The life of an IT wife

Image source : funinstore

If you came here thinking, this is a post about a -'Tag-you're it" game between wives, or a wives manual on how to become the 'It' wife, i.e the wife that has it all........then I'm sorry to disappoint you, it's about none of that, lol.
For those who may not know (what were you living under a rock somewhere??), IT stands for Information Technology,  or the computer software industry, or as many Indians consider it , the magical industry that has helped shape the careers of the millions of engineers churned out by the countless engineering colleges of India each year.

The IT industry has actually helped the middle class of India tremendously, the middle class has grown in number compared to just about two decades ago, and continues to grow....Because of the global demand for IT, and India having a ready made, qualified, manpower at disposal to satiate this demand, it was a perfect marriage..... Indian youth needed jobs and the IT sector provided those in abundance. The IT industry created a newer breed of Indian youth, who traveled the world,  saw different cultures, had more disposable income, and as a result a higher spending potential.

There's also another particular, albeit unintended, by-product of this IT industry, and that is the IT wife. She is the woman who is married to an IT guy, but is not into the IT industry herself, her only association to the industry is through her spouse. If she herself is into IT, than she cannot be tagged as the IT wife, as she has a direct link to the industry.

So what's special about this breed you ask ??
Well, for starters, the IT wife, has to pretty much give up any hope of having a stable career for herself, partly because by the very nature of the IT husband's job, they would be moving around a lot, probably even around the world,  and partly because of the visa norms of various countries not allowing 'dependents' to work, and hence having a stable job may not be always feasible, in turn making her more dependent on her husband. So she can forget about getting promotions, and going up the corporate ladder, and can watch her ex-batchmates from college instead climb the success ladder, and sigh when she reads their facebook updates about their latest promotions and salary hikes.
So the IT wife is kind of like a new age reincarnation of the erstwhile IAS, IPS, IFS, army, navy etc etc officer's wife...I mean those variety of wives still exist, but they aren't as much in vogue, the IT wife is the new chick on the block, and has stolen their thunder...

Then the IT wife also has to be a very sociable person, never mind that she may have a shy personality, and might not want to mingle with a lot of different people, but she must brave through that, and aim to be a social butterfly, this is because with every move to a new place, will come the void of a non-existant social and friend circle, so she must try and fill this void at the earliest, by making acquaintances with new people, how else will she be able to attend the countless potlucks, and diwali parties and kids' birthday parties, etc in the local desi circle ???  hence her shy nature may not be of use to her, in this case...

She also must master the art of packing, unpacking and living in suitcases, thanks to the frequent moves. She must perfect the art of living a spartan life, and accumulating just enough stuff to fit into their luggage, and still be under the weight limit allowed by the airlines.

She cannot have silly notions like once her husband is home, he can spend time with his family, no siree bob, as being an IT wife, one must learn that her husband is never truly off work , he is on call always, like an ER doctor.  She may also have to be a single mother for intermittent periods of time, as her husband is away to a foreign land on 'short-term assignments', never mind that such assignments can sometimes vary between 6-8 months, oh well, don't the army wives do it ?? So why complain, one should know better before marrying an IT husband.
She must get well-versed with terms of the IT industry, like onsite client, offshore team, support team, delivery team, deployment, offshore calls, and many more...She must know what these terms refer to and be able to toss them around like a pro.

Whether she wants to or not, she will get enough knowledge of the visa norms of many countries, to start a consulting firm of her own to guide those who wish to move to those countries, ofcourse she can never actually use the knowledge and start the consultancy, because as earlier mentioned she cannot pursue a stable career.

She may have to miss important family events, like her brother's wedding, or the birth of her niece, etc but she must toughen up and attribute it to the hazard's of the job, and focus on her next potluck she can have instead with other IT wives . Instead of physically being near her parents, she will have to contend with long webcam sessions, where the family will be paraded in front of the webcam for her kids so that they remember their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins' faces and names...which ofcourse they won't.

Such is the life of the IT wife, she's a IAS officer's wife, an army wife, a doctor's wife all rolled into one, it's a dirty job, but hey someone's gotta do it, right ???


P.S : This is a fun post, not meant to hurt any sentiments, if you find it offensive, my apologies in advance