On our first day at Ink, of course, like any normal person, we were nervous. For me this was my first ever work experience so I had no clue about what to expect or how to be. On top of that it was a Monday!
Mondays at ink are the busiest. Every single member of the team is present. During lunch it gets crowded. But when all of us sit together at the lunch table, passing around food and talking about the most random but interesting topics, we are like a family. We work 4 days a week 9 to 5 and Wednesdays are “work from home” but for us interns it was “museum day”. I especially liked this system because I found myself being much more productive and efficient when I was at work and I wasn't behind on my chores at home either. And on Friday evenings we all get together for evening drinks and gossip. Might I add the Dutch gossip just as much as Indians do. We all greet each other with good morning and ‘doi’ at the end of the day. We asked about each other's weekend plans, which for us was great cause we would get so many good suggestions from everyone.
But the thing that inspired Eshita and me most about ink was that it is a women-led and women-dominant organization. To see women manage their professional lives and personal ones, not sacrificing one for the other and it being normal for them is very inspiring.
The Design Village taught us design thinking and to see things from multiple perspectives. And so that is what we did. Ever since we set foot here, we’ve observed differences in culture, lifestyle, conversations, etc. This exercise helped us in our project on women's safety with The We4her foundation. The segregation of the two cultures and spaces gave us a deeper understanding of women's safety and Indian culture. There were times when our brainstorming sessions had so many diverse ideas because of the diverse cultural backgrounds. We got to a stage where we could differentiate between what would work in the Netherlands and maybe not in India. Then to take those ideas and consciously tailor them to fit the Indian context was a challenge we enjoyed working on.
Our time in Amsterdam is coming to an end now. This journey became more than an internship, it became a lens to a new way of living. I look forward to taking these experiences, insights, and learnings with me and using them in future projects.
