On my way to office yesterday, I was browsing through the copy of Newspaper 'Today' when I came across one of the articles, which was titled 'How much inequality is enough?'. What caught my immediate attention was the picture it had - from the 'Occupy Wall Street' protest rally.
This picture had an array of despondent banners starting with 'I will never have ..'
It was after seeing this picture that the blogger in me started thinking. So much dejection, so much frustration, so much anger, so much helplessness, so much of debts to pay ..
People are bound to express their wrath and this was just another way of doing it. But then, will bringing down the wall street help to restore things to their good-old-days status? Are we all not getting disoriented as masses?
I am seeing this more and more in recent days. One Anna Hazare starts a campaign in India to have corruption-free administration. As days pass, people are seen fighting over matters like whether Anna was right to comment about slapping of a politician or not, and whether social networks should be regulated in India or not!!
What started as an Anti-Corruption campaign was gradually showcased as a JanLokpall bill war - on one hand candidates who supported the bill were suddenly certified to be cleaner and on the other hand political parties supporting the bill were questioned for their own credibility. Before anyone could notice, there was no one talking of curbing corruption anymore. It was all about personal comments, politics and lobbying for and against a bill and its format.
Isn't this same catalyst of politics causing a disorientation that is Occupy Wall Street campaign?
If you are still not buying that we as masses have been disoriented time and again, try to answer a simple question - Do you know or remember Mark Duggan? Try another one - What do you think of when you remember the London riots of last year?
If you ask me, the only images I remember are of people looting and burning down places all over UK. What began as a protest riot for killing of one Mark Duggan, changed its course into mass-looting before anyone could even sense the change.
Wasn't that a case of disoriented masses?
I mean if there is growing unemployment and debt, question your government and the governments before that - ask them for better governance, cleaner politics, long term visions!!
Those working at wall street are also people - and not everyone of them designed the classic sub-prime mortgage models. In fact, in recent years, many of them have also become jobless and have lost their houses to debts.
Among those who are still surviving, most are now working more for the same salary they have been getting for past 3-4 years. There hasn't been too much of a hike that they have seen in their payments, but yes the workload has definitely increased.
By now, you must have noticed that it is not really the mass movements and political issues that I am talking about :-)
I am just pouring out my own wrath - what has always been a dream job is now becoming difficult to keep, even more difficult to admire - considering the peanuts that have been awarded to the ground staff in past 2-3 years.
And now, I know that you are thinking about the title of this blog post - Is it even related to all the blabber??
Well, let's establish the relation. Name one of the hit movies of Amir Khan in recent times - It's 3 Idiots !!
Although I like this movie a lot, I have always been tempted to answer Mr Rancho, when he asks 'If Suhas wanted to work in a bank, why did he become an engineer?' and yes, you got it right!! He calls such a person a donkey - biological name: Asinus :-)
In times like today, IT has become an essential backbone of the financial industry. It enables the banks to execute decisions faster and in a more controlled environment. It is the engineers working for the banks, who make scalability of affairs possible!!
Personally, I like the fact that a simple group-by clause I had once introduced in a script has reduced the number of transactions being sent to one settlement agency to such an extent, that it is helping the bank save millions of dollars every year. I have also seen that a simple mistake such as typing an asterix [*] instead of a slash [/] has led to billions lost by the bank in a single day.
I am addicted to the feeling that a little typing that I do after a good analysis helps save millions of Dollars on some occasions and helps make millions of Dollars on other occasions - and just like the Dragonball series, this same good Goku has an evil Ozaru hidden in itself - which can lead to losses worth millions if things go wrong.
This feeling is the reason why engineers like me have been happily working for banks.
In recent years, when I see the top bosses talk about losses and right-sizing and budgets cuts, just a month or so before the appraisals season is to begin, I always get a feeling that they are making a fool out of us by playing such tricks. Sometimes, its too obvious not to notice that all the other quarters end up on positive notes, but the one just before appraisals is always bad !!
If this wasn't bad enough, there are these protestors, who should be rallying against their elected representatives and asking them questions - but who are rather happy in making an Asinus out of financial industry staff and making them carry the entire blame for current state of things. But, knock knock - It's one such asinus talking - This is not a relay race, where you will be a winner if you pass on the baton of miseries to others. You will need to throw away the baton of miseries and leap past the despondent mindset and only then you can win!!
This picture had an array of despondent banners starting with 'I will never have ..'
It was after seeing this picture that the blogger in me started thinking. So much dejection, so much frustration, so much anger, so much helplessness, so much of debts to pay ..
People are bound to express their wrath and this was just another way of doing it. But then, will bringing down the wall street help to restore things to their good-old-days status? Are we all not getting disoriented as masses?
I am seeing this more and more in recent days. One Anna Hazare starts a campaign in India to have corruption-free administration. As days pass, people are seen fighting over matters like whether Anna was right to comment about slapping of a politician or not, and whether social networks should be regulated in India or not!!
What started as an Anti-Corruption campaign was gradually showcased as a JanLokpall bill war - on one hand candidates who supported the bill were suddenly certified to be cleaner and on the other hand political parties supporting the bill were questioned for their own credibility. Before anyone could notice, there was no one talking of curbing corruption anymore. It was all about personal comments, politics and lobbying for and against a bill and its format.
Isn't this same catalyst of politics causing a disorientation that is Occupy Wall Street campaign?
If you are still not buying that we as masses have been disoriented time and again, try to answer a simple question - Do you know or remember Mark Duggan? Try another one - What do you think of when you remember the London riots of last year?
If you ask me, the only images I remember are of people looting and burning down places all over UK. What began as a protest riot for killing of one Mark Duggan, changed its course into mass-looting before anyone could even sense the change.
Wasn't that a case of disoriented masses?
I mean if there is growing unemployment and debt, question your government and the governments before that - ask them for better governance, cleaner politics, long term visions!!
Those working at wall street are also people - and not everyone of them designed the classic sub-prime mortgage models. In fact, in recent years, many of them have also become jobless and have lost their houses to debts.
Among those who are still surviving, most are now working more for the same salary they have been getting for past 3-4 years. There hasn't been too much of a hike that they have seen in their payments, but yes the workload has definitely increased.
By now, you must have noticed that it is not really the mass movements and political issues that I am talking about :-)
I am just pouring out my own wrath - what has always been a dream job is now becoming difficult to keep, even more difficult to admire - considering the peanuts that have been awarded to the ground staff in past 2-3 years.
And now, I know that you are thinking about the title of this blog post - Is it even related to all the blabber??
Well, let's establish the relation. Name one of the hit movies of Amir Khan in recent times - It's 3 Idiots !!
Although I like this movie a lot, I have always been tempted to answer Mr Rancho, when he asks 'If Suhas wanted to work in a bank, why did he become an engineer?' and yes, you got it right!! He calls such a person a donkey - biological name: Asinus :-)
In times like today, IT has become an essential backbone of the financial industry. It enables the banks to execute decisions faster and in a more controlled environment. It is the engineers working for the banks, who make scalability of affairs possible!!
Personally, I like the fact that a simple group-by clause I had once introduced in a script has reduced the number of transactions being sent to one settlement agency to such an extent, that it is helping the bank save millions of dollars every year. I have also seen that a simple mistake such as typing an asterix [*] instead of a slash [/] has led to billions lost by the bank in a single day.
I am addicted to the feeling that a little typing that I do after a good analysis helps save millions of Dollars on some occasions and helps make millions of Dollars on other occasions - and just like the Dragonball series, this same good Goku has an evil Ozaru hidden in itself - which can lead to losses worth millions if things go wrong.
This feeling is the reason why engineers like me have been happily working for banks.
In recent years, when I see the top bosses talk about losses and right-sizing and budgets cuts, just a month or so before the appraisals season is to begin, I always get a feeling that they are making a fool out of us by playing such tricks. Sometimes, its too obvious not to notice that all the other quarters end up on positive notes, but the one just before appraisals is always bad !!
If this wasn't bad enough, there are these protestors, who should be rallying against their elected representatives and asking them questions - but who are rather happy in making an Asinus out of financial industry staff and making them carry the entire blame for current state of things. But, knock knock - It's one such asinus talking - This is not a relay race, where you will be a winner if you pass on the baton of miseries to others. You will need to throw away the baton of miseries and leap past the despondent mindset and only then you can win!!
