The Stable Life Syndrome

I just shifted to the PMI office of Satyam at Pune. The IT crowd in general is a very young crowd, with most of us under the age of 30, just passing out of college. But the demographics at PMI aka Manikchand Ikon building at Pune are a bit different. Just like STC - Hyderabad, a lot of the staff working here is settled in Pune. They have families and they bring tiffins from home to the office here. Coming to this office I have made a few observations. I have no idea of the veracity of my theories, but I can propound them nevertheless.

I believe that the average salary earning, 9 to 6 tiffin holding worker, be it from IT or from some other industry is one of the reasons behind inactive society that we see at large. The reason being that having a family implies added responsibility on an individual leaving him with that much lesser time to spare for the the society. His life and his world which is small in the first place becomes even smaller after having a family. Even more poignant is the fact that the higher the income in such families, the higher is the insulation from ground realities.

This is also true because an average middle class individual, post marriage, with a high salary tends to be in a comfort zone, such as never experienced before in life. A life which started as a struggle through school, scoring highly throughout college and finally landing a cushy job as the prize for all the hardwork. Such an individual is far more interested in enjoying the fruits of his labours rather than being proactive to the issues that face our country.

In the end, I will pin down the importance for a "Stable Life" as being one of the chief resons for the usual insensitivity that surrounds. This "Stable Life" does receive a rude shock when there are bombings in hotels that we visit and railway stations that we leave from. But it hardly matters to the same people if our soldiers are fighting for their lives in the cold in Kashmir, if the North East is plagued by Maoism or the naxals. One of the reasons that nations like the United States do get to elect someone like Obama as president is because of the proactivity of its citizens who believe and desire change - something that most "Stable Life" living Indian don't want.

How to rid of this? Encourage the young to marry old. The older they get married at, the more proactive they stay for the state - I believe. The more such proactive denizens, the better off we all are.

Please don't hesitate to post comments and tell me why this seems a hare brained scheme to you. :-)

Reality Sinks In

The job is boring. The company is breaking. And the worries are mounting.

The first time I heard the news of Raju's confession, I was shocked and excited. I was happy that finally there is something that is happening in Satyam. No, that wasn't a wisecrack.

But now, the adrenaline has drained, the excitement has gone and reality is sinking in. Just as graduating from the best college in Gujarat puts you in a different league altogether, getting thrown out of Satyam also puts you in a completely different league. More so when you have spent the one year in Satyam on bench. Freelancing does provide the dough to last but it is not easy to freelance forever. Making plans of becoming an enterpreneur are easy, but finding a single project idea worth the money is tough.

It seems the tiger that Raju was riding is now slowly closing its jaws, inch by inch, over our necks. The economy is bad and is going to become worse. Our bosses have advised us to start looking for a new job.

There is despondancy creeping in for sure, but it is also with a lot of desperation. Options abound, but which oen to go for is still an issue. Lets pray for the best.

When Satyam Falls

I live in an area called Aundh in Pune. The USP of the area is that it lies in the vicinity of Pune University and on the way to the Hinjewadi IT Park. Hinjewadi houses an IT park and a Biotech park and it is at a distance of 16 kms from Aundh. Nearly 1 lakh people work in office buildings of Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Tech Mahindra, Satyam, Barclays and other companies in the IT park.

I travel to my office by a 45 minutes bus ride. All through the ride on both sides of the road I see hoarding of Flats for Sales. There are hoardings marketing 3BHKD and also 3BHKDG (3 Bedroom Hall Kitchen, Dining and Garden) flats available with "ravishing amenities". The rate of infrastructure growth in Pune is amazing. The basic amenities unfortunately aren't keeping up as I believe that this Maharashtra government is just as good for nothing as others. The CYG - Commonwealth Youth Games did bring in some development, but it was too less, too late.

Getting back to the point, the exponential development that I have seen in Pune and the Pimpri area puts even Mumbai to shame. Pune is a beautiful city, with superb natural cover, great weekend getaways - for travel lovers like myself and a soothing climate all the year around. Most of these things didn't bring much development for all these years. What brought this spate of infrastructure investment was the blooming IT industry. In 10 years' time Aundh Gaon was replaced by Aundh Annexe. Young IT professionals with loads of money to spend caused the boom that broke college students from all over India couldn't.

Hyderabad, is a similar jewel of Southern India. Bangalore might have overtaken it in terms of investment because of its more pleasant climate, but Hyderabad also houses many multinational IT giants like Microsoft, Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant and Satyam. Satyam is definitely the jewel of Hyderabad.

I remember we used to get a 10% Satyam discount in a lot of stores in Hyderabad. The Satyam brand name was revered and for the local Hyderabadi it was a dream come true. A lot of it has changes in the past fortnight. But Hyderabad's dependence on Satyam hasn't. A huge number of people still depend on this company. The reason being, that the 500 crore salary that is paid each month, doesn't just fill the pockets of Satyamites and the companies like transport, housekeeping etc. that support us, but percolates down to all the maid servants and rickshaw drivers who charge exorbibant amount of money from Satyamites.

Saving Satyam is akin to saving a lot of Hyderabad. I love the city and I love my job too. Hope they both keep safe.