Sulking on the Edge

I have had it and I have had enough. After all good dreams don’t come true – or maybe it was just another of my nightmares that I failed to recognize. I’m losing everything – Sanity, Will to survive, Energy to fight back. After lobbying aggressively to end my short term transfer (misadventure), I was glad to hear that I’m getting released by September end. What I heard next almost made me faint. The light at the end of the tunnel was infact a freight train (Courtesy – Metallica) running at Mach3 towards me. I never knew when it hit me. After 2 months of this misadventure in Chennai, with the only hope of somehow making it to Pune, I’m being zorged to B’lore, on another “Short-term” transfer of 3 months. After which, apparently, yet again, I may or may not be posted to Pune. The reason – Business Requirements. Oh yeah!! Everybody is helpless when it comes to business requirements. My superiors cannot help it because client has put in certain restrictions based on the project requirements, in a specific way, and client cannot help it because he is not so sure what the exact requirement is. So while they decide what the heck they actually want to achieve, I may very well rot in B’lore.

I’ve decided that while I’m at it, I must pledge my dream company another… mmm….. say 45 years of selfless short term transfer services. Why not send me to Bhuvaneshwar, Mangalore and Trivandrum on such short term transfers? I’m very much interested you see. I would love to live the life of a nomad. And when they run out of places, my humble request to send me back to Chennai, but this time – Mahindra City. You know, I want to get the feel of working at all the DCs. Working at all theses places for a maximum of 9-10 months (beyond that it will become a long term transfer) will be good for my psychological and physical well being. And when they run out of all the places where DCs already exist, I’m ready to volunteer for opening new DCs in the far reaches and confines of the world – Jungles of Timbaktu – for want of space and Client Requirements. I am ready to go alone in fact, so that with no satellite TV, books or any thing remotely resembling Social Life, I’ll be able to dedicate 16 hours of productive work per day of my existence. If that is not enough I’m also ready to put my thumb out, get a hitch hike from one of those interstellar transports captained by bug-eyed, slimy green aliens, land on Zamogran and code, while dangling onto a last string of hope that my beloved company will one day, one fine day, give me a “One Day” short term transfer to Pune.

Now you may ask - Why am I dieing to be in Pune? Why, may I ask, you need reasons to be in Pune? It is not like I am asking my company to open up a new development center in Pune. Infact not one, but two exist. I am of the view that if I am not able to enjoy the money that I’m making, there’s no point in having a job like this. You may say that I’m rigid, inflexible – So be it. I don’t care. Now I don’t want to get emotional or the sort, but I ask myself - My parents never left me, when they were busy working so that they could provide me the best of education and nurturing. So why should I be living far away from them, when the need of the time is that I should be as closer to them? And especially when it is all possible. I’m mad, and I’m mad as hell. And someone has to pay for it. Today I resolve to get a permanent posting in Pune through this company or another job, whatever it might be. And until that happens, I’m not setting my foot in Pune. I don’t know what fate has in store for me. But I’ll never forget these words – With a Software Job, comes great frustration. It is my gift, my curse. Who am I? I’m just another Software Engineer. (Courtesy – Spiderman)