I'd like to answer this question a bit differently. I have earned substantially more than this amount (around 8.5 lakhs in 3 months) when I was 21 and got offered around 60 lpa when I was 22 (I am 23 now). And I left it all. Now I earn Rs15,600/month doing research in a humble lab of a humble Science institute in India. Point is, 21-30 is the time to explore, to travel round the world and do things you are really curious about, fall in love (again?), start a revolution (scientific for me) and learn how to play the guitar maybe? For all this, you need one thing: freedom and lots of it.
And I am pretty sure, that an employer who pays you 16 lpa is smart enough to take away all your freedom. I have friends who earn similar figures and who live significantly mundane lives drifting from one weekend to another. You are too young to do that (unless you are constrained by other serious things like, you need money for your poor parents, but then people like that don't ask such questions :D). 16 lakhs is the price of your freedom. 16 lakhs per annum for a 21 year old is the worst thing that could possibly happen to you. And I feel sorry, because you're probably not courageous/confident enough to reject that offer.
I am posting this as anonymous. First, I don't want to sound like a pompous douchebag. Second, I don't want to piss off my "high-earning" friends, I love them and they pay for my food/booze on weekends. :D
PS:
I went through the comments, and I see most people have missed the point I'm trying to make here.
1.Lot's of people seem to be worried about how I made 8.5 lakhs in 3 months and what the 60lpa job was. The entire point of the post was that money does not matter! And it isn't very impressive either. Zuckerberg had a billion dollar company at that age! But then, I live a pretty comfortable life with the 16,000 I earn.
2. There are also people who doubt the veracity of this answer("full of lies?"). I do not care for them, but for the people who have derived even a tiny little bit of inspiration from my experience, I'd like to add this: I am no extraordinary guy, people like me abound in the IITs (I am from one myself). I was working for a US company on consecutive internships and later got offered a job in the same. Top branches in any IIT will have people like this.
3. Some have pointed out that many young people have loads of responsibilities, and I have acknowledged that in my answer. The path I've taken is probably not for them. The post is for the people who are not bound by anything, and yet settle for mediocre jobs wasting their energy trying to please their bosses. If you could get a 16lpa job at 21, you could build a 1.6 billion dollar company as well, that too, doing what you love. Isn't that better?
4. Finally, I'd like to ask you a question which I asked myself a year back. How many IITians do you know who have changed the way you live? Not too many. The problem is with our attitude. Most of us are averse to failure, simply because we've never really seen failure. Most of us will do what our parents, friends and girlfriends want us to do. Most of us do not even think what we really want from our lives! I am urging you to think and act, before age gets the better of you. Either life takes you where it wants, or you take life where you want. Choose wisely.
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