Summer Internship: Working with The Pioneer - Beyond our Wildest Dreams!

"Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with. Brodi Ashton, Everneath

We, the students of class 11, chose the option of our summer internship with the esteemed newspaper -The Pioneer, since journalism and the world of media have always attracted us.

On the sunny morning of 30 May, 2013, the students of class 11- Ojasvi Jain, Divyansha Kaushik, Vikramaditya Bhatnagar , Hema Chakraborty and Pritha Ray set off for the enriching internship with The Pioneer.

The Pioneer is a daily newspaper in both, English and Hindi. Mr. Chandan Mitra, MP, is editor, owner and publisher. We were very excited and thrilled to touch the world of media and especially the opportunity of seeing the various departments of a newspaper office.

We were guided by Ms. Navreet Mendiratta, Deputy Editor, guided us about our work profile and described to us the world of newspapers . We had many questions which she patiently answered and told us that we would be working for the Vivacity column which includes -Education, Lifestyle , Bollywood, Hollywood, the Glamour world, Health, Fashion and Technology. Honestly, it was our ardent desire to work in this department and we were delighted that we got this opportunity!

The workplace was very exciting; we were introduced to the head of the Vivacity column- Ms. Divya Kaushik, who explained our task. We were told to write down five things we observe in our country or even at the global level for that matter, which might interest readers. We wrote all we knew, and some of our random ideas were rejected, snd we soon realised that working is not cakewalk! Eventually, with fun and frolic and focus, we put onour thinking caps and wrote down the following topics-

1. Shows like Khan sisters and The Kardashians are spoiling the private lives of celebrities,

2. Beat the heat,

3. Revolution of cartoons,

4. College wardrobe,

5. Jealousy and competition among students, and many more.

Eventually, our work began . We were given an assignment in which we had to survey the not- so- popular but good bakeries in Delhi and find out the specialities they prepared with summer fruit. These specialities had to, not only be good but also unusual, something unique. This was our favourite project and the best part about it was that we got to visit many bakeries (some of which were unknown to us before), and even sample some of their lip-smacking summer delicacies! The bakeries were small but they were so pretty and their food was of high quality that we thought that they definitely deserved a place in the article. We also looked around for some easy, finger-licking recipes that we could replicate at home with readily available ingredients for our readers who wanted a taste of summer on their taste buds whilst relaxing at home.

After collecting a large lot full of information we returned to our office, all set to fulfil the task given to us. We got our matter approved from our team leader and began writing the article. We are hoping for it to be published soon!

Next in line was a very interesting topic to survey and write about - The Safest Places in India for Single Women to Travel. We called up our well- travelled acquaintances and asked them about their journeys to interesting places around India. We got an enormous response- Daman and Diu, Pondicherry, Dharamkot, Hampi and Andaman and Nicobar Islands etc.

These places are uncommon and also offered a diverse ambience, and according to the interviewed sample, they got the maximum votes for safety and security.

Our next project was our visit to the Nehru Planetarium, situated at Teen Murti Bhavan in South Delhi. We had been assigned the task of writing a report on thr summer activities organized by the Planetarium for children, for which we were required to go to the place and find out .

We enquired at the counter if any summer activities or workshops were being organized at the Planetarium for children and we were told us that the Planetarium has public shows in which documentaries related to the universe and astronomy are screened. We asked for the next show to sample and we were told it started at 1:30 p.m. sharp. We were thrilled; we had an hour at hand, which gave us plenty of time to have a look at the exhibits. We bought tickets and headed for the exhibits.

The entire show had a beautiful three dimensional effect, due to which it appealed to all age groups. The projector itself is a beautiful gadgetry, a magnificent Definite optical star projector which has been given the name of Megastar by virtue of the fact that it has a capacity to show eight million stars at once.

Our show was about the Big Bang, the creation of stars from nebulae (clouds composed of suspended particles of gas and dust), the mechanism of the planets rotating and revolving, the solar system, and finally, our very own planet Earth. The show had quite a lot of interesting facts to tell; for instance, did you know that the distance between the Sun and Neptune is double the distance between the Sun and Uranus, even though Neptunes orbit is just after Uranuss? Or which two stars can form a supernova when they crash and wipe each other out? Or that, light from the Sun takes eight minutes to reach us because of the vast distance between the Sun and the Earth? The list is endless.

Since all good things come to an end, so did this extravagantly enriching internship.

On the last day of our internship, we all arrived at the office around half an hour before time. Having completed all three of our assignments, namely our report on the Nehru Planetarium, What we thought were the five safest places in India for single women travelers, and five uncommon summer recipes; we had only to submit our articles. And of course, bid our responsible and compassionate instructors, under the guidance of whom we had earned an unforgettable experience of journalism, a goodbye and our heartfelt gratitude.

We had bought a couple of cards the day before to gift them, so we wrote messages to express our gratitude in those cards. Our instructors, Navreet maam and Divya maam arrived promptly at one in the afternoon and we gave the cards to them, and the look on their faces confirmed that we had done a good job! We discussed our reports and they bid us adieu. It was time to go, but what we had learnt had not only given a tremendous boost to our general knowledge, but had also given us a wonderful memory that would remain in our minds forever.

It was truly an amazing and very enriching experience working with them.. All of us enthusiastically took part in all the assignments together and we worked together as a team, we helped each other through difficulties so that the output could be tops. The internship also taught us to be independent - travelling and working on our own.

We would like to conclude my report with Sir Albert Einstein's words: "The only source of knowledge is experience." And that's exactly how we'd become richer.

by Ojasvi Jain, 11 B