The myth that, it is difficult, or even unpleasant to live abroad, all alone, didn’t seem quite apt at the AIESEC trainee flat at Kalkaji, New Delhi. It was late evening on a working day and the trainees, Daniel, Lisa, Thando, Vincent & Martin, were unwinding after the day’s work. Being from different countries and different cultures, it was surprising to see them, sharing their experiences in India together.
AIESEC is the largest international platform for youth (in 107 countries) to explore and develop their leadership potential to have a positive impact on the society. It was through international internship programmes organized by AIESEC that these trainees have come down to India at the start of the year 2009. There is one common string joining their reasons to come to India. This link is the perception of India as an interesting country with warm people. But, Daniel from Nigeria, working in Sudarshan Chemical Industries Ltd, had his own reasons. “I relate India to Africa on every level, and being from Africa, I wanted to go to a country that is still developing, but at a faster rate”, says Daniel. Having been a member of AIESEC in Nigeria, he believed in its ideology and felt that he could get the best of AIESEC and its members, in India. As far as work experience was concerned, they had their own stories to tell. German boy Martin (23), working in KPIT Cummins, finds the work experience good, though he is out of the house for almost 12 hours a day. Vincent from Holland, a co-worker of Daniel at Sudarshan Chemical Industries Ltd, also thought of his work experience to be genuinely rewarding.
Moving on to the cultural aspect of this experience, ‘India is an endless adventure’ is what Lisa has to say. This 20 year old American, working in CYDA (Centre for Youth Development and Activities), feels that with each day, pops-up a new challenge! Here, the adventures she talks about are the very incomprehensible conversations with the rickhaw-wallas and shopkeepers. Martin, also, confesses that managing life speaking a foreign language has been one of his biggest challenges. Success in picking up the national language? – “Kuch nahi…Bas...Theek hai! Theek hai!” this is just as far as they’ve reached. The relaxed life in India is definitely something the trainees stress on. Very friendly and hospitable people, the monsoon, tasty spicy food (though a little difficult for their system to get used to) and to an extent, the night life here is spoken about very positively. An unusual affection towards the traffic is also expressed by Vincent! The young trainees seemed to have travelled quite a lot too. Hill-stations like Shimla, Kasauli, Manali etc around Delhi and cities like Goa,Bombay, Nashik are in their big list of holiday destinations. Some of them have also visited the Ajanta-Ellora caves near Aurangabad! Besides opining strongly about the beauty of Indian heritage and annoying rains and roads of Delhi, they don’t forget to subtly mention about the beautiful Indian women!
After working hard the whole day, these young interns sometimes have a little party at home or go for a little outing or even partying together. These fun-loving people make it a point to have their own share of entertainment, even if it comes to resuming work next day, groggy-eyed!
Living in an apartment with people of different nationalities and cultures and facing and solving daily problems together in a different environment has given these trainees a sense of belonging, a feeling that they come home everyday to a family. And that, for them, is the best part! This amalgamation of various cultures has resulted into a strong bond…comforted them with a home away from home.
