Thursday, November 15, 2007

Why Outsourcing is Not Worth It?

So much has been said and written about the outsourcing industry in India and all that it has done to the economy. I beg to differ.

While there is merit in the financial benefits that have accrued to millions of human beings, who have received different types of exposure in this industry, I believe, that the trade-off and loss is far too high,for us to even bother about the benefits. Look at the average executive in his/her mid-20s; typically dreary-eyed, operating on a reverse clock that the human body is not accustomed to(which is tantamount to punishment);no regular food(ok, the occasional pizza is fine, but not every other day); lack of social life; inability to converse with people at a normal pace;greater familiarity and ease in using computers rather than having a man-to-man or face-to-face conversation;lingo that boasts of the 'yo-culture';living away from homes in remote cities;inability to participate in Indian festivals thanks to companies' policies of having only vacation as per the US calender;working for the benefit of the Americans - everything to their advantage.

What's the point? Why lose our own individuality and ability to contribute to our own nation? Why, such a big trade-off? Why, forego the simple thrills in life of going out with a lovely girlfriend on a nice, wintry evening for dinner, and instead, wasting time sitting in front of a computer or talking to an American whose face we don't even know?

Isn't this any less than the slavery we were subjected to by the Britishers for 180 years? How different is this from that? Maybe, that was more brutal and had capital punishment et al. But, I think, this outsourcing is nothing short of professional slavery - submit to somebody else, who is only out to exploit us.

Get real! This is India- the country that gave the world the digit zero; the country that gave the world vegetarianism; the country that gave the world religious ethos;the country that the world looks up to for democracy and management of diversity;the country that produced the greatest chess champion; the country that created history in winning a cricket World Cup; the country that brought home laurels in the form of a Nobel Prize in economics; hell, the country that gave the world the concept of kamasutra!

Why are we wasting our time losing our sleep to somebody else on some other corner of the planet, whom we don't even know?

I am writing this at 00.45 hours after just having gotten home, after an 18 hour day; that should explain why this industry is so not worth it....