Monday, 22 July 2013

The Life and Times of Summer Internship !!

Internship is an important part of our academic as well as professional life (atleast it is said so). So to fulfill the void of this important element I went in a construction company or rather approached a friend of mine who approached his uncle who was a friend of his father and blah blah the chain goes on, after all it’s a country where to get an internship on merit you need to run from gate to gate for months still you will never be attended, reply to a mail by the company is like a dream come true. I know a friend who followed this path also but I was too lethargic for that. So ok I got an internship in a decent company.

Now instead of talking about the technical aspects that I learned this and I learned that I would like to sum it up in just one line 

“Classroom is not even 1% of what actual field work is”.

What I am dying to talk about is the other non technical aspect of my internship so let it roll. To my surprise the site allotted to me and my friend Anurag was Jama Masjid and this was the reason for the first grin on our face, well I couldn’t have laughed very loud in the office cause as an intern I was expected to be modest. The reason of my wicked grin was that way to Jama Masjid goes through the streets of Chandni Chowk and who on this earth can resist to savour the awesum authentic flavours of chandni chowk. So we came out of the office proudly wearing our new “Hard Hats and Safety Shoes” the only two assets a civil engineer have with him. Well though after few days these assets started to feel too heavy. And the minute we came out our Delhi Darshan started.

“If anyone wants to see and feel Delhi’s heart he can only live it in his student life”

From having pineapples under scorching heat to the mesmerizing scent of “Jalebis”, from quenching our thirst from “Nishulk Water Service” to the Halwa from a Gurudwara. Everything was just perfect. That walk from metro station to the site and stopping at almost every stall to have something exquisite was priceless. And please who cares about the hygiene it’s the only age we have to worry least about that. Walking tension free in world famous streets such as Kinari bazaar, Paranthe Wali Gali, Nai Sarak and observing people, lifestyles, chaos, happiness was something I really enjoyed. And its very obvious you don’t see these things in high rise skylines of Noida and Gurgaon.


Now coming to my observations on site, well after working there for almost a month I can surely say that it’s the only industry where unprofessionalism drives productivity. And how can I say that, well I have several examples of the work culture. The biggest element of our trade is basically a term, but we don’t realize the extent to which this entity or this term is important for our trade. I am talking about Labour, seeing the work culture of these people I was rather confused first but later I was satisfied because I was searching for a pattern in their behavior which simply didn’t exist. We all are corporate robots who are taught some certain skill sets to be followed we are taught to stuff are shirts in our pants and laugh on a joke cracked by an employee just out of modesty even if it wasn’t hilarious to you and the term we use is Behavioural science. Well coming back to labour, these are hardworking people and when I say hardworking I don’t mean reading 10 books I am talking about working physically in adverse conditions and that too with great spirits. The spirit is what drives them, no matter you are a manager or an engineer they wont stop for you as soon as the lunch bell strikes. They have lunch in a group, and even sleep anywhere, they are carefree. And I also observed that our officers were also with very high spirits they used to create songs in free time and not a normal song a song full of abuses and I am not talking about a person of a small stature I am talking about a person of managerial level. So what, if it drives the maximum output from himself and his labour he does not find it wrong. It’s the only industry where labour and officers eat together in a mess on site. There are temporary offices, less facilities always a chaos is happening but in the midst of that chaos there always is a hidden element of humour and that always keeps the mood high. So this is what I experienced, I felt the spirit of the industry and work culture. And that is the reason I said that it may be the only industry where productivity is driven by unprofessionalism, unprofessionalism in the normal dictionary but to them it is their professionalism. 

Drona Khurana
A2315810062
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