Casual Training from NIMAS at The Vedic Village, Kolkata

Casual training is a wonderful experience for hotel management students like me, as during this opportunity I get to explore the real industrial world of hotels. I, myself, Nischal Gurung, have got trained in various stars hotels in Kolkata, as a casual trainee and have achieved a marvelous experience and knowledge.

Basically, these casual trainings are for young beginners who are learning hotel management subject in their bachelor, master or diploma level where we go outside the classrooms of our institute and become a part of the outside industrial world, i.e., the hotels. These casual trainings, as the name suggests are taken casually during the tenure of our education, which can be a single day training or maybe few days. So, here I am to share one of my experience of casual training in of the five star resorts in Kolkata, i.e., The Vedic Village.

Like the casual training, at my institution, the faculty had informed us for a 3-day casual training to be held at Vedic Village and had to accommodate ourselves there itself and we were really excited and very keen to explore the experience. We had to report in the hotel in the evenings, so we took our way finding the hotel.
As always, I used my GPS phone to track my way to Vedic Village. Well, it may sound so NERD for me using GPS but I find it very easy and useful. The Vedic Village is located in a very quiet and nature-friendly atmosphere, outside from the busy and noisy city of Kolkata, towards Salt Lake, about few kilometres from Rajarhat. Me and my fellow mates, caught a bus till City Centre 2 at Rajarhat and then took a taxi towards Vedic Village. The Vedic Village is indeed located at a very silent and nature friendly environment far from the busy city.

We reached the place at around 7.30pm and were expected there to report at 8pm. After registering our names in the gate of the resort, we entered the resort full of excitement gazing around at this beautiful hotel. Spread over about 150 acres of land with beautiful bunglows and cottage, with beautiful gardens, ponds, trees, flowers all over the place. We reported to the Human Resource Manager who briefed us about our training schedule the next day and then we headed ourselves to one of the bunglows over there, where we could accommodate ourselves. The bunglow was a piece of marvel, very classic, beautiful and comfortable. There were two double bedded bedrooms, a hall, a kitchen (though we didn’t need to cook and the kitchen was empty) and a balcony in the 1st floor. All the rooms were air-conditioned but we didn’t need one as the weather itself was very cold. We took our dinner in the staff cafeteria and then sat in our rooms chatting that time flew by so fast that by the time we slept it was 3am in the morning.




Now the toughest part was waking up in the morning. We had to report at 7am so we had to get up at around 5.30am. Though it was difficult, boring and lazy, we did and got ready for the casual training. We were taken down to the Cricket Ground where tents were raised and many tables and chairs were being set up. We were there for the Food and Beverage Service training and we were to serve Chinese guest groups who were around 250 in number. Intially we had to help with the table setup, buffet setup and then food pickups then, after the food is served, with the clearance, leading the same for lunch. After the Chinese were done with their lunch, we had to served another group of business clients who were around 40 in number for lunch near the dinning room beside the swimming. After having done everything, we completed our day’s training at around 4pm.

Well, I can’t really explain how tiresome it was. We were a pack of lazy grown-ups and working all day like bulls, really exhausted us, specially me Nischal. We did really get a nice sleep as we were so tired. The next day was Sunday and the same schedule was there for Sunday and Monday. Finally, after the Monday’s shift was over, we were granted leave. I must say that Vedic Village did not provide us with drop facility for us, which other hotels do. Therefore, we caught a bus and went back home. After about few weeks we also received our payments, which was a good weekend pocket money. It was a sum of Rs 600 each, (Rs 200 per day) and that was really valuable for us as it was earned by us, with such hard work and labour.

Thanking you,
Nischal Gurung,
3rd Semester, NIMAS, Punjab Technical University, pursuing Bachelor in Hotel Management and Catering Technology and Tourism.
Other students accompanying me Nischal, were Wanroi Micky, Yeshey Gyeltshen, Upaching Mog, Saurav Pramani, Rupan, Kaushik and Raj Kumar.