It would not be an exaggeration to admit that I was way more stressed about getting a summer internship than my actual, quite detrimental finals when the summer heat had reached its peak. I was applying left and right without any prior interning experience. Therefore, my applications were desperate and dangerously hopeful, and perhaps it was this sense of urgency that got me a place here, at Studio ATA.

It was my first time experiencing the whereabouts of a workspace, and it was no relief to realise I was the youngest person in the room. And yet, my adjustment to this completely new setting was without much effort. Everyone around me was patient with my brooding questions that almost always spilled beyond the project brief. I troubled my co-interns Qudret and Anchal incessantly on how to approach my studies and career; I reiterated the same doubts again and again. But they never undermined my frustrations.

The work had its perks and kept me fixated. A large part of it involved thorough reading and comprehending of historical, sociological, and literary texts on Partition. We were asked to conceptualise a map reflecting the changing physical and cultural geography of Delhi in the aftermath of Partition. This kind of a project appeared utopian to an undergraduate student of history like me, and I began working on it with the innocent idealism of a novice.

There was always Ajay Bhaiya ki coffee to keep everyone going. I remember this one week when everyone would sit together during lunch and play endless rounds of Wordle. During my research, I was a regular visitor to my college library and made it a sort of mission to read the Hindi version of Azadi ki Chaon Mein by Anees Kidwai. To get back to Hindi in this way was quite reforming, and hopefully I can find time to read more of it. Even the visits we paid to the Partition Museum and Nehru Memorial Library were exhilarating. The site visit to Badshahpur Baoli in Gurgaon gave me a slight idea about the process of heritage conservation.

Throughout the internship, questions of my own nativity and identity came in waves, and I wish to examine them further, or even take them up in my further academic pursuits. In this sense, this suitcase of preliminary ideas is perhaps my most cherished souvenir from here along with the unexpected friendships.

I will miss a lot of things, some of them being the music from Shumaila’s computer that would slowly fill the room by the evening, the auto rides back to PG with Qudret, and all the JNU conversations with Anchal. The firsts in life are always unforgettable, and this internship is undoubtedly another addition to the list.