Internship at TOI – Manasi from NIFT Gandhinagar

This internship was an eye opener for her as she discovers her passion for writing. She paved her way with dedication and now success is paving her way.

I interned as a reporter in the Times of India, Chandigarh for a period of 46 days, a time spell which became one of the most stimulating learning experiences of my life. Being from a non- journalism background, internship in a media house was my ‘effort by chance’. My passion for writing motivated and compelled me to get some experience in this field rather than idling away in my two month summer break. I won a contest with TOI last year and the assistant editor sent me a gift voucher through an E-mail which mentioned his initials and contact details. Since it was my ardent desire to take my passion and flair for writing to the next level, I got in touch with him before the commencement of my summer break and mailed him some of my articles. The assistant editor was gracious enough to guide me on the procedure to grab the internship and gave valuable inputs on my articles.

The office, atmosphere and work culture was nothing less than a dream come true. I experienced and learnt a plethora of things like how to cover different events, writing general articles, reporting and experiential writing. I got more than 30 by-lines which was an accomplishment and drove me to work harder. The most stimulating and phases of my internship were when I was struck by what we internally joke about as the ‘TOI curse’. After observing a pattern, the TOI reporters humorously proclaim that if they interview an elderly personality, he passes away after a short period of time. Nek Chand, the creator of the world renowned Rock Garden passed away the night he was contacted by one of our reporters. I spoke to another internationally acclaimed sculptor, Shiv Singh, getting his views on the death of a visionary and the same sculptor died a few days later. I was, in the words of our city editor, “touched by the TOI curse”. I covered the death of the sculptor and the follow up stories extensively, which became one of the high points of my internship.

I was fortunate to have some really fun interns who shared my passion for writing as well as food. In their own words, they “lived for food, they hated same old daal roti and wanted to explore each item on every menu”. And we sure did! The lunch hours became fun with the all the food and experience sharing.

I got very close to a young colleague, a stringer for the newspaper, who also guided me through many of my stories. We got emotionally involved, care and love each other, are still in touch and do the Monday Special of Times of Chandigarh “Rising star of the week” together. The most encouraging and motivating moment was when the resident editor especially called me on my last day and told me to “keep writing for the Times of India”. This internship was a major step towards accomplishing one goal that I want to achieve, that is to become a freelance writer. I am in contact with the editor and continue to write for the Times of India even today.

If Manasi’s experience motivates you, you can check the latest internships in Chandigarh and latest Media internships.

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