"I could have stayed there much longer"

Michael Stamminger about his internship in India

"Students of my year were asked, if someone were interested in an internship in India", said Michael Stamminger, student of European Economic and Business Management. "There is a cooperation between my school and an Indian university. Indian Students had already been in Vienna, but I was the first one in India." He is never planning things long time in advance and till now this has always worked out well. "The internship also was not a matter of long-term planning, it just happened to fall in place."

Four months in India

The 24-year old student spent his internship from the 29^th of September 2002 to the 31^st of January 2003 at the Centre for Civil Society in Delhi, an NGO who mainly concentrates on economic research. His task was to write a paper about "Electricity Privatisation in Delhi". "I got the information from interviews and the internet. First I did not believe to be capable of doing research in English. Furthermore some Indians have an accent which sounds like a foreign language. But when I once got used to it, it worked quite well. In the streets I communicated with hands and feet", he laughed. "I also wanted to learn some words of Hindi, but gave it up soon."

Differences

The NGO was organised in a modern and western way ("eg. concerning equipment, the organisation in this respect could also be in Austria"), however, it was difficult to get used to the students’ hostel where Stamminger was living: "There were no shower and toilets like in Austria, everybody got a bucket with water to wash himself. You also get clean this way." Does he have enough of India now? "I could have stayed there much longer than these four months and I definitely want to go there again because I have made many new friends."