Cyber coolie

When I first heard this phrase, it took me by surprise, primarily because I have considered myself lucky to be in an ever “booming” industry. I might sound cynical but this is the only industry that gives “average” people a chance to dress up in whites, sit in AC-ied offices, drive cars at the age of 26 yrs, travel to different places around the globe, flash costly mobile phones and have the audacity to ask for more money every year and never talk of the “quality” of the work that they did.

Yes, I am a part of this industry for I will not be fitting anywhere else; I am pretty sure about myself that I won’t fit on a shop floor of a manufacturing industry, or even in a constant pressure accounting firm which deals in stocks. For some reason, I could never use the most popular phrase in IT industry in front of my dad who has been a civil engineer for 30 yrs now. The phrase most of you have guessed by now is “I work so hard”. I mean what are we talking about, we work hard!!! Sitting on a cushioned chair, having 3 may be 4 coffee breaks, listening to mp3s while we do something on a machine that is made to perform as per its user!! Gosh!!.

Ok, I deviated a little from the topic, coming back to what made me write this article is my recent trip to “THE USA”. Now, there is a reason why I wrote THE USA in bold, the reason is for apparently some reason (I am not sure what!!) we have such a big picture of this country where we are treated nothing more than the inhabitants from the category of Blacks or Mexicans. Now before you jump off your chair to beat me up for this racist thing, visit USA and read the looks on faces of “Americans”.

Again I deviated, ok; I will try to focus now. “Cyber coolie” was a phrase that I heard from a colleague on the current project, and needless to say it made an immediate connection with me. What else would you call someone who works on Computers, for 16-18 hours, has no personal life and no say in anything?

Let me break it down for further understanding, in older days when we were being ruled by British, Indians were used as slaves to do hard work like lifting blocks, and moving goods, in short “coolies”. British left us and we Indians grew and travelled to different countries and got settled in there. We started considering ourselves to be equivalent of whites/British – Rulers. We started exporting people from India to these remote destinations at the behest of good life and little money. We made them work like dogs, paid them peanuts and ensured that they do not have any say in anything. So, we transformed the whole thing into a glamorous world of coolies. “Cyber Coolies”

My worst fears and thoughts have come true with my maiden trip to USA. I was someone who was always convinced that life is better off in India, but I couldn’t gather enough points to debate, hence whenever people used to talk about USA, I used to stand defeated. Now I can definitely go back and talk about it.
There is nothing wrong with USA but what’s wrong is our perception of this country. It’s a very normal place, trust me, they are just ahead of us – Indians, maybe a little more disciplined, and definitely more focused. But not something that we can’t achieve if only we forget about what’s cooking in Khanna sahib’s home or what Mrs Sharma is wearing tonight , etc.

In short, we are cyber coolies and will remain so, unless people who are at the top by virtue of they having first mover advantage start having a bigger perspective in life then just exploiting people. We Indians are at the top of most organizations and increasingly world is recognizing us, lets break the shackles of exploiting our own people and garner some respect. Let’s behave a little more matured then “I am in USA to earn some money for home”. Let’s stop looking for 1USD=44INR, let’s stop “assuming” that I am American just because I am in America for “You can take a man out of the country, but you can never take a country out of a man”. I will and always remain an Indian, no matter where I am and what I am, and I should never forget this.