IT Guys, Please Excuse!

Off-late I have been hearing about a lot of lay-offs and lots of IT professionals losing their jobs. In fact, the other day I received an email-forward which had a screen-shot of some girl’s profile in a matrimonial website. Her preference had this strange condition – IT guys, please excuse.

So, the downturn and recession has hit the matrimonial market too. Girls are no longer feeling secure enough about her guy having an IT job. These were the same people chasing IT guys because of their pay-packet and onsite offers to US and UK. An economic recession and IT guys have become the new untouchables. Money has become so big a matter, that no other virtue is considered. In fact, the IT guys in cities like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad are asked by prospective in-laws if they were on bench.

This new and strange phenomenon reminded me of an old song from the movie Vidhata, directed by Subhash Ghai. The song was vulgar for those times, and a big hush-hush. When I watched this movie on video, 20 years back, I had to fast-forward the song. The song was a tale of 7 friends who discussed the cons of marrying guys of varied professions.

saat saheliya khadi khadi
fariyaad sunaye ghadi ghadi

The first profession that they talk about is that of a doctor. This is one of the most popular professions and usually never spoken about condescendingly.

ek saheli ka
miya tha doctor
……….
raat bhar muaa sone na de
injection lagaye ghadi ghadi

The crude lyrics point to the perception of how doctors love to poke an injection for just about anything, of course here the injection is suggestive for something else.

Next comes the rugged profession of driving. City driving has become quite a nuisance and honking is one of the ways of finding our way out through the dense traffic.

ek sahlei ka
miya tha driver
……….
raat bhar muaa sone na de
pho pho bajaye ghadi ghadi

The lyrics here again point to the excessive pushing at the horns, thereby producing a loud noise which can keep your partner on bed and co-passengers on road, totally awake.

Tailoring was always a popular summer-time course, but as a profession … well in times of recession, any job is good enough.

ek saheli ka
miya tha darzi
……….
raat bhar muaa sone na de
sooyi chubhaaye ghadi ghadi

We have another reference to the poking phenomenon here, just as the injection. And again, this is the cause for getting rejected as well.

I am sure we have all suffered because of a dancing neighbour who would put on the music at odd hours and start their practise.

ek saheli ka
miya tha dancer
……….
raat bhar muaa sone na de
ta ta thaiyya karawe ghadi ghadi

This is akin to dancing to somebody’s tune or dancing at the snap of a finger. But seriously speaking, dancing on bed can be injurious as we are prone to twisting a muscle or spraining ourself.

Something else thats injurious to health is drinking. But drinking is a socially relevant necessary evil, else you can’t have a decent party.

ek saheli ka
miya sharabi
……….
raat bhar maka sone na de
bottle dikhaya ghadi ghadi

Showing a bottle time and again, don’t know what crude sense to make out of it. But a drunk partner should be totally avoided, they may just pass-out while you are still interested in the act.

Delivering mails, how lucrative is that? But, at one point of time being a postman used to be a sought after job.

ek saheli ka miya
miya tha daakiya
……….
raat bhar maka sowan na de
thappo lagaye ghadi ghadi ghadi

Stamping someone all over, that must be some fun. But yet, that’s not what some girls look forward to.

I didn’t know hailing from Kolhapur could be such a bad thing.

ek saheli ka
miya kolhapuri
………
raat bhar malaa sone na de
chappal dikhaye ghadi ghadi

Yeah, being a Kolhapuri should not be correlated to excessive use of slippers. And still, we have someone complaining about being shown the slipper, probably a case of domestic abuse and/or wife beating.

The lives of IT guys can be marred by involvement in activities of more than one of the professions mentioned above. What if the IT guy happened to be a Kolhapuri, he should be avoided. What if the IT guy drives to work everyday and ends up with carpal tunnel syndrome because of inordinate honking, he should definitely be avoided. What if the IT guy gets drunk in a project party and returns home totally deflated, do not consider such a person. So, where does that leave the IT guys?

If the above song were to be written now, they would surely have included the IT related professionals as well. Its quite a grim situation, the IT guy is in danger of losing his job on account of slowdown and he could be rejected by prospective brides on account of his profession. We probably have to wait for the next IT boom, because this is as bad as IT gets.

This post was first published on PFC