Tuesday, June 02, 2009

In the business of news

Today is my last night at IIT. Last night of walking into a messy hostel room and crashing, for quite a while definitely. Tomorrow, I'll pack and move out. Still I don't really feel anything, yet.

Today was also my first day at HT, as an intern. The most dominant thought in my mind earlier in the afternoon sitting there waiting for my mentor for almost an hour was that all those girls we see on the streets of Delhi, in malls and multiplexes, but never in colleges and offices we frequent (and by we I mean girls and (especially) guys at IIT and similar places who occupy an artificially skewed nerdy environment most of the time) - all those girls don't disappear, they work here and places like these! There were guys, about 40%, but it was obvious the fairer sex is the smarter, dominant species in here.

Essentially I was excited about a stint like this primarily for meeting diverse, different people, and to do something different and exciting in itself. The first part does hold, but the work is fairly non-challenging and mechanical. I learnt I need to put in 3-4 hours a day late afternoons and evenings on editing and page-making at least for the next two weeks. Checking stories for spelling and grammar is hardly a value-addition, and I'm already bored and in two minds about continuing a work clearly unfruitful (and one that involves travelling in afternoon heat AND evening peak traffic). That said, I do get to read half of tomorrow's newspaper in advance for the next four weeks.
What's your take? Continue or quit?


24 comments:

Prasad Narulkar said...

its just the start...one day...i think the work will bcome interestin in days to come..just hold on a bit..

Im sure YOU will make news sometime soon (quite literally i mean!)
:-)
All the best!
tc

Piyush said...

That thing about those girls working there..is it for real? cool.Wish I had an intern there .. ;)
I think you should keep working..Its a ..different kind of exposure.Besides what else do you have to do in the holidays?

That reading the newspapers in advance is cool too!

Quintoo said...

Continue.....

and introduce... :P

daman said...

i would say that you continue for the time being ... sitting ideal can be a pain ...and 3-4 hrs a day would definitely kill the time ... just one disconcerting fact ..the charm of reading tomorrow's newspaper is not there :)

pisku said...

continue for sure. You won't get too many opportunities to look at things at the grassroots & u never know how the beeds will string themselves later!
Have a good time :)

p.s- can u plz remove the word verification

Tapasya said...

Continue !!

Voice said...

continue and all d best

veikiin said...

Continue most definitely. :) and yeah introduce if possible..:p

desperado said...

continue....in a place such as this who knows what might come up and plus you will meet the kind of people you never might in say ur consulting work...and most of the jobs become kinda repetitive after some time

so enjoy chill and have fun :) .. all the best

Anonymous said...

there are 3 things to be considered here - a) killing time b) creative expression or doing something intellectually challenging c) making a little money while killing time :) i think the HT stint will offer the possibility of (a) and (c), for b - you just have to continue blogging :)and wait for the next best thing to come by.

Vik said...

Quit. And ask them to consider my name as a replacement. :P

All the best for the life after college. :)

Phoenix said...

@ anon
I agree
but I don't get paid anything so (c) is out
Intellectually it is degrading work
(b) is out
Kill time true...
but its only 3 hours a day involves travelling in afternoon in june heat to CP everyday n coming back in traffic which is a headache for grammar checking work

And messes up my evening plans of joining dance classes.

So am quitting this for now, and looking for something else.
If anyone else wants to apply, id tell u the procedure :P

veikiin said...

ok so the procedure is? :D

aditi said...

Seriously quitting...dat bad?
Procedure ?:P

Pavitra said...

Continue...you want to learn about diverse professions, people, their motivations and why they are dying to get into the boring job that you're doing then continue...

For all the boredom...you'll learn much to live on.

Metallica bhakt! said...

Dudeeee.. like the "DESK" job is highly coveted for interns.. coz learning Quarkpress is otherwise an impossible thing unless your in some media course at pg level.. try this for 2 weeks and then ask for a switch.. like honestly the desk junta is kinda respected dude.. but take the on field reporter experience for sure coz HT is one of the only papers which gives us interns bylines.. btw same pinch ;) and Congrats!! :) how did u bag the internship btw?

Pooja said...

Stay, it can only get better!
Good luck for post-college things :)

Geetika said...

Well dance classes seems more interesting idea to materialize ;)

Toon Indian said...

cool..so you know the breaking news before it breaks out :P

Samiran Ghosh said...

This got to be interesting! hope to see your post after you are done with internship! :)

Realistic me... said...

HEy!! Wish you all the very best. Seems like I have been away for too long. :)

Anonymous said...

def! continue

gradually I guess it will becomer better as time passes

last day at insti :| the though of that infact kills me

-DreamCatcher

Anonymous said...

hey,in the evening am often in CP...lets catch up over a cup of cuppa at costa coffee.........

Diptanshu said...

Defer it till August (that's what most of the companies are doing nowadays to fresh recruits....Give it back to them!!) and in the meanwhile you can:
a) Look for intellectually challenging engagements
b) Help poor under-privileged people (like me) with their work
c) Actually and seriously try to help poor under-privileged people
d) Increase your skill-set by learning how to (squint)/(fix tubelights while standing on one foot)/(play guitar)/(dance)
e) Check comments (like this one) for grammatical/factual/spelling/logical errors
I suggest you go ahead with dance classes. Work you shall get, and in copious amounts, in due time. And yes, I'm your sort-of, not dork. I should be considered as a replacement.