Monday, April 16, 2007
http://sandeeplife.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-first-day-of-summer-internship-at.html
Monday, April 30, 2007
Walked in to the HLL office at Intercontinental The Grand Hotel, near the Bombay International Airport, wondering what a wonderful location for a company to be in; apart from being located in a 5 start hotel, it was also just 5 km from home – couldn’t have been more perfect. I entered looking all professional to have an audience with my guide for just a brief period, as he told me that he was going to be really busy for the day and just wanted to spend a little bit of time explaining the project to me. Went in and met him, and within the first 10 minutes of our conversation, I was completely blown away by Mr. Vikram’s charm and intellect. Was elated and surprised at the same time, to have been appointed a really smart and senior guide like Mr. Vikram, National Sales Manager for HLL-Water. In terms of hierarchy, he would report to Mr. Yuri Jain, GM of HLL-Water and he reports to the CEO, Mr. Doug Baillie!! So I was obviously in the company of heavy-weights and knew that I’ll have to conduct myself really well and more than that, slog my but t off to make an impression here
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Today was a holiday and I was so thankful for it. Thought of using the time to read up certain things about my project and get an early start in to the work I was to do.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Thought I could do some more reading today because Mr. Vikram was not going to be available in office. But my ‘fun time’ was immediately revoked as Mr. Vikram called me and asked me to get on the field to learn the business from the bottom line. So I went all the way to Thane, met Mr. Vijay Rao, ASM Mumbai and started meeting all the sales-people, trainers, TL’s, TSI’s and the whole staff of the Mumbai Water Unit and learning how they sell Pureit to the customers here. This was the very first time I was getting involved in the world of sales and I must say- I was shocked! Sales is harder than what they say in books. Its not just difficult, its bloody cut-throat. Its literally a dogs life out there for a sales man. And I actually spent the day doing house calls and talking to people about the device. Boy, what an experience!
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Had to make my trip to Thane and submerge myself in sales again today. Was totally beat by the end of the day! It’s been 2 days of walking all over the place, sometimes even lugging the demo kit of the water purifier to give demonstrations to interested parties. It was really tiring. Wonder how these boys do it day in and out! later that day, I was just chatting with Mr. Vijay Rao, and there was a person who had come in looking for a job as a GL. Just like that, Mr Vijay asks me to interview him. I’ve done plenty of interviews in college, and I knew I was pretty good at it.. but the difference was, I was asked to do it in Hindi here!! The guy who had come for the interview didn’t understand English much and I had to interview him in Hindi. No clue how I managed it, but I actually asked him some fairly intelligent questions and Mr. Vijay was pretty impressed. He wished me luck before I left the place and I was feeling really glad about having a good start here..
Friday, May 04, 2007
At last, an office day! Was allotted a place next to another intern, Shriharsh from NITIE. He was great company. A week into the internship, and I finally managed to do all the basic things only today; like checking my e-mail account, configuring my laptop etc. realized that my e-mail account was not valid, and didn’t have an internet connection! Only respite to the day was hanging out with Shriharsh. Was really glad that I had someone my age here for chilling out whenever required. Just when I was thinking what I should be doing next week, Mr. Vikram calls me and tells me to pack up to Chennai where I was to learn the business there, coz that’s where most of my work would be. So I spent the rest of the day arranging for my visit to Chennai. I decided to go to Bangalore over the weekend and go to Chennai from there as it’s been real long since I went to Bangalore. Been so busy with college work ever since exams got over, and then internship began without giving my any break at all. so I thought I’d just hang out at home for some time before beginning work full steam at Chennai.
Monday, May 07, 2007
I had a Kingfisher flight booked for me by HLL that was to take me from Bangalore to Chennai. I reached Chennai by 8a.m. and on walking out of the airport, I saw my name on a placard, just as Ms. Vijaya, the secretary at the Mumbai office had told it would be. It was the first time anyone ever held a placard with my name on it! Went up to the driver and introduced myself, he told me to wait at a particular spot in a language that was a terrible mix of Hindi and English. Once he got the car, I told him I could talk Tamil as I got in, and he seemed so relieved by it. He was telling me that he was new to Chennai and didn’t know the roads very well and really couldn’t speak any other language apart from Tamil either. I told him it wasn’t a problem and asked him where we were headed. He turns around and says that it’s my job to tell him that!
Well, Vijaya had asked the Chennai travel desk to mail me and apprise the acco details. But they hadn’t done that, which was probably because my Unilever id had not yet been activated. So I didn’t know where the acco would be arranged, and assumed that since they are sending the taxi, the driver at least would be informed where we were to go.
Anyway, I just stopped at a phone booth on the way to call the Chennai travel desk as I didn’t have outgoing on my phone which was on roaming, and they told me to go to a guest house called Cherian guest house. I get there and the caretaker there says that there are no rooms free there and there is some sort of a mistake. So I call the travel desk again, and this time they say it’s another guest house by the name Chummery. So I make my way there now. All through, my driver Srinivasan, kept asking around for directions, but thankfully got me to the guest house by 11a.m. Good 3 hours after I landed.
Anyway, the guest house was really comfortable. An air conditioned room with attached closet and bathroom. I freshened up and left to the SWZ, which is an HLL KSP here. Reached there, had a talk with Mr. Sony Varghese, the ASM here, and also spoke to some other people in the office. Then went out with some of the boys on their rounds and did a repeat of what I had done at the Thane SWZ in Bombay. It was good fun with these boys. They seem to know exactly how to handle different kinds of customers, know what to say, when to say. It was nice working with them. Funniest part was, they were always curious as to who I was and what I was doing there. Some of them thought I was a new recruit for a Sales Execs job and was getting trained. I was quite surprised to think they actually considered me their age because most of these boys were in the age group of 18-20.
After a long day at the SWZ, I got back to the guest house. I had unfortunately not told them to prepare dinner for me, so I had to go out to find myself some food. Walked quite a distance before I saw a small stall that served samosas and tea. Popped it there itself and satisfied my grumbling stomach. And just when I was leaving the place, I noticed the place right next to where I sat was a small restaurant serving parathas! Anyway, I was too full to eat any more now and headed back to the guest house. Was feeling a bit strange. Never had to walk back to a place where there was no one I know. Well, there was an extremely friendly care taker, but then no friends, no family, no one..
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Today I was to visit the Branch office of HLL. Srinivasan reached the guest house by 8a.m. itself. I had a lovely breakfast of stuffed parathas and totally stuffed myself with it. Then went to the office and messaged Mr. Freddy, the ASM there I was to meet. While waiting for his reply, I was just checking out the place and noticed a fabulous gym inside. It was real state of the art. Was wondering how it would be to work out at a place like that..
Anyway, Mr. Freddy called me and asked me to meet him. I had a talk with him and the RSM, Mr. Shaktivel. Decided to use the rest of my time to meet up with the person at the GPO and a person from the KSP. The KSP guy was busy and said he could only come in the evening. So I went along to the GPO after setting a meeting with the Business Development Head there. It was such a one-sided meeting. The lady went on and on about what India Post has to offer. I was nodding my head acknowledging the things I have already read on the net. Just waiting for her to give me air time and discuss business. The only useful part of the 30 minute meeting was the 5 minutes when I spoke and told her why we were there and we discussed how we could take it forward. But I was at least glad she allowed me that!
Then I came back to the office, made travel-acco plans for the next day as I was to travel to Coimbatore. After that was done, I waited till I met Mr. Shridhar from the Chennai KSP. He was a very young guy who came across as really smart and diligent. Had a wonderful chat with him and after that.. I was done for the day.
Went back to the guest house and on the way was chatting with Srinivasan. And he was asking me about my wife! I told him I was just 24 and hadn’t thought of it yet. He seemed totally shocked and said he thought I was close to 30. Pretty funny how just the previous day, the sales boys thought I was under 20!
On reaching the guest house, I had a sumptuous meal prepared for me, as this time, I made sure I informed them well in advance that I was coming there for dinner. The chicken biryani tasted really good and as I was getting ready for bed, I was just thinking.. unlike the previous day, I’m not feeling that bad about not having any company right now. I’m working at a wonderful firm, having nice conversations with the driver who takes me wherever I want to in an a\c car, staying at an extremely comfortable guest house where the caretakers are really friendly and take very good care of me.. I could really get used to this!! But anyway, I knew this was only ephemeral. In some time I will have to get back to normal life, and in any case, how long can one really live without friends and family..
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Met Mr. Freddy at the Chennai airport where we both were flying to Coimbatore. We had a good chat on the flight. We flew Paramount Airways and it was the first time I’d flown that and they do have pretty good service.
At Coimbatore, I met up with Mr. Sandhyave, who was Malu Christian like me. And his town of Ernaukulan happens to neighbor my home town of Kottayam. So we got along instantly and kept chatting all the time. He even reminded me a bit of my evanescent guitar tutor back in Bangalore.
Anyway, I had the best time today actually. Mr. Sandhyave took me to meet Shakti Entrepreneurs, who were basically women entrepreneurs under the Shakti model of HLL. And it was such a treat interacting and working with them. I met up with 3 SE’s servicing different strata of villages; the semi-rural, rural and under-privileged rural. This was by far one of the most enriching experiences I had and this is probably one of the greatest initiatives this company could have made. The entire model is just unbelievable and could be a case study of Harvard, if it isn’t one already!
In the evening, I was back in the Coimbatore SWZ and attended a meeting of Mr. Freddy and Mr. Shaktivel with potential candidates of a KSP and this turned out to be the second fabulous experience of the day. The meeting went off flawlessly with Mr. Freddy giving one of the classiest presentations I have seen. And I have seen quite a bit in the one year at NM. And Mr. Shakti making a connect with the clients on an emotional level. It was just too obvious that the clients would agree to the deal. Craziest thing was, they agreed to the alliance almost immediately, they didn’t even ask for a bit of time to confer or anything of that sort. They were just totally floored. Frankly, it doesn’t surprise me much at all. Mr. Freddy and Mr. Shaktivel were just too good!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Started off with a power breakfast with all the managers at Heritage Inn hotel, after which we drove down to Tirupur. From here, I went to a place called Palladam and by the time I got here, I was getting a little lost on my geographical location. I was supposed to be based out of Bombay, then by the beginning of this week, I got based out of Chennai, and 2 days back, I became based out of Coimbatore, and today, I was based out of Tirupur. Now that’s pandemonium for anyone!
Anyway, had a good meeting with the TSO of Palladam and after that, took a bus back to Coimbatore. This was the first time I was done for the day by 6p.m. itself. But I wasn’t really done. Had lots to do in terms of paper work. But its all in a days work..
Friday, May 11, 2007
Checked out of Coimbatore at 7a.m. and drove to Dharmapuri where I met Sandhyave and checked in to the ‘best hotel’ there, which was pretty mediocre. Anyway, it wasn’t so bad, had a place to plonk at least. Then the 2 of us drove to Krishnagiri where I met one of the most amazing person every on this trip. It was Mr. Francis, the director of an NGO called IVDP. I was simply blown apart by the work he has done. I was just looking at all the photographs and certificates and awards he had won and it was really touching to see one man do so much for the people of those villages. He has single handedly managed to install a TV, a functioning toilet and now even a purifier from HLL in every house in a 20km radius.
After a long wait, we got to talk to him. This man is really busy and managed to give us just half an hour and I made the best of it by asking him as many questions as possible and even offering to help him out with his organizations. Was wonderful listening to him speak.
After that we drove to a village deep in the hinterlands of TN where a Shakti day was happening. And this was the second treat of the day. Project Shakti does a lot for the women of rural India, and the Shakti day that they organize is probably one of the best of their activities. I was really glad I got to watch one of these rare events which happens only once in a village when a Shakti Entrepreneur gets appointed there. So I was definitely lucky to catch one in action.
We then drove back to Dharmapuri and on the way back, I noticed a milestone saying 80km to Bangalore. I just couldn’t believe I was so close to my house and still not going there! Anyway, we got to Dharmapuri, went searching for a wine shop and a decent place to eat. This place does not have a concept of a Bar and Restaurant. Its either a wine shop or a hotel. So we just bought some beer and packed some food and came to our room. The food was pretty terrible, but the beer made it go down easier.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Checked out of Dharmapuri by 7 and drove to Erode where we attended an SE meet. This came across as a shocker to me as I was made the chief guest of this occasion and made to hand out saris to all the SE’s who were present. The things I have done on this trip!
The meeting went off real nice. Some of the SE’s came up and spoke of their experiences and how ‘Hindustan’ company has helped them achieve so much. It was so nice to hear all that. I was just thinking to myself that retaining the name Hindustan in HLL while Unilever has changed its name in every other country was probably a really good move. Changing HLL to Unilever India would have had a drastic implication to people who know this company simply as ‘Hindustan’. HUL is so much a better option.
After taking a photo with everyone, we drove back to Coimbatore where I was to have a meeting with Mr. Balakrishnan and Mr. Sandhyave and use their relative experiences in the project I was working on. I must say, it was quite a successful meet. Both of them were pretty impressed with the ideas I had and three of us brainstormed to come out with a lot of good inputs. At the end of it, while I was being dropped to the hotel, Mr. Sandhyave while bidding goodbye simply looked at me, smiled and said ‘come up’.. so simple and meant the world to me.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
My first few free hours in ages… been running around so much lately.. Working almost all the time.. Whether I’m travelling, or in a hotel room, or in a meeting.. its just been work work work. Making my ppt, conjuring ideas, talking to ppl.. its been a non-stop merry-go-round for me. Absolutely loving what I’m doing.. Never had this much amount of work to do, this many ppl to meet, this many places to go. And the best part of it all was, did it all under 2 weeks! Anyway, had a flight at 3p.m. today. Only flight going out of Coimbatore to Bombay. So decided to use the time to just CHILL. Did nothing but watch TV, some crazy show on VH1 with a bunch of guys doing some absolutely crazy things. Was just thinking to myself, that if it’s not what I’m already doing, I’d probably be one of those guys..
Got to Bombay and thought of catching up on a movie as it’s been ages since I’d been to one. Made plans with Aparna to watch Metro. But the dam thing was house full in every theatre in our neighbourhood. So we just went out to dinner to this place on S.V Road she suggested. Thereafter went for a nice long walk on the beach. Was just thinking about the last time I visited the place.. the Bombay Juhu beach will be a treasure hove of memories for me..
Monday, May 14, 2007
Went to Gulita, HLL Learning Centre, for a session with all the interns. Its always good fun to meet up with everyone! We had sessions all day where employees of HLL came up and gave gyaan. Some good, some terrible!! But it was overall a very nice day, coz we got to hear Doug Baillie speak and also had an awesome party at Phoenix Mills. Doug Baillie was really impressive. Loved his speech! And he’s so animated, makes listening to him all the more interesting. And the best part of it was that I even asked him a question. Me, of all people!! I barely ask questions even in a regular class, and I actually had a doubt for the CEO of HLL. But it was a pertinent query. I wanted to know if HLL, now that it has forayed into untapped waters of Consumer Durables with Pureit, unlike its core competency FMCG, will be looking at any other durables in the future. It was obviously a question only the CEO could have answered right?? And he did.. he said “NO”. Well, not that simply. His answer was as comprehensive, if not more, than my question and I was glad I got to interact with him.
And after it all, the entire bunch went to Phoenix Mills. We had nearly the whole place booked for ourselves.. so many bowling lanes, a pool table, unlimited booze (and I’m talking about all varieties), good food and a dance floor!! I mean, we are the most privileged interns or what!! I was having an absolute blast. Drank only beer coz I was lugging my laptop and knew I had to go all the way back home and didn’t want to be too drunk and irresponsible around it. But the beer was good enough and the lane in which I was bowling seemed to have a lack of participation as the people registered there were involved in socializing and drinking hard liquor. So I made full use of the free lane and kept bowling under everyone else’s names as well.. knew I was gonna screw my arm. But who cares, it will get alright in a few days anyway right. I told myself that the pain is worth this fun. Of course, there was major partying as well after this. All of us dancing, at least most of us, coz there were many who were just being silent spectators. It’s quite strange for me coming from NM, coz I pretty much dunno a single person from there who wouldn’t let their hair down and party without any inhibitions whatsoever. Anyway, I was really not bothered and just having my own fun dancing around with everyone and even danced a bit with one girl and her boyfriend seemed to have a bit of a problem with that! Never to be the one getting into sticky situations like this, I completely avoided her after that. There were so many other ppl to dance with anyway, and I was having a ball with all of them..
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Worked on my ppt to give my guide today. In all that happened yesterday, a very important thing that also came to my notice was that there was another intern, Akash, who was doing the exact same project as mine. Something like, I’m working with Pureit and was asked to figure out a strategy for it and I chose Pureit-Shakti. This guy is working with Shakti and was asked to market different products and he chose Pureit, so it became a Shakti-Pureit and effectively both of us were doing the exact same thing. And since he had a head start in it, he would obviously be asked to continue as he’s done so much more work than me in terms of surveys and stuff. Besides, I had an option to look at other strategies as well. His was just Pureit-Shakti, and he wouldn’t really be able to do anything else. But I seriously wonder how such a miscommunication could happen! Actually, come to think of it. It wasn’t really a miscommunication. Both of us had very different Project Briefs. It just so happened that we concluded on the exact same strategy. And that is something nobody could have really predicted. And the strategy we developed was so uncannily similar in so many aspects that it went to show that it was probably the best possible solution for HLL. As 2 interns separately came up with the exact same thing!
So I was working on my ppt today to just put in place all that I’ve done, knowing very well that I will be asked to relinquish the whole thing, but put in my best all the same. Finally met my guide by the evening and presented to him and as expected, he asked me to change my project brief and work on something else now. Felt a little bad coz everything that I’ve been doing last few days was for the Shakti concept. Felt terrible to be relieved of that and change everything now. But its life I guess. Just pick up the pieces and get on in the race..
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Landed at Chennai today! Yup, just like that I had to get back to Chennai because of an NGO meeting happening there that I just had to attend. Had my project changed a few hours back and was already travelling cities to work on it. Love this life! Anyway, pretty good meeting with some NGO Directors. Struck some good deals and will now have to take them forward. My fluency in Tamil seemed to be quite useful as lots of these directors really couldn’t converse that well in English. And I wasn’t even playing translator to the Mr. Lav, the Brand Manager I went with, but pretty much making the deals directly with them, in their own language. Dunno if it offended, or impressed Mr.Lav, but I was just doing what I felt I should be and the meeting did seem to go off well.. most of them went back giving a very promising response!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Finally, an ‘office-day’ - spent the entire day at office today. Been so long since I’ve been in this sort of an ambience! Last many days I was either on the field, or in a car, or in a bus, or in a hotel room, or in a guest house, or in a flight, or in a seminar, or in a discussion.. endless list. I finally found myself in the confines of a cubicle with my beloved laptop and good old internet. Never felt so much at home!!
Friday, May 18, 2007
One more of the ‘office-day’. Kinda getting a bit bugged now. was enjoying the frenetic life so much more! But today was not just about missing the action. Something else was amiss. Couldn’t really figure out what it was and felt like going home real bad. So at 7 when I finally managed to talk to the ASM, Mr. Freddy, I left straight after meeting with him to the bus station. In my work clothes and office luggage, booked a bus to Bangalore. Crazy thing was, I had exactly the amount required for the bus fare. So was totally broke after it. Barely had any money to buy a small plate of curd rice, and just had to, to control the grumbling stomach that had gotten too used to good food. Something I was never short off in spite of all the travel! Putting on a very nice layer around my belly and would have to work doubly hard once I get back to Bombay to lose it all now! anyway, had the curd rice and whilst I waited for the bus, Muni met up with me. The guy is such a sweetheart. He actually got cash for me and we even went out for dinner. I was feeling so much better; was finally heavier in my wallet and my stomach. Well, Bangalore, here I come..
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Dad was surprised as usual to see me get off the auto in the morning outside home. But he immediately broke into a smile. Just love that feeling each time I come home! Then mom was talking about how she was just planning to call me and I actually ended up there!! Met sis, same old cutie. Then went out and met up with Pali. Been so long since I’d seen him. Then had Toddy at Laly aunties place along with loads and loads of fried fish and slept like a baby after it all, coz I barely managed to sleep the previous night in the bus. Towards the evening, mummy had called everyone to the apartment and we went there and had dinner. Apartment feels too empty. Its like a very nice place, but lacking family and love. Just no warmth there! Anyway, sis pretty much planning to shift in there with all the parties she’s having. What a spoilt brat! But the evening there was good fun. Laly aunty organized this game where we pick chits with different ppl’s name and then we have to imitate them. For all my acting history, I could barely imitate my own sis after picking her name, but it was good fun to see the rest of them imitate. Laughed so hard with Niki and Laly Aunty doing some amazing mimicry. Was feeling so glad I came down to Bangalore.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Did a bit of office work in the morning as I was feeling really guilty about being out of it for quite some time now. coordinated certain things with Mr. Freddy and even mailed Mr. Vikram. Spent the rest of the day with college ppl and this was the best time! We haven’t met in ages. And amazingly, everyone agreed to turn up when I called them the previous day, and everyone stuck to their word too. It was so nice to see everybody meet up together, get a treat from shiv for his b’day and basically have a gala time together. Didn’t want the day to end and felt lousy when I reached the airport at 5p.m. but had to get back to work! Deccan was thankfully, unlike its usual self ‘on-time’ and I managed to reach Chennai by 8:30 itself. Got to the guesthouse.. slept like a baby for a brand new work week.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Every once in a while, during the course of my project, I find out that I have suddenly been given an intense amount of responsibility. Just don’t get how it works sometimes, but for a guy who was just a few days back was totally lost as what my project is going to be all about, I’ve suddenly been asked to coordinate directly with UNICEF and conduct their survey in water purification requirements in India. And this is just one of the things I am to look into. There are so many others. Its almost as if I don’t have a particular project or anything to do. I feel like a regular employee doing regular work. If there is a project, you would have a project brief, a study, an analysis, a strategy, a pilot and a conclusion. I don’t think I have any of that right now. I’m just doing regular work. Talking to NGO’s, making deals, doing paper work and now even conducting a survey. Wonder what I will write in my project report at the end of all this.. ‘worked as a full time employee in HLL’ that’s all I will have to say. Dunno if its good or bad. Being given work like a regular employee is probably good, but not having any report to submit at the end of this may not really be. One day at a time I guess..
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
There are those days when a painter just feels like whipping out his brush and churning canvasses after canvass of masterpieces. Days when a scriptwriter goes garrulous on his scratchpad. Days when a music composer is unstoppably creating euphonic sound waves through his instruments. There are always those days when an artist suddenly experiences an outburst of creativity and starts doing what he does best at blitzkrieg pace. It happens every once in a while to every aficionado, and it did to me today..
I have no idea what got into me, but I was creating files after files of work. An excel file for calculating delivery cost, a word file describing a job format, not to forget my prized project ppt.. it was unbelievable. And I was trying to hurry through them coz I planned to go out with Muni for a movie in the evening. It was so funny that I was getting so excited about going out. But really couldn’t help it, coz he’s the only person in all of Chennai I can hang out with. Moreover, we were going for a movie. My greatest addiction and my biggest weakness. However, the thought of going for the movie was actually proving to be a propagator rather than an inhibitor, coz I was hurrying to complete my work. And by the time I actually mailed my entire work for the day to all my bosses, I was shocked to see there were some 8 files attached in the mail! So much in just one day! I was pretty sure I completed something like 3 days work in just this one day.
Anyway, it’s just one of those days. In compensation, I’m pretty sure there are gonna be many other days when I’m totally unproductive and unable to anything at all.
Well, watched Last King of Scotland with Muni at Inox. A movie I’d been wanting to watch since a very long time and it had long gone out of the theatres of Mumbai. Thank god for Chennai’s slow response to Hollywood; this movie was just recently released here. It was a pretty good movie. Whitaker was brilliant, although I still feel the Oscar should have gone to Di Caprio in Blood Diamond. The movie, however, made me feel like reading more about Idi Amin, the dictator of Uganda and made me lose my appetite because of some really disturbing scenes towards the end. But of course, forgot all about it once I came out and had to mollify from rumbling tummy with some good south Indian food from Desi-Mane, which was the same restaurant I’d gone to with Aparna, Shambhu and Satyam the first time I’d ever come to Citi Central.
Good work, good movie, good food.. good day
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Today was supposed to be my mid term review with Mr. Vikram and he had also arranged for me to give a presentation to Mr. Meghal and Mr. Lav. It was to basically try and figure out what the loopholes in my project are and give a better understanding as to how I would have to take this forward. That objective was definitely achieved by the end of the presentation, but along with that, I also felt like the biggest loser on the planet! I spent the last 2 days working on my presentation and giving finishing touches to the project and yet, I felt like I had done absolutely no quality work today. 60 slides of ppt and numerous fancy Excel sheets, just didn’t cut it. It was just terrible. I did try to be very optimistic about the whole thing. Because at least now I know what I must be doing. But the fact that the entire presentation went off so bad, made me feel real low.. Mr. Vikram sat and spoke to me after the presentation and told me what all I should have done right and I was taking all of it as sportively as I could. Couldn’t believe I’m one of the guys who gives really good presentations in class! Level here is something else..
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Almost didn’t feel like coming to office today. Really wished the mid term review and presentation happened on a Friday, so that I could have got the weekend to finish my sulking and recharge myself. This was only making the pain worse. Felt like I did not belong here and that I’m just not good enough for this place. just painfully waited for the day to get over, travel to Chennai tomorrow and hope things get brighter there..
Friday, June 1, 2007
Flew to Chennai today. Had to meet the Postmaster General here. But as usual, could just never reach her on landline or cell. So I decided to just land up at the post office and see what to do. I went there and on entering the office, right in front of me was Ms. Nirmala, the very elusive lady I’ve been trying to get in touch with the last 2 weeks. Went up to her and told her that I need half an hour of her time. I was obviously not going to budge, and she decided to acquiesce and allow me the time. It was a very fruitful meeting. I finally got details on all the things that I was planning to do. And it looked like I wouldn’t really be doing them now, coz the costs didn’t add up. But good thing was, I at least got clarity on it. Rather than just making assumptions and filling theory into my project.
Monday, June 4. 2007
Got introduced to Lily Shapiro today. As the name sounds, she’s American. Something else that was complete unplanned during this sojourn, but managed to fit into very nicely in my scheme of things. She had come to meet some NGO’s in TN, and work with them to analyze the impact the intervention that HLL is planning on safe water. So her obvious first step would be to meet Madhavi of CARE. Mr. Sakthivel told me to put her through Madhavi and even go along and ensure everything was alright. I was planning to call up the NGO’s we had met some time back and fix up appointments with them, and this ended up happening during our meeting with Madhavi itself. Madhavi herself called up the 4 NGO’s we were in discussion with and asked them for 2 days, so that in one, I could conduct my session and on the other day, Lily could conduct her surveys. It all fit in perfectly. Best part was, Madhavi organized the entire things so efficiently, that we were meeting a different NGO every third day and completing all 4 in just over a week! That’s brilliant. I personally needed this myself, to get some quality work done on the project. Been sitting and just doing analysis and working on the ppt the last few days. These things are just not enough until I go out on the field and come up with something constructive.
So my itinerary for the next 2 weeks were done, and I have only 3 weeks left. So I’ll probably use the last week to complete all my paper work. Stayed back in the Chennai office till 8 and left along with Mr. Sakthivel, who was the last person to leave the building from our floor that day. Earlier, we had a conversation on the model I was working on and he too came up with some recommendations. Now I have to implement all these reco’s I’ve got and complete this thing before I proceed to meet the NGO’s.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Took a flight in the morning from Chennai to Bombay because of a meeting that was to be held there for all the interns. I was coming back to Bombay only for this purpose and would have actually preferred to avoid it, as I really wanted to get working in Chennai itself. Even Mr. Vikram didn’t sound too happy when I told him I was coming back to Bombay, especially since I only arrived at Chennai last Saturday. But anyway, I had a talk with our new Campus recruitment head, Ms. Anandi, and she told me that this meeting is not going to be any fun and games kind of thing, but will be very important as there is a change in the PPO policy and that would be discussed.
Well, I didn’t really have a choice and flew to Bombay today. Ran some errands there, like meeting Varuna ma’am of college and Yogesh my broker, then went to office and left with the rest of them on a cab to Taj. Yea, The Taj of Bombay, right opposite the Gateway. Been to the gateway so many times and taken photos of the Taj from there, but never really thought I would actually be visiting the place this soon. Anyway, the place was nicely arranged for all of us. The same way it always is, when we have these meetings. And there were billboards put up all around with the slogan “Could it be U” with the U designed as the logo of Unilever. It looked pretty mocking, but the reality was right there. We were all waiting for our chance at the PPO!
The session was conducted by Ms. Leena Nair, of Keralite origin, but brought up at Kolhapur of the Kolhapuri chappal fame. She was the HR head of HLL and the first woman of HLL to be inducted on to the board. It was recently even in the news. So this woman was pretty much a celebrity. She gave a nice speech about her life and how we must choose to do what we want and not go with the mob, be ourselves and love what we have. I was thinking of 2 quotes; one popularized by Sherryl Crow, who strangely seemed to have a resemblance with Ms. Leena, in her song ‘Soak up the Sun’ that said ‘Its not having what you want, its wanting what you got’ and another line from the famous playright Oscar Wilde, who of course said it under different circumstances coz he was gay at a time it wasn’t well accepted, that went ‘People laugh at me because I’m different, I laugh at people coz they’re all the same’. Both famous quotes that resonated in Ms. Nair’s speech.
Well, after the gyaan session, Karan from HLL takes the mic and announces we’re gonna play some games!! Ummm.. I thought there was no fun and games here! Anyway, we were split into teams again. Most of the people in my team were the same one’s from our first meet. We had called ourselves Arjun that time, and decided to go with ‘The Crazy Arjuns’ this time. We didn’t win like the last time, but at least came first in one of the three events, the Jigsaw puzzle. And we won that, coz I was slightly tipsy by then and made sure everyone listened to me and finish the thing in record time. Its funny how I always become most productive at the end of the event! Anyway, we lost the first 2 games, which were a Sudoku, something I’ve never done before and this time felt I really should start, and X-box gaming. The X-box game was really cool. 6 X-boxes were setup for us to play on and the teams competed with each other. It was all good fun, just as always at these intern meets. The best part of it all was the booze that was being served. Johnny Walker Black Label!! All you can drink! I was laughing at the people having other types of liquor and laughing even harder at those not drinking at all! I couldn’t believe anybody would pass up free Johnny Walker. Anyway, I could drink as much as I wanted, as all I had planned for the next day was office. But the rest of them had presentations and stuff to give, and yet Sairam, my original roommate at HLL and Shriharsh, my project colleague, went about drinking as much as me. It was so much fun with those guys. We even went to the Gateway after that and took a photo to commemorate the occasion. Best part was, while drinking, there was this one senior person from HLL who came up to us and told us that this is the attitude we must have. Don’t worry about presentations and stuff as they will always be there, but have fun when we can. Best advice I got! We drank harder after that. But we were the only one’s remaining after some time at the Taj and we asked the bartender how long will the place be open. His reply was ‘as long as the drunkards are here’ oh man.. I was simply loving this place! but eventually, we had to eat (some fabulour food that was served) and I filled every corner of my plate with the thngs that were available and managed to finish like 10% of it and then get back home.
One funny incident I remember was a time when some of us wanted to go out for a smoke and we saw Ms. Leena outside. We didn’t want to smoke in front of her. but somehow picked up our guts and went outside, and then we see Ms. Leena smoking herself!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Today was another one of those super productive days. I had a meeting with Mr. Vikram in the morning and once again he punched 10 holes in every thing I said. Its almost like, no matter how hard I try, there are at least 10 things I’ve managed to over look! Anyway, with the additional clarity I got, I began working. Even Mr. Lav managed to spare some time for me today and together, we came up with quite a few interesting ideas for the project and I pretty much plugged all the loop holes that were discussed in the morning. Came up with a bunch of innovative concepts too whilst at it. Mailed the entire thing to Mr. Vikram before I left the office at 9p.m. and looking forward to going to Chennai and meeting all the NGO’s starting tomorrow.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Decided to fly Jet from Bombay to Chennai today, in the hopes of getting some of that Jet’s in flight entertainment. But sadly, it wasn’t available on this flight. In fact, in all the times I’ve flown Jet, there was only one plane that had that service. That’s the sad part. And Kf gets really boring with the in-flight entertainment, coz its very repetitive, and you can’t really keep seeing the same thing.
Got the Chennai office and gave Abhi a call and he was totally surprised that I was already in Chennai. But my Bombay visit was meant to be only a short one, an apparent ‘important meeting without fun and games!’ but I’m absolutely not regretting making the visit to Bombay. Have missed out on so many lectures by HLL biggies and really glad I got to hear this one from Ms. Leena. And of course, how can I forget the free Black Label!
Anyway, just checked mail and gave some calls from the Chennai office and then headed to Chidambaram where I was to spend the night and begin with the NGO operating there called CREED. So I moved on, reached Chidambaram by 6:30, half an hour before the taxi deadline as they’re not allowed to operate beyond 7p.m. due to safety concerns, and checked in to my room in Hotel Shardaram.
Had dinner and just before hitting the sack, I made a few phone calls. When I called mum to tell her I was at Chidambaram, she thought I said I’m meeting Mr. Chidambaram. I told her, ‘not yet..’
Friday, June 8, 2007
Lily arrived at Chidambaram at 6:00 a.m. and checked in to her room at the hotel. We had planned to leave at 8:00 to the NGO, but the NGO director, Mr. Nadanasabhapathy was busy and said he will himself come and pick us up at 9:30. So we had quite a bit of time to kill. Had the complimentary breakfast that was on offer and then retired to our rooms. Senthil, the PWE also had arrived, who was to make the Pureit demonstration. Mr. Nadanasabhapathy finally arrived at 10:30 and escorted us to the NGO HQ. we sat and spoke there for some time. Mr. Nadanasabhapathy seemed more interested in talking to Lily than me. He had just returned from Washington and was over enthusiastic in sharing his experiences with her. But he was really nice to have arranged a mass gathering of all the field workers for us, and also arrange for us to go on the field and visit some SHG members.
CREED is a fairly large NGO and have over 2000 SHG’s under them. Working out a basic ratio, I expected about 50 field workers, and there really were that many when we got there. It was a make-shift place and some of he NGO members were trying to set up a projector-screen on my request, and Mr. Nadanasabhapathy introduced to all the members.
Then I gave my speech. Started off in Tamil, but a one too many Faux Pa triggered one of the NGO members to play translator. Thereafter I gave a regular speech in English describing the benefits of the device. Then we played the video that everyone watched with rapt attention, and then Senthil demonstrated the device. The whole thing went off well, but I was a little intimidated that my very first presentation had to be to such a large group. But I managed it well and after that, Lily and I went along with CREED member Geetha to visit some of the villages and interact with the SHG members.
We first went to a school where these SHG members were teachers and spoke with them. It was quite interesting to note some of the things they had to say. And it was really funny to watch all the kids there gawking at Lily and following her wherever she went. Then we went to a small village where people started off completely negative to the whole water purification concept. Took quite a bit of my negotiation skills to arrive at how it would actually be useful to them. Then we went to another village where nearly 30 members gathered around us. By this time I was feeling a little bad, and even mentioned it to Lily, wherever we went, the women had to sit on the floor in front of us while we had chairs. Seemed so unfair. But anyway, we had to flaunt authority, if we were to lecture them on things, and make them understand. I gave a speech here as well. Had to improvise each time as different villages expressed different reactions. But concluded each time with the same statement. ‘so don’t you think this would be really useful to you’ and the resounding ‘yes’ was applause for my work.
We went to our fourth village after this, and this was a Tsunami affected village. I didn’t really think we could leverage the product here, but wanted to visit one of these rehabilitated villages, just to see how it looks. It was a pretty sad sight. Complete barren lands, with pockets of houses, all constructed in an 
uniform manner by some NGO or the other for the people to stay, as their homes here were all washed away. But the pity I was feeling for them vanished the moment I began talking to the SHG women here, as they began talking so arrogantly about delivering the device to them for free. And then saying we should supply water to them. That’s when Geetha told me that these people have been receiving free things from so many people for the last 3 years, that they’ve become completely dependant and lazy. It was actually true. This was the only village where people took more than 5 minutes to assemble and listen to us. Actually, these women took nearly half an hour before we could start. I did feel a little sad for them initially, seeing the surroundings, but felt vituperative when they sounded helpless when actually so much has been offered to them. I personally feel its high time they start fending for themselves and stop relying on others.
Anyway, got my worst response for the device from this village, but I was really glad I got to visit one of these places. We then went back to the NGO and spoke with Mr. Nadanasabhapathy and the rest of the staff. Tried to negotiate business with them. They said they would cooperate, but I know its gonna take more than just that.
At the end of the day, Lily and I decided to visit the famous Natraj temple of Chidambaram, but just before we were about to leave, she called to say that she’s developed some sort of skin rash and wanted to get back to Chennai asap and get it checked up. I knew she couldn’t leave by the company taxi, as it was way beyond 7:00 p.m., so we went looking for a bus. There was no a\c sleeper bus, and only the local buses were available. We took a ticket in one of them all the same, but I really didn’t think she should leave in that. She herself asked me once again about the taxi and I told her I’ll talk to Mr. Sakthivel. Called him up and he asked me to get in touch with Mr. Lav. Called him up and he asked me to get back to Mr. Sakthivel as he would know the people at Chennai office better. So after a major ping pong game with them and the taxi driver, we finally figured out a work-around for the situation. Lily is not an HLL employee, so we can treat this as a personal use and hence use the service!
So like that, Lily was on her way to Chennai and I skipped going to the temple and just had good dinner and hit the bed.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Took a bus to Cuddalore today where I was to meet my second NGO. Had told the taxi driver to come there directly at 10. The dude reaches at 1!! Anyway, me and PWE, Satsh Kumar carried on with our presentation and it was a much smaller audience this time, but then the NGO director himself was missing! Anyway, we managed to communicate the message well and thereafter, went to interact with SHG members and got pretty positive vibes from here. Butthese were members within the town of Cuddalore, and were quite well off. Wanted to visit some of the interior villages as well, but the NGO members were very busy with some things and I couldn’t make the visit. So got back to Chidambaram quite early and decided to work on my survey report. Completed that and headed to the Natraj temple that I missed out on the previous day.
It was nice visiting the temple. Received a call from Bala when I was inside the temple, and was planning o cut the call, but I noticed a priest on the cellphone himself. So figured it wasn’t a problem and I answered it. Bal seemed little upset with thins in Calcutta and was just talking to him about it. Then I took a walk around the temple. It was really huge! I alo noticed a place where they were selling ‘Prasad’, so decided to go and buy some and here I met Mr. Shiva. You think MBA’s are the best negotiators and then somewhere, you meet people in a funny hairdo and a white dhoti, who manage to convince you to shell out 100 bucks so easily. Not that I’m the headstrong types. I will take out money easily for people. So I did pay Rs. 101 and somehow manage to wheedle out of so many other things this guy was asking me to pay for. Had to tell him that I don’t need prayers for me and my family, that my sister will manage to find a nice guy to get married to, that I’m getting late and really need to get back!!
People like Mr. Shiva should be made a PWE. Just imagine the sales he could bring in.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Left Chidambaram, after having spent 3 nights at Hotel Saradharam, to Chennai and decided to drop in to Pondy on the way. Reached Pondy by about 9, had breakfast at the café, went to theMantrimandir Ashram, purchased some nice items and got back to Chennai. Once I came to the guesthouse, I just felt like chilling there only and watched TV and worked on my survey report. Watched some movies and the Men’s finals of French Open. Decided to rest today as I begin traveling again tomorrow.
Monday, June 11, 2007
I was to travel today again, this time to Kanyakumari. So packed my stuff, went to office, worked on my project report there, and left office by 4 to catch my 5:30 train.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Reached Kanyakumari by 7:30 a.m. when the scheduled time of arrival was 6 itself. Anyway, I knew nobody would arrive at CDE until 10 at least seeing the way the last 2 NGO’s functioned. So I took my time, found a hotel where I could use the loo and have breakfast. Then I made a call to the PWE who was to meet me at the NGO to ask him directions to get there. I was trying the NGO director, who was the only contact from the NGO I had until since the previous day to find this very information, but he was never reachable. So thought I’d call the PWE itself this time and see if he can help me.
The PWE told me that it would take more than an hour to reach the NGO from the Kanyakumari train station. And the time was already 9, because of my lackadaisical breakfast and morning job. So I had to leave soon and was feeling really bad that this being my first time in Kanyakumari, I’m not able to do any sight seeing. But work was the reason I was here, so had to give it more priority and I took a bus to Marthandam, which was where the NGO was located. The bus journey took close to 2 hours and by the time we began the session, it was nearly 12!
CDE had organized things really well for us. They had a board that said “Welcome HLL-Pureit” and everything was arranged very nicely. They had actually expected a 2 day training program of Pureit, but we were only there for a demonstration and discussion of the operational details. So we couldn’t entirely satisfy them, but managed to cover what we had in our agenda and left.
I rode back with a TL and we had a good discussion on the way. He was also punching holes in the model I developed and it was good listening to him, coz now I had discovered some more holes to plug. Its like everyone manages to find some loophole or the other in the model!
Anyway, reached Kanyakumari by 3 and had 2 hours before the train was to depart. So I actually had time for some sight seeing. Saw some of the temples there, then went to the Fish aquarium. This is the second aquarium I’m visiting this month. The previous time was the one behind the Chennai branch office which I visited one day when I was bored. And I think I’m gonna be pretty conversant wish fish names now. Moving on, I visited a wax museum in Kanyakumari which is apparently the only one of its kind in India. It was pretty good actually. The had statues of SRK, Big B and loads of south Indian stars. Good fun there. Finally, got back to the railway station and took the train back.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Couldn’t wait to reach the guesthouse and have a bath and get out of the clothes I was now wearing for nearly 40 hours! So freshened up first thing at the guesthouse and then went to office. I was to spend the next 2 days at the office and then head off to the last NGO on my agenda, CAMP at Guntoor, AP. I was actually quite tired of traveling, but decided to push it and go for this last one as well, coz I had already committed myself to it, and besides I haven’t been to AP in many many years now.
Spent the day working on the report and presentation. Mr. Vikram had called me the previous day and asked me to submit a draft copy by Thursday itself so that he could review it before I make the presentation next week. So I was working on it full steam. I also wanted to meet the sales tax officer here and get a clear picture as to how the transactions would take place, but he wasn’t available and I decided to do it the next day.
Left at 6 and went to Sathyam cinema to catch a Tamil movie with Muni. This was my penultimate day in Chennai. After tomorrow, I leave to AP and then to Mumbai and that would be my last week. So decided to watch one last movie with Muni here, and that too a Tamil one! So we went for ‘Unnale Unnale’, which apart from the jokes and songs, was a terrifically pathetic movie.
We had chaat for dinner after that and I got back to the guesthouse/
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Woke up at 6 and began working on the presentation. It was like those days I cram for an exam. Wake up early and just not get out of bed at all. I got up only for breakfast and continued working on the project the rest of the time. Finally left to office at 12, and went only because I really had to meet the sales tax officer. Took my luggage with me, as just like the Kanyakumari visit, I was to leave from office directly and catch a bus to Guntoor.
So I get to office, have lunch and try to catch up with the sales tax officer, but he dismissed me off immediately saying I’m an engineer and hence would not be able to “appreciate” the sales tax issues. I really wish he would have at least tried me.. I’m pretty sucky at finance, but would have loved to learn something from him here. Anyway, got back to my seat and called up Mr. Akshay Panda in Mumbai and asked if he could help me out with the sales tax matter. And over the phone, he actually explained things really well for me. I figured out the entire thing and had a fantastic epiphany. Through the sales tax concern, I figured a way we could cut our costs!! Was so thrilled with my finding that I immediately incorporated it in the report and later called Lav to discuss it with him.
Well, after a day of read hard work, I left at 7 to catch the bus. Bid adieu to everyone at office, and it was a day a lot of people who usually don’t come there were present.. Mr. Sony Varghese, Mr. Natraj.. all of them. So said bye to all and only then left. Dunno if I’ll be meeting them all again, although I know I would really love to..
Friday, June 15, 2007
Guntoor was a crazy place. people here speak only Telugu! I was feeling so horrible that I don’t know the language. I can manage in any other state, except AP, coz in the north, most people speak Hindi and in the south, I know every other language except for Telugu! Anyway, those who could pull off a bit of Hindi or English helped me around and I reached the NGO.
Only thing was, I reached the NGO at 8 itself. Way too early for anything. So I met up with the director, spent some time at his house and began the meeting only at 12. It went off pretty well and I think we got some of the best response from here. Thereafter, I proceeded to a village called Inturu to conduct my survey and after that, was on my way back.
One of the NGO members, Chinnababu had accompanied me for the survey and he was really reticent. During my visits to the other NGO’s, even if the people accompanied me weren’t speaking properly, I would pitch in myself and talk whatever I can. But in Inturu, I was completely dependant on Chinnababu to spread my message, and he was seriously doing a lousy job of it. I was really wishing I knew something in Telugu to communicate to the village people myself. Anyway, during our bike journey to the village, we were just chatting and he was asking me about my designation and I told him that I’m not an employee, but just an intern, and suppose I do get through, then I would be an Area Manager. While dropping me back, this person who barely said a few words during the entire trip wishes me goodbye by saying ‘Hope to see you when you return as an area manager’. Boy, I was just so touched. These Telugites are all like this. Extremely quiet types, but really sensitive and sweet!
Anyway, by the time I reached the railway station, I was totally beat. Way too much travel the last 2 weeks. In fact, the last 2 nights, I’ve been spending nights in moving vehicles. Just not getting good sleep doing that, and I’m too busy during the day to get some rest. So really did push my body to the limits and while sitting in the railway station, I was so tired, that I was actually feeling a little high! Spinning head and inane conversations on the phone! Anyway, hoping to get some amount of rest over the weekend before I get back to the final week of my project in the Mumbai office.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Walked in to office at 9a.m. thinking how few days I’ve actually spent at this place! It’s the beginning of my last week of internship, and in the last seven weeks, I’ve spent more time in the Chennai office and on tours than working from here. Also, I was walking in to office knowing Shriharsh is not going to be there for company. He was the only person I could talk to at this office as everybody else is extremely senior. Anyway, walked in, Mr. Vikram was already at his place, wished him, went up to my cubicle and began my day. Last few days I’ve been working on my report and presentation in all sorts of weird places; like in the train, at the stations, in cabs, buses, just about any place I could whip out my laptop. Finally I had a comfortable cubicle to do all of that, and I had quite a bit of work to do. Had submitted my presentation to Mr. Vikram last Thursday on his request as he wanted to take a look at it before I make the final presentation to Mr. Yuri, General Manager of HLL-Water and some other senior members on Thursday, and after a meeting with him, I had quite a bit of changes to make to the presentation. Moreover, report work was also pending. So sat down for all of it, and it turned out to be a typical long office day.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Been working on presentation and report last 2 days, and took some time off today to visit college and Yogesh. Went to college to try and have a meeting with Dr. Kondap before college begins and had to meet Yogesh to hand over the long over due PDC’s. Had spent the previous night at Samarth’s place as it was his birthday today, and just wanted to relax and prepare myself for the presentation today. Took print outs of the report before leaving office and left at 6, the earliest I’ve left office the last three days, and went to get the report bound. It was probably the simplest thing to do, spiral bind a report.. But the place I ended up going to screwed it up so badly, it ended up spoiling my entire ‘relaxed’ evening. They punched some of the beginning pages on the wrong side and I had to go and reprint those pages and rebind the whole thing. It was such a colossal waste of time and money. Anyway, finally managed to get home by 9, way longer than I wanted to, and just slept early to be fresh for the big day tomorrow.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Had my report ready with me, completed my presentation with all the changes Mr. Vikram wanted in it, plus some additional slides that I thought was necessary to jazz it up and was all prepared by 2p.m. when the presentation was to start. I had gone through the ppt so many times and I’ve worked so hard on this, that I knew exactly what was to be done, but still couldn’t help feeling a bit nervous when Mr. Meghal and Mr. Lav walked in, reminding me of the scrutiny I got from them the last time I presented. The other members of the audience included Mr. Vikram and Mr. Yuri, who was interacting with me for the first time after I was introduced to him 8 weeks back. He is the big boss of the Water Business and I had a pretty star studded audience to present to.
At sharp 2p.m. after setting up the projector and making everything ready in the conference room, I began what was to take nearly 2 hours. Almost double the amount of time Mr. Vikram allotted to me, and 4 times the amount of time Mr. Meghal has asked to complete it! But the presentation took time as I had to go over it in detail and also because of the many questions that were asked. But I handled it real stylishly. It was by far, one of the best presentations I had ever given. The entire ppt was structured really well and I was actually putting up a show there, with the ppt making it that much cooler with all the effects that I had added in there.
My last slide was especially funky, it was designed to leave a smile on the audience face, and it did just that. The moment I finished, Mr. Yuri says ‘good job’ and it was just everything for me. Worked so hard, and especially after such a lousy first presentation, I knew I had to redeem myself in the final presentation, and listening to Mr. Yuri, I knew I managed to do just that. He was genuinely thrilled with my work and really appreciated it, and kept congratulating me. What was even better was Mr. Lav and Mr. Meghal talking to me later saying they really liked the way I made the presentation and Mr. Meghal also appreciated the report I had made. It was overall a wonderful day, I had come here to prove myself and after so many hardships, so many rejections, I managed to make a world class presentation that all the senior people of this business genuinely appreciated. I could not have asked for more. The only thing remaining was to make a few small changes to the ppt based on Mr. Yuri’s recommendations and submit the whole thing to Mr. Vikram tomorrow, when he would also conduct my final review.
Friday, June 22, 2007
My last day in office! Completed all my work; ppt changes, cash reimbursements, submitting everything to Mr. Vikram, and most importantly the review meeting with Mr. Vikram.. it was probably my first ever successful review meeting, because the last one in HLL wasn’t all that great, and I don’t remember having a very good review meeting in Bosch as well. But this time, Mr. Vikram was so impressed with my work and with me that it showed during the review meeting and I was on top of the world. What made the day even better was the fantastic ratings he gave me on all the various points. I was just so happy. And the icing on the cake came when he said ‘we are recommending you for a PPO’. It was all I wanted to hear, it was one of the biggest reasons I slogged so hard here.. now what is left is to face the directors for the PPI. But before that, I was asked to meet Mr. Vikas Bansal, HR Head of Water, who was supposed to attend the presentation of yesterday, but couldn’t make it, and wanted to meet me on Saturday. So that would be my last task before I go for the interview.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Came to office at 11a.m. after postponing my flight ticket to Sunday, which was initially supposed to be this morning, because of the meeting with Mr. Vikas. But I didn’t complain about it as I really wanted to complete everything before I left. Mr. Vikas asked to see my ppt and I was doing a repeat performance of what I had done on Thursday. But as this was a one on one, Mr. Vikas was asking a lot more questions, and many of them on very fine HR aspects, that I had never really considered before. I did manage to handle most of the questions well, but at one point of time, I nearly felt myself giving up inside. I was tired.. really really tired. Been working so hard on this, and having had such an intense week, I was finding it so hard to explain everything all over again. And what made it harder were the questions that kept coming up. I was pushing myself to the last straw, somehow praying to get this over with. And finally, after 3 hours, we were done. Mr. Vikas once again expressed the same reaction the rest of them did on Thursday; he was happy with the work. In fact he also said it was something he had never seen before, and that a made a big difference to me as he is a really senior HR manager who would have been through so many such presentations. He wished me luck and left for the day and I went back to my cubicle and heaved a big sigh. I was officially done with my internship now. I knew I hadn’t handled the presentation with Mr. Vikas as well as I would have wanted to, but I really pushed myself to try and see it through and was quite satisfied with the outcome. Now all I had to do was get back home, pack up and leave for a weeks break to sweet old Bangalore.. cant wait for it..
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
It’s been over 2 weeks since I completed my internship and my interview was finally scheduled today. Spent the last 2 weeks chilling in Bangalore and then trying to get used to getting back to college. Today was a very important day, and somehow I seemed quite unprepared for it. Did try and get enough rest last few days in spite of council work, but somehow I still wasn’t very focused. Both Bala and Sin took mock interviews of me and they were both of the view that I wasn’t giving very crisp answers. I was just hoping that things would work out when I went for the interview. So I went with the ‘Could it be U?’ shirt that HLL had given all the interns to wear on the day of the interview and met Mr. Nitin Paranjpe, ED HLL and two other senior officials. The interview was so very different. We were all sitting on sofa’s and Mr. Paranjpe offered food for everyone and it was more like a general chat than an interview. Not that I minded it, as given the loose state of mind that I was in, I preferred not being pushed into a very stressful interview. But then, the laggardness of my brain coupled with the easy ambience in Mr. Paranjpe’s cubicle, I ended up giving answers even more loosely than I would have probably expected. When I came out of the interview, I knew I handled most of it alright, but was really annoyed with myself for some of the answers I gave and knew I should have given better one’s. Now I could do nothing but keep my fingers crossed..
Thursday, July 19, 2007
It’s been quite a while since the interview, and I was beginning to lose all hope. Not only was HLL taking so long with giving out the results, but every time I spoke to Heramb, he sounded very negative and it looked like I hadn’t made it. Even when Shobhit called Anandi, he didn’t get a clear response, and I was beginning to think that it was all because I hadn’t made it. So last few days I even began telling people including mom this morning that I didn’t get through. And today I just decided to call Anandi while I was on the way to college to ask her if I can use my project for any external b-plan contests and try and slip the question of the results also. And to my surprise, when I called her, she said ‘congrats, we’ve sent your offer letter to your placecom, so go ahead and enjoy yourself today’. I wasn’t so sure about what she said and didn’t really feel like celebrating. Thought I should check placecom mail to see if they actually have sent the offer. So I met Shobhit in the placecom and we went through the whole mail box and we didn’t find anything. So I called Anandi again, this time from the placecom itself and told her the mail hasn’t yet come and asked her to reconfirm the e-mail address. That’s when she tells me that its not an e-mail, but a courier that was sent and it would take some time to reach college. But she told me not to worry and assured me that I have the job. I told her thanks and on hanging up, looked at Shobhit who was eagerly waiting right in front of me and told him that I got a PPO. He went totally ballistic. Announced it to everyone in the placecom and then dragged me to the quad where all the boys, and most of all Faisal really kicked me hard. I’ve heard a lot about Faisals kicks and always hoped that I wouldn’t be on the receiving end of it anytime, but I couldn’t get away from it today, and boy, did he leave me sore! I then left college, bought a bottle of Red Label on the way home and showed it to Bala and Muni. Both were wondering for a minute what the occasion was, and then I broke it to them. They were just so happy. I know they had felt bad too when I told them that I mostly may not make it, and now when I gave them this news, they were really over-joyed. I was just thrilled. Then we poured us some shots, and after that, I went to Asiad where I partied with rohit, vikrant, abhi, gagan, ankit, kataria, dhruv, shambhu, amit, satyam, suyash, anirudh, ankit and shobhit where we made so much noise that we pisd everyone else in the restaurant off. The waiters were so annoyed with us, and kept yelling at amit, coz he was the only familiar face to them. But I didn’t bother much. We were having a fabulous time and that’s what mattered.
And that’s the end of the story of my interview process..
3 comments:
wat an inspiring sum up of ur intern period..highly enriching sir:)
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