First day of work
Chennai
I was dropped off at the office like it was my first day of school. Mandira and Simon even came with me to see the Editor-in-Chief. He was rather complacent about my coming to work for his newspaper, and cheerfully described interns as 'cheap labour'. Good to know that journalism in India is similar to that in England!
In fact, the whole office was reassuringly Western with modern IT equipment and ice-cold air-conditioning throughout. Fab. (not so great when you have to go back out in the sweltering heat though.) I sat for an hour thinking of stories that, the features section I had been assigned to, would be interested in. I came up with 20 ideas and only three of them were given the Indian nod (a strange side to side shaking of the head.)
I spent the afternoon researching stories and planning what I would do the following morning. Though I was only required to be in the office from 2 pm till 5:30 pm, as I spoke to other journalists and sub-editors it soon became clear that I wasn't actually going to be working a 3.5 hour day, but should spend the morning interviewing and researching and the evening 'on assignment', also known as trying to find an interesting story out on the baking hot streets of
Chennai.
There was a TV at the front of the office which showed only cricket. The office was deadly silent, apart from when India played a good ball when there were various appreciative noises made. It was also all they spoke about amongst themselves. Clearly to fit into this office I was going to have to learn about cricket.
I caught the bus home from the office. It was a bit of a shock after the delightfully spacious, air- conditioned car I had got on the way there.
Although I had been warned by others to beware of the occasional groping from Indian men whilst on a bus, this wasn't really a problem as I was shielded from the men's side of the bus (the right hand side) by a rather large woman's bosom.