Foxed

Like all users with email accounts, I too receive innumerable forwards from my good friends. These forwards belong to many genres, some being naughty, others witty, some informative, a few philosophical, very many picturesque and others just enjoyable. Last week my friend Nalini who is one of my main sources with regard to these forwards, sent me an interesting one. She said that a new word of Indian origin had been included in the English dictionary. What roused my interest was the word and the meaning attributed to it. The word was bangalored and the meaning given was “laid off due to outsourcing, esp. outsourcing to India or other parts of Asia”. This was not the first time that the name of an Indian city has found its way into the English Dictionary, we have Jodhpurs and then there is Madras. Jodhpurs are riding habits and Madras is a cotton checkered cloth and that makes both of them nouns. Bangalored on the other hand is an adjective. I must say that the word did have a good feel when pronounced. The word also made me see Bangalore in a different light.

Since I am in no way connected to the Information Technology world of India, Bangalore was never a Mecca to me. I know that all the top guns of the IT industry have their base in Bangalore and as a result Bangalore is the most sought after destination for young boys and girls who possess an engineering degree. To me Bangalore is the city with a lovely climate, a place to be in summer when Chennai weather is so harsh. I also enjoy walking down Commercial Street and Brigade Road as there is nothing resembling that in Chennai. The other main reason for a trip to Bangalore is the presence of some good friends. I can say that once a year a trip to Bangalore is the norm and this happens not in the summer months but during the month of December. Over the years I have seen the city grow and burst at its seams and have heard people attributing this sudden spurt to the IT companies. The growth was so rapid that the infrastructure could not keep pace and this inadequacy is seen all over Bangalore. Yes, there is no doubt that all the major IT companies have huge campuses and that the steel and glass structures in them look like their counterparts anywhere else in the world, but the moment one steps outside the campus, the fairy tale is lost.

The IT and the ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) were at its peak till the middle of last year. A career in the latter did not even require an engineering degree. A good speaking knowledge of English was the only requisite. With so many English Medium schools and “soft skill developers”; acquiring a neutral English accent was never an issue. I have heard as to how all the major corporates the world over had outsourced their different departments to India and as to how a girl or boy in India would be answering a query for British Rail and giving the schedule for the next train from London to Manchester. It was indeed amazing as to how technology had developed and how our country happened to be in the fore front. It was indeed a hunky dory situation as far as India went. The repercussions were slowly being felt in the western world. But then everybody wanted their profits to go up and was happy with the said arrangements. It was only during the run up to the Presidential Elections in the US that this issue was taken seriously. Somehow the timings were so bad that the elections and the global melt down went hand in glove.

The situation being what it is in the Western world, it is indeed a source of great worry when one has to be benched. But to think that a small sleepy city in India could be a reason for this situation is indeed worthy of more than a thought. Did this situation arise because our IT czars remained awake when the rest of the western world was sleeping? Or could the reason be the greed to make more money by outsourcing to a country where the labour was cheaper? Whatever the reason it does make me happy that like Ahimsa and Satyagraha which brought the might of the British Empire to its knees, the IT revolution in India has managed to bring the Western world may not be to its knees but atleast to stoop low. I know I should not feel this way but as an Indian, I am only taking pride in the achievements of my brothers and sisters.

Here is a novice’s piece of advice to the automobile czars of the world. Chennai is already the biggest car manufacturing centre in South East Asia. It won’t be long before she attains a world status. So don’t get caught sleeping for then the next word to enter the English dictionary would be Chennaied or will it be Madrassed? The latter will make my city a noun and an adjective - a double treat indeed!!!!