Day 182: 27th Dec, 2009

Sooner, not later

I guess I must be amongst the first people to be running off after exams. I had taken a flight at 2pm and my exam was supposed to end at 12.30pm. Which was a close call (unless of course I left the paper a little early ;-) :D ). Fortunately or unfortunately, the flight got delayed by 45 minutes, so now the gap was enough.

Anyways, about the DWO paper. Have already told you about my level of preparation. Let me now tell you that it had no connection with the paper. The last 30 marks question was amongst the weirdest ones I have seen. We had to analyse EVERYTHING about a case from EVERY aspect of the course. And the funniest part - there was no case ! We were supposed to take any example (real or hypothetical) and go ahead!

As I said, it was intention to finish off the paper asap. And though I was writing to the speediest of my abilities, I was shell shocked to find Bharat submitting the paper in 1.5 hrs! :-O

I finished the paper with about 20min to spare and then caught up with Swapnil Thakre and shared an auto to the airport. After dealing with some of the worst roads in India and a tyre puncture, did manage to reach the airport well in time.

Time for vacation now. Time to chill out and enjoy. Time for a vacation for this blog as well. Brutally short break this one. I hope to make the best of it ! :-)

So long folks!! Cya soon!!

Day 181: 26th Dec, 2009

Mei aa raha hoon !

As expected, MANAC 2 paper turned out to be a mixture of problems based on by-hearting some formulae (variance kind) and problems based on common sense. Managed a little bit of both. So should get through with respectable marks overall.

One decision had been hanging. A problem of plenty, which is sometimes more difficult than the problem of scarcity. I had multiple choices, and had to choose one. Made that decision. And finalised it before I could have second thoughts again.

Slept off in the afternoon. Woke up coolly in the evening. And just didn't want to study. Who keeps a stupid paper like DWO as the last one?! How on earth is one supposed to study anything in that?! (though I guess I would have said this for any subject falling on the last day of exams :-p). And nobody around was studying.. nobody! I indulged in some music, little bit of HIMYM and general tp. Went to the mess at around 12 midnight to meet the topper himself (coincidentally .. Shreyas :-p). Chatted along for some time. Came back to my room at around 1.30 am. Finally started studying... or should I say tried to start... since I eventually started listening to music again! Finally at around 3, I opened up some ppt.. and now after reading it for some 15-20 minutes, sleep is taking over :D

And just before I end today's post.. must mention this.. sudden deluge of 'coming back' kind of messages as the gtalk status of people. And so I go with the flow. My gtalk status - (Mumbai) mei aa raha hoon !

Day 180: 25th Dec, 2009

Kal exam hai ?

Doesn't seem like it when you woke up at 11. (With hazy recollections of some senior walking into your room and switching your helmet - yea Naveen, you can't hide :-p).

Doesn't seem like it when you spend another two hours in the afternoon repairing your specs, not because you'll need it in your exams, but because you'll need it while watching movies in the vacation!

Doesn't seem like it when you vehemently stop yourself from going to remedials, even though you know nothing.

Doesn't seem like it when you haven't started studying even till late evening and stick to the company of people who are also not doing anything :D

But there is. And what's more, it's early morning instead of afternoon! :(

Started studying. Went with Saurabh to the 9 pointer's room to get a past paper explained by someone. Absorbed a little bit of that. The major motivation obtained was that MANAC 2 was a lot more about common sense and DI than MANAC 1. And survival should not be a problem. Aur kya chahiye? :D

Day 179: 24th Dec, 2009

Fastest Finisher

Well, we didn't get the exact same paper as last year :-p . But the paper was OK. Macro eco is a little more based on common sense than micro eco. Atleast that's what I feel until now :-p . Might just have to take back my words when we get our grades ;-)

Now in every class, there are some stalwarts at this game of answer paper submission. No matter how fast you write your answer papers, you always find that these people have completed and submitted their papers much before you even reach the end! Another first for me in this aspect. Achievement today was that for the first time, I was the first person to submit my paper, beating the likes of Shreyas Dhamdhere and Bharat Chintapalli. Attempted decent number of questions as well.

Holiday tomorrow for Christmas. So of course, time to party. My friend Ron (another college) starts studying atleast a week before exams. I can't manage to do that even 2 days before!

Went out with the INDEX gang. To this place called UV. It actually stands for ultraviolet, but why that name?... no clue! Pretty nice ambience and food.. including the Chinese bhel starter suggested by Swetha. Riza's enemity with my specs continued. This time, he managed to hypnotise me into breaking my specs just by looking at me and chanting some weird mantra (which I thought was just an innocent question). It's time I took revenge!

Day 178: 23rd Dec, 2009

Multiplier

Here's the situation. You know that the weightage of some paper is going to be only 40 marks. But yet, you are answering a 100 marks paper i.e. multiplier is (1/2.5)x . So whatever you gain (or lose), only 40% of that is effectively going to matter. But still, it feels bad to lose 10 marks than 4 marks no? Was asked a question about one Johnson's algo for 2 machine scheduling in the quiz, and I didn't know it then. Had prepared for it today, but today he asked that algo for 3 machines :-S (not even in the book!). tragic!

Eco tomorrow. Was a bit of my achilles heel last term. Macro-eco is a lot more interesting though. Lets see if it translates into marks!

Days 176,177: 21st-22nd Dec, 2009

The 48 hour day

It all started off nice and fine. This Monday was scheduled to cover up Saturday's timetable, but we had already had extra lecs so the day was free for us. Thus began the lazy start, waking up late, being lethargic and so on. Some semblance of the end term starting from tomorrow started creeping into me and I thought I'll start studying.

But it just so happened that Soumen called and asked me to come to the SME Conclave held by Abhiyan. And I did that. Mainly because I know the kind of effort that goes into organising such things. The conclave had some pretty big names and I guess we both would have liked to see greater numbers, but then, a start is a start.

Finally started with QAM late evening. And this is what sowed the seeds for the 48 hour journey. Called up my personal tutor for QAM - Sarin; he was himself studying up on something and he would teach me after that. So I was left with time for myself. Now you might be wondering why I was not studying by myself. As I have noted earlier, if our QAM prof dedicated even quarter the time he spends cracking silly jokes to making better reading material, life would be simpler. But then he didn't. And I didn't have any nice notes at my end. So I was stuck. Spent that time brushing up on whatever I had learnt for quizzes.

Went for an early dinner. Had badam milk :D . (wanted to highlight this better part of time :-p)

And then went to Joshin's room to study. Boy ! these FPM people sure are pampered a lot ! Stipend, multi room quarters. personal bathroom and even a balcony ! There was a nice big bed there and I don't know if it was the bed or the subject, but I was big time sleepy. With great difficulty, learnt a few concepts.

I guess the real struggle started when I came back to my room. Probably the disastrous consequences of such a soporific attitude triggered my subconscious brain (especially since the paper was at 9.30 am, so no time to prepare in the morning). I was sleepy no more. Struggled through the night, barely sleeping for an hour while trying to increase the breadth of syllabus I had seen atleast once.

Maintaining my real world attitude, won't speak much about the paper even here. Suffice to say this was nowhere close to the golden era of QAM-I.

Oh, and btw, the stupidest thing that I did was not related to the paper. I wore just a t-shirt to the exam hall. And it turned out to be quite chilly even in the afternoon. I would say I struggled more against the cold than the problems, but that's pretty debatable ;-) . High priority task during lunch was to wear a sweatshirt before the next exam.

Next exam? Ah well, I don't blame you for not understanding this yet, but we actually had two papers. MM as well. Now this was again an open-book exam for us and thus my Kotler still remains unopened. Majorly because the midterm results clearly indicated what mattered more was the imprompto evaluation of the case rather than quoting some non-contextual age old structure/principle.

The funny thing that happened was I fell asleep as soon as I got the MM case booklet. I mean, I hadn't slept the previous day and wasn't really sleepy even while I sat down in the exam hall and wrote my name, roll no. etc. But somehow, when I started reading the case, it was almost as if Mike Tyson had knocked me out. The 15-20 min sleep did a lot of good though. I was pretty fresh after that. But still, writing reams and reams of material is not my forte. With great difficulty, I managed to fill seven sides of the booklet. I just don't know how people can write more, especially when it was well proven that length is no criterion for marks.

Anyways, have OM tomorrow. Comparatively chilled out subject. (Does it justify the time I spent playing TT in the evening?) Also indulged in celebrating Naveen and Sarangi's bday in the INDEX room.

Now I hope to catch up on some good night's sleep. Need to stock up my sleep reserves. Have eco the day after!

Day 175: 20th Dec, 2009

The Great Indian Fraud

Imagine this. You are asked to prepare some Chinese food. But all you do is order some pizza. And when the person comes, you treat him to the pizza. And yet, eventually when he leaves, he feels he had the best Chinese food ever! ;-) . Talk about GLOBE! This one far outclasses any other effort :D

Exams in 2 days. Most people have started with something. I started watching Inglourious Basterds -yet another Tarantino movie. Found it ok, not as great as Kill Bill definitely !

It's pretty chilly today. I guess the cold weather is catching up. I just hope it does not induce me to keep sleeping. Really can't afford that in the next few days!

Had pizza for dinner today with Saurabh, Riza and Shruti over some general tp/chat about Riza-Fiza, CG, insti parties, Saurabh's-hunt-for-US'T', etc etc. Good fun. And to top it all, the cheese was still dripping from the pizza! Yummmyyyyy!!

Day 174: 19th Dec, 2009

No one can eat just one!

For all those of you who are in IIM L, will be in IIM L or just come down near IIML, this is something you must do. There is this bakery a little into the city (8-10 km away) called Mr. Brown. You just have to have one coconut moroccan biscuit that they sell ! It's awesome!! Literally melts in your mouth :D . I bought some of them last week with Tarun and they disappeared into my tummy within no time. Yesterday I asked Saurabh to buy another batch of that thing for me :D . Will make it last through my exams :D

Had two 1.5 hr lectures of Eco today. Final presentations! The eco prof came up with this ingenious idea of making other students ask questions at the end of each presentation. But it was redemption time for me; considering the innumerable times I was caught during eco lectures for no fault. Today, I did not have to speak at all, neither during the ppt, nor to ask questions.

Have DWO final presentation tomorrow. Nothing could be farther than expected as far as requirements/deliverables are concerned. Anyways, sat down with Shreyas and Kaushik and almost completed the ppt and report, skipping dinner in the process. Compensated that at the night mess - good match practice before exams. Met again with the rest of the group for final touches. Doctor sahab made a special appearance, contributed a DWO textbook to the cause and left :D . Anyways, we have stitched something together, including a story ;-) . Tomorrow, the test is not the content, it's the acceptance of content :-p

Day 173: 18th Dec, 2009

"Present Sir!"

That's my favourite part of the lecture - attendance. We get a grade drop if our attendance is below a threshold value and I am pretty careful in that aspect and ensure that I remain safe. So it was a surprise for me when the QAM prof called out my name towards the end amongst the set of people who had fallen short of attendance. On enquiring, he mentioned that I have 5 absents in the pre mid course!! Whereas the truth is .. actually I had attended all lectures! Pointed this out to him.. :D . Guess he made some mistake while noting down the details. Anyways, I am safe :-p

Finally the INDEX team t-shirts and some sweatshirts arrived! And after a confusing journey in light of wrong airline carrier, wrongly labelled boxes and wrongly set invoices!

Kans took me to the room where walls do not have ears. And gave me an offer which I did not refuse. Details later :-p

Day 172: 17th Dec, 2009

Gaana matlab .. Coke Studio !

If you are @ helL, you know what I am talking about! Coke Studio is the latest rage on campus. Basically, it's a series of musical performances by all the top notch Pakistani singers in a more unplugged kinda environment... and it's AWESOME! My current fav performance is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYaiwaybsaY&feature=related

Today morning I got to have a full 15 minute sumptuous breakfast. I would love to say it is because I turned over a new leaf, embracing some self-discipline and thus woke up early. But to make things more realistic and believable, lets stick to the truth. Because I thought the class was at 9.30 .. instead of 9.45 :-p

The break after the lecture was filled with sudden frenzy because of a surprise Eco quiz conducted in some other section. That section people were completed surrounded by our section guys and were being bombarded on what came for that quiz. I, as usual, could only (disapprovingly) wonder how people can keep getting so worked up over such simple things.

At dinner, Saurabh and Vanki suddenly and randomly took it onto himself to think of some girl on campus most suited to match me. Probably ended up going about the task a little too seriously :D . Tch tch.. the disappointment was bound to come :D

Making a small attempt in trying to understand Google Wave. Seems like a good tool for collaboration. Have sent out invited to friends. Can test only when they start waving. Will sleep early today. gn!

Day 171: 16th Dec, 2009

Owlery

A new eco(logy)-friendly initiative @ L ! We are making better use of wildlife now. A path breaking pilot project has been started by one of the groups here. They are testing how owls are used as a medium of communication, especially in the world of magic! :-O

Ok, I took it too far :-p . Owlery is actually this great new initiative from Team SynapsE to show your blogs to the rest of the world (well..not the world.. just us IIM L people..oh ok..the world :-p). You just add your blog link on your profile and lo and behold.. it automatically pulls any content that you post on your blog. Pretty cool na?

Yesterday's late night sleep took its toll. After the first lec (MANAC), I went to the library. My plan of action was to sleep for 15min, study for the QAM quiz for an hour (missing OM) and come back for the MM lecture. As always, things happened in exactly the opposite manner. I collapsed on the first floor couch (what a demand they would have if that section was open during the night!!) and woke up after a good 2 hours.. missing all the remaining lectures :P. On the bright side, my mind was more fresh and I could spend an hour studying in the library post lunch. Menghani came by in between... but had to leave because NOBODY in the entire library had an extra pen :D. He did teach me an empirical formula though, which had application for one entire section.

The problem with QAM actually is not knowing the formulae; infact, the prof gives out all the formulae in the question paper. The problem is in trying to realise which formula needs to be applied for which problem. I blanked out in the first 4-5 min, but eventually did decently, though I could not finish for want of time.

The more interesting thing happened immediately after the quiz. Actually I had, by mistake, carried my bag into the examination hall (**not allowed**). Nobody (that includes me, my friends, supervisors) noticed the act. Things would have passed away blissfully except for the fact that I forgot to collect my bag while leaving. So I had to go back to claim it. And unfortunately now I came in exclusive observation. So I had this small encounter/debate where I was cited examples such as ticketless travelling and so on, all to which I replied using different permutations of 'yes sir', 'right sir', 'sorry sir' accompanied by a sorry-for-the-act face.

Did a good bit of INDEX work in the evening. Designing some certificates mainly. I don't even know why I tried to do it with MS Word. Just could not get things to align there! Came back to good ol' photoshop .. smooth!

It's 3 am now. What am I doing? Jo pachees baras mei nahi hua, woh ab hoga. Finally watching Deewar :D . Feels insane? No, feels just helL :D

Day 170: 15th Dec, 2009

Lag-g(u)ard alert!

So here's a situation we are all familiar with. You have a small piece of work which you put off for later. And then, in a couple of days, you have another small piece of work which depends on the earlier work. So you think to yourself you will do both of them together real soon and put them both off for that moment. Thus begins the pileup of activities. It eventually becomes the size of a huge mountain which even the most enthusiastic trekkers amongst us wouldn't wish to climb. This is what is happening with my 'The Economist' subscription. Even before I have finished the first copy of the magazine, two subsequent copies have also found their way through my door!

I think the world's best alarm clock is the one inside you. NO other alarm clock is as effective as that. Today I somehow woke up at 7.30 am even after sleeping really late yesterday. Paradoxically, the same alarm clock is also the world's worst. I so didn't want to wake up early today, but the darn internal body clock just doesn't allow my brain to control it !

My getting-caught-inspite-of-not-doing-anything phase continues. Even as I stared at the QAM answer booklet, the QAM prof caught me and started asking questions. The whole thing looked so silly to me that I did not say the answer even though I knew it :-S .

Made a visit to the library after a long long time. The intention was to do a little bit of reading for the QAM quiz tomorrow. Have not been too successful, mainly because of lack of good reading material. (and the inability to take good notes - a condition I share with most others). Anyways, will get a couple of hours tomorrow after classes. Should be more than enough. Time to sleep now - with the undying hope of having conquering control on the body alarm clock :-p

Day 169: 14th Dec, 2009

Gory Story

Well, I didn't exactly mean my life at IIM L with the title ;-) . The thing in reference is the movie Kill Bill. It was one of those many movies that I somehow was never able to watch from start to end - something or the other would ALWAYS interrupt the session. Until today. Finally I got to witness the bloody tale of revenge. And what a movie - in a league of its own!

A more pertinent association is with our esteemed alumnus, late Manjunath. He was heartlessly shot dead. His fault? He stood up to fight corruption. I wrote a small poem dedicated to him. You can read it here.

Some solid masala tales of the insti party are coming out now :D. Woww!

Sleeping pretty late today. It's almost 5 am. Of course, being winter, I don't get to watch the first rays of the sun before I sleep :-p

Day 168: 13th Dec, 2009

When a Sunday is a Sunday!

What used to happen week after week, until the last few weeks, finally happened again - A Sunday that was free! I woke up after 11 and I can't even recollect the last time I did that :D . So a yeyy for that definitely!

The more fun part of the day was when dada a.k.a. serial entrepreneur called. The guy had woken up with a big bump on his head. And without any idea of how he got to his room in the first place :D . And his attempts to try and realise what happened :D .

In the evening, I went to execute a top secret mission with my wing mate Pindyck.

Objective: To buy and sneak a banned substance into the campus.

We managed to find it, at a place closer than what we thought. And brought it back - in white and black plastic bags. No, I am not going to name what I bought. But it ain't alcohol (sorry!.. the black bag is misleading :P) or any banned drugs and definitely not any other extreme option that you are thinking :-p

Day 167: 12th Dec, 2009

The Charm of Craziness

I guess everyone always nurtures this desire to be or do something different and wacky. And insti parties always provide that environment. You would see perfectly normal people saturate every cell in their body with the highest possible alcohol content so that they can just 'let go' and (a little too literally) dance like no one is watching. I somehow don't need alcohol to be crazy :-p ; but today was one of those insti parties where I didn't indulge in dancing (read headbanging) but mostly just stood around drinking (juice :-p) and soaking in the loud music and watching others go bonkers :D . talli people are the funniest people on the planet, maybe even the universe. This guy who reeked of alcohol and who barely balanced himself on his feet came up to me sometime and said "dude... you are shaking. you need to keep track of how much you are drinking." :D . I was like "yes. thanks for pointing it out. my vision was kind of blurry by now."

BTW, today, after many many many days, we didn't have any class. Which meant I could coolly wake up at 9.40 without any feeling of guilt (hahaha) or remorse for missing attendance (ya!). Nothing much I did during the day. My mobile conked off yet again!! I was highly irritated at that point of time. But just as I was to go to the city, it miraculously came to life again! :D . Rest of the day was mostly a mix of HIMYM further episodes (which I now have to complete before end terms, else wouldn't be able to study then) and general chilling out.

Went to a movie in the evening - Rocket Singh at Wave cinemas. It turned out to be one of the best movies I have seen in quite some time. I can't specifically recall any great song or great scene... but the movie in general patched up really well and there was a good flow in it. A definite recommendation from my side.

Day 166: 11th Dec, 2009

I Ran the Half Marathon! ;-)

There comes this epic moment in the life of every IIM L dweller. And yesterday was mine. I did not run 'the distance' physically. But my feat? Yesterday, I watched 20 episodes of How-I-Met-Your-Mother nonstop! Skipping snacks and dinner :D . Now I know why they are called 'sit'coms.

Anyways, the fact that you are now hearing about what I did does indicate that the guest writers' phase is over. My blog enjoyed a good amount of attention then which makes me realise how much all of us look to break the monotony. I will try my best to come up with something interesting on my blog even further :)

Remember that towards-the-end scene from Predator? Where Arnold suddenly falls in that mud and the alien fails to spot him out. I suddenly realised how Arnold would have felt (not the falling-in-mud but the not-getting-caught part) in this one eco lecture where the prof didn't catch me out! QAM - the great leveller - papers were out. After the MANAC and DWO result, finally the toppers were back in place. And as far as the previous toppers were concerned, they were back to topping as well, in their own league :P

For dinner, went to this place called 'Brij-ki-Rasoi'. (I don't know how we haven't been there yet considering it is quite close to our college.) And the food was really good! And inexpensive! That's equivalent to the combination of chocolate cake and vanilla icecream - awesome! More visits are definitely due!

Day 165: 10th Dec, 2009

Today's post is definitely going to place my blog a few notches above on the babe quotient ;-) . Yea guys, today's post is by the evergreen etrigan topper - Meenal Anand. A very talented and popular figure on campus, with a very charming personality. Spotlight!

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It is Friday, 3:54 pm. Some 12 minutes back, Shivku reminded me to send him the blog entry. I spent 3 of the 12 minutes cursing myself for having forgotten all about it, and 9 cursing Shivku for having conned me into writing it in the first place! Ok so the ‘thing’ is, I can’t recall a word taught in the lectures today and they only just got over. And I am to recall the entire yester-night and yesterday! Talk about screwed up expectations! (Ouch! What’s with the mood?)

Ok. Thursday! Thursdays for Section F are pretty chilled out. Relatively. (Now if you notice, a section F blogger will never let go of a chance to brag about Section F. It was sometime during World War 2, while combating Fuhrer's forces that this sense of fraternity developed. As it happens, Fuhrer won, but at least we all came out alive. Sigh! Good thing that the war is over.) Ok so Thursday.. This thing about snoozing the alarm half a dozen times, and running down the corridors with a brush in one’s hand, is true for all of the 700 IIML students. All except one. But that aint me. So snooze I did, and run I did and found myself in the classroom at 9:47 am. Only a couple of minutes late for the first lecture. And.. I have been trying to recall what happened next ( Shivku, I swear on you I have been trying. So if I am lying, you will die and we’ll know ) .. “The next thing I remember.. I was running for the door, I had to find the passage back, to the place I was before..” And so at 12: 05 pm I found myself in my blanket, only to be woken up thrice by three Manfest-ors about ‘The Big Photo Shoot’ that was to ‘change our lives forever’. I dragged myself out of my blanket and got ready (read suited up!) for the event of the year. 10 of us Barney figures reached the MDP to be greeted by the only direct descendent of chimpanzees we have here in IIML. (Rule Number 1 of blogging: One has to be subtle while making fun of colleagues. Here I try. I am talking about the chimp who is often seen with a DSLR hanging around his neck, owns a pair of inline skates he never uses, blogs about girls, calls them Rare Flowers, is in love with a dimpled rare flower and is called Hansraj).

For the next two hours, the chimp arranged us in queues of three, four and five, circles, triangles, squares, semi circles and question marks. It ended with the chimp and Shantanu climbing the terrace to click an aerial view of Us-The Question Mark. For ten good minutes while clicking the aerial shot, Hansu hung over Shantanu’s arm like a pile of washing freshly plucked from a roof-top clothes line. Just like that! Reminded me of the games of cricket, when, after a simple catch, we used to just dive and topple over to make it look like a tough one. (What! You never did that?)

Anyway, it was 4:30 pm now. Any guesses as to what I did next? I slept. I wouldn’t have slept all this much had I remembered it was my turn to blog for the blog I am blogging for. But I did not remember, did I? So I slept. Blissfully. For two hours. (Why I can’t I talk about Friday!!)

I got up at 6:30 pm, to go for a ..wait for it.. jog! Ahem Ahem. Yeah so Kapil, Ashish and I go for a jog. Regularly. Ok let us call it a jog-walk-mix. Ok it’s really majorly a walk. Whatever! I am sure you don’t even do that, now do you? Huh!

Fast forward to 9 pm. I pinged a few people to ask for deliverables for the next day. Only an Economics presentation! Some two hours of work. So I decided to leave it for the morning (and that saves me from talking about it in this blog! Does a little victory dance).

“..And she slept happily ever-after..”

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Thanks Meenal! Great entry to mark the end of the first Guest Writers' week on my blog :) I got some really good feedback on this idea from quite a few of you readers out there. Thanks to you guys for following my blog! It would be great if you could also post your comments on the articles. Feedback, positive AND negative, is nice!

For now, it's back to me. And when I'll have guest writers in future, I'll make sure you know.

Day 164: 9th Dec, 2009

Words of a 9-pointer! For that is what Shruti - my fellow INDEXian (a record in the history of INDEX!) and today's guest writer - happens to be... A fine example of a big surprise in a small package, lets see what the typical day of a 9-pointer is like!

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Shivku and I are fellow INDEXians who have done quite a bit of roaming together (on his ‘best-in-the-campus’ bike) in the weeks leading up to INDEX. It is in one of our night mess ‘over-the-tea’ candid talks that I mentioned my desire to start a blog. And I believe the offer to write a guest entry on Mr. famous’ blog was a consequence of that conversation, which I accepted with gratitude. So here is my very first blog…

My take on Dec 9^th 2009:

The day started with my alarm ringing at 6:15 am. I switched it off –as is my routine- and slid back into my warm razai (sent by grandma during mid-terms J). It is amazing how I manage to get back to sleep even after having 10 hrs of sleep already. I am breaking my own record every day. A big yaay for tat!!

I finally manage to slip out of my razai at 7:25 am and the first thing I do is turn on my lappy hoping, praying with crossed fingers that the CR has sent a mail saying , “Extra OM class by Prof.S 8:35-9:35 AM CANCELLED!”…….. but no, what met my eyes was the exact anti-climax. A mail reminding everyone of this horrible event meant only to make us squirm in our cold benches (in the classroom). So drudgingly I got up and did the routine of brush-bath-and-pray (yes, I pray daily) in 30 mins and scampered to the mess for breakfast. Here, I got slightly suspicious that my outlook had played some trick with me and not shown me the ‘cancellation mail’ because I could not spot a single first year in the mess. But I convinced myself to head to class and check it out.

As fate would have it, as I was entering the PGP block, so was Prof.S. Here, I want to digress to point out a few things about this legendary personality. You never want to find yourself alone with him. He will give you advice on pranayaam, yoga and ethical behavior and the importance of taking a cold water bath on a winter morning. The guy took 3 extra classes to write the heading ‘Deming’s 14 principles’ on the board and he still wants more extra classes!…..Perhaps I am not good at driving this point in. But you have to know this guy to understand entire sec-D’s loathing for him….

Anyways, finding myself in close proximity of him with no one else in sight I hastened my pace to get away. But alas, he was swifter and caught me. Asked me stuff about feeling cold and taking bath and commented on how IIML culture was spoilt since no other sec had a class at 8:30…blah blah. I managed to extricate myself soon enough, reached the classroom, dumped my bag and headed towards the door. Would you believe it? This door was locked from outside L. So again Prof.S and me. I somehow maneuvered my way out of the door I had entered from. Phew! And saw another classmate walking in. Safe at last!

The class went on as usual. I was reading last week’s economist lent by Sarma a.k.a Paa (so called for his bald look in the winters). Beside me Sidhanta was on his NFS type car game. Saurabh was trying as hard as he could to listen to the lecture but was showing signs of frustration now and then. Behind me Siva- having finished his CFA exam recently- was back to his pool game on his fancy phone. Vinay was a new entrant at the behind-the-last-row row and was trying to study QAM! Even after many derisive remarks from fellow last-benchers. His defense, he needed to pass in QAM. The argument didn’t make much steam with any of us….

So 2 classes of Prof.S later, attendance is taken- the only reason why students attend his classes. I wanted to check my attendance post-midterm (having missed 3 classes+1 quiz already) so I went to have a look at the attendance sheet. Prof.S comments- “What are you looking at?” Checking attendance obviously. Then he points out my absents and asks reason for them. I innocently answer- due to INDEX sir. He goes into a whole new tangent about how these ridiculous extra-curricular activities are hindering the process of learning and should be done away with…goes into my native place and place of schooling etc….comments on my hindi……oh there is more, but for the benefit of readers, I’ll stop right here.

Moral of the story: Stay away from Prof.S.

Then we have Marketing Management- decent class. We get to see videos of nice Ads J. Only this time, it was silly Rasna ads. Certainly not the level we had seen earlier-‘Hamara Bajaj’ types.

And the last lecture-QAM by G.K.S. This guy is much like Prof.S, but one good thing is that he sticks to the dias allotted for teachers and does not venture into student territory. So you can even lie down on two benches and sleep. But I had had enough of sleep already. So I was chit-chatting with neighbours. Prof. had to make one of us shift places- how Kindergartenish…

After classes, I had nothing much to do- leaving out studying for a quiz which was out of the question anyway. After INDEX, things have been easier… So I headed back to my room and indulged in some newspaper reading, Gtalking, a little INDEX work. Took printouts of my tickets for the term holidays. Always makes you feel soooooo cheerful :)

I saw Prof.K walk towards faculty block on my way back to hostel. I have got like the lowest in the batch in Marketing for mid-terms. Badly in need of some marks, I resorted to some lame arguments to get some marks. I never do this-NEVER. But these times are exceptional….anyhow, didn’t work. I am still where I was before. But one thing that did come out of the meeting was that the Prof came to know my name and the fact that I am in INDEX core. That is a plus I hope J

The next highlight of the day was evening tea. After a long time, Akanksha and I went to the mess together for tea. She lives next door and we’re pretty good friends, but haven’t seen much of each other off late. So it was a bit of catching up. Saw Harsh there, wished him a happy birthday and demanded Cadbury from him (he’s interning there). Some nice chocs to make the day J. This reminded me that my sister’s birthday is tomorrow. I set an alarm for mid-night to remember to wish her…..This is bad, how could I not remember this before? What is happening to me??? Wasn’t family most important? How come I don’t know what my sisters have been doing the past few days? How come we haven’t spoken to each other for a month? We used to share everything… what’s happened to that?

With this contemplative mood, I came back to my room and did some reminiscing, calling dad, mom and everyone. Felt better after that…… like atoning for some sin. And finally fell asleep, dreaming about home and family and friends and better times……….

P.S.: The day was punctuated with project/presentation meetings which I have not cared to elaborate on.

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Wow... that was long! :D . Thanks Shruti! Hope this will only be the first of many more blogs to come!

Day 163: 8th Dec, 2009

Today's post would be interesting in the sense that I am getting it from one of the (very) few freshers on campus - Shantanu. I, for one, am waiting to see whether the fact that you have landed here right after college makes any difference to a 'normal' day!

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My Day.

It is for the sixth time in 20 minutes that my phone, which is usually quiet, starts blaring ‘Arriving Somewhere but Not Here’ by Porcupine Tree. I open an eye and see 9:10 a.m staring back at me. I hear Sarin, my neighbour, banging on the door. Since I have come to IIM Lucknow, I have required an increasing number of alarms in the morning to wake up. Initially, one would be enough. Then two, then three. Well now when I sleep, I have alarms set for 8:45 a.m, 8:50 a.m, 8:55 a.m .. Well, you get the point. And yeah, I have a Sarin too.

I run to the mess and run to class holding my omelette and bread in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. That run is complete in exactly two minutes, but those two minutes make my day. Basically, they get me ready for one drilling class after the other. That is the thing with an institute like ours. You not only have tight and impossible deadlines, you have OVERLAPPING deadlines. You find yourself competing with yourself to do a hundred things in, well, no time. The first class is Management Accounting which includes stuff like cost analysis, variance, absorption and what say you. Prof. V is one of the straightest and probably the best professor we have had yet. He is a taskmaster and his classes are good. The Math professor is busy cracking jokes half the time, the Operations professor walks a record 7 km in one teaching hour and the Marketing prof comes with this minion whose only job is to sit in a corner and note down the class participation. Honestly, I am yet to see a more boring job. And a bigger loser. After 4 long hours, classes are done.

This is when my day starts. I have my lunch and rush to office. A million thoughts rushing through my mind. A million things to do. Let me explain. I am a core committee member of Manfest, the Annual International Business Conclave of IIM Lucknow slated to happen in the next 40 days. As you can understand, time is tight and we have loads of work. More so because the senior Manfest team is busy with exams, and hence we are doubly loaded. I meet Karthik and Sharath in the office and we get down to business. Every minute, all we think about is Manfest 2010. Through the exhaustion and moments of give up, all that drives us is the dream of a spectacular Manfest 2010. We make mistakes and face horrible moments of self doubt, but there can be no learning experience greater than this. Being at the centre stage of a body which organizes an event budgeted at 96 laks and more is something no classroom or even prof. V can teach you.

I did forget to mention, in between all the work there was an Operations quiz at 5:30 p.m. That went OK. Or maybe I just have stopped caring. We have reached a stage where marks and grades no longer remain significant. Or more rightly framed, relevant. There are bigger things to do, bigger things to worry about. Marks will take care of themselves.

Post dinner, I work in the office for a while and at 1:00 a.m trudge to the mess. A soldier, tired and bruised. But alive. Smiling. After breakfast, this is my second favourite moment of the day. Just as the run from the mess to the PGP office takes two minutes, this peaceful march of mine takes 20. A cheese toast in hand, I make my way to room 707. I drop my bag on the bed, sit on the chair, turn up the music and check my mail. There are so many new ones. Didn’t I just check it 30 minutes back? 17 new mails at 1:30 a.m in 30 minutes? I accept that it cannot be a lie and carefully read each one. Replying where necessary. Meeting at 3:00 a.m? Why? I feel my eyelids dropping. Heavy. I feel my nose connecting with my keyboard.

‘Wake up Shantanu!’ Bang Bang! It’s Sarin.

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Hahahaha. Must confess one thing here... this blog is almost a day late :-p . And poor Shantanu has kinda combined the two days here :D Hehehe. Won't blame him! It could just be another day.

Another interesting thing happened today. Our OM prof had yesterday sent back two students as they came to class a minute late - as they went to quickly compensate the lack of breakfast with a cup of coffee. Today our prof gave them their attendance, saying (in retrospect) it wasn't really their fault (which is true considering the prof for the earlier lecture had extended the class!). Anyways, I liked that gesture.. it's in keeping with my general idea about people who are ready to take a step back and accept their mistake - not an easy thing to do na?

And yes, today our mess served GAJAR HALWA during dinner! It was just DIVINE!! :D . Way to go mess!!

Day 162: 7th Dec, 2009

The blogger himself writes! Yea, today's post is by none other than Amit Haralalka - an avid blogger himself & one of my first friends on campus. The writer in him was super enthusiastic about accepting my offer :D

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Wokkay. Thanks to ‘mumBHAI’ (as I call him), I get to recollect my day and share my thoughts on this blog. And Boy! What a day it has been!

The term ‘Monday morning’ loses its significance (notice the lack of the word ‘blues’ usually attached to it!) when you have 3 hours of classes on the preceeeding Sunday. DO NOT raise your eyebrows if you are not from Section F, neither do I need your sympathetic “tch tch”s. It is a truth that I (and my brethren from Section F) have learnt to live with.

So coming back to ‘Monday’ – the only good thing about ‘Monday’ was that classes started at 11 AM. So I got about 2 hours to do the whole act that I indulge in everyday. It is an act I call “the routine”. “The Routine” is the following act performed in sequential order:

1. Put the alarm for 8 AM

2. Get out of bed at 8 AM, and put the alarm clock on a 15 minute snooze

3. Get back to bed, comfortably inside the blanket for the next 15 minutes

4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you have exactly 25 minutes left for class.

Today I got to do “The Routine” from 8.00 AM to 10.30 AM – Aaah! .. The joy of getting back to your bed on a cold winter morning 9 times in a SINGLE DAY!

Classes were regular – nothing fab. Except that I had to indulge in some “Desperate CP” and gain some CP Marks – not something I usually do, but I wanted to do everything possible to compensate for poor mid-term performance in a particular subject.

Post-lunch (usually siesta time, but since I had done the “routine” 9 times, I started getting the feeling that I have been sleeping for the last 7 days, which obviously I hadn’t been!), I decided to complete the Marketing Management project (since this was the project that I was working on… & the other’s weren’t!! – Division of Labour!) .. Interestingly, during one of the Oral Vivas conducted by an Adjunct Faculty, the faculty (lady) politely commented on how ‘the Collaborative Culture at IIM manifests itself in all possible ways’ when she caught members of a particular group prompting the answers to their group member during the Oral Quiz. Well, there are STILL more Collaborative Ways at the IIMs are used for social good – Work on some projects, free ride on others! J

Evening was NostaLgia time. Went out with a part of the group that I used to hang out with during my first week here – Kanny J, Saali, Bansal and yours truly. We went out to Barista, followed by dinner at Royal Café, followed by a nice long drive back to campus (with all of us crooning to Sufi-Bollywood music).

Wow! – This feels better than I thought. I should get back to writing on my own blog more often. Hopefully the Gods of Hell will smile on the internet on campus in general (and the WiFi on H14, in particular) so that a blogger can get back to some blogging!

Thanks mumBhai for the opportunity. Relishing it.. :)

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Thanks man. And I am sure 'The Routine' is something most of us here follow very religiously :D

Day 161: 6th Dec, 2009

Today's post has been written by Aarthi. She happens to be one of the most timepass people on campus. She always carries a spirited smile on her chubby face but her weapon happens to be the wit in her words.

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I get the honor of writing about the most interesting day in the life of an IIM student. Heck the life of any student in the world - Sunday. What is it about this day that puts a smile on our faces? The day that is is synonymous with relaxing, dedicated to admiring the colors of the sky and the smell of flowers and the freshness in the air.

Let’s zip back to reality now, shall we?

The only time of the week you can find the IIM campus deserted is Sunday mornings. People comfortably snuggled in their beds on a cold winter morning. Not for me though. Reason: I had a guitar class at 10:30. I would have bunked it if not for the vague promise I made myself a month ago to make life more than just project submissions and movies. So I dragged myself out of bed at 10:15 in the morning and realized I was clean outta cash and I had to pay for the classes. A few frantic calls and Rs.500 later, I was running down the stairs with my toothbrush in my mouth so I could make it to class on time. I reached class to find the instructor waiting outside cause no one was there yet. So much for breaking the monotony – Most people go crawling back into its secure walls to blissful emptiness.

On the day of Sabbath, the Jews make it a point to avoid work. There’s a reason you hardly ever find Jews in IIM. Sundays are reserved for post lunch meetings in the library to “split up” project work in time for a Monday deadline. I was no exception to this rule.

I’d like to digress here to emphasize the curse of being picked as group No.1. Our group was more cursed than most that we landed slot 1 even in a not – so – lucky draw. Anyways cursing the fates that conspired to ruin our happiness, we decided the work each of us had to do. But work has this way of dragging itself hours after the deadline and it was 12:00 in the night and the end was nowhere in sight. After a frantic meeting at 00:00 hrs on D-Day we realized we did not have what we needed (the thumb rule with creating a marketing questionnaire is that when it comes to data analysis, you’ll never have the data that u originally intended to collect). After yet another split up of work, we headed to our respective pigeon holes (popularly known as rooms) to do as we were instructed.

When I mailed my portion of the project (Which would be shot down by the professor as unadulterated nonsense) in the wee hours of Monday morning, I thought of the promises I made myself a year ago – To bust the monotony, to do something I cared about. I thought if I cared about busting the monotony. I thought about caring about things. I thought about thinking. And sleep took over and I escaped where I could keep promises made long ago.

Thanks “Shindex”.

P.S. I was not forced into writing this article

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Nice one :) Thanks Aarthi !

From my side, the Guest Writers' Week is being pretty well received! :D My blog got a huge number of hits today :D

Day 160: 5th Dec, 2009

Guest writer for today is Sudeshna. Interesting titbit, she happened to have been in the same Lucknow panel as I was during GDs. Gifted writer, am sure she will put together a nice read. I only pray I don't have to sit with a dictionary to comprehend it :)

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I will be called Simply Sud (no relation to the radio icon(?))....

A big thanks to aapro COM.P for the “exceptional personality” tag (assuming that was meant for yours truly, banishing the nagging thought that the chances of it being meant for someone else are very, very high). And of course, a big round of applause and immense gratitude to my friend appan (a shortened form of Verappan, not to be confused with Appam of fake IPL players), christened so because his moustache is related by hair and follicles to the late brigand’s moustache :D (Applause for this brilliant blog and gratitude for the guest entry, in case you were confused)

Ok. So without further ado, since I was allotted Dec 5^th, Dec 5^th is what I shall describe. It started as any other day of mine does- in sheer disbelief that the night’s sleep was so fleeting, sigh. And since the night before (3^rd Dec, that is) was spent working on a ridiculously time-consuming DWO presentation till the wee hours of the morning (mainly because parts of our DWO group were afflicted by either CFA, COM.Pitis Minora- one contracts COM.Pitis Majora in the second year of one’s membership in the cabal, social loafing and amnesia- we forgot this one chap was in our group :O)- I was understandably tired and therefore treated myself to a good night’s sleep. Yay!

So, where was I? Oh right, Dec 5^th- I woke up reasonably fresh as a day old daisy and trudged to DWO, which as usual was as interesting as watching paint dry. But I didn’t have the gumption to sit in the first row (which is where I normally sit) for a 1.5 hour long Eco marathon and so scampered to one of the empty seats in the back rows. Have been called an ‘illegal immigrant’ for all my efforts to thus evade harmful subjects and er, smells- oh well. Tried to read ADJ’s Economist, but it was futile to lower my head without being discovered. Even cut a deal with him about splitting the subscription, which I was afraid to take because I knew the mags would meet the same fate as TOI and ET, which line the shelves of my closet. So, I resorted to some half-hearted C.P. and Pills, who was sitting next to me, mouthed “I hate you”, while all I did was get really lucky at guessing the answers (alternately mumbling “increase” and “decrease” as regards interest rates, income, output and such horrors). The highlight of the class was Shivku being singled out again for another Eco inquisition (poor chap, it’s becoming routine now) and Rajat’s message about my illegal immigration. Yes, we lead scintillating lives.

Watched two movies in the afternoon- Wicker Park and (500) Days of Summer. Loved both. Read a few pages of Of Human bondage. Later in the evening, Kanny J and I went to watch a Hindi play, “Ponga Pandit” by Habib Tanvir, staged as part of a theatre festival called Repertwahr (Repertoire, ruined...sigh). The play was a disappointment of gargantuan proportions primarily because they chose to stage it in some UP dialect Hindi, which I totally didn’t comprehend. But it had some amazing moments of humour and the acting was par excellence. The show-stealers? The paneer and salsa wrap and fries we picked up from McD’s before the show and snuck in somehow. Am watching Hamlet on Monday, it’s by Rajat Kapoor, and I’m a biggg fan! Miss my NCPA and Prithvi days. Sigh, miss Mumbai.

We decided to grab some grub at Royal Cafe and were stopped by a traffic cop on the way because KJ entered a one-way in the wrong direction. Pretended to be new to Lucknow and generally ‘damsel-in-distressy’ to avoid a hefty fine or worse. And due kudos to KJ for some seriously gifted acting and thinking on his feet. The food was divine- made KJ , the incorrigible carnivore, eat veggie food (Muhahahahahaha!)- Paneer tikka, onion kulchhas and dal makahni. Had some double flavoured ice-cream. Oh and met the QCOM in RC celebrating another one of Sumo’s quizzing victories. Vipin of 3.4 and QCOM fame, ate the end of my ice-cream cone while wagging his admonishing finger, “singers don’t eat ice-cream”. Got some mutton Biriyani packed for Harlie, who kept calling to ensure we didn’t forget his precious.

Got back at 11:30 and wrapped up the day with South Park, with scant regard for the DWO quiz on Sunday, the 6^th .Forgot to attend the QCOM meet which I really wanted to attend. C’est la vie!

Till we meet again, dear readers. Cheerio!

P.S: Oh and before I forget, some people DID NOT have a problem with some other people. I can say such with certainty because I know Some People intimately. Some other people just need excuses to live by some obscure code of conduct of the cabal they belong to. Amen.

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Thank God, got through without a dictionary :D. Thanks Sud!

Just a small addition to the highlight of the Eco lecture. This nametag thing is becoming a nuisance. Today I even interchanged places with Shreyas to try my luck on the inside seat. But no use! :-x

I also saw PAA today. Liked the movie, but didn't find it awesome :-p

Day 159: 4th Dec, 2009

Random boredom inspired creativity prompted this new idea. Starting today, I will be having a 'Guest Writers' Week'. Basically, a few of my friends will be writing the entries for the blog, describing their day - as just another student at IIM L :)

The inaugural entry is by Shreyas. He sits right next to me. We share a kindred spirit, especially in our nonchalance to academics. Here is what he wrote, reproduced as it is.

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Let me start by thanking, the electricstorm for giving me the first opportunity for a guest column in his famous blog. Yeah believe me its famous, he has references! Plus you will get to know its popularity when you will read guest columns from exceptional campus personalities in the days to follow.

To keep with the tone of this blog, I will stick to the daily happenings, sharing what transpired and add my take on what all of it meant. So the day was Friday the 4th and it started off in the worst possible way, with Sehwag missing his thrid tripple. Just so you know the tambrahm was hardly bothered. But the day rode on to better things. In the first lecture itself, SS gave me the offer to write this column. Now, these are the kind of things that we do during classes. That is only when the moustache monger doesnt doze. That day was inclined towards brainstorming on the ideal genetic qualities that the tamil manus' better half should have. Now i think its a bit personal to him for me to share what he thought were the desired attributes, although i know all the galz out there must be dying to know. But broadly they included a complementary set to his attributes, so basically fairness and intelligence are a given :P.

As the day wore on, 99 and me parted ways after lunch to get to our own things. Now that Index is over he is by and large free (please don't judge me for making a politically incorrect statement here :P). I on the other hand did my regular stuff, which is not relevant here. 101 had a b-plan competition for which he had to leave mid way through a class after completing that presentation. This guy is really cut out to be self made, and even though he might have been second in the competition, he is going to be first one day and make it count. There is ofcourse an ongoing competition between Soumen Abhiyaan Das and Shindex on who is more free each day. I think it will go on for a while :P

So cut to the evening, as the fellowship of the ring went to watch the movie, but we did not bring SK and Sud along, because some people have some problems with some people. We went to Mint, had good chicken and then watched the movie of our times - Paa. Now needless to say that AB is the master and all these tatpunjia's such as Shahrukh khan and aamir khan are not even as good as his crap. But the movie takes you with it, you feel like you are practically in the actual setting. The dialogues are crisp, the script is discrete and the fun is amazing. And its not just an AB devotee like me who is saying this, even Americanised dehateez like Maanas loved the movie. That says quite a bit.

So that was 4th Dec for you, another day in the life of I-am-still considering-Fin Kumar. Its actually wonderful that he has maintained this blog on the money. Since I sit right next to him, I practically share half the day with him. So even if I have to look back at these memories in the years to come, I can count on this account. I hope Shivku takes it to the end and hopefully he will invite me again to write for his blog.

Adios everyone,

and thanks Shiv(a)kumar

Shreyas

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Thanks Shreyas :) Good one! Just an additional note to remember the small bit where Besgi and Souvick were competing :D. And Souvick won hands down ;-)

Day 158: 3rd Dec, 2009

These nametags are really turning out to be a nuisance now. Today again the eco prof made us all put nametags, and within 5 min of that, caught me to answer a question. I don't know what obsession he has with me, especially considering the fact that I usually don't sleep in class much. Definitely not as much as many others around me!

Quite a few firsts today though!

I played lawn tennis for the first time in my life, thanks to Ghate for the initial coaching and all! Boy, the sweet spot in the tennis racquet is really sweet; I hit the ball out of the court four times :D

Saurabh rode a bike around the campus. First time. Big scope for improvement there obviously :P

Four of us - Riza, Shruti, Saurabh and myself went to Wave to watch a movie. My first visit to Wave! Actually the main purpose was for Saurabh to get a haircut from Habib's, which eventually never happened :p. We saw De Dhana Dhan - typical Priyadarshan.

Another first - on my return journey with Saurabh, I broke the 3 digit barrier in Lucknow for the first time :D

And finally finished season 2 of HIMYM!

A day of quite a few achievements eh? :D

Day 157: 2nd Dec, 2009

What a useless start to the day. Even before I could put my bag down and take my seat, there came the announcement of yet another surpise quiz in MANAC :-S . I guess 80% of the class did not have any clue about 80% of the paper. Not that it matters much anyways.

Well, in this cruel world of academic reality, I must also mention that projects and submissions still exist. Just that I am yet to get into them. Had our FM submission today, and my good hearted group allowed me the task of taking printouts and submitting the report. (I later learnt some other groups had members who didn't do even this on time, so yea, that way I did score :-p). I did do a decent job of it, even searching for a new image for the front page, replacing it with the old pixellated SpiceJet logo and taking a new printout, all within the last 15min of submission \m/

Oh yea, and another of those awesome things happened, which wouldn't have happened but for the IIM brand. The Media Relations Committee on campus got a deal with which we could get copies of 'The Economist' at just Rs.20/- !! Which is 10% of the actual price! Good job MRC! :)

Day 156: 1st Dec, 2009

Heeeehahaha! Dinner time at the mess was like a mini Aminabad. Three committees together had put out their wares (t-shirts and sweat shirts!) to sell :D. Glad to say that we didn't have any problem at all selling the t-shirts we had ordered :)

Had a loooooooooooooooooooooooong meeting with INDEX seniors today. Was really good :) ! INDEX ROCKS!

Day 155: 30th Nov, 2009

Seemed as if I was going to attend lectures after ages! Wait a minute. That was true :-p

Was way too bored. I don't even recollect what happened. My mind is still on INDEX. I just remember jotting down a few points that need to be avoided next year :)

Went to the PGP office to get some clarification on my DWO attendance. I have been marked absent TWICE even though I had attended all lectures! :-x .. On enquiry, they told me details cannot be shared! :-S