Software Engineer – A truly ‘blessed’ life…

Being a software engineer myself, I couldn’t hold off too long without writing about this. It is an autobiography of sorts.

Like all software engineers, I didn’t pick this life. It picked me. It’s like the wand in the Harry Potter series. You don’t choose IT. IT chooses you. :P

Anyway, I was released from my 4-year engineering curse and immediately put under the next curse. I am not a computer junkie. It was just the mild curiosity of the life that I have heard so much about that prompted me to take it up. I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. After 3 years, I can say that it is nothing.

For a country that is used to working from 9-5 in badly ventilated buildings with a slowly rotating fan above every four desks and a small ‘lunch room’ with a huge table and a few chairs around it, it IS a big deal when you are offered fully air-conditioned offices situated in an amazing campus with an amazing architecture, an international food court with all kinds of delicacies, a computer to yourself wherein you can complete all your household bill payments, and of course, the almost-remote-but-assured trip abroad for a few months.

A few months of this life, and it dawns on us that it is just a clever ruse to get people working here. The air-conditioning is still there. So is the architecture, food court and computer. While some of us have the privilege of browsing, some don’t. As for the trip abroad, well am still waiting…

It is a multi-billion-trillion-whatever-dollar industry where we make peanuts.People who feel they are too thin and need to put on weight do. People who feel they are too fat and need to lose weight do too. Put on weight, that is. Well, what else do you expect of a sedentary job, unless you are able to hit the gym an hour everyday. Even if you succeed gymming for half an hour, your cellphone begins humming your favourite ringtone signaling your manager’s call. Life is at its romantic best when both husband and wife are from the software industry. ;)

The software vernacular is the immediate effect on anyone who joins this industry. We are now used to saying stuff like ‘Oh you can’t make it to the wedding? No issues’ or 'Why did you score so less in your math exam? What's the issue?' or ‘I am sorry unless it is a mail communication, I do not recollect it’ or ‘I’ll ping you on gtalk’… Since when did message become ping and problem become issue? I had the shock of my life today when I heard the housekeeping people in the ladies restroom say ‘Apadi pannadha.. Issue aayida pogudhu’ (don’t do that, it is going to become an issue’). Such is the reach of the software vernacular.

Looking at the bright side, whether I have learnt the latest software technologies or not, whether I have solved all my issues or not, I am in loop about all the latest happenings in the world, thanks to this little system called mail-forwarding. I have accounts in almost all networking sites that I hardly use. I pay my bills on time. I also have the most amazing song collection. Songs that have been my all time favourites. Unless it is a movie I have been dying to watch, I needn't waste money going to the theatre as I update my pen drive every week with the latest movies. And what do you know, I have even started blogging! :P

There are so many alarming things about this industry. There are things that we can never make sense out of. There were points when I wanted to quit the next minute. I still do. But I also realized that it is not half bad when you have your best buddies here to make the miserable life bearable and fun.

So here I am. Your typical software engineer, on bench, waiting for a project in god-knows-what technology… ;)