‘Peak Bengaluru moment’: Intern’s reply to colleague on why he was absent goes viral

A social media user shared a screenshot of chat with an intern at his company, and said it was something that can happen “only in Bengaluru”. And the Internet agree!

In a post on microblogging website X (formerly Twitter), Karthik Sridharan shared how the intern wouldn't be interning at his company anymore, as his own artificial intelligence start-up got funded.

Karthik Sridharan is an alum of BITS Pilani and IIM-A and the founder of a startup ‘Flexiple’, according to his X bio.

According to the screenshot of the brief exchange of messages between the colleagues, the intern is asked why he was not in the office on Friday. To this, the intern replies: “Hey, sorry I took a leave because I had a meeting with a VC. My AI startup got funded. I don't need the internship anymore.”

“This only happens in Bangalore,” the X user said while sharing the screenshot.

The Internet was taken by a storm with the post; while most netizens were impressed by the charm of the Silicon Valley of India, many also pointed out at the intern's “lack of communication skills”.

“I guess that internship was just the warm-up!” a user said.

Another commented, “That’s a great thing.” While one backed Sridharan's post and said, “Wow literally yes only in Bangalore”.

“Damn so AI is the magic word to get VC funding or what?” a user joked.

While another suggested that this should be the pilot episode of an Indian version of the silicon valley show.

“If someone made a Bengaluru version of the show silicon valley - they would have to have to put it in the pilot episode.”

“Glad for the kid! Just hope someone guide him to get better at communications as well!” another said.

However, a group of people were offended by the intern's “disrespect”, and said, “I think this is disrespectful to some extent but understandable.”

“He then shouldn't expect basic work ethic in his new set up startup...wouldn't be a great start then...lead by example,” added another.

“Don’t worry about his communication skills. 3 months are enough running a startup to learn everything with the money he took,” one user commented.

While another said, “You loose nothing if nice and polite with decent communication. End of the day someone has given you bread and butter when you needed.”

However, one user highlighted that the people in the comment section should not “judge so quickly and get offended so easily”.

“How do you conclude that the startup guy was chatting with a manager or boss? This might just be a casual chat between two interns or colleagues. The startup guy clearly mentioned he took leave on Friday, and obviously, he doesn’t need to announce this to the whole office. Since the other guy asked what happened, he explained,” the user commented.