Salary, Salary, Where are You

New year seems to be no different!
Salary, Salary, Where are you?
Hope you come soon!
As I have lots of bills to pay.
Rent to be paid for the house!
And loads of other expenses too.
Please come soon :)

Salary......!

Salary Woes

Salary, dear salary,
Where are you?
Are you stuck-
In the coffers-
Of the great directors?

Are you stuck in limbo
Awaiting a signature from HR
Or a signature from Accounts?

Or are you stuck
In the labyrinth
Of servers and networks
That enable the transfer of funds

Shall I receive an SMS
From my bank this evening!

Stating that-
RS ***** has been credited in your account number XXX
As salary for the month of August!

Was I a fool?
To have accepted things at face value!
It seems that the Quest!
Shall begin all over again.

It seems I shall never ever-
Find sanity-
Amidst this corporate chaos.

A look at life-If I was an auto driver

Everyday I commute to office by a share auto. A distance of about 3 kilometres. People living in Chennai and Kolkatta should be familiar with the concept of share autos. I have not lived in any of the other great cities of India, so I do not know if share autos exist there. The auto drivers have fixed rates. If you get down anywhere in a stretch of five kilometres, you have to pay four rupees, after 9P.M. at night the fare is five rupees. This fare system works on the Udhayam theatre to Guindy route. On the Porur to Adayar route the fare is between 10 and fifteen rupees. Each day as I travel by these share autos, I think on the life that these auto drivers lead. I have come to one conclusion, I have a big mistake by studying.

I should have finished tenth standard and started driving an auto. Just think after taking a look at these calculations. For an average student who does not study engineering, law or medicine, but some arts, science or commerce course, the fees from nursery to college graduation would range between 7 and 12 lakhs depending on the city and the institution that the student studied in, if its engineering, well then add another 3 or 4 lakhs to that number.

Suppose I own a share auto, assuming that I have taken a loan from a bank to buy the auto, then this is how my balance sheet will appear:

Monthly payment to bank-Rs 4000(for 3 years).
Monthly petrol expenses-Rs 4000 to Rs 5000.
Monthly maintenance expenses-Rs 1000.
Monthly mamool(bribe) to the traffic police-Rs 1000 to Rs 2000.
Assuming that I ply my auto on the Guindy to Udhayam route from morning 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. at night seven days a week, I should be able to make thirty to forty trips a day. On each trip(one way) on an average at least 15 people travel by the auto. So 15 multiplied by 4 equals to 60 rupees for one trip, a two way trip gets me Rs 120, So forty trips a day gets me Rs 4800 a day.
I will keep the figure to Rs 4000 for easy calculation.
So at the end of a month I earn Rs 4000 multiplied by 30, that equals to Rs 120000.

If I keep all my auto related expenses to Rs 15000 a month, even then I am earning about a lakh of rupees every month. Much more than many IT engineers and seasoned BPO executives.
Assuming that I am driving a hired vehicle, if I pay Rs 1000 to 1500 as daily rent, then I make about Rs 50000 to Rs 60000 a month.

I really feel I should have stopped studying and persuaded my parents to buy me an auto. Then I could have worn khaki shirts and moved about in Rajini style singing "Auto kaaran, auto kaaran, naan, naalu terinja rouute kaaran.."

That is life I guess, perhaps I am destined to be stuck to a desk job for life, missing out on the adventures of life.