Is it the money thats lured me to this faraway land? Or the lifestyle? Or the mirage of job satisfaction? Maybe lucre enthralls people, perhaps material comforts draw others, but what I seem to be running after is the most elusive of the three. The fact is that in less than a year after graduating with not very mentionable grades I do not find myself sitting in the back-porch of my house. And given the impending doom of recession, if I am even in what I call an oblivious corner of the world, it should be considered an achievement. When I look around me, I find so many of my friends still looking for means to earn a living. Who would then really be bothered about job satisfaction, when people do not even have the satisfaction of having a job?

Me for one! But I must be a moron then! And a self-confessed one at that! Money and lifestyle are still understandable reasons! But job satisfaction? In todays world, is it not merely a conjugation of two words?

Actually, my thirst for that evasive term finds its roots in my past. I clearly remember my final year at school. Coming from an ambience where you had to find your own way (even if it meant the highway!) all I needed was a sense of security. A decent degree. A job! And quite like all others around me, I wanted to be either a doctor or an engineer. I soon ruled out the medical profession as I did not like the sight and smell of gore. And yes, I was better with numbers than remembering that a cockroach or was it mango? - was scientifically called periplaneta Americana. So, engineer it was!

This simple decision took on a new meaning the day I stepped inside my alma mater Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. I clearly remember the lecture hall where our Dean addressed us for the first time. The atmosphere inside was electric. I could feel my environs bursting with excitement, and a sense of achievement. We were part of a phenomenon in the making - he said - one that would change the world! We were entrusted with the responsibility of delivering the world from misery, making technology the vehicle of change.

Five years hence, yet nothing of that sort has happened! I graduated last year and got a job in Singapore. I am leading a life as just about anyone else. An 8 to 6 office - interleaved with coffee and lunch breaks, and 6 hours of sleep - interleaved with dreams of my favorite actresses. Weekends and holidays are no different except that I would be lazing around in Malaysian beach resorts, rather than slogging out in office.

Life is good, but something is missing

What IITK did was that it ensured me a job! Satisfaction is still miles away, if at all it exists. I do have ample reasons to be grateful though. The fact that IITK guaranteed a job meant that I could see things from a vantage point that others would not dare to. Today, when I open my mailbox to find standing job offers from potential employers from around the globe, I can at least think about job satisfaction. I have been granted the privilege to make choices.

IITK, I believe is not a college but an Institution. Rather than understanding how a PDE in a fluid-mechanics course was the lifeline of an aircraft (although even that has its fair share of significance in our lives!), I learnt more outside of those lecture halls. It was the mindset of the professors, their commitment to work, and the pride in what they did that was worth emulating. I realize today that it is not a set of paltry numbers called rankings that defines what IITK is, but the ambience, and the culture that one feels in the campus that does so.

Today when I ponder over these revelations, I get a feeling of deja vu. But it is no longer about liking mathematics, but rather making choices that would bring me happiness and satisfaction. It is not about hating cockroaches and blood either, but about knowing my limitations and coming to terms with them. Those words of my Dean still ring loud and clear. When he had demanded of us to go and change the world, all that he asked us was to change our own little world and make it a better place. If all of us could do just that little bit, the whole world would change for the better.

As my thoughts move along, I also realize that life is not about chimerical things like job satisfaction alone, or material ones like money and lifestyles. It is also about those people who attended the lectures with me, lived with me, ate with me, laughed and cried and abused, and played with me for four years, and built a bond that will last a life long. I learnt camaraderie. And I also learnt humility. And to be able to own my failures, and my successes. I learnt there to have the faith of my convictions, to have confidence in my abilities, and to dare to dream. And aspire to make those dreams come true.

Anyways, I should get back to my piece of code. That needs a change too! Theres one last thing I would like to say though. Visions are but images of the mind and it is up to us to transcend them into reality. I salute my alma mater for having taught me this.