How happy am I with my job

Food for thought

It was just a couple of days back that I had returned from chennai and the lorry strike had crippled me a lot. My bike was stuck in the Parcel office in Chennai and I had to take either the public transport or a rick to work daily.

The following incident is real. Please read the disclaimer.

It was around 9.10 am and I was getting late to office. I didn’t have the luxury of my bike and hence I had to run around to the nearby eatery to grab a quick bite and then find an auto. I was waiting at the 80 feet road and that when the protagonist arrived. I stopped the auto.

Me: Dairy circle
Auto Driver (AD): ok sir

After a few minutes we crossed Sony world junction and were in the Koramangala 100 feet road. Usually at around this time, there will be bumper to bumper traffic.

AD: Sir, the traffic these days are very less na.
I was pissed off big time, because of the lorry strike and hence responded,
Me: Lorry Strike no. Thats why.
AD: No sir. He laughs. since last month there have been almost 30 – 40 thousand people who have left Bangalore. Software companies are sending people back home na.
Me: (on the back of my mind) Why the f**k is he opening the can of worms?
AD: It is not stopping sir. This month, atleast another 10-15 thousand more sit. (laughs).

I am totally pissed off. Yet I don’t have an answer.
The auto driver doesn’t stop there and starts to give me number on how many employees were fired from which company.

AD: Sir, in another 2 years bangalore will become like how it was 5 – 6 years back. The auto fares would touch a minimum of Rs.10 and Bangalore will become clean and less polluted.

I was really surprised by the way he spoke, yet felt being ridiculed for the situation we IT guys were. I wanted to corner him.

Me: If we all people leave bangalore and go, there are so many auto rickshaws that are depended on us. What would you people, do? Let alone everyone, what would you do?
AD: I have no problem sir. I will sell this Auto and go to my hometown near shimoga. I have around 2 acres of land and I would happy start to do agriculture.

On hearing to this, I was totally dumbstruck. I had no answer. I felt like I was totally mocked at. That was when I realized that even an auto-driver had some backup, where as we in IT profession have absolutely no backup. The IT industry over years have kept us in a comfort zone, and that had lead us not to plan for some backup.

Something to think about.

Morning Raga

Rāga (Sanskrit, lit. “colour” or “mood”; or rāgam in Carnatic music) refers to melodic modes used in Indian classical music. It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made. In the Indian musical tradition, rāgas are associated with different times of the day, or with seasons. Morning ragas are usually sung to wake the Gods. Some of the morning rāgas include Bhupala, Bauli, Desakshi, Bilahari and Dhanyasi.

Till last few months, these rāgas were the ones that donned the morning hours of many households in South India. But over the past few months, there are a few new rāgas that have made into the top list of rāgas that are to being heard in the morning hours. The rāgas in the order of popularity are listed below.

1. Pink Slips / Lay offs
2. Cost Cutting
3. Recession
4. Satyam scam
5. Inflation

There are also some channels that serve these rāgas to us all through the day and some even act as a lullaby to us.

Recently there have been a set of new rock bands that have broken into the top 10 singles countdown. These include

• “When will my salary be paid …” – Rock Bench
• “Is my job safe …” – Management Mantra
• “We are hiring …” – HR Park
• “We are mobilizing funds … ” – Satyam screamers
• “Rate Cuts and Rate Cuts …” – Reserve Ban(k)gers