Informed on IT

-Akshay Ranganath

The other day, we (wife and myself) were travelling from Bangalore to Mysore by train. It was a typical weekend morning journey - train overflowing, children bawling and grown-ups yawning. However, there was this one uncle who was way too excited to do any of the above. And so he was chatting away with a (poor??) co-passenger.

So, this uncle's son was in training at Infosys, Mysore. He had got placed at Infy and been called for training at the 'five-star' office at Mysore. He'd invited his parents to visit him since his training was about to end.

However, the funny thing was the way uncle was discussing about IT. The co-passenger (CP), it turned out was a non-IT types and so, the conversation was quite interesting...

Uncle: These IT people no - they have no sense of time. My son was telling me that once training is over, he will be working any time.
CP: uh-oh
Uncle: My son is in some project it seems. All to do with retailers.
CP: I don't understand. What do IT people do with kirana stores?
Uncle: No. no. Not Indian kirana stores - it is the big foreign shops.
...

I could hardly suppress a laugh.

But, it was quite a touching scene. Regardless of the inaccuracy of project description in the IT services industry, what stood in my mind is the image of a proud father getting down with a small worn-out suitcase to meet his successful son who would earn more salary in a month at start than the father during his retirement.

Truly IT has changed us all.