Internships and Reliefs

I think it is almost more than 2 months now that I wrote my last post. The delay has been due to reasons more emotional than otherwise. The euphoria of having blessed with a daughter, on 14th of January, was definitely ecclesiastical. We always wished for a daughter and seeing a daughter wheeled out of the delivery room on the morning of the auspicious Makar Sankranti, I was left searching for words. The next one week was gone in the daily visit to the hospital to be with my dearest wife, before I returned to “dear old” Mumbai.

Back in Mumbai, it was our last 10 days of academia, with back to cramming and assignment submission days! It finally ended with the perpetual exams. The knowledgeables say that the last term in any B School is a cakewalk compared to what you withstand all through the program and ours was no different. Fellow mates were more bothered with offer letters, project internships, stipends and locations and it’s not surprising when all one is doing is raring to be out of the academia and back to the professional world with some degree of semblance. But I am sure that many would agree that academia was more fun with no responsibilities and no work stress. I can only agree partially. I would rather say it was a welcome ‘holiday’ of sorts! The need of economics and the “paapi pet ka sawaal” in real life is overwhelming!! And who better to vouch than one who has transcended from being a SINK (single income no kid) to NINK (No income no kid) to NIOK (No income one kid)!! [I thought about these acronyms sometime back and was actually inspired by my good friend, Milind, who transformed from being a DINK (Double Income No Kids) to SINK]

That internship can be a stress was only evident from the ‘long’ (= hours) telephone calls between Milind and his good lady, about relocating to another city, about jobs and about being with each other. It’s a constant topic of discussion between me and Hiren. We felt Milind was really never away to do his MBA as us. His extended weekends (weekdays for the normal public) at Pune and his hourly discussions during the week in Mumbai never really kept him away!! Unfortunately he is now shunting in the Indian Silicon Valley, munching on crispy dosas and surviving on bisi bele bhaath. I am sure this carnivore friend of mine is cursing all and sundry, being devoid of the meat feast. However, I have been told that his phone calls continue unabated. I am pondering, which company is sinking and who is making money. I know he is going to smirk and use some ‘verbal niceties’ for me once he reads this post. My roomie Hiren is a different story altogether. He also reached Banaglore and in the same company along with his “pune chi mitr” and was ecstatic to realise that he can get along so cheap. I heard him telling me on of the rare phone calls (they both share one phone!!), that it’s so cheap in Silicon Valley and he has actually started liking south Indian food (read dosas and uthapas) as they are ‘wholesome’ and cheap. And I guess thereafter he went berserk!! He became excessively friendly with the “loo”!! I keep reminding him that staying for long in the Americas has robbed him of his ‘natural resilience’ and its time he accepts that.

I joined Larsen & Toubro (L&T). I wanted to be in a core sector industry and I joined one of them for my internship. The company provides a bus for travelling, provides good breakfast and good lunch (5 course and NON VEG twice a week). The only thing that a sucks a wee bit is the early morning chores at 0600 hrs as the bus crosses my hostel at 0730 hrs. But who minds when you get paid a good ‘package’ for this small inconvenience.

For my friends who follow this blog, the life of this blog is gradually coming to an end as my days back in B – School are coming to an end too. Though I will definitely post some more before I end this ‘back to school’ episode narrations.