Moon couldn't answer all the questions, so people started exploring the Mars. 90s introduced crazy inflection points to the social survival curves in India. Ambassadors, Fiats and Padminis could not hold their charm for long. Liberalization was already introduced. We smelled the possibilities of multistorey apartments, air conditioned offices, coffee vending machines, US/Europe trips; we scanned the probabilities of our dreams basking on flat organizational platforms. The new generation engineers heard a similar degree of freedom and freshness in these acid free, tar free, coal free jobs as they heard in those newly introduced Lenon and Floyd songs.
Hello, is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?
Private jobs came with a bang and changed the DNA of all the social ideologies.
Coding was the buzz word. Engineering colleges turned into gateway to so-called luxurious lives. Pre-graduation and graduation education diluted to the alphabets of C/C++ and other computing languages.We had a fabulous by product called 'salary slips' to slap and mute all the critics. Graduates were paid 5-6 times more than any government employee. Generations never heard of such salary packages for middle class family graduates. The white collar job also ensured their distances from corruptions, bribery and politics. We worked late nights, earned good and spent that lavishly.
Foreign trips and scope of outside India settlements metamorphosed creativity, knowledge, skills and desire in engineering colleges. We all study to earn and so it was all justified. Hefty salaries, album pictures on snow laden US streets, BMWs, Mercedes, flight travels were good enough to inspire people not to run for 'Sarkari Babu' jobs. 1995-2005 witnessed a huge decline in engineering graduates preparing for UPSC or IES. No one wanted social responsibilities to chain their freedoms.
We had good salaries, long sedans, apartments, US settlements, blah blah... We traded our social and cultural identities to explore the flat world. We traded our work life balance to have an air conditioned stay in offices. We skipped weekend sports to get paid enough and join gym and yoga classes.
Most of these private job holding guys spent months in the US/Europe. Many of them walked these days alone, away from their families, surviving on pieces of cheese breads. When their families were celebrating Holi, Diwali and Ganpati, they were gulping mugs of beer on any random melancholy tunes.
We know that we were cheated for our dreams, but we have compromised. We have signed an unsaid mutual pact with the life. We have all learnt to settle down on air-conditioned couches.
Mars was as flawed for dream as moon was.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.
Hello, is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?
Private jobs came with a bang and changed the DNA of all the social ideologies.
Coding was the buzz word. Engineering colleges turned into gateway to so-called luxurious lives. Pre-graduation and graduation education diluted to the alphabets of C/C++ and other computing languages.We had a fabulous by product called 'salary slips' to slap and mute all the critics. Graduates were paid 5-6 times more than any government employee. Generations never heard of such salary packages for middle class family graduates. The white collar job also ensured their distances from corruptions, bribery and politics. We worked late nights, earned good and spent that lavishly.
Foreign trips and scope of outside India settlements metamorphosed creativity, knowledge, skills and desire in engineering colleges. We all study to earn and so it was all justified. Hefty salaries, album pictures on snow laden US streets, BMWs, Mercedes, flight travels were good enough to inspire people not to run for 'Sarkari Babu' jobs. 1995-2005 witnessed a huge decline in engineering graduates preparing for UPSC or IES. No one wanted social responsibilities to chain their freedoms.
We had good salaries, long sedans, apartments, US settlements, blah blah... We traded our social and cultural identities to explore the flat world. We traded our work life balance to have an air conditioned stay in offices. We skipped weekend sports to get paid enough and join gym and yoga classes.
Most of these private job holding guys spent months in the US/Europe. Many of them walked these days alone, away from their families, surviving on pieces of cheese breads. When their families were celebrating Holi, Diwali and Ganpati, they were gulping mugs of beer on any random melancholy tunes.
We know that we were cheated for our dreams, but we have compromised. We have signed an unsaid mutual pact with the life. We have all learnt to settle down on air-conditioned couches.
Mars was as flawed for dream as moon was.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.
