Summer Internship!

My friend told me that if I start putting down my internship travails into writing, I might be able to give Chetan Bhagat a run for his money !
Let's see if that happens. Another matter altogether - The undeniable fact that I've been incredulously lucky all my life came true when I received a call from the HR generalist in my company one evening. Unnaturally, the sweet voice on the other side of the call was a little perturbed. She told me in a quite apologetic tone that there has been a change of plans and that my project location has been changed. Quite the efficient person that she is, she hadn't communicated the project location in the first place. That'll remain a mystery for now. And the new project location, as she said, is in Trivandrum. Wait, she must be kidding.

I held my breath and pinched myself. Was that really her or was it some hoax call? Nope, it wasn't. I was being posted for my summer internship in Trivandrum. Hallelujah, it's a 2 month-vacation at home. Again, I would be reporting to my mentor in Chennai whom I was asked to meet on April 18th. Chennai wouldn't take long, she assured. She said it would take a day or two. Mistake.

Arrival

Come April 17th, and I landed in Chennai. Hot would be an understatement. It was summer alright, so it would be hot and humid. Accepted.
What is not acceptable is that there's always a permanent heat cloud omnipresent throughtout the city wherever you go. It feels as if you're walking through a heat cloud. There goes my humble attempt at explaining the Chennai summer.

Instead of the promised 1 or 2 days in Chennai, I spent 5 jobless, rotting days in Chennai doing practically nothing. I was staying at my friend's flat and as a classic case of bad timing, he was occupied with tons of work throughout that entire week. It meant he would be leaving in the wee hours of the morning and coming back home close to midnight. That Sunday, out of sheer boredom and heat-induced desperation, I ventured out looking for a bottle of Kingfisher. After two sweaty hours scouring the entire locality in an auto and on foot, I returned with 4 bottles of Black Knight. Beer has never ever tasted like that and never will, as that night will testify. I got the gyaan later from my friend that even a pint of KF is extremely difficult to scour in Chennai.

Day 1-Chennai

It was Monday morning and I was dressed up and all set to join the Regional Office (south) of my company for work. I got to experience first-hand the dacoitry practised by the tribe of Auto-drivers in Chennai. A 10 minute ride to the office set me back by a cool 100 bucks. Little monetary matters like these have never bothered me really. So, here was I, in 7th Avenue of Harrington Road, Chennai,looking for my office. Ah. Where? A couple of litres of sweat later, I located it. The office where I slogged for 8 months in my previous instance of professional life and this one couldn't have been more contrasting. This was a normal, sales office which was actually a big 2-storeyed house converted into an office. I made my grand entry to the office after waiting outside on a creaky cushioned sofa kept on the verandah along with the security guard who thought I was some new non-sense in my official looking avatar with a pair of my 'customized, made-for-summer' shades and a tie.

Atleast, they had AC inside. One guy who introduced himself as HR, broke the fantastic piece of news that my mentor had gone on a pilgrimage to Tirupati and would be back only later in the evening. I merely drifted here and there in the office after that and he later showed me some pity by asking me to go through a booklet which he said would be helpful for new joinees. The next 2 hours were spent turning the pages of that boring book and dozing off intermittently. Enough's enough, I decided, and I went up and told him I would come back tomorrow morning to meet my elusive mentor. I never expected things to be so bad that he would have to take a pilgrimage upon hearing the news that I would be coming to Chennai to meet him. As I was leaving, the HR (Uncle, really) asked me about my graduation details. When I told him that I'm pursuing my degree in MBA, he was pleasantly shocked. And then he asked me if I was doing part-time MBA with Symbiosis Distance Learning or something like that.
Ah, I fled. Internship. Yeah, right.

Day 2-Chennai again!

Fleeced by the auto driver and shorn of any unnecessary contraption like a tie, I arrived at around 10 am the following day. I straightaway went upto the HR uncle to ask if my mentor had turned up only to receive information that he's unsure if the King would turn up that day. A phone call later, I realized that it's highly dangerous for my sanity levels to stay any minute longer there. I was back in the flat by 10 25 am after spending close to 200 bucks for to-n-fro travel. Again, I say, money grows on trees for me!

Day 3-Chennai, unfortunately!

It's a story of "How Deepak Nair bargained with the auto driver, got a good bargain, reached office on time and got to meet the mentor". My mentor looked like some long-lost twin of a certain notorious professor from my college. He had a huge, scary-looking dragon (or some other prehistoric animal) tattoo on his forearm and I could see a generous helping of gold, bracelets, anklets and stuff everywhere. ( No, everywhere doesn't include That 'everywhere' !). The next two hours of my life will tell a story of how I nodded off in agreement to a potential dangerous 2 months in Trivandrum at the end of which all paint dealers and contractors in the 2 districts will be practically up in arms baying for my precious, warm, B-school blood.