It's what you bring to the table
I'm not a fan of American adaptations of things that are quintessentially British. However, The Office starring Steve Carell and Co. is one of those rare American creations that are universally loved more than their British counterparts. Personally, I think that the antics of the eccentric employees at the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company are far more endearing than those of the disgruntled lot at Wernham-Hogg paper merchants in Slough. Curious to know who adapted the mundane and morbid tone of Ricky Gervais' brainchild into something more digestible for the American appetite, I googled the show and chanced upon veteran Greg Daniels. It was also how I chanced upon Parks and Recreation; the story of the banal yet delightful existence of a little government department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. (It is a well guarded secret from you-obviously-know-who that the discovery and subsequent binge watching of 7 seasons; not to mention other shows such as 'Dynasty' and 'The Night Manager' were in the months prior to and during my class 12 board exams)
So, in a sense, it has been a year of many firsts, not just in terms of watching movies and television shows in new genres and languages but also as regards my daily existence. Perhaps the most significant among them has been my internship with Villgro, India's oldest incubating organisation for social enterprises.
The seven weeks that I have spent here have truly been eye- opening. I came in with a clean slate, clueless as to how I was going to manage without an iota of knowledge about social enterprises, let alone incubation. Besides, having just completed school, I have only been used to noisy classrooms surrounded by people more or less as old as myself. So my initial week in a rather noise-pollution-free environment where I was the youngest by a far cry, took some getting used to.
I am also extremely talkative by nature so having to have lunch by myself the first week was rather boring. Soon, though, I befriended three twenty- something people (let's call them X, Y and Z- so much for originality ) who work a desk away from me and because of them, my internship has been a lot more fun! I have to say, (at the cost of goodness knows what!!) that lunch is definitely my favourite memory of my time here, mostly because there is so much variety in the stuff each of us bring to the table; literally. The best part is, my inexhaustible greed for dal (a north Indian side dish made with pulses) is satisfied because between the three of them, someone always has dal everyday.
I realise that the tangent I seem to writing along gives the impression of my not doing much work, but that is as far from the truth as it can get. I've worked on multiple things, but a particular project from among them has been extremely research- intensive, demanding and information- driven and I for one am glad to have had the opportunity to bite into it.
I have learnt so much from my time here- not only functional aspects, but also from observing and talking to the people around me. I conducted a series of interviews over the course of a couple of weeks and this has given me immense insight into and understanding how difficult it is to draw people out and confide in you their opinions and thoughts. Perhaps the most time- intensive of all the tasks I have dabbled in, was transcribing recorded conversations and interviews, simply because paraphrasing content is not as easy as it seems.
Thus far, I have only had very academic and therefore theoretical exposure to several themes (courtesy school) and so witnessing how they actually operate in reality has really been very interesting. There is something that makes me so pumped- up every time an interaction reveals something congruent with my hypothesis or even something diametrically opposite. I think what I have enjoyed most is knowing that everything I work on, culminates in a report which I have the opportunity to present in order to get my point across. I think I've learnt that what you bring to the table, really does matter.
In another milestone, I have learnt to make myself a cup of coffee. As the home page of my blog suggests, I am a procaffeinator. This means that I am one of those caffeine-addicts who cannot go about the rest of the day without a cup of coffee in the morning. My mom is the expert and makes for me my stimulating fuel everyday, but because I typically consume 3-4 cups every 24 hours, I had to learn to operate the coffee maker at the office. Given that I have butterfingers, my past forays into the kitchen have been very minimal- so this really has made me feel almost as accomplished as a Michelin starred chef.
I write this piece on the last day of my internship and I realise; quite in keeping with the cliche, how quickly time has lapsed in the past seven weeks. I also realise that I have barely managed to teach X and Y a respectable amount of Tamil, contrary to what we had promised to accomplish before I left.
Looking back though, it has been a wonderful experience indeed and I'm immensely grateful to Villgro for that!
So, in a sense, it has been a year of many firsts, not just in terms of watching movies and television shows in new genres and languages but also as regards my daily existence. Perhaps the most significant among them has been my internship with Villgro, India's oldest incubating organisation for social enterprises.
The seven weeks that I have spent here have truly been eye- opening. I came in with a clean slate, clueless as to how I was going to manage without an iota of knowledge about social enterprises, let alone incubation. Besides, having just completed school, I have only been used to noisy classrooms surrounded by people more or less as old as myself. So my initial week in a rather noise-pollution-free environment where I was the youngest by a far cry, took some getting used to.
I am also extremely talkative by nature so having to have lunch by myself the first week was rather boring. Soon, though, I befriended three twenty- something people (let's call them X, Y and Z- so much for originality ) who work a desk away from me and because of them, my internship has been a lot more fun! I have to say, (at the cost of goodness knows what!!) that lunch is definitely my favourite memory of my time here, mostly because there is so much variety in the stuff each of us bring to the table; literally. The best part is, my inexhaustible greed for dal (a north Indian side dish made with pulses) is satisfied because between the three of them, someone always has dal everyday.
I realise that the tangent I seem to writing along gives the impression of my not doing much work, but that is as far from the truth as it can get. I've worked on multiple things, but a particular project from among them has been extremely research- intensive, demanding and information- driven and I for one am glad to have had the opportunity to bite into it.
I have learnt so much from my time here- not only functional aspects, but also from observing and talking to the people around me. I conducted a series of interviews over the course of a couple of weeks and this has given me immense insight into and understanding how difficult it is to draw people out and confide in you their opinions and thoughts. Perhaps the most time- intensive of all the tasks I have dabbled in, was transcribing recorded conversations and interviews, simply because paraphrasing content is not as easy as it seems.
Thus far, I have only had very academic and therefore theoretical exposure to several themes (courtesy school) and so witnessing how they actually operate in reality has really been very interesting. There is something that makes me so pumped- up every time an interaction reveals something congruent with my hypothesis or even something diametrically opposite. I think what I have enjoyed most is knowing that everything I work on, culminates in a report which I have the opportunity to present in order to get my point across. I think I've learnt that what you bring to the table, really does matter.
In another milestone, I have learnt to make myself a cup of coffee. As the home page of my blog suggests, I am a procaffeinator. This means that I am one of those caffeine-addicts who cannot go about the rest of the day without a cup of coffee in the morning. My mom is the expert and makes for me my stimulating fuel everyday, but because I typically consume 3-4 cups every 24 hours, I had to learn to operate the coffee maker at the office. Given that I have butterfingers, my past forays into the kitchen have been very minimal- so this really has made me feel almost as accomplished as a Michelin starred chef.
I write this piece on the last day of my internship and I realise; quite in keeping with the cliche, how quickly time has lapsed in the past seven weeks. I also realise that I have barely managed to teach X and Y a respectable amount of Tamil, contrary to what we had promised to accomplish before I left.
Looking back though, it has been a wonderful experience indeed and I'm immensely grateful to Villgro for that!
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