MY EXPERIENCE AS AN INTERN..AT Charkhatales..

I was pursuing my Bachelors in Journalism and Mass Communication from Amity University when I joined charkhatales for an internship. Every college student has a curiosity eagerness to earn his/her own pay slip, I too had.  Before I start sharing my experience as an intern with my readers about charkhatales I would like to brief you about this company. charkhatales is a self styled start-up which promotes 100% pure khadi merchandise and the main objective of the company is to promote and encourage the hard work of rural artisans and help them earn a livelihood. The company’s work and objective matched with my interest and what more could I have in the city of Lucknow than working in a social field.

It was 9.32 am in the morning when I entered, absolutely clueless of what will I be doing and how will I go about the entire day. My senior colleague Ms. Ankita the HR of the company introduced me to our founder Ms.Roopika Rastogi and they assigned me an 8 week internship plan. My job here was to build the PR of the firm. I was given the responsibility of content development in the form of blogs, fashion product writing and creative content. And we were required to report our daily work. Since mother’s day was coming I was told to write sms and a news letter on the same topic. My first blog was posted on the website of our company with my name on it. It was seriously the best feeling seeing your name on the website as an author.

Time was passing as if it had got wings. With Yoga Day approaching, I was asked to theorize on how we can approach the media. After a lot of contemplation with the Founder, Copy Writer and the Design Advisor we jotted down points on yoga kit and which media to approach. After lot of effort finally I approached Times of India marketing person. I was sent as a company representative to conduct meeting with Times of India. I was asked to develop an article for the newspaper on the yoga day. I came up with my rough draft which was re- edited by our founder. And a day comes when I saw my name in the newspaper along with my article. I was not at all expecting my name. It was a big surprise for me which was given by my founder. All I can say that was the big moment for me as well as for my parents. During the period of two months I learnt more about professionalism. The company changed my perception about the khadi fabric. Every morning came with new challenges, every passing day help me to acquire new knowledge. I learnt how marketing is done, how product is launched, etc. Since my company was just a start-up I had an ocean of opportunities to learn and explore.

Once we even had an industrial visit in Hardoi, it was an incredible experience. We went to purchase fabric from Hardoi. The labours out there were hard working and the words of dedicated rural artisans still echo in my ears “Khadi is not just a fabric for us but our only source of income. We here at Hardoi not only make this khadi fabric but worship it as well.” charkhatales not only taught me how to look at things differently but also how to find happiness in small things. Knowledge which I carried from here was the blue-chip. charkhatales groomed my personality and enhanced my level of confidence. I started feeling responsible. As a journalism and mass communication student I feel it’s important to support my country’s cloth and to promote rural India.

I would surely like to mention at the end that the knowledge which I got from Charkhatales was not because of only one or two person it was because of the entire management including our founder Ms. Roopika Rastogi. I found myself lucky to be the part of Charkhatales

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By: Priyamvada Rai