Okay, so it's eleven months now. Eleven months since my last post. So, why did I not post anything for one whole year, you ask. I don't know. I honestly don't. I just didn't feel like it, and that I suppose is a reason as good as any.
Personally, let's say the year could have been better. I've spent the best part of it as an unemployed engineer, with horribles grades and a resume to match. Add to that a bearish world economy, and suddenly nobody wants to employ me.
I'm not an old man, but I still remember a time when, if a foreign country's economy crashed and yours didn't, if your currency valued higher and higher against the dollar, it was a reason to celebrate- and even the champagne would cost less! Cut to present day. The US faces the worst depression since the Great one, and engineers in India lose their jobs. Those without one are unlikely to see a change in their status for a while to come. And, stuck in the middle of it all, sharing a house with some people from college he never was that friendly with, because he can't afford a place of his own, among other things, is yours faithfully.
Slick down your hair, shine your shoes, say "Yes", not "Yeah", hawk your wares to unconvinced buyers, elucidate to them why you think you're intelligent, tell them you-know-this-you-know-that-and-that-sorry-not-familiar-with-that, know more languages to talk to a computer than to another human being, smile a little but not too much, and then, at the end of it all, remain in the none-too-enviable demographic of Unemployed Youth. That's life.
Fuck beauty contests.
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6 comments:
Great to see you back! Doesn't matter why you were away, but i sympathise with the unemployed bit. It will get better i am sure, and i look forward to reading great pieces of writing again from you.
Utsav, my friend. It is wonderful to hear from you again, but heartbreaking to hear of your troubles.
All the talk over here in England is of India becoming the next great economic superpower, but it obviously looks a lot different where you are, especially being unable to get a job doing what you studied so hard to do.
Coincidentally, I interviewed an architectural graduate from Mumbai last week and yesterday he started work for us, sitting right next to me. I know our stupid government is trying to stop immigration from outside the EU at the moment but have you considered coming here to work?
I do believe that in the medium term India is the place to be, however. For most of the past three thousand years it has been one of the richest and most civilised places on the planet and it is definitely heading that way again, while the west declines.
All I can do is hope for the best for you; that you soon find a great job and start feeling good again.
You deserve it.
Now you're back, please keep us informed of everything. We've all missed you.
Thanks, Lynn. It's great to be back. Now I can't even think of why I left at all!
Dive, yes, India's economy is very bullish, and Mukesh Ambani was even the richest man in the world for a while recently. At the same time, the industry I belong to depends wholly on American companies- all the decent places to work are American firms with R&D centres here in India, so when they can't afford to keep things up and running, we suffer. Just the technology sector, I suppose. Something similar had happened after the WTC attacks too- no jobs, no projects, cutbacks, layoffs, all that.
Damn those Yanks!
Hopefully things will look up now Bush is on his way out. Less warmongering equals more trade. Plus, after the sub-prime lending scandal that got this mess started their housing market is bottoming out the same way ours did in the early nineties. It will soon bounce right back and take their economy with it.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
Hey, don't damn the yanks. We believe we're in a cyclical recession, no where near the Great Depression, and the slump is temporary as always.
I'm sorry it has affected you so adversely, Utsav. It really can't go on forever. Welcome back, though. We truly have missed you.
You need to sell your writing. That last paragraph is a nearly completed prose-poem, my friend!
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