Life of a software professional

Software engineers, what people think about them?
A) That these computer geeks work day and night, B) make a trip to US every six months and C) earn salary running into lakhs…
Well I am just another software engineer working for an MNC in India. Here is an account of software engineer’s life from my perspective.
Computer Geek – I agree we are computer geeks, because we don’t think anything beyond it. When we work, we work on it, when we want to communicate we chat or send mails, when we are getting bored we play games on it, when we want to some entertainment we see movies on it or read something online and the remaining time when the pc is free we are downloading some new game, movie or songs. So yes we are computer geeks….
We work day and night - I am in my current job from the past 2 and a half years. In these 2.5 yrs, I had worked day and night; say from morning 10 A.M till 2 A.M in night for about 3-4 months. For about 12-13 months I had a 10 to 5 job with brief 1 month breaks on no work at all. It is for the past 6 months that this brief break has become long. Yeah for the past six months, I have just waiting for work to start. Though it is true that when work starts it will be again morning 10 A.M to night 2 A.M for another 3-4 months or more. So till then my work is googling, videos on youtube, online suduko and downloading. My favorite hangout is company’s pantry where I get free biscuits, cold drinks, namkeens, chocolates, juices and maggi.
So guess I am really working hard as generally people think.
Make a trip to US – In my career of 3.5 yrs I have not a single onsite trip. Not that I am under performer. I am just an average performer. Guess I am a part of software products and not software services that’s why. But yes not even a single trip. I don’t even have the visa. Not just of US, I don’t have visa for any other country, apart from Malaysia, where I went for my honeymoon.
Salary – Now this is my pain point. I agree I am earning well, well enough but again not as much as people think. I think I am earning to pay the landlord, who as all others thinks I have lots of extra money to pay the exorbitant rent for a not so good 2BHK. To pay the auto wala, who thinks asking back for a change of 7-8 rupees undermines the dignity of software professionals and they should not be doing so. To pay the maid, who now is more important to me than my husband, because if she is gone I can’t manage. So I have to pay her whatever she demands and give her leave whenever she asks for. To pay for the phone bill. I am in a country given to freedom of speech and I exercise this right it fully on phone.
And amidst all this I wait for my annual hike and bonus, which more often then not seems be to peanuts.
Well apart from this my life includes cribbing about my company, my manager, my non- existent work, my salary paid to me for not doing anything, for cooking dinner every night. Coaxing friends for occasional treats.
Well not that I am cribbing all the time, there are high points in my life. An occasional free t-shirt from company, company sponsored party, treats from my friends and daily online suduko and free pantry J

Where are we heading to?

I was 7 years old playing hide and seek with my cousins. It was the inauguration of my uncle’s new hotel. Some of the floors of the hotel were not completed. Rooms were without any electrical fittings, doors without any handles and latches. It was in one of these rooms, all of us hid and closed the door. The room became pitch dark. Not even a ray light entered the room. We all, kids of the same age, were scared. We tried to open the door (with no handle or latch) but were not unable to open or pull it. We all dead scared that we will be stuck in this room for long. How will our parents find us? What if they don’t find us? All of us scared to death started crying. It was probably our crying that led our cousin playing the “it” (one who was supposed to find all of us) to this room and he pushed open the door. This happened when I was 7 year old, and to this day when I am 26 years old, I have never played hide and seek again in life.

All this flashed back to me, lately when I saw movie “Parzania”. All I could think of the little girl “Dilshad” who lost her brother and witnessed the mob madness. Will she be ever able to forget that and live normally? Thousands of people who in real life have been a witness to such carnages will be able to put it back forever? I keep imagining the effect of such incidents on the psyche of those who had been a witness to such carnages. Will they ever learn to trust? Do we want to give all this as a legacy to the coming generation? An atmosphere of mutual distrust and fear? Are we as a society not criminally guilty of murdering their spirit of trust, mutual confidence and coma dire?

It is always said whenever a communal riot happens, that, that’s for avenging the injustice done to their men previously. I always believe that one act of injustice cannot be justified by another act of injustice. Public outrage on such incident is natural but that does not mean that people should go on a killing spree. The government and judiciary are there to punish the guilty, not the society. By communal killing, we are only creating room for more backlash. Doing so will not safeguard interests of the party commiting actrocities.

Do we really want our kids to grow in such an atmosphere? If not then what is it that we can do? If nothing else then we can try and increase the tolerance level of the society against such provocations.