Ujire - Selco Labs and Beyond

An intern, as the dictionary defines is a student or trainee who works, sometimes without pay, at a trade or occupation in order to gain work experience. But what if I say, being an intern is more than gaining work experience (that is, developing a software), that being an intern can also mean you go out there to villages to meet so many people - well learnt farmers, very friendly jeep drivers, and shop vendors, professors, enthusiastic children, go on a trek, experience the nature, the village and finally it changes your life and takes you on an exciting journey from Ujire to Sweden. Haha :D Let me give you a new meaning to internship as you read through my experience.

During the initial phase of my internship, Ujire was just restricted to Selco Labs, hostel and Ujire town. I had to work on mainly two projects - 1. Developing a software for recording the minutes of meeting and 2. Impact assessment of Light for Education project of Selco. The first day of internship, meeting Dr. Anand P Narayan really got me and Kanmani on our toes working towards developing this software because he asked us so many questions on computers and information technology which we could never answer :| I still do not know whether I can answer those questions. Nevertheless, we had developed a software that occasionally even crashed Anand's system :P

At Selco Labs, Ujire, Sandeep was our window into the past of Selco Labs and people working there. He told us everything about how the lab started, how it was just Anand initially and how he joined Selco Labs and how much they loved this new office. Initially, he was our only source into all the stories about Anand, and others at Selco; local news and updates (mostly ghost stories in and around Belthangady); information on old, existing and new projects at Selco, local contacts- from carpenter to college professors to auto driver to farmers. Sam was our technical 'gyan' guru- any doubts about mechanical, electrical and engineering stuff would be shot at him and he would answer us with in-depth 'gyan'. Santhosh was the 'fun' factor- he would always crack a joke to make us all laugh and also for all the technical stuffs in the lab, he was the one to be approached. Anand, was the 'boss', timid, humble and who would always crack a joke about everyone including himself during the meetings and talk so loud that entire floor of SDMIT would hear and make funny faces as we spoke. ;) 

A month into the internship, I knew that I was enjoying. I loved the people at Selco Labs and it is so natural to love the team that actually takes you for a trek in the amazing Western Ghats (read about our fun trek). And Selco Labs was the place where I found out that I had a cousin, who I never knew existed (I blame my big family tree. Sometimes a leaf in a big tree will never get to see a leaf in another branch :P. We are like the leaves in a big tree ;) ). Anantha Murthy, my cousin brother, was a crazy guy, who introduced me and Kanmnai to his whole lot of friends and girlfriends, and showed us a shop in Ujire called 'Bharat Cold House' where you get amazing 'Phalamrutha' (Phala in sanskrit means fruit, and amrutha means a drink that bestows immortality). So if you go to Ujire, go get a 'Phalamrutha' from this place and you know what to expect. 

Evenings me and Kanmani used to walk and explore the roads in Ujire. Ajith Nagar in Ujire was the one we used to take a lot, and walking through the road we met women, men, grandparents, and kids from so many houses and they were really sweet. By the end of the internship, Anand told us that there is are two laptops that arrived to the Lab and we soon found ourselves taking the laptop to the kids in Government Higher Primary School(GHPS), Kukkavu. Thanks to Anantha and his gang of friends, we always had enough support to teach the kids about computers.

On our way to school (Me, Kanmani, Nithin, Pallavi and Anantha) in a jam packed jeep. Jeeps to villages from Ujire are known to be stuffed beyond capacity. We were at least 20 in the jeep that could hold 10 people.

Kids, off course love computers !! :P

These classes are so much fun. Here is a kid trying to do something fancy with my hair.

Trust me, being with the kids, teaching them about computers was so much fun (read more about the 'joy of computing'). Amidst all this fun with the kids at schools, Anand told me and Kanmani that he is looking for someone who is interested in taking up a full time job of teaching science hands-on activities to the students in schools in and around Ujire. This triggered so many questions in my mind, heart and soul - 'Should I ask Anand whether I could take up this job? Or should I go for the job in an IT firm?'. '

Two roads diverged in front of me. One assured me of an IT job and the other road that could possibly give me the opportunity to go to a school and try out the hands-on activities with the students.' I came to Selco Labs three months ago, had so much fun being with people at Selco Labs and I knew I had learnt a lot from the team, and I knew I wanted more of it. So, I decided to talk to Anand and tell him that I wanted to do the 'Experiential Science Learning' at schools!! I went with my gut feel, and it made all the difference. I knew I loved being with children, the thought of trying something new at Selco, stirred my mind, excited me and that is why I decided to take this road. When I started walking the road I never knew it would lead me to Linkoping!

Before I end this post here is a picture taken during my internship at Selco Labs, Ujire (Sam and Santhosh are missing in this picture though)

In the following post, I put down the beautiful journey through this road- the road, that was unexplored, that were filled with challenges and excitement, as I met so many people who made me what I am today.