After a good 2 months after the intern, it was time to present it to the Gods of Mechanical Engineering (read Profs) and convince them that you really ‘did work’ all through your intern.
The start was never going to be good as expected. Within the first few seconds the word ‘ANALYTICAL’ in my first slide sparked a illogical sense of disapproval among the panelists which would give the Al Qaeda hating Americans a complex!!
“Analytical huh?? That’s what we teach you to do here. Why do it again in GE??”, with special stress on each of the two letters.
I mustered some courage and said, “What use would be the theory of if it has no application in the industry.” The very moment I knew I said something really preposterous and hurt their ego big time. Fortunately they didn’t pay much of an attention and still seemed unconvinced.
With the lack of presence of mind to come up with any better explanation, I said “Wasn’t I supposed to do something that would profit the company?” How lame of me!! How can I do an obvious mistake twice… back to back!
That was followed almost immediately by simultaneous and not-so-quiet smirks, as if I just made the most ignorant statement of the decade!
Suddenly I was being eyed like a sixteen year old girl who lost her virginity to multiple guys after getting drunk in a prom night.
“How could they USE you like this. How could you let them USE you?” I could feel the unnecessary stress on the word ‘use’.
Why on earth will a company pay me 10.5k per month (and 11.33% TDS cut) and treat me like their own employee if I am of no use to it! Wasn’t this what an intern meant?? Of showcasing your use, being used and be useful!!
It took me the next ten minutes of continuous blabbering, racing through the slides and a dry throat at the end to bring a smile onto their faces and somehow convince them of the fact that I really ‘did work!’
The Intern.
Rest In Peace!
Shailesh R Nadar
6:59 pm, Sep 24, 2008.
