The Great Indian Software Industry Show
A quarter of a cabin, with a personal computer, a ergonomically designed furniture which includes a revolving chair,a table with a cupboard( meant to keep documents in properly arranged fashion ) ,no life and height of boredom, not exactly cubicle in shape ; is how i would describe my office cubicle .
Sitting there i realize how a young, bubbly soul turns gradually into a jombie.A nerdy creature which is known better in societal parlance as software professional.
I understand that by being born in poor country like India, i made myself disadvantaged to people who lived in a rich country.I will do the same and sometimes better work than them but still i'll be paid less since the wretched cost of living index of a country decides my pay packet. I sometimes wonder about my middle class values of hardwork and sincerity.These
are the values that all these software companies thrives upon.As a paid labour ,i m entitled to fair working hours.But since i have been tought right from my childhood that to be successful , i need to work hard ,harder then the most of the ppl arnd me; i work ,work like an idiot,at times like a dog.But what is end result of this taxing endeavour ?? My project leader delievers a project to a company owned by the rich of the world (most likely some MNC) ,within deadlines ,surpassing all the quality standards and the customer is happy.My Project manager pats me on my back,says something complimentary to me (which at times may be accompanied by some meagre monetary appraisals) and hands me over another project.Since by then i m little rejuvenated and little less tired,partly because of rest that i have been bestowed with recently and becasue of PL's pats on my back(Afterall it's not everyday tht ur PL says nice things abt u);i start working with a renewed enthusiam in a hope that all i need to achieve immortality is sincerity and hard work.Needless to say i feel highly disllusioned not before long.
Indian software companies thrives on their least cost philosophy.They offers such an irresitible prices to their customer that, had size and risk factor of a project won't have to be taken into account they will land up with almost all the software projects under the Sun.The only reason that they can offer such prices is the cheap labour they have at their armlength.The wage differential between indian companies and other companies is a very important factor in tilting the decision in their(indian companies) favour.But the question remains ,who ultimately pays the price for this bargain ? who else but the poor fellow who writes the code.He work under the pressure of ridiculously tight deadlines and as a result ends up working for inhumanely long hours.The plight of the situation is that he rarely gets anything more then peanuts for his
efforts when compared to the profit his company generates because of it.His personal life suffers tremendously and all he can hope from the situation that one day this will change which in the normal course of things rarely happens.
This is the story of almost every software engineer working in India.I can not help but seeing similarities between this system and the old slavery tradition.
Earlier a slave used to work hard in a vain hope that one day when his master will be happy of him ,he will set him free.A slave wanted a happy end to his otherwise tragic story.
These days a programmer works hard in a hope that one day he will stop coding and will be told to take some managerial responsibilities and his gloomy days as a programmer will be put to an end.
Seems like the business has only grown bigger in terms of number of people and amount of moneyinvolved.The basics, however remain the same-- the one who has the money uses the people who don't have it to have some more money in his wallet.Who cares for the penniless afterall !! But since these are the days of democracy ,perks and paypackets are provided, unlike the slaves but just sufficient enough to keep the mouths of people shut.(Money, however little it may be; has been the greatest sedative afterall from the start of human civilization).
And the Great Indian Software Industry show goes on.
A quarter of a cabin, with a personal computer, a ergonomically designed furniture which includes a revolving chair,a table with a cupboard( meant to keep documents in properly arranged fashion ) ,no life and height of boredom, not exactly cubicle in shape ; is how i would describe my office cubicle .
Sitting there i realize how a young, bubbly soul turns gradually into a jombie.A nerdy creature which is known better in societal parlance as software professional.
I understand that by being born in poor country like India, i made myself disadvantaged to people who lived in a rich country.I will do the same and sometimes better work than them but still i'll be paid less since the wretched cost of living index of a country decides my pay packet. I sometimes wonder about my middle class values of hardwork and sincerity.These
are the values that all these software companies thrives upon.As a paid labour ,i m entitled to fair working hours.But since i have been tought right from my childhood that to be successful , i need to work hard ,harder then the most of the ppl arnd me; i work ,work like an idiot,at times like a dog.But what is end result of this taxing endeavour ?? My project leader delievers a project to a company owned by the rich of the world (most likely some MNC) ,within deadlines ,surpassing all the quality standards and the customer is happy.My Project manager pats me on my back,says something complimentary to me (which at times may be accompanied by some meagre monetary appraisals) and hands me over another project.Since by then i m little rejuvenated and little less tired,partly because of rest that i have been bestowed with recently and becasue of PL's pats on my back(Afterall it's not everyday tht ur PL says nice things abt u);i start working with a renewed enthusiam in a hope that all i need to achieve immortality is sincerity and hard work.Needless to say i feel highly disllusioned not before long.
Indian software companies thrives on their least cost philosophy.They offers such an irresitible prices to their customer that, had size and risk factor of a project won't have to be taken into account they will land up with almost all the software projects under the Sun.The only reason that they can offer such prices is the cheap labour they have at their armlength.The wage differential between indian companies and other companies is a very important factor in tilting the decision in their(indian companies) favour.But the question remains ,who ultimately pays the price for this bargain ? who else but the poor fellow who writes the code.He work under the pressure of ridiculously tight deadlines and as a result ends up working for inhumanely long hours.The plight of the situation is that he rarely gets anything more then peanuts for his
efforts when compared to the profit his company generates because of it.His personal life suffers tremendously and all he can hope from the situation that one day this will change which in the normal course of things rarely happens.
This is the story of almost every software engineer working in India.I can not help but seeing similarities between this system and the old slavery tradition.
Earlier a slave used to work hard in a vain hope that one day when his master will be happy of him ,he will set him free.A slave wanted a happy end to his otherwise tragic story.
These days a programmer works hard in a hope that one day he will stop coding and will be told to take some managerial responsibilities and his gloomy days as a programmer will be put to an end.
Seems like the business has only grown bigger in terms of number of people and amount of moneyinvolved.The basics, however remain the same-- the one who has the money uses the people who don't have it to have some more money in his wallet.Who cares for the penniless afterall !! But since these are the days of democracy ,perks and paypackets are provided, unlike the slaves but just sufficient enough to keep the mouths of people shut.(Money, however little it may be; has been the greatest sedative afterall from the start of human civilization).
And the Great Indian Software Industry show goes on.
