Summer Internship @ the age of 10!!

Call it "earn while you learn" or "learn while you earn" but the story about Ramesh goes far beyond that. This should be an eye-opener for most of us who are desperately searching for Summer Internships with the best companies across the country. Ramesh gave me an entirely new perspective of looking @ Summer Internships making me realize that SIPs are not just for us but for many people jo rozi-roti kama ne keliye kaam karta hein.

Hailing from the Kuchch village of Gujarat, this 10-yr-old kid came over to his brother's stationery shop to learn the tricks of the trade.He tells me his vacations are going on, the reason for which he came here. Ramesh studies in Jain Boarding School which is in the adjoining village. His parents live in the neighbouring village a few kilometres away.

What does Ramesh do in a day? He photocopies study materials, sells pen and other stationeries and is learning to make presentation files. He loves playing cricket and misses his friends back in his school. Doesn't he miss his parents? He looks down. After some time, he says he does not feel their loss so much as his brother takes care of him. He fondly remembers the time he went to a temple with his brother during Ganesh Chaturthi.

Ramesh's entire day veers around his brother's shop. He observes students who come to the shop and fondly nurtures a dream of going to college some day. I ask him what he wants to study. He has no clue. He could barely imagine what a college is like but weaves his dreams through the characters he encounters. He loves to study English. Though he cannot write the words properly, he dreams of becoming fluent in the subject when he grows up.

I ask him what does he want to become in life. He becomes speechless. His eyes wander off to the far off horizon as if they have gone out in search of answers and he is waiting for them to come back. I realize how futile this is to ask someone who does not know whether he is going to get his next meal properly or not. But still, he smiles at me without giving an answer - a smile that is worth a million words, a smile that assured me  that he will not give up till he finds the answer, a smile that reminds me of him every time I think of him.

That smile made me realize that no matter how many umpteenth problems there are in life, one can face all of them with a smile. An older person would have cribbed about his ill-luck, poverty or inadequate opportunities but Ramesh's smile told me that he is ready to face the uncertainties of his life and go forward towards his imagined goal. As I ponder now, as to how we become so insecure about our careers in spite of having all the facilities in this world, I can't but admire the will and resoluteness of that 10-yr kid who wanted to become something even though he very well knew that he might end up like his brother working in a stationery shop.

As we go into summer internships in the next semester, I can't but fail to laugh at the tantrums we throw with our choice of jobs. Look at Ramesh - he came to work at his brother's shop at an age unimaginable to all of us and for what reason but to learn the trade which might help him earn his two square meals a day in the near future. Maybe he would not even work in such a stationery shop, but still he came to learn the work because for him, work is key to survival. For us, it is not. For us, a Summer Internship is a fashionable option. For Ramesh(who does not know what Summer Internship means & will never know), it is a necessity...