IT Industry - The Dark side

If you think to yourself , what's the fastest growing thing in India, you would think of many things. But one such thing which is not obvious is the rapidly expanding IT industry. From just being a fun toy in and before the early 90s , the computer has become your pocket filler today. And the extent of the bucks earned no doubt is attracting huge masses to this industry. At the outset itself let me make it clear that i am not too much of a computer crazy guy , infact i hate it more than i love it when i come to think of it as my buddy in my day to day job.

Why you wud ask , when you cud do so many fascinating things with it. Sure , but i feel except if you are really making a difference to anybody or creating something REALLY happening like Rocket Science/Super Computing , everything else that gets produced in the IT industry is just the same wine in different bottles. However the the most sorry part of it all for me is that the IT industry makes you sit at one place for hours together. I mean why stare at the "new version of the idiot box" and keep tapping your fingers the whole day on that key-bored when you can easily be out of the office somewhere in the arms of nature or arms of your loved ones. I like to be fit and healthy , the IT industry it seems objects to a person being healthy by giving him/her some bad habits which i will discuss later. The computer is in many ways like an adhesive , keeps you firmly routed to your seat and your cubicle . Well talking of cubicles , remember that even the prison has a 4 sided structure to which the prisoner is confined !!!! Difference being a prisoner does not have to bear the computer within his cell like an IT guy... That brings me to the second part of this topic - the guy itself : the IT PROFESSIONAL henceforth referred to in the article as the "IT PRO".

If you wake me up in the middle of the night , place a massive crowd of people before me and ask me to identify the IT PROs among them , I am confident i would be so accurate that it would place me above Einstein in the "Genius" rankings.

Firstly the dress itself gives it away.... tip-top, well ironed formal shirt , formal trouser , shining pair of formal shoes , a mobile pouch , expensive gadgets.... shirt always tucked in with a belt to keep it tucked in around the ever growing tummy. But the biggest characteristic of an IT PRO is his laptop bag..doesn't matter if there is a laptop inside or not, the bag is an inseperable part of an IT PRO's persona. Also the ID card hanging around the neck , for me bears a great resemblence to the garland put around a photoframe :) ... the ID card sits around the neck sometimes even as early as leaving home and comes back intact around the neck till you reach back home late night , midnight whatever time !!!!! For an IT PRO , it's much much and more much valuable than say an Olympic Gold Medal around an athlete's neck. Interestingly whenever i am walking out on those streets, I see a similar thing around the neck of the canines of this world.

A GENUINE hardcore IT PRO MUST MUST always talk about releases, bugs , database , requirements while being not only at his workplace but also at the lunch table, snacks , lifts and even nature call rooms..believe me i have seen people talking only IT related things in places where you would better concentrate on something else:))))

Also if u ever notice real close, most of the IT PROs, specially those who have found their feet in this IT jumboree, always move around with a swagger, like they just conquered Everest or got an affirmative response from a Miss World. They just somehow seem to try to give a feeling that everything about them and around them is so cool , when deep in their minds they also know they are just the prisoners of these computers confined to the limited space of their workplaces. I used to wonder and now I have no doubt , that thru the span of their life , they see their computers more than they see their wife and kids !!!!!

With IT job comes a plethora of bad habits like very little activity thru the day, negligence of health and fitness , drinking "Coffee" innumerable times a day ( a dangerous trait ) , absolute disregard of the eyes and the brain etc etc. A person tends to bog down and become monotonous and routine in his daily life.All and all the IT Industry , as well as it pays , also eats you away mentally and health wise big time.

All i feel is that computer work is no special talent as such , it can be taught and brought out of the most common guys..there's no semblence of a real physical talent as is required in acting , singing , sports etc. Not everyone can become a player , singer , actor but almost all with some guidance and buffer of time can become IT PROs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EMBRACE OTHER PROFESSIONS AS WELL.....Leave the IT line to those who wanna spend a stereotypical, routine life doing ..well nothing !!!