for a “weekly status meeting” in the “conference room”. Status meeting is a time when all the teammates get 10 min to give updates on their work and raise any grievances and rest 50 min are spent by our manager telling us how we need to motivate ourselves even more and work even harder to “satisfy our clients”(it may sound odd but that is what exactly it is). Katrina Kaif and Kristen Stewart are the couple of people that dominate my thinking during these meetings.

It is 5 O’clock and I calmly prepare myself for a big “escalation” for failing to deliver on time. After all, it was just last week that I had a heated discussion with my onsite counterpart to convince him that the estimate for this deliverable should be 7 days against 5 days which he was looking for. Today is the 7^th day and what I have is blank word document! I decide to fight till the very end knowing very well how royally I will be screwed if I falter today. Taking “screenshots” of the “application setups” and putting into the document takes a toll on my biceps but that is how our life is and there is no backing out now. I write a piece of “code” at a breakneck speed and complete the “unit testing” in a single breath. I then quickly put my observations in the document and decorate it with some animations and put the contents in a “company template” and am “good to go” now. I draft the mail attaching the document and sending it to the onsite folks. Done by 6 O’clock! The sense of achievement you get after a days of hard work is unparalleled.

I decide to wait till 6:30 for their feedback on my work during which I head off for evening snakes. This is what I get in my mailbox when I return,

Hi,

Trains are running late today. Will reach in 30 min. We will have a call after that.

Thanks,

ABC

In laymen language, this means I have to wait in office till 7:30 just to have a talk with this guy. He comes “online” at 7:35 and I waste no time to ping him asking him “we can talk”. He asks me to wait for some more time as he needs to check his mails. He calls me at 7:50 toll tell me that he has not gone through my document yet and is “fully tied up” for rest of the day. He promises me to go through it and suggest changes by tomorrow. Each word coming out of his mouth multiplies my frustration level manifold. How I wish I had a gun in my hand right now. He wishes me good night and ends the call. At 8.15 O’clock, its curtains on my workday (for good). It has been a hard work for me in office today and this is the way it always is. Of course I have to again be a rat and travel back home negotiating the dreaded traffic. I will reach home by 9 and probably order something to eat. After such a frustrating day I do not have patience to talk to my parents even though I know they would be waiting for my call. May be I will call them on weekends.

Good thing is that my friends will be waiting for me on Facebook and I also have a Farmville level to complete before I go to bed. I go to bed every night feeling that I am contributing in a big way to the world economy (at least that is what my employers want me to believe) and this rat race has become a part and parcel of my life.

POST SCRIPT: Considering how filthy my shirt gets when I reach home after a day’s work it is really amusing when I hear people saying that ours is a ‘White Collared’ job!!!!

The Soul Odyssey..

‘There is no way you are getting up at 6.30 in the morning, that too on a weekend’ one of my roommates threw a gauntlet at me. But this was not like any other lazy Saturday. The OSP (Oracle Solution Practice) team at Cognizant had taken up a noble initiative of adopting a deprived school somewhere on the outskirts of Pune. A school in Velle district, around 80kms from Pune city was to be our destination. At 7.45 A.M I boarded the Toyota and we were all set to roll. At that point, little did I realize that, what was supposed to be a brief sojourn we had embarked on for enlightening the ‘little souls’ would turn out to be an epic journey that would leave all of us in a soul searching mode of our own.

As soon as we left the hubbub of the city, we were greeted by blazing mountains which engulfed us on all the four sides. Barring tarred road everything else we could see was sheathed with a green blanket. The clouds too were vying for attention but somewhat subdued sun was giving it a tough competition. It was close to impossible to get our eyes off such a pleasing visual treat. I pitied the driver for he had to keep his eyeballs strictly on the road ahead. A brief halt for breakfast gave us a much needed break to admire the mother earth in its most pristine form. As the highways gave way to two lane roads which in turn were superseded by single lane village roads we had a kind of anxious feeling as we drew closer and closer to our destination. In no time we had left behind the 'New' India and I quietly braced myself to face the 'Real' India.

The sounds of chatter and rumble were enough for us to know that we were finally there. Dozens of puerile heads were patiently awaiting our arrival. We were then taken to the place where the children used to learn. 'School is a Temple Of Learning' has for long been one of the most sought after essay topics for the school teachers. But this topic would need, to speak strictly in software terms, a little bit of ‘customization’ if we were to present it to these children. It was because in here it was actually a temple where the school was being run..Right from 1st medium till the 8th!..Immediately my mind wandered to my school days when we used to grumble for not having with good quality benches. The fact that some of them had to walk 7 KMs one way to attend the school sent a chill down my spine and my legs suddenly felt numb.

A dainty little girl applied ‘tika’ to our foreheads as we entered the school premises. The welcome ceremony was comprised of presenting us with a bouquet of myriad flowers handpicked and handmade by the little kids themselves. The fragrance of our deodorants paled in comparison to scent that erupted from those tiny flowers. The little artists then staged couple of folk songs which were, considering the language was alien to me, very pleasing to the ears. The fun continued with the question-answer session that followed the welcome ceremony. As Martin H. Fischer aptly put it “The entire world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind”, the seemingly innocent kids came up with such astute questions that at times even our able volunteers were bamboozled. Questions like 'Who is God?', 'How did the sun came into existence?', 'How does the projector work?' gave us a glimpse into the minds of these little Einsteins. Hats off to our volunteers as they were able to ideate such surreal answers to the tricky questions. The brainstorming session was followed by distribution of books to children at various levels.

As the day progressed the kids were treated with magic shows, educational cartoons, craft sessions and many more fun activities. Irrespective of the activity there was one thing we could not miss. It was an unmistakable happiness in the eyes of those little souls. And considering you, albeit in a small way, have contributed towards the glint in their eyes gave you immense satisfaction. And the fact that these kids gave us a chance to be one of their own helped us regain the child like vigor which was long lost in the swarm of IT savvy professionals. When we had reached here our sole aim was to make them feel special but in reality it was they who made us feel that we were special which was indeed very touching.

The lunch that followed was, I would say, one of the best meals I have had in quite a sometime. After all it had the most important ingredients of all - The warmth and the affection of the village dwellers. As we bid farewell to the village, an epochal responsibility beckoned us - the responsibility of carrying this school forward. This trip was a small step towards fulfilling this promise. I would like to sincerely thank Ashwin Bramhe, the chief architect of this initiative, and the outreach volunteers for giving us an opportunity to be a part of such a noble cause.

Post Script: On our way to the village we were enlightened with the fact that there was another village nearby which was accessible only on foot. People there had to walk for 2 hours just to come in contact with outside world. The name of the village was ‘SINGAPORE’. How ironic!! I thought.

POSTER COURTESY: http://mr-ram.blogspot.com/!