A hole in the Wall

When I sit inside a centrally air-conditioned room in a cubicle before a 2GB RAM, LCD monitor, wireless optical mouse system and drink capuccino from a vending machine free of cost, do I really think of the outside world? Outside my cubicle, outside my building and outside my office premises? This very thought sounds very cliche, I know, because whenever people who do not work in software industry, criticise techies, their first weapon of attack spits fire with similar questions. But if I really think of such an issue with an unbiased mind, I can see the wall. The wall is everywhere, in every aspect of life.

When I was a small kid, I used to go to the common market with my father where the shops were merely a torn piece of jute bags on which the shopkeeper used to sit, a sheet of tarpoulin supported by two bamboo sticks and piles of vegetables and fruits infront of the shop. My father used to do a lot of bargain with the sellers and I used to be happy to see both the faces of my father and the seller smiling after a fair bargain. I don't get the same feeling in the supermarkets of Reliance Fresh, Spar or Foodworld where the shops are meant to be customer friendly. The wall is clearly seen. The techies don't bargain in their day to day life. May be because of a lot of money in their hand but an immature mind to spend it wisely or may be because they lack the skill, but it is a fact that they interact very less with the people outside their known world of cyberspace and ostentation. Even if the Autowallah is asking for an unfair price, they feel helpless and throw the money on the face of the person rather than interacting with him unabusively and making him understand that the techies are also normal people who are not meant for spending money unwisely. From a cofeeshop to the workspace, a wall is intentionally erected to distinguish the software professionals from the other people of the society. Sounds like a conspiracy theory?

The world outside is much bigger than our cubicles and still we like to fight over 10% increments is salary, night shifts, a career in management and promotions to a fictitious level which has got nothing to do with the common people of the outside world. We are confined to a monotonous lifestyle, routine works, self-inflicted pompousness and seclusion from the society of good and bad people, honest and dishonest people, known as the common people. The wall is built and we all are the bricks of it. Pink Floyd wrote it in a different context but the main aim is the same, but we won't learn. Time to drill a hole in it.