An Intern at IIT

In one Saturday morning, I was in lab doing my regular activity – Coding in Java. Nobody shows up on Saturday morning. But suddenly someone came to my space and I removed my ear-phone from my ears.

“Hi, Can you say when can I expect the sir?”

Exceptions in Java are quite often, but not in IIT. But here I got an exception in IIT too.

A girl wearing shirt and jean asked me about my guide. Her dressing had a professional touch. I noticed and liked it.She already crossed my eyes two times and I recalled that she asked something.

“Well, Sir usually comes after 11am.” – seeing wall clock which was showing 10:35am.

She pulled a chair and sat.

“Exceptionally good” – I said as I built my code successfully.

“Did you say anything?”

“No … Just … Exceptions are good…. in Java.” – Showing my laptop to her. Later at lunch time, Sir introduced her to me and all other members of lab.

“Guys, She is Nid, a new intern of this lab.” – She said Hello very lightly. Sir continued – “She is from Ahmedabad University and she will be with you up to six months.”

We all met her one by one and introduced ourselves and the cubicle next to me was unallocated so she got her sitting there.Well, as coder doesn’t pay much attention to temporary variables, I didn’t pay much attention to her but on the third day, she stood up and came to my cubicle.

“Hey, Puneet right?” – With little hesitation.

“Yeah, I am.”

“I wanted to ask is there any canteen near by for Tea or Coffee?”

“Oh yeah there is. Do you know where Computer Center is? Canteen is next to that.”

“Umm, Actually, I am not aware of anything here in IIT yet. If you don’t mind … …”

Before she asks, “Yes I will join you.” – I said.

“Thank you.!”

And I put my machine on hibernate.

I got my Tea and she got her Coffee. She started stirring her coffee and started a talk as well.

“Hey, you seems quite silent. All day, sunk in code.” – with the constant speed of stirring coffee.

“Hmm. I have no other work to do than this lab’s work.”

Then she asked me about my city, past college, some information about IIT places and the lab culture. And finally, she asked “Can I have your contact number?”. She stored my number on her Lumia phone.

While going back to work, I asked about her past college and how she was selected as an intern here. She was very friendly to answer all these things so I curiously asked.

“What kind of work have you assigned here?”

“Well, as of now, I got documentation to read on servers and then I will have to do code walk-through later.”

“Good. So you might have an experience of servers right?” – I asked as she was assigned work on server coding.

“No, I don’t know much.” – With a slight fear.

“No problem, you will get to learn here.” – And we were back to lab.

After a week or so, on Monday she didn’t show up in morning but came later in afternoon.

“Hey, did sir ask you about me?” – Her face was bit more cute because of worry.

“This is IIT, free on timing. Just focus on work that you do.”

“Actually, I had to collect I-card and submit documents in morning.” – heading towards her cubicle.

After a two or three hours or so, She came to me and I was doing time-pass on web.

“Hey, now I know where the canteen is, but still do you mind if I ask you to join?” – with a smiley face.

Nobody denies such a cute offer!! And I stood up locking my desktop’s screen.

Again with stirring of Coffee, she informed me that sir has asked her to sit-through the class of him so that she can know better the work he is doing.

So from next day, we also started attending lectures together followed by Tea-Coffee visit. In lab, also she were asking doubts of class and nobody knew when we become good friends.

Some day later, I was remaining heavily engaged in other class project. So I could not visit lab since few days. I finished my exam and class project and on a Friday night, I got a call.

“Hey Puneet, Are you busy with exams?”

“No. I am done with it today. Why?”

“Sir instructed me to change app server, and I ended up with shutting down current one, and new one is not being up.” – A bit tone of tension was clearly visible.

“Cool, Congratulation.!” – It was my style to respond who goofs up things.

“what?” – A scream – “What should I do?”

“Just wait…” – I answered.

“So will it up automatically.?” – An  Innocent question.

“No you fool, I am coming there to fix it up.”

“Oh sorry” and she laughed lightly on her innocence.

It takes few hours of work to completely done that. On next weekend, she asked a favour of mine to go with her as she didn’t know anything about this new city, Mumbai.

“Well, I called you as I want to buy a watch for my brother as I am going home on his birthday.”

She was choosing slim diamond shape wrist watch, on which I said “Boys do prefer big belt sports wrist-watch.”

Then while walking through mall she told me about her brother “Tarang, My brother. he studies in University of Mumbai only. He is good at study unlike me.”

On that weekend and later few others, we go and roam few visitor spots of city.

Her behaviour was changing slightly towards me, even if I am not around for a day, she dials a call. She started asking about my family and things I like and dislike. I didn’t notice because I thought it is natural as we were now spending good amount of time together.

On one Sunday, we were working in lab late night. Since morning of that day, I found that she is having some problem in her behaviour. At 10PM night, I asked her for a Tea. She closed all her files and stood up without saying a word.

We went silently to the canteen and ordered one tea and one coffee. Area was quite silent due to Sunday and night. She started stirring her coffee, but this time I noticed that pace of stirring was too much fast.

“How was your work going on?” – I wanted to break silence.

“Fine. I have a reporting at my institute so this late night doing report making to finish work.” – She said, looking into her coffee only.

“This must be your final reporting right? and you will have only one month to finish internship.”

On which, she seems like annoyed and stopped stirring coffee.

“Yeah, last month” – A sigh – “And then back to where I was.” – In a low tone.

After we finish half cups, she asked “Tell me who are in your closest circle?”

“Sorry, what do you mean by that?” – I was not clear on such question.

“Apart from your coding, whom you care?” – A perfect question.

“Oh, I care my parents, brother and … … and some freinds are also close to me.” – a pause – “But why are you asking such questions?”

“Nothing, I was curious to know, where I belong to?” – A complex statement which can’t be understood by a boy.

“Hey Nid, are you okay?” – A wanted to make light environment so – “Is anything bad in coffee?” – I laughed lightly.

“No, But Tea has surely have some problem.” – And she threw a cup directly into dustbin.

I was clueless on her actions so I went to silent mode, but only thing I found was wet eyes.

After few days of my assignment submission, when I went to lab, her cubicle was empty. I didn’t want to enquire but I felt she left the place. Initially I thought she left for reporting but she didn’t come for a week. At last I saw a grade card of her in lab which was about to post to her institute.

Few months later, my lab conducted an exhibition to show new technologies or ideas experimented among various universities. From lab members, I was the one who was assigned a role to handle this event. On the day of event, when I was going through all exhibition window along with names of university, I found a team from University of Mumbai. On enquire, one of them said his name as Tarang, I confirmed him as Nid’s brother by his surname and wrist-watch which I selected.

After the day-off, I asked him to join me for a snack. I started asking about his family and his sister. And I asked “Did you like this campus?”

Unknowing of all situation he told “Yeah my sister also came her to do her internship but she transferred in last month in her college.”

I could not wait till he finishes, and my curiosity was increased at highest and I asked “Why?”

He sipped his coffee and told, “I don’t know, but she was very upset here at last week and I think maybe she was in love with some guy here.”

I was broken into pieces but I didn’t want to show up and I continued “Then why didn’t she speak or express her feelings?”

“I don’t know the reason but from her talk, what I understand is, this campus is full of coders and they will not understand language of feelings but language of programming only.”

I threw my cup of Tea though it was not empty.

On showing that he asked “Why? Is something bad?”

I could just reply “Tea had surely some problem.!”

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