Summer Internship with Hyderabad Beats — Venkat from Indus International School, Hyderabad
Wildcard entry for: – 26th August 2012
Name of the intern: – Venkat Raj Ellendula
Institute: – Indus International School, Hyderabad
Organization interned with: – Hyderabad Beats
Our Director of Academic and Career Counselling at Indus International School Hyderabad informed to the class before our vacation started that an internship would increase our chances to get into a foreign university. I was lucky to see an advertisement on Facebook about an upcoming news firm, Hyderabad Beats, hiring photographers, reporters, etc. This seemed like a very good chance for me because I am a photographer and I wanted to do a vacation internship.
I contacted Hyderabad Beats and they asked me to send my CV to them. This was my first time writing a CV. It was not that difficult but I don’t know why, I checked it a million times before sending it. A few days later, they told me that I was accepted. I was very excited because this was my first job. Hyderabad Beats informed me about a meeting that was going to be held near Necklace Road, Hyderabad. I went to the place where I was going to meet the people behind Hyderabad Beats. I met the person who spoke to me over phone, Amulya Rao. She introduced me to other people in the organisation and as expected, they were shocked to see me because when they asked me what I was doing and I said I was in 11th and these are my summer holidays. They were also excited to have me there and I became the youngest member of the organisation. My job sounded very simple. I had to take pictures of public interest near my locality and send it back to them with bullet points about it.
However, a few days later they changed the level of my job from a photographer to a reporter. Honestly, I was scared about it at first because now I had to write about events, problems, etc. in my locality. I did not say anything but just accepted it. Who knew that I would be so interested in writing articles? The first report I ever gave was on the road and drainage conditions near my locality. The person in charge of accepting the articles was happy with my work and said that this was the kind of news that they wanted. He asked me to write a proper report and send it back. My second report was on a drums event and then Bonalu Festival in Hyderabad. The experience of Bonalu Festival was just wonderful. I could feel the blood rush in my body due to the excitement. I felt as if I was a part of the press. I ran here and there to take pictures of people fighting, standing in queues, carrying bonalu, etc. I even pushed the other news reporters in order to get pictures good enough to be submitted to Hyderabad Beats. I ran for pictures of politicians and other notable people. There was nothing that I did there at which I can point at and say, “This is the best thing I did today.” Everything I did was wonderful.
Hyderabad Beats has a secret group on Facebook and obviously, I was made a member of it. This was one place where I learnt a lot. One of the members posted on Facebook asking a reporter to cover information about a disease in Hyderabad. I replied to it saying that there was nothing new in it. What we will write will be the same as what 1000 other newspapers have written. What is the use of going and spending so much time for such an article? This had fired him up and he was angry. I got a call from one of the main persons in Hyderabad Beats. I knew it was about this post so I went directly to the point. I explained to him as to why I replied in such manner. I do not know if he was convinced or not but I realised something about myself that day. I realised that I did not want to report something which has already been reported a million times. When I apply it to my life, it changes to, “I don’t want to do something which is done by everyone.” This was my inherent belief. When I looked at instances in my life this stood to be true.
A few days after Hyderabad Beats had started, and an experienced editor had joined us. She was given a lot of importance because she was working for free and she was very experienced. She gave us hints and tips on journalism. She informed to us about few programmes that were being held in Hyderabad. I noticed that she was an autocratic person. Her way of functioning was dictatorship-style. She expected people to complete the tasks as soon as she gave them, even if they didn’t have passion for that task. This brought about a conflict with me. I was completely opposite to her. I believe in democratic leadership. I think she first started disliking me when I commented on the post about the diseases. From then onwards the gulf was becoming larger. She started posting comments about me without mentioning my name. This made me angry and I replied to one comment in a very serious manner. I again got a call from one of the main person at Hyderabad Beats. He asked me if I was OK with everything. I explained it to him that things were not OK. I told him everything that had happened. I told him that I was told that we would work as a team to improve this but now it was not like that. Someone was giving orders and we reporters had to take them. He explained the situation to me and asked me to calm down. It took me some time to calm down but I finally did. Then I realised one more thing about myself. I realised that I needed freedom to work. I need freedom to be passionate about something. And when one is passionate about something and he has the means to do the work, there is no doubt that the product created will be spectacular.
Hyderabad Beats was recruiting new people into the organisation. They called me to come to the office because I was one of the first ones to join the organisation. Quite a few people had come to give the interview. I learnt something during the process of interviews. I understood that confidence plays a big role in every place. The people who had come were shivering, nervous, and could not answer the questions properly. One of the reporters took around 30 minutes before she started doing the task given. There were many like that. However, there was one person who was very confident about himself. He was asked to interview a person from the group and it was fantastic. Confidence is very important — it was not something new to me. However, this time I could see the effect of it right in front of me. I was sitting behind the desk and marking him. This was when I realised how important confidence is. It was internalised. My 2-month vacation got over so I had to return to studies. Everything I did in Hyderabad Beats added more to my knowledge especially the three things that I mentioned previously. I may/may not have learnt them if I had not done an internship, but as the saying goes, everything happens for the best. I was lucky to get this opportunity. It was more than an internship just to increase my chances to get into a foreign university.
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