My internship part 1

Today I managed to get Aditya type the first part of a log I kept during my internship.

14/5/05

First day at work. Basically mugging job. S are there in prof. paramanand singh’s course next sem. Felt hugely better (grammatical mistake, I know) when Aditya called me in the evening. Shifted my residence. Proper stranger in a strange land. Missed everyone in the family. Missed Insti. Missed Insti Junta. Aditya was laughing when I told him of this. Got a huge nostalgia. Gargantuan yearning for the company of someone I know ,however less I knew them back when i knew them. Was recalling everyone I know, starting with especially the two closest people (by distance): aditya and one more 14 hour journey away.[Of course, when you think of a girl and say to yourself I wish she were here, and then, the next millisecond or whatever human reaction time is for thought, the realization of your wish hits you, the tendency is to stop the train of thought at that radius ]

Any iitian had he/she have a chance encounter with me, would have got such a greeting that there would have been questions about my intention w.r.t. him/her. Didn’t feel so bad even when I first came to IITM though that was the first time I left home.

Anyway, I am drained. Ate wada pav (debut) for rs 3 ½ and veg biryani for rs 35.

The stay in IITM is similar to life. Part of the goodness is because it’s temporary. It is a fleeting phase. The people enjoy the company of some very good humans.People who’ll become great. Whom you are lucky to have as wing mates, branch mates, or maybe bench mates in some course.

15/05/05

Second day of my internship. Legs are recovering from the time they had. I met this character from G.C.O.E.P. [:)))].Changed the pen just now. My attempt to imitate chanakya. The first one was company issue. Yes, the character. He believes that everybody must mug up all the phase diagrams. I have been getting introduced to a lot people. Been gracefully ‘listening to guys I’d have said, “machcha stop repeating the same &*%#” . The summer internships are a good idea. I don’t want to join industry at this level. The only contact at this level I want is that of consultancy. I am already bored of seeing the same furnaces, hearing every new guy put me fundaes on sintering. I have been increasingly getting sure that I’ll put S in powder metallurgy next semester.

Ah Yeah, the guy. His fundaes. “Meet all the operators (all!!??). Make them feel they are important. Then find out the compositions which expand on heating and which ones shrink.”

Me – “how can I know the compositions sir? “

He – what do you mean? Come with me. (Took me to a tray) pick up that card. … What does it read?

Me(among other things)- AN 20.

He – aye, that is the code for composition.

Me – exactly now how do we know what the composition is?

(Aside)You @#$#!*@$ what do you think I am? You?

I am not a snob. I am willing to sit with the operators, spend time, hear their stories of experience, or any thing... But please don’t insult my intelligence by repeating the same definition again and again.

Rang up my home, as well as Harsha’s home and Aditya’s mobile – no response from anywhere. Finally, got kashyap arora, whom I entrusted the job of getting me Dr. Uday’s number. Called up jhandu’s contact. Jhandu had gone for grub. Here I am hungry; the landlady who said she’d introduce me to dabbawala is out. I AM HUNGRY. Kumar Nikhil just called up. He’s about to have dinner. AARRGH!! !

Positive thing about today – didn’t have to mug much.

Met one friend of flat mate’s from Bidar. Promptly asked his name and forgot. Now will go and try to catch the landlady.

Looks like I’ll be writing a lot during this internship.

Post grub – Two types of people are conspicuous in the industry.

A – Young eager beavers. They can tell you the exact percentage of constituents and textbook definition of phenomena. Basically mugged up stuff.

B – Older wise guys. They are similar to IITians. They have seen so many different mixes and techniques that they don’t care any more about the details. Get the compositions (they just remember where it is available) and make sure the mix is right. Kumar nikhil and raghu have Sunday off.( Mine is Thursday:(()

16/05/05
I have lost the black pen issued to me.

I have realized a truth – my Saarang fixation was because I missed it and not because of anything that happened during it.

The look of smooth metal,
the play of light
when a dull surface slowly
gets machined to reveal
the shiny metal.
Brilliant.

17-05-2005

There’s this character I met today.

Me – Hi sir. I am vinay. I am here for summer internship.
He – ok. (Curt)
Me – we have not been introduced.
He – ok

End of the conversation.

One week into internship and no proper work assigned. (Working week)

My daily itinerary:

1. Wake up
2. Bath.
3. Go to factory.
4. Stay beyond the required time.
5. Come back, check out an eatery.
6. Come back and crash.

During work, my attempts at not speaking IITM lingo has lead to an opinion of my being inarticulate, ignorant of hindi.

I love IITM because here is where I learnt a lot. And not just about acads.

17/05/2005

Finally I got a proper project. I will decide on a fancy title later.

Two of my floor mates went home for vacations. The landlady asked me to move into their room. There were talks that somebody from tata motors would come to my room, I moved because I wanted a cot. After getting the cot, I went out to check where north is. And then:

1. Homesickness – big dipper is so low back home or in IITM [Similar latitudes.]

2. Realization. India is so big.

Throughout the day I have been having a feel of so much to do so little time.

Next part first holiday.