My experience with Reliable labs

Most of my 07 summer was consumed in the internship that i was involved in for my Food sci adv diploma..First 2 weeks at the local dairy [Gokul] and then after a week long break..4 weeks at RAL! Reliable Analytical Laboratories, thane.

At first the package that they were providing me sounded good. A busy month with a 9-6 job sounded hectic, but it was a rare opportunity for an 1st yr student. I was making a Project, my project. Being a research aspirant i knew this opportunity was too good to lose for some hours of traveling and no materialistic gains out of it. So, I took up the opportunity and off my programme went zoooooming from the Monday, 7th of may.

I was "the new intern" for all the employees and my name is such a tongue-twister anyway....

There was so much work pending, and within days I was given a whole dept. to handle. As my project dealt with Pesticides and their extraction from foodstuff and later testing whether they were in safe limits or not, I handled the PR dept. stands for Pesticide residue..

Being at RAL, I learned many things. Obviously about the concepts involved in Pesticide Residue Extraction..but also, general worldly matters that we so conveniently ignore as college-goers.
1. The traumas of a 9-6 job.
2. How to travel in local trains in peak hours.
3. How to run behind a bus and fight for an already occupied seat.
4. How to come late to work and give explanations.
5. How to finish off excess work before time by cutting out essential steps from the procedure.
6. How to taste the samples first and then try testing them.
7. How to cover-up for your group-members and make plots to catch the rival group members..red-handed!!
8. the ABC of Office politics.
9. How to do all mistakes in the world and still stand up and say "wasn't me!"
10. How to tackle RATS!! [It seems the lab was full of them! I got to see a couple..For people who dunno..rats are among my greatest fears!!]
And the most important thing!!...
11. How the bloody hell to recognize the look in the eyes of the boss...

There were times when I felt frustrated for ever walking into that organization. To top it all up, my personal life wasn't exactly on a peak. My friends had problems, and I genuinely wanted to be there for them. But life seemed to run too fast and I wasn't exactly able to cope up with all this mess. But I kept reminding myself of that 1 line that I picked up from one of my all time favorite movies 'My best friend's wedding'. The line says "This too shall pass!"
Alas! it has all passed finally. And as I write this after all that is done and over with, Im just glad that college is about to re-open so that we will soon be back in our laid-back worlds........