Hi!

This is all about my experiences , the feelings, the joy, the nervousness and a wholesome adventure that surrounded my internship. The summer internship that i did in July-August, 2013 at Thrillophilia, Bangalore.

Thrillophilia, founded in 2009, with 1400+ travel options and 40000+ happy travellers is the best activity travel curator of India. At Thrillophilia.com you can find unique tours of India, things to do, experiences, adventure activities and offbeat places to stay in India.
As per Alexa traffic rankings, Thrillophilia is among the top 20 Travel Web sites

This post was originally written in Aug, 2013 and is a complete re-post of the same.

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Heads up

• This one is a little long. There are excruciating details at times.
• There is a small PS at the end.
• For my sake, i have given it a title, i.e.

God planned it for me!

Once, someone close to me had offered me a small piece of advice,

Sankalp, good things come to those who wait for it!

Whether you believe or not, this has dramatically increased my levels of patience since that very day.

You were expecting my intro in first line. Weren’t you?

Well, here it is: I am Sankalp Agrawal, a 3rd year student of Computers at very famous, Bhagwan Parshuram Institute of Technology, GGSIPU. Okay, as much as Indian team for football.

I too had an internship!
Although, it wasn’t particularly necessary for me to do an internship after 2nd year, i was pretty keen to experience an in-office atmosphere that could help me getting some good professional exposure and practical experience before i get to enter the professional world for real. You know, it is challenging to receive a call for internship, if you are not studying in an institute that is immediately recognized. Contrary to this, my situation was actually better.
To know how better it was and the great experiences that i have had, please keep on reading… :)

Before the Internship:
It was last week of March when i received first call for an internship. The work was web and content development. There were two (unenthusiastic) factors: First, that i was interested in web part of it only. And second, it was a ‘work from home’ internship. So, instead being very willing to join that awesome company, the opportunity went down for me.
To be very honest, for a week or so, i was very disappointed for missing the chance. :(

So, this story isn’t about that unfortunate week. You read the above para as if it is going to be the one. Didn’t you?

Then in May, i got one more call for another content development internship. Again, down!

The results of the above incidents were: Whenever someone used to ask me if i were doing an internship that summer or not? I just readily started replying, “No, i don’t want to go away from home. I’m fine with freelancing only.”

However, deep inside, i was still waiting for that good to happen to me, somehow. Anyhow!

In fact, a time came, when i couldn’t help wondering why the hell am i getting content development offers? I don’t even have a single word which would delineate it in my resume.

Time passed on with no hope. I had actually listed out the following plans for what to do at home after exams:

• Go to Gym. Ah, yes! I am that fat guy.
• Get proficient in PHP. People say it is good.
• Develop sankalpagrawal.com.
• Earn a few dollars through freelancing. ;)
• Write a small e-book on an ‘undisclosed topic’. Else you’ll write it. :P

Fortunately, i didn’t get time to even try for any of the above goals. :)

After exams and a nice trip to Vaishno Devi, i was back home on June 23rd. It was when the fortune started favouring, once again.
I got my resume forwarded to Thrillophilia. Within a day or two i was speaking to Abhishek Daga, the co-founder who later turned to be my mentor too. I believe, he was really impressed with my resume.

My resume is actually that awesome! ;) Want to checkout? Here we go!

And, this time i breathe a sigh of relief as soon as i get to know, there was no content development. I hate that! It was all UI, UI and UI only.
He was worried over the duration of the internship as i could do only 30 days because it was already last week of June. He said, “My co-founder will call and finalize everything with you in a while.”

Very enthusiastic factors were:

• UI only.
• In-office internship.
• In Bangalore.
• Stipend.
• They had a very cool logo. Yup, that also made me feel enthusiastic about the company!

The wait for the phone call had began… Precautions were:

• Don’t move out of home.
• Keep the phone always with you except for some unavoidable situations. ;)

I remember, i had even googled for “best questions that candidates should ask in an interview” and, had actually asked a few during the final telephonic conversation. :P

This was my final chance to secure this year’s internship. I was nervous, nervous like hell (try shivering your hands a little, a little more… Yes, that much…) when the phone rang.
There was a lady on the other side who was speaking so softly that i had to put a lot of effort to listen. I was not even able to listen to the stipend very exactly. But i had agreed on it, at once.

They decided to bring me onto the ship and it was ready to sail! Yo baby! Start packing…

In case you are still wondering what was the payment? All that i can disclose right now is, we agreed on a good enough amount that unfortunately most students in India are not getting on an internship after 2nd year…

During Internship: At Office
July 3, 2013. Here i am in Bangalore. Oh wow, forget internship! I just love this city. For someone living in scorching heat in Delhi, Bangalore is probably no less than Kashmir.
(Okay, i haven’t been to Kashmir yet!)

The day before going to office, i was having a few discussions on ‘internships’ with my bhabhi. She warned me,

It might be possible that you don’t get even a specific desk and maybe nobody will take care for what you are doing.

Even i was doubtful, but all that i could do was to wait for the next day’s Sun to rise and make things clear.

You see, i’m trying hard to keep you engaged with the story.

As it was my first day, bhabhi had dropped me to the office. I had arrived some 10 minutes earlier. I tried using the elevator but couldn’t figure out how to operate that. So, i had no other option else than to climb up 4 flight of stairs to enter into the office, puffing. (Next day, i came to know it was resistive touch. F**k technology!)
I entered into the office, asked someone sitting nearby the door (He was Anchit.), “Is this Thrillophilia?” As i was early, he offered me a seat and said, “Wait for Chitra to arrive”. I relaxed for a while before the thing was actually about to start for me.

Sitting there, i had only one question in mind, “Should i address them with Sir/Mam or not?” Using Sir, Mam is very unusual for me. I prefer calling with first name only. Still, i was not planning to take any risk. So i decided to just wait patiently to know how others address someone senior to them.
Chitra, the CEO, the lady who was on the phone, entered. And, there came the first win for me! Someone just wished, Good Morning! to the CEO with her first name only. That was one small refreshing moment of joy and relief.

Upon entering, she correctly guessed me to be Sankalp (she must have done a background search earlier for how i look like :D) and called me into the cabin. She explained me as to what the company is all about, the structure, how the company works and a few other general stuff.
Then i went to Abhishek’s cabin. His first impression to me was, This guy must be cool! And, he really is one of the coolest boss that one can have! He explained to me my work for the internship and for the day. And, i was given a specific desk just next to Abhishek which was apparently a second win for me. :)

First thing, was to create wire-frames for 5 websites and then getting them implemented. I was very happy to know that apart from doing the work myself, i had to get it done by someone else as well. This was going to be a managerial (ohh… Manager. MBA. Entrepreneur. Business.) experience and i was up for it.

It was around 1 PM when everyone was at a round table for lunch. The table was the actual place where i got to know everyone. Apart for having lunch, it was for some serious discussions between Salil and Atish which used to turn into laughter rides, for a few stories of North-East from Sapt which used to end with Bangladesh (Bangladesh is his ancestral country. It was our responsibility to make him realize that he is a bonafide citizen of Bangladesh.), for Sharath to let me know how sales work and much more… ;)

Another experience relating to the table was: Everyone used to share food amongst themselves. I had also got my dabba but was very hesitant to offer as i was surrounded with questions whether being South-Indians they would like my food or not? And for the whole tenure i didn’t share.
Well, something is left undone! So that i know, what i have to do, first up, once i get back there… :)

There was something else actually that made me fall in love with Thrillophilia even more.

My first day was turning out good. And it was luckily something that every intern might not get to experience.

Our ‘Superman’ Arun (i’m not sure of his underwear) had completed 3 successive years at Thrillophilia and his achievement was to be celebrated at 6 PM. I expected it to be very simple. But it turned out to be way different than my imagination. I can safely bet, you would laugh hilariously if you get to see a few pics. There was cake, there were caps, celebration sprays, there were birthday (rather anniversary) bumps, hell lot of laughter and most importantly, for me, inspiring stories, explaining why he’s the superman of the company.

That very moment i wished the same sort of celebrations to happen for me too, someday. But, on second thought, i felt why would there be such celebrations for an intern? Why?

The first day went very well, i had worked till 7:30 when Abhishek said, “Sankalp, you can go home. It’s already pretty late!” The office hours were from 9:30 to 6:30 but i hardly stayed past 6 else than 4-5 days in my whole tenure of internship. :P
Salil said that he got to know it’s 6PM when i used to pass by his cubicle. :D
In my defense: I used to finish things early and if needed, do the rest at home while exclusively keeping in mind to not miss any deadline. You can check that with Abhishek! Huh!

You are enjoying na? What an amazing writer, i am! :P

A week later, i came to know that the office is going to be relocated very soon. Abhishek informed me that he was planning to put different kind of inspiring posters on the wall but, the designer had kept the project on hold due to lack of time. I asked, “If i could look at the design ideas”. And, after looking at them and considering my enough experience with Photoshop & Illustrator, the task was easy for me. So, i at once asked, “Can i do it?” He hesitated for a moment and then, “OK! You can try.” That’s how i got involved into Graphic Design and came in touch with Atish. He’s more of a friend than a colleague, a great guy into digital marketing with some amazing design sense. :)

Next day, I had designed 12 posters from a total of 27 and started visualizing how they would look like on the office walls. And more responsibilities started coming in… :) The first was the facebook cover design & profile pic. Then twitter background and header image. And then, t-shirts, postcards, facebook advertisement designs, newsletters, presentation templates, etc.

Oh wow, you have come this far reading. You rock. While i rule! ;)

Best of all, i had to generate the ideas, the needed wire-frames, discuss them with the team and again, get the work done by the designers. I will never forget those designers because at times we found them very dumb. (Yes, i just said dumb! Hope none of them gets to read this. :D) At times, conveying a single idea took more than 8-10 basecamp messages being posted. But, we needed to get the work done on time, anyhow. At last, it all turned out well. Most of the work was done and the remaining was very near to completion, by the time i left.

I started using (probably showing off :P) my bits of gyan for SEO and suggesting improvements for the current website. That landed me being involved in meetings to lay out future plans for the main website, the improvements, and bug fixes to be done and testing features & functionalities prior to shipping them to the users.
Eventually, i was given complete ownership to lay out the ‘about us’ page for the website and we were successful in shipping it on time. :)

Days passed. It was nearing to the very end. The second last day, i got to know that Arun was going to work from the new office that day. I urged to go there and see how it was? I asked Abhishek if i can work with Arun? I got the green signal and was there in a flash. (It is hardly 300m from the old one.)

In case you are wondering, what difference it would make? Actually, nothing! I just had to check if the newer office was worth coming back again next year or not? :P I even put on facebook, “Who gets to get into 2 offices in one internship?” It was just my craze to work from there only for one day. Nothing else. :D

The last day, it was the inauguration of the new office. So there was a small Pooja first up, and then i was all set to receive my paycheck and the certificate.

It was around 5:30 in the evening and, what was in front of my eyes was truly unimaginable- something that i had wished for the very first day: I was about to receive a farewell!
From the inside, i was like, really… really… am i going to receive the celebrations similar to Arun’s? I couldn’t have wished for more! There was a cake with “Tata Sankalp” on it (i am yet to confirm if they meant to say, “Go away… we don’t need you anymore. Don’t come back!“), few lollipops which i had to remove from the cake with mouth only, few cans of celebration-snow sprays, everyone and in front of them, me! They were just waiting for the cake to be cut and then what happened was completely wild. :D
Atish was very interested to give me a few bumps but i got spared from that as everyone was considerably older than me and they were pretty shy doing that. Good for me! ;) In the end, i got to summarize my experience and got a few feedbacks and praises for myself.

And, it was when my belief got stronger – God planned it for me!

And then, i was in the Chitra’s cabin for the paycheck and the certificate. I was very happy to receive them. Why shouldn’t i be? I was receiving 25% more stipend than what i had agreed upon. ;) After receiving them, i could have danced if they had asked me to! :D

And at last, Salil made sure i got proposed with red roses by Akshatha and Terine. I wished for any one of them to be real! :P No problem, maybe some other day! haha :D

With mixed feelings, saying goodbye to everyone, i left! :)

During Internship: Out of office

I was staying in full-fledged care of my bhaiya-bhabhi with extra dose of love and care…
The home was… place to relax. To enjoy. To watch all daily-soaps on ‘Colors’ from 8 to 10:30. (Well, yes that’s true!) To play with my 2 year old niece every day, until she decided to sleep. Playing TT with bhaiya and saying, “Agla match toh main hi jeetunga”. Going out for treats, for outings.

All in all, it was a completely fun-filled, perfect summer break!

After Internship:
My mail-id still works, i am still in their private facebook group. We are in great touch and exchanging mails, chat whenever required.
I work for them whenever they need to. :)

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This is how, my internship has been… I seriously didn’t want to come back to college, to Delhi. I’ll always miss Bangalore. :’)
I had not thought of an internship this year, and certainly never of such an awesome experience. That’s why i believe, my internship was planned by God only! :)

If you have read it, this far… You are the most awesome person on this earth.

Thank you so much!

PS: To all grammar nazis, i prefer ‘i’ rather than ‘I’. Small and humble. Cool, isn’t it? ;)