Bench Account

I used to be back bencher in my whole school life. I and my fellow class mates, who are stamped as poor performer and nuisance for class and teacher, prefer to sit behind. It helped us to avoid the glance of teacher. The same thing was followed in other sections too; kind of norm you may say. However in my college days, I moved away from this norm. There was no bench. Everybody had their individual chair and desk. And to create miscreant we don’t have to sit on the back. Rather we could move out from the class and could enjoy our life under the sky as long as required attendance was maintained. But as I have entered my professional life, once again I have to sit on Bench.

Seven years back, at midnight I was called for the interview for a MNC company that came to our college for hiring the college graduates. I was at ninety one in the queue. Tired and hungry, but still with a smile I entered the interview room. “Hello Sir” I said, not sure how to greet them at mid of night. Bit confused whether it will be right to say good evening or good morning as it was already 12. Any way I restrained.  The members of the panel were looking tired too. Two of them yawned.  “What is your name?”  I answered them. Another asked me, “What is your hobby?” “Singing, Sir”. “Ok, sing a song for us”. I was bewildered, but with a faint hope I started singing a Bengali Rock song. “Fine, you may leave now, send the next one”. They haven’t asked a single technical question; not sure whether they have liked my song or not. Next day the interview result was out and our TPO pasted it on the notice board. And to my utter surprise I found my name in the list. In final year, I left studying; what was the use of study since it was all because of job which was already in my hand.

Now I feel what really worked for us. It was 2007, when the IT companies were blooming as huge amount of works were outsourced from the foreign countries especially America. Hence it was not us who require a job, but the companies who need huge number of human resource to cater their requirement. The companies have hired irrespective of the stream of the engineer, just to meet their end. Hence, during the final year of the college, three hundred students of our college have job in their hand. Some have even two to three in their hand.

But the things have changed now. The wind is now blowing against the IT industry and students are losing interest in this field of engineering. A good number of seats in the colleges are lying vacant. The college authorities are desperate to get students and are even ready to absorb students who performed poorly in the entrance exam. I feel pity for these students. They have least idea what is waiting for them; like me they will be sitting on bench with a formidable thought about their future. The whole system will crush them and they will be lampooned before their friends and relatives.

I hope reader can now understand my pain and anxiety for being allotted to bench. If you are still unaware then let me tell you that Bench is a status given to an employee who is not utilized but considered as a part of the resource pool and can be used whenever there is any requirement. In the past five years, a large number private engineering college mushroomed all over India. Every year thousands of B.tech engineers are produced and irrespective of their streams; and this whole flood of human resource give their way to IT industries. Today every house in a city has an engineer and if he is a software engineer, just ask him, “Bro, do you sit on bench”? And if it is yes, his faded face will affirm that.

We now have a new concept known as pool. The pool doesn’t indicate water body but it’s the human resource pool. The business of software industry is dependent on this pool. The more deep the pool is, more is the scope of getting the business from the clients! The clients consider that company having more number of employees has better capability to handle a project compared to other having less number of employees. So there is always a redundant amount of human resource maintained by the software industry in order to win new business.

My office is a six storey building and I work on its fourth floor. Sorry for the mistake. Actually now a days I don’t work rather I punch my card before the gate of fourth floor. It is an inexplicable mental torture I have to incur the whole day. I have everything; modern cubicle, personal phone, laptop but my days are passed without actually using them. But things were not so when I joined. We had six month extensive training before we started working on the projects. Once a project was completed, the next was there and this way three years passed. I was on cloud number nine. I dream of going to onsite for much bigger exposure. But nothing has happened. Things get changed very fast in this IT world. And this time it was for me. The technology on which I work is considered to be primitive now and expensive to maintain. Most of the clients are moving out of this technology to something new and less expensive to maintain. Hence I keep on waiting for new project sitting on bench. I hope God will save me before my employer will thank me for my contribution for the growth of the company and will give me pink slip with three month advance salary. The animated Welcome screen of Windows mock at me and reminds me that if it goes on like this I will be unwelcomed soon. The cafeteria, the smoking zone, the breakaway area, the library everything here proclaim that this fella has nothing on his pan to cook. Now a day if some acquaintance asks me how the work pressure is, I just give an empty look. It is hard to make them understand that I’m once again sitting on Bench.

In spite of all this I still have hope that I will be required.  I hope client will understand the criticality of migration and will remain on existing technology; at least as long I will be in the industry! I hope rupee will lose its value against dollar! We will be the cheapest and intellectual labor and the whole world will be lured to use us! During campus interview I prayed to Goddess Kali to get me the job; now I pray to God Obama to save my job!