Inas completes her training in a week's time

For those out of the loop, Inas is my older daughter; she is 18 and a half years old, and is doing a course in Hotel Management. At present, she is in her 2nd year of the three-year degree course, and as part of her education, she is posted as an Industrial Trainee (I.T.) at a famous 5-star hotel in Mumbai, since 1st May 2009. The I.T. training takes 6 months, and these six months will be over for her at the end of this month, i.e. after 9 days.

From all the conversations I have had with her, I have learnt that:

1. Trainees are paid a pittance as "stipend" (Inas gets Rs. 1200 per month, which is the best from among all the hotels that train students in Mumbai; by the way, that translates to under $ 40/= per month).
2. Compared to the measly stipend that they get paid, they are made to work like dogs ... at least 10-12 hours a day.
3. Standards of food and general hygiene are as poor as at lesser prestigious hotels once you peek behind the glamorous and ostentatious exteriors; Inas tells me about this and has pledged never to eat at the hotel. She says she has actually seen the cooks cutting coriander without washing them, dicing vegetables and adding them to the pot without washing them, etc. She also saw a cockroach gaily sauntering among the various pots and pans!
4. Food served to the employees is not even 10% of that which is served to the guests, is often repetitive, and rarely something to look forward to. Internees can expect little more than what is given to the permanent employees.
5. Inas' life was limited to dressing up and going out at about 6 a.m., and returning at 7 p.m. or so, daily. She would take a quick bath, have the one meal at home and go to sleep by 9 p.m.
6. Many of our own day and night time activities and household chores had to be tailored around Inas' schedule and Hannah, my younger daughter, and I, had to do the work that normally would be shared among the three of us. We could not attend night programs, watch night-time movies, or go for last shows to theatres.

There are some more things, but I will leave that to some other post.

Inas appears for a group discussion and interview

Some of you may be aware, at least, that I have a daughter, all of 17 years of age by the name of Inas. She was all set to enter the world of medicine as a student, but about a month ago, after talking to a relative who works in the HR department of Taj Group of Hotels, Mumbai, she has increasingly shown interest in becoming a hotel management graduate! To keep her interested in this line, and to divert her from medicine, was never our, the parents' goal, but we could not help her getting completely enamoured by the attractive profession of being a manager in a five-star hotel. Thus, I secured for her a book with general knowledge questions to read, and at the same time, bought application forms from three HM colleges in the city. She studied eagerly, and appeared for the written entrance examination of one of these colleges on the 4th of May. This was followed by a "Group Discussion" and then, a personal interview where the principal and one of his friends asked her a few questions and so on. This got over yesterday. Now, we must wait for the results of the exams ...