#4 Goodbye RCP

Friday, January 4th, 2019

Thane, Maharashtra

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How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard...

With my boss (on my immediate right) and the rest of my team mates

It was my final day of internship and I wore the shirt which was gifted to me yesterday at office. I wore my RCP (Reliance Corporate Park) ID Card for one last time. Emotions were running high but I managed to keep them at check. Of course, people might say that I have been there for just one month. I accept it has been just one month or more precisely five business weeks and yeah, I knew it was all going to be over today. But I got acclimatized to this place and its culture very quickly. Yes, for the first few days, I used to refer to all my colleagues as Sir and Ma'am and they used to make fun of me for that. It just felt weird initially to call them by name considering they are all senior members and I am just a mere intern, that too, a Junior year undergrad. I finally was able to drop the salutations and started calling them by just their first name. Although, Kiran Sir, my boss still remains Kiran Sir for me despite the fact that he is actually the person who sowed the seed of stopping the practice of using imperialistic terms i.e. Sir and Ma'am and insisted everyone to call him Kiran. Over few days, I developed a strong professional friendship with all of them.

I am so lucky to become professional friends with these people. If I had an option, I would have stayed back and extended my internship for as long as possible. In fact, I really don't feel like going to Chennai anymore. Mumbai is my home and I feel very secure and comfortable here, despite all of its discomforts. I wrote an email thanking all my colleagues and Kiran Sir, after some time, came out of the cabin and suggested me to take up a journalism course, impressed by my writing skills.

Kiran Sir and the team treated its only intern at Cafe Dhaba. I don't know how but I had missed this food outlet. It was also my first lunch session with my team mates. We were already running a bit late due to work and therefore me and Sulochana were desperate for some food. I don't know whether our hunger pangs were the catalysis in it but the food just tasted really awesome. Everything was just so perfect.

Post lunch, I completed my final formalities and collected my internship letter from the HR. The HR inquired about how my experience was and told me to apply for job once I am through with my engineering course.

But you know what, getting that certificate didn't feel any special and I am very glad that it didn't. I have been following the advice that the big man MS Dhoni repeats umpteen times:

Give the process so much importance that the result no longer matters.

The boss later took everyone of us for evening beverages and was at his candid best. I talked with him, asked him questions on the way. He replied to them from his personal experience and that is something worth weight in gold. He wished me all the best for my career and hoped to see me back. Finally came the time to say goodbye to all of them - Kiran Sir, Sulochana, Arivarasu, Bishrut, and Shruti.

Wish I had a longer haul. RCP was a habit. It will be tough to come back to my normal Chennai life. Maybe I will never be the same.

Cheers,

S