My Choice Internship-an Epilogue of Sorts :)

Having finished six months as a Choice Intern, I think it is only natural that my final blogpost (as a Choice Intern for Writeherewritenow)will be an overview of whatever I have worked on in the past six months and the invaluable experience that this internship has given me.

I had first read about Choice on a poster that was put up at my University ( Jadavpur University) and I remember being fascinated by the Project at once. After rushing home, I dispatched an application immediately. Bishan got in touch with me promptly and asked me to come over and meet him at Seagull's Circus Avenue office.

The wonderful thing about the Choice internship is that it allows a tremendous amount of flexibility. For instance, when interns do apply, they are asked to list their interests and their interests are matched with an organisation that they may wish to work for. I had dabbled with the idea of working with folk musicians and my interests were listed as writing and Music. Because it was term time, I could not possibly spend my time talking to folk musicians and simultaneously learn their craft because it would mean that I would not be able to balance my academics with my internship. Instead, I decided to opt for my other love-my love for writing.

I've been fond of writing ever since I've been a kid. When I heard about Writeherewritenow from Bishan, I was really excited. I was thinking of starting out with my Individual Project (which would mean me designing the module entirely on my own, only to be guided by my mentor)but after much brainstorming, Bishan and I decided that it would be a good idea to do an internship before embarking on an Individual Project.

I met Megha first. Megha invited me to come and watch a Writeherewritenow workshop before I made my mind up about the internship. My first " unofficial" workshop had Richa telling the children how to script superheroes. One little child, Chirayu, all of eight, gingerly came up to me and asked me how to spell glasses ( His superhero was Harry Potter). Chirayu then decided that 'g' just didn't look nice with a tail, so he decided to do away with it. Finally, there was only a 'c' left.

Little had I known then that I would end my six month internship with Many such Memories. During my six months as a Choice Intern, I was expected to help market the site, help design the workshop modules, conduct a few workshops, handle press and publicity for the website, jot down the minutes of every workshop that was held and assist in conducting the workshops.

Some very interesting ideas were experimented with during the course of my Internship. There was the translation workshop, where children were given a piece in English and they could translate it either into Hindi or Bangla. Then they were given a piece either in Bangla or Hindi and asked to do the same. Then there was a Doodle and Decipher workshop where the children were given themes and were asked to draw. Based on the illustration, they were asked to write a story.

Finally, it was a great pleasure to work with a wonderful and committed team and I'm glad that I decided to work with WHWN.