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7:30 am: My eyes open most reluctantly as the alarm goes off. I hit the ‘Snooze Button’ and pretend like it never even went off in the first place. I promptly go back to sleep.

8:15 am: My mother forces me to wake up by shaking me rather violently. I realise what time it is and panic for 2 minutes before I remind myself that I go through the same process every day, and hence have no reason to worry.

8:45 am: After getting ready quite hastily I drag myself to the Metro Station near my house and sleepily enter the Ladies’ Compartment. I head off towards Noida where I’m interning this summer.

9:40 am: I finally reach the office and I’m only 10 minutes late. I make an expression like the ‘Not bad meme’ and sit down at my cubicle after greeting the other interns and my boss.

10:30 am: I’ve basically been going through a pile of paperwork and articles online, highlighting the information relevant to the project I’m supposed to research on. I look around to see what the other interns are up to and find all of them texting away at their phones. I pull my phone out to do the same.

11:15 am: I feel (a little) guilty about being on my phone for such a long time and close all my chat and social networking site apps. I go through some more documents.

11:50 am: I decide to get myself a cup of coffee.

12:30 pm: Still going through documents and making entries in an Excel sheet. Lunch is just half an hour away, I realise happily.

1:00 pm: Bring out the food! The interns and I head off to the canteen and sit at our usual table. The lunch thaali looks tasty today and we each buy one. Lunch hour is spent teasing each other and discussing trivial tales of our respective colleges. We also talk extensively of what would we would be doing right now if we were not interning – watching the latest movies and TV show seasons are popular responses.

2:00 pm: Now that my stomach is full, I’m already feeling sleepy. My eyes threaten to close and my brain wants nothing more than to just doze off at the moment. But that is definitely not possible since the team has a meeting with the boss in about an hour.

2:45 pm: No one seems too pleased about the meeting. We’re all frantically finishing off our work and keeping an anxious eye on the clock.

3:30 pm: Well, I suppose it wasn’t that bad. In fact, the boss seemed happy with our progress! We spend the next hour brainstorming ideas on how to go about the next part of the project. I’m unusually alert right now.

3:50 pm: Time for another cup of coffee. Hmm, maybe some snacks too.

4:15 pm: Little more than hour to go.

4:30 pm: I strike up a conversation with the guy in the next cubicle about the latest Khaled Hosseini book. We both end up placing an order for it on Flipkart.

5:00 pm: I’m tempted to drink another cup of coffee but I manage to control myself by Googling ‘Health hazards of too much caffeine’ and convince myself that coffee is an evil addiction that must be curbed. For now, that is. I type out the weekly report I’m supposed to submit.

5:25 pm: I’m done with my work for the day but I can’t leave yet. I try to beat my Temple Run 2 high score-followed by Fruit Ninja and Paper Toss. I also list out all the things I’m going to buy with my stipend once I get it.

5:45 pm: FREEDOM AT LAST! I leave the building super-fast, as though I’ve been possessed by Flash’s spirit.

6:45 pm: I wake into my house, exhausted. I WhatsApp a few friends and sip some cold coffee.
Then I just lie down for a while. If nothing else, my internship has at least taught me to appreciate the beauty of coming back from a day’s work and doing absolutely…nothing!

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The office of The Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) on Chhatra Marg in North Campus is under lock and key and is awaiting demolition to make way for new lecture halls for students following post graduate courses in Delhi University. This is being done due to the dearth of space in the Arts Faculty to hold these classes. The four member DUSU panel has, quite literally, nowhere to go.

Following the implementation of the reservation of seats for OBC candidates, DU has had to increase the number of seats it offers. However there is not sufficient space in the existing faculties of DU to accommodate these students. Therefore, a new faculty is being constructed for these students in place of the erstwhile DUSU office. The four member DUSU panel has temporarily taken up office in a few rooms of the Proctor’s Office. The new DUSU office is supposed to be built in between the Arts Faculty and the Campus Law Centre on Chhatra Marg in North Campus.

Says Kriti Wadhera, Vice President of DUSU, “Our basic aim is to work for the welfare of the students of Delhi University. Therefore, we have agreed to shift our office from the old one to the new one, when it is completed, even though it is less accessible and smaller as the students’ interests are paramount.” However, it seems that this new office that is being built is also temporary as there are talks of a Secretariat being built for DU which will reportedly house not only the DUSU office, but that of the Dean, the Proctor, Delhi University Teachers’ Association and so on as several other official buildings of DU are also slated for demolition.

However, the construction of the new office and the demolition of the old office was to be completed by the 15th of October so that DUSU could finally take up office at one place after Diwali, but these commitments have not been met, much to the displeasure of DUSU. Says Manoj Chaudhary, President of DUSU, “We were promised that we would be able to commence our affairs from the new office after Diwali, but the construction is nowhere near completion even now (16^th October). So we will hold a meeting on the 20^th to deliberate on the current state of affairs. If things continue this way, we will start a protest to get the old office reopened, probably from the 21^st.”

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