Below Expectation

Today, I realised a 5 year out standing dream of riding the volvo to work. It worked great in my favor and all the smaller dreams(of reading a book on the way to work and riding in a/c on the way to work, getting to work without a backlog of "pissed-off-ness" et all) attached to this outstanding dream also came true. This considering the fact that i was told the traffic on the road today was relatively low oveing to most people taking today off as tomorrow is a festival holiday making it an almost 5 day week end.

Also tremendous change taking place at work with the appraisal cycle just coming to an end. Lot of emotions in imbalance as I have been given a considerably low rating for the efforts I have put through. Survival in the industry is a cat fight!

Am half way through this book called "love over coffee" - a Romance @ Work by Amrit N Shetty, an IT professional working in a multinational company. An excerpt from this book which found sharp pointers to my current life:

To survive in this IT jungle, one has to constantly send out signals about his or her presence. One has to make sure that his name appears in the symbolic list maintained by higher management, if he wants to get promoted or even to get a decent hike. You will not last a single day if you do not paint a positive picture of your self to your colleagues or your superiors. IT is a field where you could get killed if you loose your focus even for a second. It is like driving on Indian roads where even the best drivers can fail.

On Indian roads, one has to constantly look out for mistakes made by others and take advantage of them; knowing how to drive does help, but only a little. If you are careful driver who is averse to taking risks, you could end up spending hours in the traffic congestion, while smart drivers sneak through gaps left my the inept ones. If you are smart, you can quickly learn to drive the Indian way, but if you are foolish or one of the heady nerds, you'd be plain lucky to survive.

There are only few exceptions to the general rule and that is only because they have God fathers inside the organisation or the government.

I quickly learnt that it was easy to drive through the congestion if you followed a bus or a big van. People ahead make way for big vehicles fearing the clout thrown around by them and all one had to do to succeed is to stay close on their heels. You progress as much as the bigger vehicles. This strategy compensated for my inability to learn quickly and take advantage from mistake made by others. I was constantly making amends to my driving not because I didn’t want to win but because I did not want to get killed or stuck in the congestion.

Relatively poor written book but a good read for an IT professional. Am half way through it and is a nice read if you ride the Volvo to work! :)