Sunday, July 15, 2012

Trouble in Eden !

There was once a magical land named Eden where the Demi-gods lived, where dreams came true, it was a place where wishes came true and for little efforts, rewards were huge. The Demi-Gods were kind and admitted the mortals freely and for devotion, mortals were rewarded with gold, plush houses.

The mortals from earth could come visit Eden and live for a few years, earn huge fortunes and go back to their land much wealthier and influential. The Demi-Gods just wanted the mortals to make statues and to glorify them.

As the story of the mortal artisans making the trips to Eden became more and more well known, the mortals realized this was an easy ticket to ride. Several schools to train and deploy artisans began to spring up. Other trades began to be ignored, the sole motive of mortals was securing a gateway to Eden.

Like all good things, the good times at Eden also had to come to an end. By the curse of the sages, Eden was struck by a series of natural calamities like quakes and storms. Suddenly the demi gods no longer had the luxury of entertaining the mortals.  Suddenly the demi-gods wanted the mortals out, they began to see the mortals as parasites feeding on their great society.

The mortals were concerned, and once the gateways to Eden began to close, politics and opportunism began to take over, it was no longer easy for people to reach Eden. The journey to the promised land of Eden has just become a nightmare, with thousands and thousands of mortal artisans waiting for their turn to enter Eden, life just got tougher.

As you might have guess, this story was a thinly veiled reference of the Indian IT services industry and the situation in the Western World. India was fortunate to have an army of English speaking programmers who could take on the Y2K problem. Any one who was lucky enough or smart enough to catch the IT wave became quite successful, however the same cannot be said for the young engineering graduate passing out of college today as circumstances have become much more challenging.