work away or walk away??

20 days at my internship have led me to the fated conclusion that all of the human race is a gross underperformer. The difference being that some pretend to work while at it, while others like your's truly laze around in enlightenment.

Try this for an average work day.

9.30 a.m. - reporting
10.00-10.40 a.m. - breakfast
12.00- 1.00 p.m. - lunch
2.15- 2.40 p.m. - coffee
4.00- 5.oo p.m. - snacks
6.00 p.m. - day end.

This leaves a little more than 5 working hours in the day. Mind you, this is not considering day dreaming, idle chat, blogging, making colourful PPTs, digging your nose, water and loo breaks etc etc. So, as you would have figured, the most efficient employees work all of the 5 non food hours in the day.

The outsourcing and IT boom has exalted the Indian employee as cost efficient labour. We are touted as being technology super specialists. Let me explain the degree to which we specialize. Work ends at 6 p.m. The IT employee interprets this as 'vacate premises by 6 p.m.' At 5.50 p.m., works' already wrapped up. He would not dare disrespect the company by being a liability for a further minute. Teamwork is what drives success. Meetings are called upon by people who could individually accomplish zilch, just to collectively establish that nothing could be done.

And then there are our Gult brothers, most of whom consume truckloads of rice for lunch. I happened to notice a few who made atleast a couple of long visits to the washroom after lunch on a regular basis. At tea, i politely asked them about the well being of their tummy. The perplexed look I got was soon explained when i figured that they took 15 minutes siesta breaks sitting on the pots in the washroom!

The company top management must have put some thought into arranging the bus departures from office in the evenings. Buses leave every hour, starting at 6.15 p.m. They would have thought that the unfortunate souls who happen to miss a bus, will out of sheer boredom contribute with atleast 30 minutes more work. Once again, the ingenious Indian proved his mettle. At around 5 p.m., a good hour before work times end, a strange growing sluggishness can be observed all around office. Its like the 10 minute walk after a tiring jog. Our company boasts of a cooling down culture for employees where work quality and quantity steadily diminishes post the 5 p.m. mark.

No wonder, Indian IT professionals are percieved as cutting edge innovators. It's an all pervasive attitude:)

life in limbo...

Just the day before, i was tuned in to the evening news, when the new spurt to the Indian media industry - Pramod Mahajan, and his dismal state in the Hinduja hospital was being avidly regurgitated by the press.

Lets just take a peek at the air time devoted to this tragic happenstance. The day he was admitted, the nation was in shock, most of us expecting him not to make it with all those bulets pumped into his torso. Our media smelt blood...The result- 23 hours of media coverage a day! 3 days pass and the media coverage has dwindled to less than an hour a day. His current condition is 'critical yet stable', which for the media translates to 'he not gonna be dead soon'.

This scavenger approach to press coverage has baffled me since a long time. Whats even more baffling is how the hell did Pravin Mahajan manage to miss with 3 bullets!!!! I guess it was the abject shame he felt at his appalling aim that led him to surrender himself.

But everything has a bright side to it. Atleast the hospital admission got the Indian top ministers to rush there at 9 in the morning, a time most of them would have just witnessed during the republic day flag hoisting (hoping with fingers crossed). Also, some hot shot liver surgeon was flown down from London to treat Mr. Mahajan. Now coincidentally, it so happens that the ace surgeon is a Muslim. I guess with Mahajan's life on the line, Hindutva or any practical semblance of it goes for a toss!