It was January 2010. I was in final year of engineering. One fine day, I was amongst a झुण्ड (group of about 100 students) picked up on “wholesale type” model from our college by none other than “so called great IT company”. We all, who were picked were happy, placement cell head was happy, and parents were also happy.

But, in back of mind, I was not feeling that happy. Something was bothering me, but did not know what it was and what to do about it. So, thought it was best to leave it as is. Moreover joining was scheduled for December 2010, so had good amount of time.

After graduating in June 2010, spent good time visiting places of cultural and adhyaatmik significance in Gujarat, Haridwar, Rishikesh etc. The date of joining was nearing and did not give any thought. In November, finally thought to join and started doing the preparations. I left for Banglore in mid of December. Got the accommodation and training was to start from next day. All things like rule books etc were shared with us on joining. 

Then something happened which was like Bhagwan’s leela to help me take out of a place which perhaps I did not belong to.

Me and my friend were to go for dinner. He asked me to wait for 5 minutes till he gets ready. What to do in the meanwhile? I started reading the employee hand book (rules and procedures). While going it page by page, I found that “you CANNOT do this”, you CANNOT do this”… it was full of DONTS. Suddenly, I felt so suffocating. I thought people were here to do create something, do something new and this rule book has already tied their hands, that they might never think something original/new.

After some research about the work this organization does, I seriously felt, if 1000s of youth were to be slowly brainwashed to do nothing and just waste time and energy on rubbish things which people in USA have outsourced – it could be debatable if the organization is really serving the nation. These type of organizations suck the vigor / energy / creativity out of youth and leaves them “thoughtless”.

All IPR, research credit, monetary incentives, technological edge goes to foreign countries, and we are left at their mercy. I pondered a lot over it and about my personal journey and path ahead. I felt very ashamed of myself to have come here to waste my energy in doing work that was not going to help the country in any way, rather it was going to be detrimental to the nation.

In morning, we all lined up in their dress code and went to hall for induction. This time it was Maa Saraswati’s turn to do leela and take me out. She sat on tongue of the HR head and suddenly after about 2 hours of introduction about company, he said very casually – “If anyone wants to leave the organization, please leave now because we are going to generate employee ids”. He might have said it very casually, but I said to my friend…मैं तो जा रहा हूँ. He also joined and said मैं भी. 

He called his parents and informed the same. I knew, I could not ask to my parents about it. 

We went to HR and said, we will leave. He was also taken aback… He might have thought यह तो सही में जा रहे है. He asked, why did you come from so long, if you had no interest to join. 😀

I called at my home that I have left and get me booked a ticket back to home. We got the taxi booked to airport and ran away from the place where saatvik vibrations were limited.

Now after 11 years of that “GREAT ESCAPE“, I feel vindicated each and every day…

At that time elders of my family were disappointed, but hopefully today they might have found merit in my decision. 

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To young students: save yourself from trap of such companies. Do meaningful work in interest of nation

To their parents: unless there are extreme financial compulsions, don’t let your children fall prey to these organizations

To colleges/universities: avoid becoming placement shops to supply youth to these organizations where creativity and innovation chances are limited.

To each one of us: Please ponder that on one side we have so many IT companies, but still very few product IPR that could be commercialized. Our youth work in companies outside Bharat and work on Operating Systems, Search Engines, Core Products etc, so a question can be asked as to why the same youth is not able to realize full potential in companies in Bharat? This needs a deep thought and rethink on our industrialization policy.

PS: If you wonder, did I find a saatvik place to work? – Yes…read blog about it here: FMS-WISDOM, Banasthali Vidyapith – Instilling Wisdom