It all started way back when I just took a birth and all they said was like – “We have an Engineer in our house”. From the day I was hired in this world (till my graduation), I thought I was here for a mission. A mission planned by my parents; a dream set by my parents; a destiny chosen by my parents, and in fact, a deadline set by my parents. But, the worst part was that they elected me as a doer for this without considering my intent - An intent of what I wanted to become; what I wanted to see myself; and whether I wanted to be part of their so called vision or not. For me, the agony lay in a part where my intent was far-fetched for them.

As the time rolled by, accompanied with the advent of computers in the field of Engineering, my parents thought that it would be a boon for the family to have a tech- savvy in house. But, they never realized that I could not be even technically competent (though I was confident of being just other layman). To be technically savant means it was like thinking “out of the box” which was itself a tough task for me. However, as a good learning curve, I accepted my fate as a mediocre IT engineer which was way different than what my parent had expected.

A device providing bread and butter to all IT Engineers

Along with the passage of time when the final patch got ready (The day I finished my Computer Engineering – An eighth wonder for me), my parents thought “Now the deadline has been met, we can send the child to production (to dispatch me in the IT world). But, they (partly me as well) never knew that did I do justice to the Computer course or was I coerced to complete it?  As an IT Engineer, one must be aware of Computer languages (a mere assumption). But, throughout my graduation, I was not able to add a single more language to my count other than normal spoken languages that I am/was aware of. That might be the reason why knowingly or unknowingly, I was proud and haughty about my accomplishment along with my parents to be called as an IT Engineer for whatever I did (getting my bounty without a struggle made me complacent because of which I am still facing repercussions).

When I got recruited for the first time (Seriously…! without knowing “a” of any computer language) by one of the IT bellwethers in India (better not to take a name of a demon), my family was on cloud nine receiving the wishes from my neighbors and envious relatives. But, at that very moment I was actually pondering over things like - What did I do to make them go berserk? Did the company hire me or them? The things of which I was completely unaware of and the moment I thought to conceal as I was not sure to reproduce the same moment again in my lifetime (the common thing for ITians as they lose their charisma once they enter the IT arena; a thing far different than that for IITians).

When I started my journey to hell (My first day at office), I thought I would be belittled by others (due to lack of technical knowledge) as I thought others must had come with plenty of knowledge from all over the India. But, as the time melted away, I realized that they were just like me. I soothed myself with a thought that “It’s in a blood of IT industry to inhale employees having no knowledge and to exhale them just like the way they came”. And the surprising part is that the same trend is still followed all over in India. At least, this is the part where every IT engineer follows the same path (The path that leads to nowhere).

However, the panacea was never that much to keep me happy. During my initial phase of a battle, the very thought of getting my first project kept me alive. But, I never thought that the battle would be far worse than World War I and II (The combined severity of both the wars was negligible when compared to that of my struggle). I thought I was struggling to make my initial move in the battle and was wondering whether I was here from a decade or so. This is the cerebral part of the IT industry where they give euphemism “Bench” to this battle (I was on a bench for nearly a year in early days). But, the sad part was that they didn't give me “Bench” (along with the other assets like personal computer, VOIP, etc... of which I could have been the owner of) to sail through “The bench” period (Though money was and is still spent on other futile things).

Now, here I am, after 3+ years of experience (For namesake only, u can call it so) with a handful of project under my bucket, I am still in the same quandary whether I am getting mature with age or knowledge. The dilemma which will be there with me till my last breath.

The issue here to scratch head is not the thinking of parents or not the coerced application of their yearn and its fulfillment via their child as every parents think of betterment of their child; but to see the true facet of the IT industry where basically an employee is trained ( Rationally, completing the topic through one KT is not called training) on one stream and then thrown into the battle of other field with no sense and emotions attached to it, to see the way they are treated, to see how they get demoralized once entered the arena and kept in the same way throughout their miserable life and to feel the suffering imposed on  IT Engineers through which they never come out.

Note :
  • The humor was added just to have an empathy through replica of my experience; however to reach to the severity of hidden pain, one needs to be more than just an IT Engineer.
  • The positives of an IT industry or an IT Engineer are never discussed in the article as there aren't any and even if there are any, of any worth by mistake; that will be only to the IT industry only.
        
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