Tuesday, March 06, 2007

"The Bullshitting" and Software Engineers

The following is my personal perception after reading the front-page of Dinamalar. I do not represent the IT. It is just my personal thought. And just as usual - useless.

Somebody somewhere is caught in a Drug-fest. And the Gang is supposed to be from some BPO Company. And that has become great news for Dinamalar. According to Dinamalar, anyone who sits in front of a Computer is a Software Engineer. And invariably they are Culture-spoiled.

This is a indecent perception that Dinamalar has. A little more than Immature -that too for a news media. In fact it makes me sick, when any news media start discussing about the High-Salaries of Software Engineers. I do agree that the pay packages for an IT job is comparatively higher than other jobs. So what ? MBAs and CAs grab equally and in fact more. Somehow everyone get an impression that IT is easy money. I wouldn't say it isn't.

Understand a few ground realities in IT. Not everyone gets an IT job in Tier I companies. A maximum of 6.5 lakh employees would be in there, lets assume. Tier II companies and further down, some companies have a decent pay scales. But many companies there have a scaled down version. And there are companies further down that even pay employees a Four digit salary. I'm not sure about the BPO sector. But thats a different ball-game altogether. I'm not even sure, if they come under the IT Umbrella.

Now, many people do not get jobs in IT. Either they are inclined to a different profession. Or they didn't get an opportunity, yet. Most of them envy IT jobs, because they are easy money. I know a lot of you might come fighting down that "It is not envy". But a recent survey(I guess it was on some TV) had a lot more than 30% confess that they do envy IT jobs. And some people do more than envy, and generate aversion.

People hold aversion towards an IT job, saying that it is a Stressful job. They have their own reasons for their hatred. In fact there are some IT folks themselves in the list of Cribbing about how sick an IT job is to them. I'm not for any sacredness of an IT job. I am a Software Engineer myself. I do not know much about the other flavors of IT jobs. Yet, this is what I had to say.

An IT job is as same as any other job in town. It has its own good and bad, just like any other job. If there is a mechanic shed that pays its mechanics Rs. X as salary, there is a Castrol Service Centre which offers Rs. 2X or Rs. 4X to the same kind of work. There are some thousands of software companies that are like a local mechanic sheds, and many computer engineers work there for a meager pay. And thats true.

Dinamalar's next point is "Culture Calamity" is caused by Software companies. They substantiate it by saying "IT guys are heavily paid, and don't know how to spend. So they spend it on illegal or anti-elements. They are given an opportunity to travel abroad, and the spoiled culture there impacts them and on coming back, they soil it here."

Well.. well.. well.

This is as immature as it can get. All of these guys pay their taxes, I'm sure. I don't understand why Dinamalar would expect IT guys to be so pure. People are people everywhere. And there are drug addicts in every profession. Every line of profession. I agree with the point that with the freedom of money they have in their hand, they tend to spend more. But I don't like the whole idea of generalizing it.

It is very similar to sensationalizing a subject. To spot you an example, when a terrorist is captured, and he is a Jew or Christian he is termed as "Terrorist". Whereas if the terrorist is a Muslim he is termed "Islamic Terrorist". If that is bullshit, thats the same shit here.

Also, just because 36 people who were arrested were co-incidentally from an IT job that doesn't make the rest of the gang drug addicts. There are so many other good attributes I see within people I mingle with, in my company, which I wouldn't attribute to their nature of job. It is not an IT job that made someone a good singer. It is not an IT job that makes a person good or bad. It is a good or bad person that joins the IT job.

Doctor Prakash cannot cause a bad-name to the whole of Medical Profession. His act doesn't make every doctor a sex-addict.

The media seem to be taking more care of the IT job related news, only on the negative side. Some BPO employee is killed somewhere, it is given an undue attention. Doctors, Socialists and CEOs start discussing about that. They start blaming the timings of the IT companies, and no one blames the Security measures of the society.

In most of the Temples I visited down-south, they had some NRI guy on the top-of-the-list donating something. That doesn't make all the NRI's god-fearing and devotional. Most software companies and their employees donate to some charitable organization and that yet doesn't make everyone in IT kind hearted.

Stop mis-attributing things and for heaven's sake stop generalizing.

I reckon you read the front page of Dinamalar, today.
I'm just wondering why that never appeared in any visible column on The Hindu. Cheap sensationalizing tricks ?

6 comments:

narayanan said...

Keerthi,
There is an article on NDTV, but did'nt make bullshit comments like what Dinamalar did.

I dont consider Dinamalar as a newspaper, then why give it so much importance.

Chakra said...

Thats a good post Keerthi.

Gone are the days when Dinamalar used to have some sort of standard. Now, even 'sub standard' is too much of a word to be attributed to them.

Sowmya said...

tanda dainggg.....

Indree vangungal makkal patthirikkai.. " DINAMALAR"

Thaan vazhavittalum, pirar vazhvai vimarsikum orey patthirikai .." DINAMALAR"

Makkal Vayitrerichalai appadiye thella thelivaga prathipalikum orey pathirikkai " Dina malar..Dina malar..Dina malar"

tanda dainggg...

The Talkative Man said...

lol@the above.

Great post, DesperateMalar is scraping the barrel to make their paper sell.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you totally there. How can they say IT guys are culture spoiled. Are they blind to Actress & Actressess. If they do it in Cinema it is OK. It is for entertainment, if the IT guys do it then it is spoiling the culture. Atleast IT guys and Gals dont go naked on the roads(yes you are reading it right, the dress that the actress wear are not cover the body but to show the body). Keerthi, Why are you even reading papers like Dinakaran. They are not even "News"-Papers. They are just some papers with full of crap in it. STOP buying crap.

Shreekanth said...

Infact it is said that Dinamalar is a daily with its own set standard of all the other tamil news paper. Idhuve ippadi nna appo maththadu ellam.....?