“THE REFRESHING SUMMERS”[/b]
I was dreaming of flying, floating on the wind, not like the little light-winged bird that flaps and flutters when it flies but more like the HAWK gliding smoother than anything else in the sky when I suddenly woke up to the noise of my new, CUSTOMIZED alarm tone,
“A bhidu chal uthja, Suraj ugela hai, Chand dubela hai. Murga chilla rela hai, Mast flower khilela hai, Jhakas mahol banela hai, Bole to kasamse rapchik”
Yes friends, as you would have rightly guessed, I interned in Mumbai with GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals!! I am Ayantika Mandal, a bong by origin and an SCMHRDian….I am a Fresher, specializing in Human Resource Management.
My first day:7 a.m. it was, not the time I usually get up at, but it was my sleep dead-line for the two months in Mumbai. Finishing the morning rituals, preparing a nice breakfast for myself and leaving for office,my life got a lot more routinized. After all I was working ya!!
The walk from my housing complex to the JVPD bus depot was quite short and nice. Every morning stopped for sometime at the temple near the colony gate, gathered some positive vibes for the day and headed for Worli. The bus passed by the “Juhu chaupati”, a glimpse of the sea made me feel refreshed every morning. My eyes stuck to the roads, the shops, the people, as if I was analyzing each movement very critically trying to know Mumbai a bit better every passing day. Distracted totally from the rush inside the bus I used to enjoy my window seat glancing through the Mumbai streets!!
I was the first intern to reach the venue on the day of induction. I was instructed to sit at the visitor’s area till all my fellow internees arrived. The floor attendant offered me a cup of coffee and by the time my induction started I was 7 cups down. But even 7 cups of caffeine could not stop me from taking the quick nap inside the briefing hall. Later on I conveniently consoled myself that the briefing was more useful for the marketing interns just because it was being delivered by the marketing head!! And so my journey began!
We were escorted to our cubicles after one hour of briefing and a wonderful lunch. Two of us had to share a cubicle, I was seated with another bong girl from FMS, “Shilpa Sardar”. The next hour went in knowing each other, bragging about Calcutta and how Pune and Delhi(our respective locations for these two years)does not live upto our expectations and how we were kind of liking Mumbai.
It did not come to me as a surprise that my mentor too was a Bong. Too many bongs in GSK made me feel “at home”, the fact which added feathers to my secretive face-booking skills, chit-chatting with my co-interns in the intern-bay, cracking PJs at every other person possible and sneaking out of office for window shopping! Yes to be honest “I did it all”!
My mentor was a lady in her thirties with a clear picture of the assigned project. She briefed me about the project in NASIK(designing a training plan for the workers in the manufacturing site of GSK, which included doing a detailed Training Need Analysis, proposing training methods,doing cost-budgeting, a detailed training evaluation process with communication plan), my deliverables and how she wanted me to operate practically and effectively. Right from her first appearance I knew she was a tough task-master but her trust on my abilities and the expectation she had from me was enough to drive me through the next two months. A training program for more than 1000 eployees across 10 functions was really tough, but I took it up as a challenge and performed my best.
The office experience for the next two months was just great. Not as monotonous and regulated as I expected. My fellow interns from SCMHRD and other colleges like NITIE, IIMs, FMS and NMIMS deserves a big acknowledgement for making this journey of two months so worthwhile. We worked in co-ordination, be it marketing, H.R. or operations. Resources were equally utilized and exploited to the fullest!! But the biggest achievement as the summer intern group was the “sharing” part. That is something we left behind for them to learn!!
Strolling along the Marine Drive, hogging like anything in Bade Miyaan, Riding the ferry at the Gateway we went all over. We nearly explored all the beaches in Mumbai, ate in all the food hubs and shopped in all the hotspots in the next few weeks.
My all-time pal was my cubicle-mate, our “sardar ji, who was not a Sardar”!
At the end of the first month I travelled to the factory site in NASIK. My first visit to a manufacturing site for interviewing the senior managers. I was accommodated at the guest house with all luxuries. With the glimpse of the hills behind and an eye soothing greenery the Nasik plant was just so-not-like what I expected a factory to be. Actually it was the opposite in all respects!! There the workers seemed more sensible, polished, trustworthy and behaved considering their backgrounds. The most important of all they knew how to “respect” an individual which I guess is the first human connection one makes.
Though there were disturbances like disgusting people staring at your face as if you are an alien, making a person wait outside your office just because you are a senior manager and she is a summer internee, making you feel uncomfortable because you are in a territory ruled by men where the gender ratio is 95:5, women being the minority, but those three days of the Nasik episode was totally outstanding!! The plant used to be deserted by evening, as if evening never existed, it was morning, noon and night! The walk from the canteen to the guest cottage after dinner used to haunt me reminding me of the Vampire Diary episodes I was addicted to, back in my hostel.
With the cold breeze tickling the ears and the silent ambience, the walk was peaceful otherwise. Data collection was a bit monotonous, surprising(as so many odd Training needs came out of the interviews), irritating(because none of the interviews went as scheduled)and stressful(because from 8 a.m. in the morning till 7p.m. in the evening I used to be running behind people, or waiting aimlessly at someone’s doorstep for interviews). But “alls well that ends well”. The data collected was quite resourceful (as complemented by my mentor),which helped me in delivering a good project and earning a letter of appreciation from my mentor for “one of the best summer projects”.
18th May the most cherished day of the internship journey. With the whole H.R. department of GSK House singing me my birthday song at my cake cutting, my fellow interns gulping in my birthday cake( which ofcourse they bought me) forgetting to offer the birthday girl some, me busy wiping out the cake-icing from my face,” sardar ji” gifting me a pair of pretty earings and a card full of birthday wishes from all the people I knew in GSK , my birthday was a blast !! My mentor granted me a half-day which I cleverly declined stressing on my sincerity towards work! In the evening an awesome ferry ride at the gate-way, mango shots in CCD, and a ride back to home in the Mumbai local, I enjoyed it thoroughly!
To sum up, my experience was more of fun. To crib about I can talk of the intra-departmental politics which came into limelight during my final presentation, my mentor who used to be quite hard and over-demanding at times, the exhausting bus journey everyday to and fro, the tiresome excel work at night and the scarcity of necessities at the rented place. But after watching my friends struggling to pull off ends , handling their mentor and meeting deadlines during their internships, I was lucky to slide through so smoothly and efficiently. I think I could be the “HAWK” I have been dreaming of!
I waited two more days after my internship to see my project get implemented. It was a proud moment when the printed training planner and training calendar arrived at the office. My efforts were appreciated by all!
“And thus I learned two things that day, and the next day,: the perfection of a moment, and the fleeting nature of it.”
My summers gave me a lot more than I ever expected, a lot more than mere achievements!! It gave me the opportunity to experience a wonderful mentor-buddy relation which was not easy to handle, it was not the girl-connection, neither the bong-connection, it was more of an unconditional understanding which we shared and which taught me a lot about human connections in work-place. I value the love, affection and appreciation I gathered from the whole H.R. department of GSK house, I brag about the countless friends I made there with “sardar ji” being the significant one, I cherish the wonderful moments I spent in the charming city, and I treasure the learnings I got through my mentor and the whole Mumbai episode.
“’Moving on is easy, but what you leave behind makes it hard”…………
6th June 2012,I was feeling a bit low while leaving Mumbai. The sky empathized with me, it rained for the first time in Mumbai when I left that day! I messaged my friends, my mentor, held my baggage tight in my arms which had grown fat over the few weeks due to my linkin-road shopping, and left the “city of dreams”, the city which gave me such wonderful memories for a lifetime!!
“It is good to have an end to journey, but it is the journey that matters in the end.”
I was dreaming of flying, floating on the wind, not like the little light-winged bird that flaps and flutters when it flies but more like the HAWK gliding smoother than anything else in the sky when I suddenly woke up to the noise of my new, CUSTOMIZED alarm tone,
“A bhidu chal uthja, Suraj ugela hai, Chand dubela hai. Murga chilla rela hai, Mast flower khilela hai, Jhakas mahol banela hai, Bole to kasamse rapchik”
Yes friends, as you would have rightly guessed, I interned in Mumbai with GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals!! I am Ayantika Mandal, a bong by origin and an SCMHRDian….I am a Fresher, specializing in Human Resource Management.
My first day:7 a.m. it was, not the time I usually get up at, but it was my sleep dead-line for the two months in Mumbai. Finishing the morning rituals, preparing a nice breakfast for myself and leaving for office,my life got a lot more routinized. After all I was working ya!!
The walk from my housing complex to the JVPD bus depot was quite short and nice. Every morning stopped for sometime at the temple near the colony gate, gathered some positive vibes for the day and headed for Worli. The bus passed by the “Juhu chaupati”, a glimpse of the sea made me feel refreshed every morning. My eyes stuck to the roads, the shops, the people, as if I was analyzing each movement very critically trying to know Mumbai a bit better every passing day. Distracted totally from the rush inside the bus I used to enjoy my window seat glancing through the Mumbai streets!!
I was the first intern to reach the venue on the day of induction. I was instructed to sit at the visitor’s area till all my fellow internees arrived. The floor attendant offered me a cup of coffee and by the time my induction started I was 7 cups down. But even 7 cups of caffeine could not stop me from taking the quick nap inside the briefing hall. Later on I conveniently consoled myself that the briefing was more useful for the marketing interns just because it was being delivered by the marketing head!! And so my journey began!
We were escorted to our cubicles after one hour of briefing and a wonderful lunch. Two of us had to share a cubicle, I was seated with another bong girl from FMS, “Shilpa Sardar”. The next hour went in knowing each other, bragging about Calcutta and how Pune and Delhi(our respective locations for these two years)does not live upto our expectations and how we were kind of liking Mumbai.
It did not come to me as a surprise that my mentor too was a Bong. Too many bongs in GSK made me feel “at home”, the fact which added feathers to my secretive face-booking skills, chit-chatting with my co-interns in the intern-bay, cracking PJs at every other person possible and sneaking out of office for window shopping! Yes to be honest “I did it all”!
My mentor was a lady in her thirties with a clear picture of the assigned project. She briefed me about the project in NASIK(designing a training plan for the workers in the manufacturing site of GSK, which included doing a detailed Training Need Analysis, proposing training methods,doing cost-budgeting, a detailed training evaluation process with communication plan), my deliverables and how she wanted me to operate practically and effectively. Right from her first appearance I knew she was a tough task-master but her trust on my abilities and the expectation she had from me was enough to drive me through the next two months. A training program for more than 1000 eployees across 10 functions was really tough, but I took it up as a challenge and performed my best.
The office experience for the next two months was just great. Not as monotonous and regulated as I expected. My fellow interns from SCMHRD and other colleges like NITIE, IIMs, FMS and NMIMS deserves a big acknowledgement for making this journey of two months so worthwhile. We worked in co-ordination, be it marketing, H.R. or operations. Resources were equally utilized and exploited to the fullest!! But the biggest achievement as the summer intern group was the “sharing” part. That is something we left behind for them to learn!!
Strolling along the Marine Drive, hogging like anything in Bade Miyaan, Riding the ferry at the Gateway we went all over. We nearly explored all the beaches in Mumbai, ate in all the food hubs and shopped in all the hotspots in the next few weeks.
At the end of the first month I travelled to the factory site in NASIK. My first visit to a manufacturing site for interviewing the senior managers. I was accommodated at the guest house with all luxuries. With the glimpse of the hills behind and an eye soothing greenery the Nasik plant was just so-not-like what I expected a factory to be. Actually it was the opposite in all respects!! There the workers seemed more sensible, polished, trustworthy and behaved considering their backgrounds. The most important of all they knew how to “respect” an individual which I guess is the first human connection one makes.
Though there were disturbances like disgusting people staring at your face as if you are an alien, making a person wait outside your office just because you are a senior manager and she is a summer internee, making you feel uncomfortable because you are in a territory ruled by men where the gender ratio is 95:5, women being the minority, but those three days of the Nasik episode was totally outstanding!! The plant used to be deserted by evening, as if evening never existed, it was morning, noon and night! The walk from the canteen to the guest cottage after dinner used to haunt me reminding me of the Vampire Diary episodes I was addicted to, back in my hostel.
18th May the most cherished day of the internship journey. With the whole H.R. department of GSK House singing me my birthday song at my cake cutting, my fellow interns gulping in my birthday cake( which ofcourse they bought me) forgetting to offer the birthday girl some, me busy wiping out the cake-icing from my face,” sardar ji” gifting me a pair of pretty earings and a card full of birthday wishes from all the people I knew in GSK , my birthday was a blast !! My mentor granted me a half-day which I cleverly declined stressing on my sincerity towards work! In the evening an awesome ferry ride at the gate-way, mango shots in CCD, and a ride back to home in the Mumbai local, I enjoyed it thoroughly!
To sum up, my experience was more of fun. To crib about I can talk of the intra-departmental politics which came into limelight during my final presentation, my mentor who used to be quite hard and over-demanding at times, the exhausting bus journey everyday to and fro, the tiresome excel work at night and the scarcity of necessities at the rented place. But after watching my friends struggling to pull off ends , handling their mentor and meeting deadlines during their internships, I was lucky to slide through so smoothly and efficiently. I think I could be the “HAWK” I have been dreaming of!
“And thus I learned two things that day, and the next day,: the perfection of a moment, and the fleeting nature of it.”
My summers gave me a lot more than I ever expected, a lot more than mere achievements!! It gave me the opportunity to experience a wonderful mentor-buddy relation which was not easy to handle, it was not the girl-connection, neither the bong-connection, it was more of an unconditional understanding which we shared and which taught me a lot about human connections in work-place. I value the love, affection and appreciation I gathered from the whole H.R. department of GSK house, I brag about the countless friends I made there with “sardar ji” being the significant one, I cherish the wonderful moments I spent in the charming city, and I treasure the learnings I got through my mentor and the whole Mumbai episode.
“’Moving on is easy, but what you leave behind makes it hard”…………
6th June 2012,I was feeling a bit low while leaving Mumbai. The sky empathized with me, it rained for the first time in Mumbai when I left that day! I messaged my friends, my mentor, held my baggage tight in my arms which had grown fat over the few weeks due to my linkin-road shopping, and left the “city of dreams”, the city which gave me such wonderful memories for a lifetime!!
“It is good to have an end to journey, but it is the journey that matters in the end.”