The "moonlighting" controversy

Over the last few weeks, news channels are abuzz with the “moonlighting” controversy. Simply put, moonlighting is a consequence of the “work from home” culture in IT circles. Sitting at home, the techie signs up as an employee in multiple companies. It is as if, he has a dozen faces; to each company he presents one, as his only face! It raises ethical questions aplenty, but for now, our concern is different.

IT has a bad habit of stealing everyday words and giving it a new spin. In the process, it leaves the rest of us totally confused. “I cannot find the mouse. It was just here!” A part of us immediately jumps to catch the elusive rodent, only to realize the import was different. Biscuits and cookies are indelibly connected to childhood. Suddenly, there is an unwanted twist. The internet browser pops the question, “Enable automatic cookies?” We cannot resist but say yes! Another example is the abuse of the word “viral”. Every day, social media screams that something or the other has gone “viral”. It is like the boy who cried "wolf". Our repeated usage of the word gave life to the real virus, and we brought the pandemic upon ourselves!

Poets and lyrists were robbed of their livelihood when the term “cloud” was hijacked by IT. When Wordsworth wrote, “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, he had a particular imagery to transfer to the audience. But IT interfered and gave “cloud” a different connotation. IT has messed up the human mind with its technical concepts of “cloud” to the extent that the original “cloud” has lost relevance!

And now, IT has taken over “moonlighting” and given the word a sinister color. All the romantic ideas associated with the moon- from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to moonlit dinners have been struck down. Why doesn’t the IT world coin its own words instead of plagiarizing ours? Does moonlighting come from the notion that the techie does one job by sunlight, and another job by moonlight? Or like the proverbial “dark side of the moon”, does it refer to a techie who has an unknown, darker side?

The other day, one of the cooking utensils was washed badly. I confronted the housemaid. “You are moonlighting by working in multiple homes! No wonder you don’t pay attention to detail!” She shot back, “Sir! You can keep your moon and your moonlighting! For the peanuts that you pay, I must work in multiple homes to make ends meet! If that is moonlighting, from tomorrow, you can wash the vessels on your own!” I had to offer the olive branch and wave the flag of truce!

IT concepts obviously do not work elsewhere!