From college to corporate
Here is a list of things that change as you move out of college (a residential campus) to a full fledged job :
1. Money : Suddenly your financial condition changes. Your previous total monthly expenditure becomes you typical weekend expenditure. You can buy many things you want to without thinking too much. You get a credit card. You realize that you are not making enough money.
2. Phone : Your phone changes from a 1100 to N series. The prepaid connection is the thing of the past, and you get a post-paid corporate connection.
3. Phone Bills : Don’t ask.
4. Room : Finally a bathroom all for yourself! (Yes!). Though not very furnished initially, there are NO course books to be seen, the flooring is marble, and the walls don’t speak the history for who all have lived in the room for the last 17 years. Oh yes! There are cupboards where you can actually hang clothes AND lock them too!
5. Transport : From a Hercules Thriller, you upgrade to a Bajaj Pulsar. Or the company cab, as the case may be.
6. Washing : No more washing clothes yourself! You get a washing machine. You actually wear clean clothes everyday.
7. Trips to home : Become exceedingly rare. Once in 6 months is the average.
8. Holidays : Become the most precious thing. People would give blood to get a holiday. You get about 12 every year excluding weekends. Add 20 Casual leaves to that. Thats it. No more.
9. Travel : No more Sleeper class, Air Deccan and Indigo become your best friends. Even when you want to travel by train and save some money, you cant coz you cant afford to take that extra day off.
10. Bunks : If your office has swiping system, forget it. If it doesn’t, you feel so guilty if you bunk that you don’t.
11. Cleaning : A ‘bai’ comes to clean up your room and kitchen. But! She won’t clean the bathrooms! So the bathrooms and toilets (that you’re supposed to clean yourself now) resemble the hostel bathrooms.
12. Food : One pain in the ass! Breakfast and lunch @ office usually. Dinner outside. You get bored with outside food (and hate to pay so much for food, everyday!). Weekends are terrible, when you’re left to scavenge for your own 3 meals. You miss the comfort of the mess at times.
13. Treatment : For a change, people treat you nicely. The guards and support staff instead of telling you to ‘Poda’ call you ‘Sir’. Sweet sounding females call you everyday and offer you miscellaneous financial accessories ranging from credit cards, personal loans to health insurance. You tell them that you’re not interested and bang the phone. In their disappointed faces.
14. Internet : You download a 1 GB movie in an hour in office. You use office laptop to watch movies at home. You get Airtel broadband and a netgear wifi router at home.
15. Tax : You start worrying about tax. As March comes closer, you get well aquanted with the provisions of section 80c, 80cc and 80ccc of the Indian constitution. You buy insurance policies and pray to God to call you soon so that at least you won’t have to pay tax.
16. Immunity : Your immunity goes down suddenly. A glass of water outside, if not branded Kinley or Aquafina, gives you throat infection. So does any chicken curry priced below Rs 135.
I’m sure I’ve missed many, help me increase this list :)
Another addict
I have been addicted to the internet for only about a month. Though I have always been a regular, i was never an addict. The simple reason for this change is internet connectivity in this campus which is much better than where I spend the greater part of my year.
Anyways, I am not writing this to talk about connectivity issues but instead to share this feeling of completeness.
Being connected to the net has helped me do things I have always wanted to do. Writing - in the form of this blog, and exploring the world - in the form of browsing. I suddenly have so many more things to learn and to find out about. I feel more satisfied in my bed at night when I think about all that I did during the day. The satisfaction of having learnt and explored is immense. And so is the satisfaction of having written.
Internet is helping me realize the kind of person I want to be and is also helping me be it - bringing to me this euphoric feeling of completeness .
I’m addicted. For life.
