Beatrice Loo Rui Yi

Class of 2015
Majoring in Psychology and Marketing

I had always craved living overseas in a culture that was vastly different from the one I have always known. Rather than apprehension, it was excitement I felt when I thought of the chance to stay in India for three months. I can’t say my parents felt the same about their daughter doing that with two other female companions, but they were eventually convinced and have no regrets either.

Culture and sights do make a great case for an overseas internship, but a personal goal was to have an internship that allowed me to clarify the path that comes after graduation. I interned together with two other SMU students at SRF Foundation (Gurgaon Headquarters), the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of SRF Limited. CSR was solely focused on providing education to a local nearby district of Mewat. I was with the Foundation as a Communications intern, yet my purpose was to expose myself to the education initiatives they carried out. That included persuading and inspiring participation from the villagers, collaborations engaged to create a future for the children and youth in Mewat. Being clear of what I wanted to learn from the company definitely helped me shape my internship experience, despite other responsibilities.

Living in India while there was a bout of recent reports that could provoke legitimate concerns about safety was a risk the three of us were willing to take. Staring was common, though we must have became so skilled at hailing autos, addressing auto drivers as “buh-ya” (means brother), and bargaining at markets that towards the latter half of our time there, I must say the staring had lessened. Locals were always so pleased, possibly amused, when we spoke in Hindi and ate their local food like we had been eating it since we could chew. Speaking broken Hindi and risking terrible toilet consequences after taking local food were worth the relationships built. That being said, we did nothing conscious to attract unwanted attention and looked out for each other vigilantly.

A pleasant surprise I had during my time in India was to meet a bunch of amazing people who were also foreign students interning in India. We were all staying in the same hostel at the time. They were great company when we needed some time to pamper ourselves with familiar food, while travelling and on shopping trips. We bungeed together, water rafted in the cold Ganges river, visited icons of India together. The group was multinational: from Kenya, Egypt, China, Poland, and of course Singapore. It was humbling and eye opening to find out how different we all could be in our outlooks in life, how mature and fun each of them were.

Lastly make no mistake, India is beautiful. If ever you find yourself relegating her to a place that is just dirty, dangerous and unappealing, do think again.

In some ways, three months with the country, colleagues and culture was too short. We were beginning to grasp the language sufficiently for our colleagues to converse (alright, “converse”) with us in Hindi, the Indian sun was growing tamer and more bearable, our stomachs had grown increasingly resilient, even more places had been added to our list of travel destinations. Then it was time to leave. On hindsight, the experience was one that would have developed into deeper affection had we stayed on for a while longer. India is many things most of us would be wary of, but laying down all tainted lenses, India is so much more than that.