Day 463:30th Dec, 2010 - Load them HDDs!

It is that time of the year when PGP2s suddenly start realizing the one thing they will really miss post campus - DC++ ! Indeed, we would not have count of the number of times when this little piece of software comes handy when one is looking for - anything! Be it movies, sitcoms, academic material (The 'catchXX' tradition!) and well .. other stuff too :-p . DC++ has helped make heroes, the ones who are always there online, taking the load of most sharing (almost like the 80:20 rule), our hero being abracadabra. And to ensure I don't miss any of the treasure behind, I had purchased two 1-terabyte HDDs. In my super zeal to fill it up, a couple of days back, I randomly selected a user and endlessly added tonnes of stuff to download. And then realized I got some really bad speed from that user. And since I had added so much stuff to download, my DC would hang every time I clicked on the 'download queue'. Finally, 2 days and some 35 odd GB of download later, some stability has come back to my DC. All I can say is - let the party begin!

Speaking of parties, I had one for Sud's birthday - so 6 of us (Sud, Ghate, Justice, AdiJ, Bugger and me) went for dinner to Cellar. Some good food and lots of cheese. 

Had a sudden and unplanned but super splendid night out with Shanky and Chatur! One of my best ones. Two movies - Ip Man 1 and 2 and one ultra-hilarious music video :D . Just awesome. And then came back to my room to even finish off Notting Hill. That's one more movie than one can watch often :) . Not too sleepy even now, but I think it's a good decision to end the day on this nice note :) [at 5.30 am :D]

Day 462:29th Dec, 2010

Same old morning getting inundated with lectures. Seems like we also had to submit an initial proposal document for our FRA project. So sat around working on that for some time. Seems like a long time since I did anything like that. Finished that just in time to land up for the batch meet by Pcom - a small little "expectation setting" purpose. Poor guys, they really have to slog!

Went around to Dham's room later to get some feedback. Hope I get the chance to apply it too in the near future. Then went off to celebrate the birthdays of Sud and Sarin. The latter involved a couple of more "innovative" "celebrations" with Pappa employing his creativity to make a really gross 'maggi mix'! And what was even more creepy was that Sarin used that to wipe off the PINK cake off his face! :-S Eeeks!

Day 461:28th Dec, 2010

Oops, that one day of TT has left me with a nagging body ache.

Anyways, Pachpan came back to campus today (temporarily - he seems to be planning to live this term outside). And with him, came back the zealous pursuit of kiddish nonsense. The seeds though were (for a change) sown by MMR, who concocted one absolutely news piece of "information" about me. I had no intentions to have any stand on that, and that didn't help their cause (unless their cause was exclusively about fun). Even roping in Haathi, they went to confront Chatur. After a lot of data mining, finally they found something which eventually turned out to be absolutely out of context anyways. But yes, they did end up having a ball.

I spent a good bit of the evening arranging a gift for my Dad's birthday tomorrow. Somehow, I could not buy a greeting card, and even getting one now would not ensure it would reach home on time. So I spent some time researching other options. A little after going through the standard options of flowers and cakes, I came across a more innovative and hatke gifting idea. Promptly spent some time creating a collage of the (extremely limited) pics that I had; did manage to create a decent one though :) Felt good!

Went pretty late to the mess for dinner, but surprisingly, it was actually - hold your breath - good today! Simple but tasty food, with some nice kheer at the end for desserts. MessComm, why can't we have this everyday!

I skipped night mess thinking I'll retire to bed early. But as usual, reading random blogs have kept me awake for a lot of time. And a nice 1 hour long call with a close friend to end the day on a nice note :-)

Day 460:27th Dec, 2010

Just two classes in the day, but still that seems SO much in term 6. The morning class makes me wake up early. And the afternoon class doesn't let me doze off in the afternoon :P

But after a long long time, it was time for some table tennis. For these many days, we never played as I was the only person with a bat in the wing. Except that two days back we realized that TG also had one. And so the ping-pongs have started again. I joined them today, and played quite a bit all through evening.

But each time such an incident occurs, it is followed by only one thought - need to exercise! Even with this minimal physical activity, I am tired! :(

Day 459:26th Dec, 2010 - Miss :-(

Shit shit shit! Once again, I missed Taj breakfast! :-(

And this in spite of all the effort I took to wake myself up. Which included not having my blower switched on in this cold weather. And also drinking water to "build up pressure" :P . I don't know which of these worked, but disastrously I woke up only at 10.15 to a song that runs as "spiderman.. spiderman.. tumne churaya mere dil ka chain"! (Watch the link below at your own risk)

Congrats if you have indeed survived beyond that!

Woke up to realise not everyone had missed the breakfast ;-) . But anyways, I had the Dexter episodes. And a lazy Sunday got off to a murderous start :-P

Luckily, decent lunch in the mess. Mooli parathas, but more importantly they were well made. A couple of more episodes later, made my way to the Brand Management class. Nice prof. Our institute should get more of them to neutralize the location disadvantage. And to that the fact that they finish off their sessions in that one week :D

Day 458:25th Dec, 2010

Merry Christmas!

If Santa were to give gifts to people of IIM L, he would rather walk in during morning rather than late night :-p . Woke up real late today - 12.30 in the noon. No real surprise there though considering the time when I slept. Over lunch with Kisaan and Chatur, made strong plans to go for a city tour, which immediately post-lunch weakened mainly due to the laziness of others :( . Substituted that with the movie 'Eurotrip' - that typical movie which depends on hyperbole for the comedy quotient. Timepass watch though.

Went on a little walk around the campus. Felt nice doing some "activity" in an otherwise docile existence. Came back to my room to introduce the topper to my latest addiction - Dexter. An hour later, we and TG went for the consult session taken by our PPO boys - pretty good session, those guys had prepared well.

Ending the day with plans to go for the most elusive Taj breakfast!

Day 457:24th Dec, 2010 - Of Free Time and Flop Timing

Just another day - waking up late, and eventually having to rush even for the noon class. However, even as I was attending class, kisaan and TG made plans and booked tickets for Tees Maar Khan. So Budhi and myself needed to rush to Wave immediately after our class. And as luck would have it, everything that could go wrong did. In spite of a billion kicks (and cleaning of the spark plug by a nice auto-rickshaw walla present), my bike just refused to start. Spent around 10min arranging for another bike - got Dham's bike. Just as I sat and started it, Chugli pointed out that the back tyre had totally punctured! And finally, in that urgency, we had to fall back on Shakti's savari - Hero Honda Splendor! (In a way, the bike is good in such situations - you can't speed even if you want to!) But wait, this wasn't the end of the story. In my two years of extensive bike rides through the roads of Lucknow, never before had this happened - but today - we were stopped by cops! The only thing that didn't happen was that the bike didn't run out of petrol :-| . And I guess because we were going for a Hindi movie, we managed to have a happy ending - in the sense that - as usual, WAVE started the movie a little late, and we made it there just on time.

The movie was a typical Farah Khan - super high on all the filmi masala and overacting. Extensive reference and potshots at old and contemporary actors, not to mention a blatant reference to tonnes of cliches in Bollywood. The movie overall turns out to be OK, not as good as her previous two films. (Katrina Kaif is serious eye-candy though!)

Anyways, super duper free suddenly. Seriously need to plan activities to use my time more productively! To take a break from the heavy-duty Dexter, I even started off with another light comedy series - Modern Family! I should not be going down that lane, so fast!

And now, suddenly, for the past couple of hours, I have got myself involved in downloading a few more apps for my cell! And unknowingly it has taken me past 4am. Which means it is now 25th! Merry Christmas guys! Will go sleep now and hope Santa leaves me some presents :-P

Day 456:23rd Dec, 2010

The day began pretty early as I had to go for part 2 of the process. I overslept a little (was calculated though :P), but hey, nothing more important than a relaxed mind :D . No hot water anywhere in the hostel (including the bathrooms in the top floor!), so I had to make-do with a shave. Reached the pcom office pretty much on time, as it seemed like the interviewers also preferred a little extra rest after the longish night :D . The process was like any other - sitting and waiting for your turn, whiling the time, trying to understand and probably figure out the kind of things being asked to others. Came to know the chit chat basically happened on the HR questions, and that is what happened with me too. (Except for the one binomial expansion!). All in all, I though it went OK.

Came back to my room after the Leadership Discovery class and caught up with the sleep missed out earlier. Woke up and called up AP to find out that only two people made it through, one of them a friend who had got an extended shortlist. Good for him! (No suspense, the other guy wasn't me :D).

Didn't have much to do again. So back to the new addiction - Dexter. Just as I was starting up on that, MMR came up and told me that "as committee members", we had to attend a session (mandatory!) for some event that was being conducted. Didn't turn out to be a bad deal for him - he ended up winning a Blackberry! And not too bad for us - we got free pizzas!

Day 455:22nd Dec, 2010 - Suited up!

Our FRA class was full entertainment today. The prof has a weird sense of humor. First was his playing around with the a < b < c representation. Then his only and specific involvement of the Stex student in pronouncing the foreign author names. And then the interaction during attendance - "Does any friend of his know why he hasn't comes for any lecture yet? Not a single friend? Everyone is his enemy?" and in response to a guy saying someone was absent as that person had fever "Why are you feeling shy to say that? Did you give it to him?" :D

Came back to my room and suddenly it so happened a process was to start today. Had to cut short on my trading timepass in order to take a bath. My quest for hot water took me across to 3 sets of bathrooms, including the one on the floor above, but still - no use :( . This was followed by a sparse late lunch, a chai at Fauzi, a pre-scheduled meeting at the PGP office regarding my attendance (resulting in some absurd weird condition!), and some more home-made sweets at Chatur's room.

The entire evening went in the process. A small window period where a zillion possibilities were analysed. It is indeed a wonder how the brain works so fast under constraints. Eventually though, the final click of the button - whether to apply or unapply - came from the heart, MMR being a classic case in point. I hadn't been able to decide and continued being a part of the process, simultaneously making ISD calls to confirm more details. Anyways, I think I am more sure now, though with me one never knows :D. Have made it through to the next round - which happens to be early tomorrow morning. So need to wake up soon. So I better zzZZzz now. Adios!

Days 453,454: 20th-21st Dec, 2010 - Walking the last mile

Wow! Just can't believe the speed with which 5 terms have passed by!

Anyways, the combined post is because I slept off early yesterday, 8.30pm, a little too early infact for helL's standards :D. Not much to do yesterday. Finished off with the registration formalities. Caught up with a few stex-returned batchmates - finally saw the guy who lost half of himself back there! A few others who were back from stex also seemed to have lost weight, except of course for my good friend Kung Fu Panda, who seems to have gained a few more kilos of awesomeness :P + of course it was freezing cold and I had this feeling that excessive exposure to it wouldn't bode well. And hence, I just found a nice excuse to snuggle myself on the bed and get some sleep.

Today morning I attended my first class of the last term. (Even had breakfast after what seems like a zillions years!) Due to the PGP1 exams, we ended up having the class in CR103 - my old classroom. My actual seat was already occupied, so I ended up sitting one row behind. But that didn't stop me from reminiscing about all the super brilliant moments spent in that class - 3 cheers to section B for that! :-) . Then went to Chatur's room to gorge on all those sweets gotten from home. Not to mention the bonus of getting a few chocolates from the stex people nearby :D . And finally saw the movie 'Usual Suspects' - I found it OK.

Had a company ppt in the afternoon. Many more to follow. I guess a good amount of time this term is going to go this way. The funny part today though was that a Pcommer's name was called out and he wasn't there! :P . Had the burger in the mess (newly rechristened as 'Annapoorna') - seems like a 'Warm Welcome' sign with the most popular item.

Meanwhile, TG got his pappu. Spent some time talking about that, a lot more negotiating for the scale of the treat and then a lot more on random bakwaas. Which somehow ended up in the decision that we were not going to eat in the mess. And so we went to the (by now default) Brij ki Rasoi and stuffed ourselves to the max - no one else paid and it became a 'starter to the main treat' ;-)

Also Pachpan, Bala and me were riding triples and we kind of had a 'standstill skid' from the bike at 3.4 :D. Nobody got hurt or anything, but it was uncanny considering I had joked about it just that evening with a couple of other friends! Spoooky no?! :D

Slept off immediately when I came back. But then got up a couple of hours ago. Anyways, too much of pointless browsing done. It's 5.30 am now :-p . Good by helL's standards and have now more than made up for yesterday's early retirement. Time to go to sleep again so I wake up for tomorrow's class. Gn.

Day 452:13th Dec, 2010 - One last time (pseudo :P)

Had my last paper of this term today. Was an open book exam. And as usual, the prof set the paper such that the book would never been opened!

Some negotiations on my cellphone. The PGP Chairman was very nice though - go it back without much hassle :-)

Anyways, time for yet another week long break. See you on the other side!

Day 451:12th Dec, 2010

So exactly how casual and careless does one get by the time they reach the end of sem 5? I even forgot to fill in my name, roll no. etc details on the answer booklet in the morning exam! That was definitely more interesting than all the literature I think I created.

Had a "pizza party" for lunch. Dada, dhams, myself and some good old times.

And followed up that morning stunt with a ringing cellphone (2nd time in 3 days!) in the evening exam! Confiscated cellphone :-( . Even the ploy of sending able substitutes didn't work!)

Attended a general session on finance by an alum. An optional lecture that I attended a day before the exam - and good I did! Was a good one.

PS: Created a new record in Crazy Taxi! + Getting hooked on to Dexter!

Day 450:11th Dec, 2010 - Crazy Taxi wars!

One of my favorite days on campus! :D

No exams today. So the day started with getting up late, then watching movie #1 i.e. Social Network, then half of movie #2 i.e. Rakht Charitra, then a snack break and chat session with Haathi and his exact physically opposite friend, then 4 episodes of HIMYM and then starting off with a new series Dexter. And whilst I was in the midst of the 1st episode of the 1st season, Pachpan came back after his BF paper. Basically the whole idea was to disturb me :-p , so he took control of my laptop, paused my show, played 2 games of Crazy Taxi, scored poorly, cribbed about my laptop and 'how he couldn't adjust to my silly space bar key' and ran off. 10 minutes after that, I was urgently summoned to his room, only to be greeted with a wide smirk on his face and a computer screen that indicated that he had overtaken my painstakingly attained Crazy Taxi score!

And then came the golden moment. Exactly 10 minutes later. When I walked back into his room - his record eclipsed and mine re-established. Muaahahahahaa!! Brilliant moment! Best part is - now slowly a lot of people on campus are realising they are extremely jobless and choosing to effectively utilise this time on Crazy Taxi! So now, it's a war out there! :D

2 exams tomorrow (yes, it's a Sunday! :-( ..) . Doesn't feel like even one. All I pray is I should wake up on time for the morning paper! Gn! :)

Day 449:10th Dec, 2010

The problem with two-papers-in-a-day is that it leaves you with zero enthu for even a little studying in the rest of the day. Especially with addictive distractions like Crazy Taxi around! Consequently, hadn't started a word for PF yesterday. And not just me, nobody seemed to be doing it! This, even though, it was the scariest mid-term paper.

But of course, that had ensured that entire morning today was dedicated to it. One more super level threat from MMR - he is scary man when he does that! As far as answering the paper itself was concerned, I had to re-play my yesterday's role of the human photocopier. But this time from the question paper itself! You may find this very very confusing - but I really seemed to think all the answers were in the question paper :-| And I made good use of that!

But anyways, it had been a long long time, and we were still to celebrate the Summers of our INDEX facchas. So today finally, we all went to this place called UV (UltraViolet). The sad part was that the place served no alcohol (.. ;-) Muaahahaha! :D ) . The starters were nice, the veg main course was average (actually a little less than average). But the best part was the whole lot of chocolate that I had - 50% (shared with others) of - Kitkat shake, nutty mocha shake, cookie monster shake, choco chip fudge and a sizzling brownie :D . And no, I am still not (even a tiny bit) averse to chocolates! :D

Day 448:9th Dec, 2010

Had two papers today as I said. The 'D'readed has been avoided in EPA. And I became a human photocopier in the open book Serv Mark exam (pr. 402 + 420 of the text book :D).

The highly irritating and frustrating and unfair thing happened immediately after my exams. As I was walking out, I casually happened to check my attendance record on the notice board. And I was shocked to find that I had been marked a horribly high number of absents in spite of honestly attending enough classes! (Ironically in the same 2 subjects that I appeared in today). A grade drop without any mistake! Tried to get some info about it, but everyone had left. Need to work on this tomorrow!

Day 447:8th Dec, 2010

Didn't have any exam today. So woke up blissfully late and in a carefree mode. 

In the afternoon, the sudden fall in markets and specifically in a couple of scripts jagaofied the trader in Pachpan and my demat account was utilized to make a phantom purchase for him. (Unless of course, I profit in which case I can be all evil and keep the profit :-P). And as usual, people generally are eternally vella and the little activity in my room magnetically pulled more people here with the consequence of the multiplier effect eventually generating even more tp.

Anyways, I have two papers tomorrow. The evening one is an open book, open notes etc marketing case based exam - so basically no issues there. The worrisome part would happen to be in the afternoon - EPA! It was an interesting course but the problem is the paper would be completely application of theory. Which implicitly requires a prior knowledge of theory. So there I have been - trying to go through the slides and making sense of all the data and hypotheses and theories. Also, since I had missed one quiz, I had to write a critical review of one paper and submit it to the prof after tomorrow's paper. But since that would clash with my evening exam, I thought of getting it done tonight itself.

So that, a lot of Russel Peters (somebody's gonna geta hurt REAL BAD :D, SS's awesome level leg-pulling by Taklu and my usual tryst with random blogs is what has been keeping me up till 5.10am! And if I don't get some sleep now - I am going to be dozing off during the papers tomorrow! Cya!

Day 446:7th Dec, 2010

Had the CBM paper today. Would indeed be shameful to waste more time after getting up at 10am for the 2pm paper. Spent the next 3-4 hours diligently trying to mug up fundas from ppts.

But when the "both quizzes and midterm topper" stays right till the end of the paper, you can take consolation assured that you aren't the only one in trouble. The problem with a lot of questions is not in solving them but understanding the question itself! In fact, that is a general problem with MBA itself. A lot of things are common sense if you kept the jargons aside. But specifically with this paper - how one earth are you supposed to proceed if you don't understand the terms mentioned in the question?!

Got myself a new 'first' though - though not something to be proud of :-P .. my cellphone rang in between as I forgot to switch it off. Luckily, it being my first mistake, I was returned the handset later after extending an apology.

No paper tomorrow! Yippee!

Day 445:6th Dec, 2010

Pretty ordinary day. Except for the slightly hectic part of writing the conclusion for the BE project report and generally formatting it and bringing it in a ready-to-print state. Got the 6th sem timetable though. Another 6 day week, even in the last term. No big deal - the time has come to experience grade drops.

End terms starting from tomorrow. The "pressure" wasn't there after the 1st term itself. But now, even the "feel" is not there.

Almost 3.30am, and I am only through half of one ppt - that's making me super drowsy :-p. Gn!

Day 444:5th Dec, 2010 - Lucknow Mahotsav & some Fog!

While I woke up real late yesterday, had to wake up really early today (Sunday!), thanks to the SDM quiz that we had! Indulged in the good takeaway i.e. breakfast. And then got back to my room to resume my siesta. 

Slept right through most of the early morning and noon. Woke up at around 2pm to find TG knocking for my bike's keys. Now, I had come to know that today was the last day of Lucknow Mahotsav, an annual cultural fair than happens here. Couldn't visit that last year, and it would indeed be a shame to not go there in our 2 years of stay. So somehow, alongwith Pachpan convinced him too to join us.

But first, hunger pangs had to be dealt with. So the four of us (Mr. Happiness too) first made our way to Dominos for some of that awesome double cheese burst pizza. And then we rode and rode and rode and rode. And finally reached the Mahotsav place.

But guys, for those of you reading this, you must visit this if you are going to study at IIML for 2 years. The kind of crowd there was at that place was awesome! Super traffic - couldn't find parking space - till literally God came to our rescue and people started parking their bikes inside a temple close by! :D . The fair had that proper feel that you are so often shown in Hindi movies, a kind of place where you could easily get lost (BTW, it did happen amongst us too - twice). There was a big replica of Rumi Darwaza created as an entrance. And so many of those little toys - we bought all of them - the hooter, the horns, the bow and arrow, bubbles and a parachute! :D . It was super duper fun to keep playing with the hooter and try hitting each other :D. Saw the Maut ka kuan game after many years - so risk those guys take! The ferris wheel ride (somehow keeping just the 4 of us instead of the usual 6) was awesome too, mainly because of TG getting scared :-p. Lots of food items too, a tad expensive though, compared to the other items at the fair. There even was a concert by Sonu Nigam - free! And even before he had come, the crowds had gone berserk at the performance of one local singer - and it was at that moment that we got a substantially better idea of what the local Lucknow junta exactly wants ;-) . No wonder that Planet Salsa show used to be such a hit :-P 

The return journey was no less eventful. We took the shortcut route that goes to the airport. And maybe because of all the open space around it, but I saw fog so dense I had never seen before! Or rather never imagined could be! In fact, the fog was so thick, that at so many points, our shadow due to the lights from vehicles behind us, was being formed IN AIR! It was almost as if a wall of fog was in front of us. The visibility was so poor I could hardly see 2-3 metres ahead of me, that too with great difficulty! :D . So basically, summing up, AWESOME bike ride! :D . Need to have a couple more of these! :-p

Day 443:4th Dec, 2010

Woke up pretty late today. The good thing about that is it leaves you with that much less time to think and wonder how you will spend it. Not only for the time you were asleep, but for the next couple of hours spent away eating, bathing and generally in a state of laziness, drowsiness and inertia.

Late evening, when some senses were about to hit me and prompt me into some action, a movie plan came up. And off went Pachpan, Shomu, Chatur and myself to wave to watch Phas Gaya Re Obama. Now suddenly these kind of movies are being made these days which concentrate on one simple plot and weave a humourous story around them. And just like the rest, even this one turns out to be a pretty decent plot. Has a pretty ingenious climax too :D

We thought of watching one more movie straight. But didn't have enough time. So we just had dinner outside at the eatery in the lane behind Wave. For those who don't know, it is a pretty nice place. Very cheap, and good stuff. I had pav bhaji - they make it well here, but couldn't help remembering that I'll be having the authentic version in 10 days! :-)

Somehow, when Pachpan came to my room at night, the conversation restarted from where we left it yesterday. Discussions ranging from foreign profiles to money to entrepreneurship to career options to career goals to feasibilities and such arbit stuff happened in quick succession. Unintentionally took up quite some time.

Anyways, remember my CV work? A couple of people told me my 2 page CV is twice as weak :-P . So right now, I am remaking and remodeling it to fit it in one page. Using the great MMR's CV template - so well structured that I am finding it difficult to modify it :D. Finally getting to understand that thing though - more than anything, I keep learning a little more about MS Office through these little experiences. Anyways, have done some bit on the CV to get it down to one page. 4.30am now. Will get some sleep. Have a quiz at 8.15am! :-S . Hope I wake up.

Day 442:3rd Dec, 2010

Woke up suddenly to realise the SDM presentation was still pending. Sat on it and finished it off at one go. And consequently very efficiently played the role of 'slide-changer' during my group's presentation :D

These days, I am spending most afternoons in front of my laptop watching my new addiction - the stock markets. Dirty mind! :P

Once again, went to Brij for dinner. My bike just wouldn't start because of the cold - and therefore I found myself riding a junior's 200cc Bajaj avenger - man, 200cc is some power! Some extra riding happened, thanks to Shomu da exhausting his bike's fuel midway. Standard order - I don't think the waiter will even ask us the next time we go :D. And somehow, especially these cold winter days, Brij seems to double our appetites! We ate voraciously. Even the simple rice and dal here is SO awesome! Wish the mess picks up a cue!

At night, went to ask Pachpan a few things about a fin career. Ended up talking a little about that and a lot about a lot more. Jointly came up with a plan to salvage some lost time. Lets see how that works out!

Day 441:2nd Dec, 2010

Spent all the afternoon getting super bored doing routine stuff. That is why I decided to watch a movie in the evening. Saw 'The Illusionist'. Another movie which has magic as its backdrop (after 'The Prestige') and comes up with a brilliant climax.Time well spent.

And exactly at the same time as I was watching this movie full screen on my laptop, with earphones plugged in, it so happened my SDM group had a meeting. They tried to reach me through incessant pings and calls, none of which I realised :-p . But I am not to blame - they sent out the email at 6.20 asking everyone to assemble in the library at 6.30! By then, the show was already ON.

Had the CV verification activity late night. It is an essential activity, chiefly because of the tendency of a big big bunch of MBA students to inflate their "achievements" to unimaginable proportions. In fact, with the kind of figures people state on their CVs, one would imagine half of India's GDP is contributed by IIM L students. However, there are things about the verification process which need to be ironed out. "How?" would be the million dollar question though. It is ailing mainly from the same disease India's legal system and everything else is - the "influential" and "big" people know to bend the rules to win the game, while the system eventually often troubles the poor, simple lot.

Anyways, the process was running late - thanks to some in the latter category. I waited in the CC for my turn. Discovered something new ;-) 

My own verification happened quickly, as I had a simple honest CV with all the proofs in order. Now working on the SDM presentation for tomorrow. Halfway through it, but super sleepy. Will finish it tomorrow. So long!

Day 440:1st Dec, 2010

Today seems like a reallllllyyyy long day. I think it is substantially due to the fact that I woke up at 5am - yes you read that right - 5am today! After a quick bite at GnB (and of course, capturing the atrocities committed on their staff), we made our way to Lohia Park. Today being World Aids Day, INDEX was supporting the local government organisation in organizing a City Run to raise AIDS awareness. The run went off very well - had a good response from people.

Though all this meant that I had lost out on a lot of sleep over the past 3 days. Made up all of that with a nice and not-so-short siesta :D

Through evening till now that, one of my old temporary addictions is back - the hunt for good mobile apps. I must have surely mentioned this before - that the very reason I bought my present N79 is to explore for apps, as I see that all the great features of a phone are going to be delivered through independent software apps. One major problem with Symbian though is that it requires all software to be signed and have a valid certificate - which is a big big issue when it comes to some ingenious apps available at sidey-types websites :-p . Finally remembered the way by which I had resolved this issue. Had to go through the whole process though - thanks to the new IMEI number on my new handset :-p

Day 439:30th Nov, 2010

I generally diligently attend all initial classes and save up my bunks for towards the end. Unfortunately though, strategy failed as we had a "final project quiz" in the CBM class today and I had to attend it. Not that much came out of giving that quiz anyway.

Pretty packed day though. This was immediately followed by a session about a company that evokes dichotomous reactions. A lot of us are very enthusiastic about it and an even greater lot want to have nothing to do with it. Mainly due to the location where they send us. And of course, the "rumours" about what kind of heads comprise of their CTC. Anyways, an alum had come down for the session, and it was pretty much informal (except for the dress code). The job sounds exciting and adventurous to me. Wouldn't mind it at all!

Immediately after that, I had to revamp a ppt for a presentation we had in our SM class. Did that in my room and then in the back benches of the classroom. The presentation itself went off smoothly though - that's one thing we have had enough practice of here :D

That was followed by an LTL class. Somehow, because of a few cancellations and reschedulings, turns out we have 5 whole sessions of LTL left. Still time for me to use my buffer. Also, funny thing during attendance - the prof looked up at me after I had answered my attendance. Courteously, even I looked back at him. Then he enquiringly nodded at me. I nodded back - confused. (Absolutely didn't understand where the dumb-charades game was going.) Then I realised the prof was asking me why I had missed the previous lecture. I had no clue why (!! ... who keeps a track of everything) and that is exactly what I told him :-p . Don't know why the class found it funny though :-p

Had a small meeting in the evening. Closing small small issues. Leaving the bigger ones for later discussion, since we all need to sleep early and wake up really really early tomorrow!

Day 438:29th Nov, 2010 - HEPPy

The temperature's dipped tremendously all of a sudden!

But the sudden chill may also be because of the dementor called 'CV Submission'! After a long long time, PGP2s (atleast a majority of them) are actually busy with something. And since we are allowed to have a 2-page CV for our laterals, I have been trying to expand my points and simultaneously retain it's strength and non-globe quotient. That's a really tough job, since we are so used to doing it's exact opposite :D

Just past 6am. And I have optimally used all the time available to keep modifying my CV. Time to sleep. Gn!

Day 437:28th Nov, 2010 - Double Mazzaa!

It would be criminal if I diluted today's super divine incident with anything else!

A few months back, I think I somewhat got an idea of how an orgasm would be when I had my first bite of sizzling hot cheese burst pizza from Dominos. Relived that moment today - seems there is a new thing on the market - DOUBLE cheese burst pizza! It has 2 layers of molten cheese, one the usual and another with a slightly sweetish tinge to it. 

Mahhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn .. simple AWESOME!! Special thanks to AdiJ and his other half Hansie for insisting on the pizza part. Thanks to Ghate for initiating the outing (and the Richi Rich panipuri). And Chatur and Sud, thanks jlt? :-p

Day 436:27th Nov, 2010 - The Ghost Resurfaces

It's CV time!

The demon has come back to jolt us out of our post-INDEX luxurious break. Try as I did, I hadn't been able to gather any tempo to work on this. Attended a Disha session though - and am glad I did. Mainly because somehow it made me a little more serious about the whole thing.

Outcome being - it's now 7am, even the lazy winter sun has risen by now. And I finally finished revamping my INDEX POR part. Looks nice to me! :-p

Day 435:26th Nov, 2010

Day started off pretty early as I had a CBM quiz. The main reason I went for it is because it was going to be a MCQ paper. And didn't see any harm in trying out my luck :D

Time for a new activity from now - trading :D . I finally have a properly functional demat account. And apparently I had to make a trade in the first one month. So there I was, trying to see in that complex maze if there is a path to make some profit. Gladly did manage to find one, and walked off with a princely profit of Rs.100/- .. :-)

Treat plans once again disintegrated due to miscellaneous reasons. We went out anyways - and this time, for the first time in 1.5 yrs - to Yokos for some sizzlers. And we were all left wondering why we had never been there before! 'Coz the ambience and the food both were excellent (sans the chocolate pizza :-p) ! Definitely needs a revisit.

Day 434:25th Nov, 2010

It's growing colder each day. And wrapped up in a warm blanket, you just don't feel like waking up :-)

Exactly because of this (and the cushion of attendance that I have saved up), I decided to give today's morning class a skip. And exactly like yesterday. later came to know that the session was officially cancelled :D

Apart from that, nothing special during the day. Have spent a big chunk of it playing this game called 'Crazy Taxi'. It's a light app on FaceBook and it's got me hooked pretty bad!!

Day 433:24th Nov, 2010

Am now reaching new levels of nonchalance. Had an EPA quiz in the morning. Woke up, even physically got up (yes, they are two different things) and then, in some 30 seconds, inspired myself to go back to sleep. The reason - a 5 mark quiz for which I haven't prepared wouldn't serve me from either the knowledge point of view and definitely not from the CG point of view. Even skipped the next 2 morning lectures to wake up at an extremely lazy 1.30 in the afternoon. (Later came to know the proj fin lecture was officially cancelled. Yey!)

As I said, day before yesterday couldn't catch up on HP 7 on account of Guzaarish and now it was time for amends. Made it a 'Bunk-all day' by skipping the EPA class. Saw the afternoon show - movie was OK types  though, probably a little slow. Spent some time in Landmark where Chatur exhausted her 'Topper's Gift Voucher'. Such a pity you can't buy chocolates with that voucher! :-p . A discounted cappuccino later (thanks to a free voucher), went to Brij where and had dinner with some more from the INDEX gang. Awesome time!

Day 432:23rd Nov, 2010

Had a small meeting today. To kinda take stock of the deviations in planning and a re-look at our budget. And since we had ample time on our hands, the meeting was enormously inundated with a lot of fun and narrations :D

PS: After ages, my whiteboard was completely erased and filled by absolutely new stuff!

Day 431:22nd Nov, 2010 - Empty!

Life suddenly feels so empty! Just a day ago, it would be criminal if you couldn't utilise each and every second for something. And now, you have hours and hours to idle away..

The last one week, not one phone call went by without having another "in waiting". And now, the only time my phone rings is because of those automatic calls from Airtel. (Though I am confess, my mind seems to hear the ringtone every now and then!)

The "tasks" column on my outlook, most of them in red (signifying - overdue :-p), is now absolutely clear. My study table was adorned by 'sticky-notes' indicating a zillion to-do things. Even my laptop screen was not spared, putting to good use the 'Post-it' software in Windows 7. Everything's been trashed now.

In order to save some minuscule seconds, I would always have open multiple explorer windows, one for each folder relevant and even one for a subfolder in that, so that I did not have to navigate each time. All those windows are closed. The perennially running resource hogger of a Photoshop has been closed. And so have the multiple browsers to check multiple gmail accounts.

But most of all, the mind is super free. No multiple thoughts fighting with each other for priority action. No thinking about what workaround to provide for the sudden last minute problems. Nothing dynamic.

Sigh. Life is suddenly so empty.

I am sure my fellow senior core are engulfed by similar feelings, especially considering the frequent trips that have arbitrarily been made to my room :D ; indulging in all sorts of conversations. The highlight of which was a band formation; and before anyone actually learnt any music, people started the photoshoot for the album cover :D

And just like that, we decided to go out for dinner. Fortunately for everyone, Pachpan and TG came to a quick truce - go to Mainland China this time and Barbecue Nation the next. Some nice food in some nice ambience, and brilliant company :-) . Even hatched a plan to watch a movie after that. Had to skip desserts for that :-( . Much debate on whether to go for HP 7 or Guzaarish. Eventually by the time we reached Wave, turned out HP 7 had already started 5 minutes back, simplifying the choice :D . Hoping and anticipating many more of such times in the next 100 odd days left!

Days 429,430: 20th-21st Nov, 2010 - INDEX 2010!

IIM Lucknow's INDEX would be India's biggest Disguised Market Research Fair. INDEX 2010 saw a lot of firsts. A record 18 live market research projects from the industry including 2 on Rural Research, big names like Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, some awesome videos, even a website!

But yet.. I find myself falling short of words thinking how I could do even moderate justice in describing all that crosses my mind as I write this post :-) . And I don't think I can manage. So instead of describing INDEX, I would rather say this -

INDEX has been the most memorable journey of my 2 years at IIM L. I have learnt a lot and have had infinite level fun (very highly compressed in one statement). But most importantly, I have made some brilliant friends for life. This post is a thank you to all of them!

And also a big thank you to the 500+ students involved in INDEX, either as a part of an MR team or as a part of the organizing team. Brilliant job everyone!

Three Cheers to INDEX!! Hip hip.. hurray!!

Day 428:19th Nov, 2010 - INDEX'10 eve!

It's still raining! And we just weren't able to procure water-proofing material at such short notice. Only thing is to pray and hope it remains sunny tomorrow! Spent a good part of the afternoon at the ground supervising the various arrangements being made, especially the teams coming down to have the MR stall set up as per their design.

When I came back to campus, I was shocked (or did I somewhere expect it?) to find that the most illogical conclusion had been reached. Just can't comprehend the way some things work out here. *angry + frustrated!* 

With INDEX tomorrow, billions of tiny things to be ironed out. Late evening, realised there was some communication gap w.r.t. the stage backdrop itself! Man.. spent some anxious time correcting that. And then of course, it is of course a must for the Ops guy to be on-ground. I remember my stint last year, patching up tents till late in the night. This time things were much more on time. Of course, the afternoon rains have played havoc. The tents are moist, and are catching dew like crazy. Almost all tents have a drip issue and teams haven't been able to put up their props entirely. But the good thing is rains have stopped now, and also the skies seem clear. That should give enough time tomorrow morning for the teams to finish their setup. It's 4am now - need to catch up with some sleep before heading off to the ground early morning tomorrow!

The D-day is finally here! :-) Yayy!!

Day 427:18th Nov, 2010 - Rains!

The last thing we could ever want - rains! :-| . That is something probably INDEX just can't hold out against! The only solace to be sought is that if it rains today and maybe a little tomorrow, it will be sunny Saturday onwards...

Meanwhile, the junior creative team has come up with yet another AWESOME video! Super stuff - Check it out!

Anyways, yesterday's problem doesn't seem to be heading towards any solution. As a matter of fact, we seem to be moving away from it slightly. One person's decision is to be diffused into a committee's. And highly probably that too many cooks will be spoiling the broth. But not to give up so easily - trying to "fix" some result. Lets see how it works out.

One very positive thing that I have seen over the past few days is the super spike in the enthusiasm shown by the junior core members post their midsems. The outcome of the above incident made them feel very angry towards us as well as others involved. This is brilliant, since in my opinion, it is a very healthy sign that they have now started feeling for INDEX at a very very deep and personal level. Took me back to one year ago, and I could easily identify this transition which happens as we draw close to the fair. Very soon, I am sure, INDEX, for them too, is going to be above anything else :-)

Day 426:17th Nov, 2010 - Problems Galore!

No amount of planning in this world can prevent last minute problems from cropping up. Especially in a world were there is scant regard for ethics and morals and commercial matters and personal insecurities take over.

The first cause happened early morning. Seems like some infrastructure issues "flooded" our venue suddenly :-S . A coincidence much too weird and uncanny. And definitely somewhat unpleasant deja-vu feeling. But where there is a problem, there is a solution. On-the-spot came up with alternative execution plans alongwith Pachpan, in the process also figuring out the logic behind our (now erstwhile) 27ft * 27ft dimensions :D

From there, went off on a stall filling journey. Kisaan dropped by and picked up Pachpan to cover a new area. Spent a few hours talking to random people. Yet another learning experience at the super-ground level. Learnt a new term - bazaari - basically individuals who every day of the week go to the area where the weekly market is on and (Problem #1) set up their stall there. Problem #2 - turns out a new month long fair is going to start on Sunday and everyone wants to rush there from day zero to get a good location. Anyways, still got quite a few contacts from a variety of vendors. But at such places, zero guarantee that even a single one will eventually turn up :D

While I was ending my stint with a sweets-eating session at Ritz, Pachpan and Kisaan joined me again. While Kisaan left to try and get some deal, myself and Pachpan stumbled upon this guy who happened to have a whole list of contacts for tiny things. Lots of mini-things would get crossed off my white board. 

In fact, in general, the "business sense" of these one-man-stalls was really applaudable. Case in point, when we went to them and spoke to them about so-and-so event and asked for their contact, each one of them had a proper business card to give to us. Just shows they are always ready to grab a bigger opportunity that comes along!

Came back to campus to realise that we have an absolutely new problem that has cropped up! Yaar just can't understand weird logic people keep throwing at us. Not focussing much on that right now. Finishing a lot of other sidey work.

Day 425:16th Nov, 2010

Sleeping late and waking up late seems to have become the norm now. Finished off with a whole bunch of creatives though. Now time for some extras ;-)

Now, a website does not have too much utility for INDEX. But seems like you don't exist these days if you don't have a virtual address. Hence we are trying a bit to come up with a website (a plan that for spent a long time on the drawing board :-p) this year. We have our infrastructure and content ready since a few days. Got a contact of a guy who could incorporate some aesthetic appeal, which we design-impoverished people just couldn't :D. Lets see how that progresses.

The white board in my room is now almost black :-) . So much of ink on it indicating so much load and infinite mini tasks to be completed - all on priority! :D

Day 424:15th Nov, 2010

Thanks to yesterday's power-play, gloriously slept through my stipulated CBM early morning lecture. But grade drops are the lousiest way of pulling your scores down. So I don't like losing out on attendance (and I don't give/take proxy either), and hence attended the 12.30pm session. Too good prof though - seeing the high strength in his class, all by himself he called out people who had been absent in his morning sessions, since he easily understood they have all attended this lecture :D

Remaining afternoon and evening again went in continuation of yesterday's topic. Finally reached a closure, which "right now" seems to be a bit unfair, but definitely better than what was being decided earlier.

Funny thing happened in the midst of all this. Exactly the kind of mischief your batchmates would play on you. We had a clubbed 3hr session for LTL, and I was able to attend only the first part. So after the 2nd lecture, I sheepishly went to the prof to tell him I couldn't attend the 2nd session and requested him to give me attendance for the first. On which I was told by the prof that he didn't have the attendance register, and hence everyone would get attendance! Argghhh - why didn't someone tell that to me before I went to the prof!

Day 423:14th Nov, 2010 - Power Play

Man o' man... Seems like a Super Sunday! Shattered all previous existing records - woke up at 1.30 in the afternoon! :-o . And that too with a week to go for INDEX :-p

Did fill in the afternoon with a lot of work though. Especially since there was a plan to finally head out for the facchas Summers party; to Barbecue Nation! But the place seriously seems to be jinxed. Just as I was returning from Body-builder's room (strategic location in my prev hostel :-|.. I missed it!), got a call from some people calling me for a "short meeting" at around 6.30pm. The last time such a thing happened, it ran from 11pm to 4pm or so. That never struck my mind at the start. But what followed turned out to be something absolutely unexpected. A discussion that with them ran for 3 hours, and then amongst us through the night. Simply incomprehensible things seem at times. Last thing one would want in the midst of all this activity. Not over yet, lets see how this goes forward tomorrow. Lots of plans and measures in the head - of all ranges and degree.

Day 422:13th Nov, 2010

Was super chilly inside the classroom too for some reason. Not to mention my own internal running nose problem. And already I have an issue in not being capable of sleeping in a uncomfortable sitting posture. All these powers combined to ensure I couldn't even catch up on a wink of sleep during the lecture.

Anyways, broke all time records today. We launched our last MR project of the season. The final tally now stands at 18! That makes it more than any other INDEX by atleast 25%! \m/

Had an insti party. Got loads of work, but insti parties are not to be avoided. So I thought I'll just go there for 15min or so, hear some loud music and make my way out. The plan went off beautifully except for part 3. And instead of making my way out, I stayed on right till the very end, the part when we have randomly begun sitting in the lights AFTER the music is off, and singing a random bunch of songs :D. Pretty masaledaar party though :-p . Lots of happening stuff on the dance floor :-p . No limit to the things people do (and entertainment they provide to us) when they are a couple (ok, a little more than that) of drinks down ;-) . Finally back in my room. 4.45am. Work postponed to tomorrow :-p

Day 421:12th Nov, 2010

It is generally important to be in touch with all your stakeholders, even if it demands feeding them some not-so-important updates at certain time intervals. Yesterday, I got a call from one of them and the poor fellow was totally confused about what is happening. So today's agenda began by paying him a visit and appeasing him by "offering" him a few intangibles which would eventually be beneficial to us too ;-) Synergy! 

Another thing which is generally important and very very important when you are doing something on the scale of INDEX is efficiency. So whenever I need to make a visit to the city, I try and ensure that it is planned out and I can meet maximum people. Consequently, after making my first pit-stop at the proposed venue, I went and met some other potential sponsors - the usual ups and downs journey. Eg. We were "99%" sure this one guy would be in; but the 1% turned out to be more powerful, as his parent company decided a new strategy for their latest brand launch. Another likely guy who we approached (quite late in his defence :-p) couldn't go ahead due to time constraints, but he said was very nice and said sorry and all to me 3-4 times :-p . Really big deal in this context! Met a few new people too. It's challenging and fun though. And definitely a learning experience - since you directly interact with people who have been there, done that and are absolutely aware of all ground realities and ask surprisingly specific questions to understand what is in it for them. 

For example, today I went to this computer dealer to ask him to put up a stall in our fair. But he nicely pointed out that his shop is already in a prime location in an area famous for these goods. When he already has the "PULL" factor working for him in his existing place, why would he want to move out elsewhere? Good point! And many such small snippets have come across while working for INDEX. Thing I may probably have never learnt otherwise. The whole thing would probably be a separate post though.

And then one meeting at night. Guess this is going to be a lot more common for the next few days.

Day 420:11th Nov, 2010

I am somehow a fan of versioning. Through my stint of producing creatives for an event, I always store all my intermediate steps as something_v1 and so on and so forth. After a few draft versions, and taking feedbacks in parallel for those versions, I eventually reach a stage which I call something_final. But never ever has that been the final copy. And so once again, I found myself working on the finally_final copy of the hoarding. Luckily this time, since we didn't have any time and of course, the work would expand only as much as the available time - the hoarding finally was freezed!

Post dinner, Vanki, Pachpan, Kisaan and myself had an impromptu meet / discussion to assess our budget under more "practical terms". Seems like we are in a position to explore some new avenues :)

And suddenly, the worst possible thing has happened - I have caught cold! Nothing irritates me more in life than a running nose! Have taken a tablet and am going to sleep. Lets hope this goes off soon!

Day 419: 10th Nov, 2010

So in the midst of all this, we even had a CBM quiz today. The system to be followed was best 2 of 4. As I had done OK in the first two (+ had absolutely no time to even find out the syllabus of this one), I decided to skip it. And as luck would have it, the quiz apparently turned out to be a cakewalk! :-|

Now, my closing remark yesterday was that I wasn't sure how the new hoarding design would be received by my team people. Turns out - not so well :-p. And so immediately after my morning classes, I had to spend a few more hours modifying it. A few more calls and a few more mails took up the remaining afternoon-evening time.

Today we (senior core) decided to go out and enjoy. Work hard, party harder types. TG and MMR happened to have a very long, frustrating and not-so-positive day "in office" and therefore decided to take rest and not join us. We left with the intention of going to BBQ (after long! nice!) but mid-way, plan changed and we went off to Genesis yet again! :-S . It happens to be a nice place though, had a nice time, and got some nice pics clicked with Kisaan's digicam, instead of just my cell, the result being I am in a lot more pics than usual :D

Day 418: 9th Nov, 2010

Such a blissful feelings to wake up the morning, find out your class has been cancelled and go back to sleep again! :D . Did break my record of sleeping past noon though. Woke up at a much early 11am.

Had enough attendance (full :-p) in the subsequent lectures of the day. Bunked those to go to the city with Pachpan and get some INDEX work done. Roamed all the way from Gomti Nagar to Hazratganj. Discovered a whole new eating place near WAVE - those small roadside joints that serve good food! At Hazratganj, met up with Kisaan who had his own set of follow-ups to do. Indulged in some pillion-swapping :-p and Pachpan went off with him to meet a few other people; while I thought I'll go check out the status of my cellphone.

Yes, btw, my great cellphone was STILL NOT OK! :-( . Been more than 3 months since I had it in proper working condition! As you would recall (:-p), the last time I gave my phone for repairs, I got a new piece after the 15 day wait. Call it my luck - Turned out even that piece wasn't working! So today, when I went in after another 15 days, I got yet another new piece. This one wasn't a stunner in looks though :-( . Somehow, the silver grey front panel wasn't impressive. When I asked about that, I was told "The company uses any readily available piece". Which is downright silly, because I paid specifically for a good-looking phone! When I asked if it could get replaced, the response - "It will have to be sent back to the company again!". And that I just can't wait. But silly people - why can't they just keep an extra set of panels with the Care Centers :-S

When I came back to my room, I got to know some urgent modifications required in the hoarding creative. Sat on it. Almost 4am now. Not even sure how it is going to be received by others in my team. Just a sign of times to come, over the next one week :-)

Day 417: 8th Nov, 2010

Had come to know yesterday late night that we didn't have the early morning CBM class today. What else do you want to know beyond the fact that you can sleep uninterrupted. And that is how I clocked in yet another successive day of waking up post noon :D

But this was followed by a marathon spree of classes. Serv mark followed by LTL followed by another extra class of LTL followed by an extra session on Proj Fin! 2.30 - 9.30 pm straight! :-|

And after that, a marathon designing session for INDEX! Our poor facchas are caught up in their mid-sems and so time for us seniors to pump in a little extra effort! With less than a couple of weeks to go, too much work on the publicity front needed to speeden up. Had to come up with a basic draft to get some approvals and progress; and it's almost 5.20 now doing all that. Tomorrow's first session is CBM. Am not sure if that one also has been rescheduled! Lets hope so! *fingers crossed*

Day 416: 7th Nov, 2010

The hemisphere confusion phase continues.

Once again, woke up past 12. And it was an absolutely max-level vella Sunday. Spent a good 2 hours coming up to date with the latest in HIMYM. The series does not have its initial charm though. Escalation of commitment compels me to watch it till I know who goes on to be Ted's wife (and I am tending to get the feeling that would be a real dampener!). Even Barney seems to be losing some of his sheen! :-(

Now something that probably has never come up on this blog before (not sure about that) is that I adore boxing! I don't know why, but something in that sport has always attracted me. And not as a follower or critic; more so in a manner that I should be an active participant. Probably that's why, the few boxing movies that I have seen have also been interesting. So when I came across the fact that the "Cinderella Man" is one of the all-time top boxing movies, I just had to see it. And that is what I did; and wasn't disappointed :D . The movies is based on the real life fairy-tale rise of a boxer (James Braddock) who had almost been written off. Engaging movie; the fights were very well-shot.

And obviously, it being a Sunday, no scope of eating the mess food. And where else to go, but the mess away from mess - Brij ki Rasoi. Even had a new visitor amongst us, Karraju. Though considering that the placement process is now totally over, guess we can look forward to more of his presence henceforth.

Have been reading up a little more on random stuff, mainly boxing. Even saw a few more videos of Mohammed Ali, Mike Tyson. What players! Mohammed Ali's swiftness and Tyson's aggression would have been such a deadly combination! Shudder to think of the player who would come up against that combination :-P

Anyways, 2.45 now. Early by standards of the last 2-3 days. So hopefully will wake up a little sooner too. The only pain point - the early morning CBM class is cancelled. So how to motivate myself to get up?

Day 415: 6th Nov, 2010

Body clock's all messed up. Last night (or should I say morning), I slept pretty late and today again, with great difficulty, I managed to wake up at 12:00 noon, just in time for the 12.30 SDM class! 

All second year students seem to have evaporated into thin air. Pretty low attendance in the class too; every one seems to have gone back to their hometown for Diwali. Once I was through with the sole class of the day, I came back to my room with mostly nothing to do. Even my corridor is super empty as yesterday Kisaan also left for his home. So back to seeking entertainment on the LAN. After ages, got back to watching HIMYM. And after aeons, found one good episode - S06,Ep04. Followed those 4 episodes with a movie - Good Will Hunting. Actually Taklya Fresher suggested that movie to me over lunch. And when I started watching it, I realised it's a movie I wanted to see since long, but didn't know the name! Providence :D

The pcommers have started getting the retirement pangs :D . They now seem to have a problem of plenty (too much of time on their hands!) . So even while I was just watching the last part of the movie, GoraTam called me and made up plans for "Action Replay" @ PVR. The movie reviews are pretty OK, but in my opinion, the movie is easily worth once-watch.

Argghhhh... 5am now!! Sleep finally attacks me!! Got to do something to break this cycle! :-|

Day 414: 5th Nov, 2010 - Happy Diwali! :)

Had I been home, today I would have woken up at around 5.30 / 6 am, taken a nice oil bath after some initial smear by my grand-mom, got ready in 20 minutes and then burst crackers. But here, when you go to sleep only at 4.30 am, what would you expect! Consequently (discounting the phone call from home), I woke up only at around 12 noon :-p

For Diwali celebrations, few of us section B people (+ MMR + Gora Tam) who were still on campus, made plans to go out for dinner. And guess where we went - The Taj! :-) Had some awesome dinner over some nice conversation!

Plus, today happened to be a Friday, with two releases. To avoid the crime of missing both the movies even though it was a holiday, we quickly finalised + mobilized ourselves to reach WAVE just in time to catch the 11.30 pm show of Golmal -3. I liked it quite a lot! :D . Some really funny moments here and there. "upar wale ki umar bhi aapse bass do teen din zyada hogi". And the sidekick's AWESOME spellings! ROFL! :D

Came back to campus at around 2.45 am. Along with the cold, fog has begin to set in. Visibility while driving has thus become much less, making driving more safe/simple for the likes of Praveen, me who don't care too much for visibility anyways :-p . Anyways, some FB updates + a couple of short videos about boxing later, I am now super sleepy! 4.30 am - Time to tuck myself into the quilt. Good night  & Happy Diwali! :-)

Day 413: 4th Nov, 2010 - What we have all been waiting for!

Slept relatively early, but still managed to wake up only at around 10:10. Luckily we didn't have the early morning proj fin class. Read my way through the BE class, to follow it up with an INDEX meet at 12:00 noon! I think that's a first, never had a meeting in day time :D

I got too much exhortations from Kisaan on the necessity to go out and enjoy on Diwali eve rather than attend a class. (Did I really need it?). And anyways, my "shopping" was pending. Consequently, I bunked EPA and we instead went to the newly opened Phoenix Mall. It's definitely a disappointment especially in comparison to the publicity it did - much smaller than Sahara and Fun mall. Even the stores didn't have much variety. Ate a little in the food-court (paneer takatak - first time heard that name, so ordered, OK-OK stuff) and then left for FUN mall. But Kisaan brilliantly managed to be sure of the route and within 15 minutes lose his way. And so we somehow ended up going to Sahara mall - that place is definitely so much better. All the stores had a far better variety of stuff. Eventually however, I ended up buying one shirt, while Kisaan impulsively ended up shopping for a sweatjacket, a pair of shoes and a jeans :D . Ended the stint with a super Baskin Robbins ice-cream :D

Came back to my room and saw that our subcomm creative stud had finished the teaser video for INDEX 2010. And tell you what - it's just AWESOME!! :D

Also at,
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=454108805964

Just some time back, I suddenly saw the "Crazy Taxi" facebook application. And for some strange reason, threw myself a challenge that I would beat everyone else on my friend list :-| . After 40min, I now emerge victorious and as the highest scorer amongst my friends! \m/ Will sleep peacefully now!

And technically, it's 4 am, and Diwali now ;-) Happy Diwali! :)

Day 412: 3rd Nov, 2010

Almost forgot that classes are also a part of life :D . Was mighty bored to drag myself back to the routine of attending classes. And that too starting with one at 8.45 am. But kya karein.

For the past week, 30-70% of my talktime with my mom goes into combating queries as to whether or not I have "bought anything for Diwali". Now, this "Diwali shopping" is a concept that I have not been able to understand fully; I am the kinds who would rather buy "as and when needed". But, mainly to have a simple answer to this question, I have been making plans to go and buy something since the last couple of days, but unfortunately some stumbling block comes up! Today some stupid submission required people to go to the city and meet some distributor and all, and I was left with no company to go even today! Tomorrow - for sure! (No other option :) .. :-p)

PS: Got a great new business idea \m/ :D

Day 411: 2nd Nov, 2010

Diwali's around! And supposedly, every Marwadi on this earth would somehow reach home that day. And to fulfil this prophecy, Pachpan went off to celebrate at home. Infact, yet another wingie, Chinki also left for his home! The good thing is that all of these people have to get some (a lot) :D of those Diwali sweets! :)

My room's under siege again :) . Don't really know how this phenomenon started :D . Our facchas - coding genius and creative genius, both came down and we got down to finishing quite a bit of some initial level work, for creatives as well as the website! Meanwhile, got the news that we have yet another project confirmed! Awesome! Had a small update meeting with the facchas tonight. Guess that will be a regular feature going forward!

The Summers process is more or less over now. And my batch PCommer friends are now ex-officio members :-) . That's what is meant by signing off in style!

Day 410: 1st Nov, 2010

Since quite some days, the IAS bhoot has been haunting Pachpan again. Which invariably somehow tends to become a topic of conversation every now and then. And really long conversations when TG is a part of the discussion, mainly because he holds the exact opposite stance. Apparently, they reached a peak yesterday night by continuing a discussion on that topic till 8am :-| . And the "game-changing" point, after so much pondering, turned out to be the salary figure :-S . Which in turn led to another series of thoughts about how important it is for the Government to invest a lot more money to ensure high quality talent acquisition and talent retention.

The summers process is going on well. Lots of more companies, and each one picking more number of students. Heard a super-duper interesting and amusing interview experience of one of Pachpan's juniors, for his 2nd round of a major consultancy firm :D . Need to get a script of that! It is one of those never-to-be-forgotten-ever encounters! :D

Anyways, went with Pachpan to the city for yet another stint of raising money. It is amazing the kind of people you meet out there. Some people thoroughly professional and courteous, some others who are ultra-fond of advising but won't help beyond that, some genuine and honest people. And then some others who are absolutely third class; zero professionalism, simply unsuited to be in any position of authority. Like the guy we visited. (at the place outside which my bike met it's ill fate :( .. the subordinate who met us and started talking about rates all of a sudden).

Continued the eating-out saga. Lunch (awesome choley) at Aryans. Snacks was a round of panipuri. Dinner at Dasaprakash (a must when with Pachpan) .. :D

Many more offers and sign-outs today. Now all our INDEX facchas are placed with good offers :)

Day 409: 31st Oct, 2010 - Design Time still \m/

Some more designing. Spent a little time on coming up with the sweatshirt design. Infact spent more time searching for a decent background template! Everyone was insisting on a plain and simple sweatshirt with universal appeal, and that is exactly what they got.

During our Summers process, we don't have classes, but we haven't technically got holidays. And that is ensured by asking all of us to report to the Placement Office and sign against our pics. And to ensure no frauds, we even have a dedicated person to ensure a one-sign-one-person (right person! :P) process.

We see to be going out for dinner every other day. Once again, Brij got the majority vote due to its proximity advantage. The added drive for TG was that it was a Sunday and kadhi would be available. Or so we thought. Unfortunately though, seems like even on a Sunday, you need to be lucky enough to come on time for the coveted kadhi! Interesting dinner time conversation - a new conspiracy theory called Loose Change, which claims that the entire 9/11 episode was orchestrated by the US! Scary thought.

PS: Must mention my stud quotient. At a time when everyone was clothed in multiple layers of clothes, I went on my bike in just one t-shirt. Tuning my mind.. ;-)

Day 408: 30th Oct, 2010 - Design Time \m/

Woke up to find missed calls and mails that had asked me to come back for a liaison stint at 11.30 am. Missed that totally :-|

Instead, woke up to a conversation to remember for a very long time :-)

Anyways. How boring it would be if everything would be organised too smoothly. Latest information brought to light the urgency of the t-shirt/sweatshirt design conundrum. Seems like every place that manufactures all this stuff is going to go on a looooong holiday for Diwali; and therefore the requirements / designs have to be given to them ASAP. And since our chief in-house designer for 2010 was occupied with shaping his Apr-May 2011 plans, I had to go back a year and step into my "designer shoes"! :D . Not that I minded it at all. Was quite happy to get back to something where I can see a very immediate and tangible result :-) . Plus, dabbling around in photoshop is something that intrinsically makes me happy :-) Even managed to learn a couple of new tricks today!

In fact, as I was mainly driving the designs last year as well, there were quite a few creatives that had been made, but never saw the light of the day :-( . So today, I revived an old tag-line which I had thought of last year, and came up with a design around it. Hopefully it will be well-received by the batch :-)

Day 407: 29th Oct, 2010

Finally a liaison stint. 

Even as I came back to my room after trying to make an attempt to motivate a few known juniors; asking them to not get flustered, I and TG had an appointment with a couple of other people on the various infrastructure costs  at INDEX. (Don't have any plans to change our vendor immediately, but just to slightly stay aware of any better facilities available / the present market rates.) Just then, TG got a call asking him to come down immediately as a liaison. No sooner had he kept the call did I get one asking me to be the other liaison for the same company! :D . (Btw, these are times when it is max useful that all of us stay together. Immediately had Pachpan & Kisaan to take the discussion forward.)

The liaison stint itself was pretty hectic! Almost a 7 hour process, eventually resulting in just 2 offers (Jack n Jill) :-S . The worst part of it all - my usual complaint - formal shoes! I wish I had a temporary extra set of feet that I could wear just with these formal shoes!

Day 406: 28th Oct, 2010 - Bbrrrrrrrrrr!!

A sudden chill has descended on campus. The temperature on campus is usually a (tangible) few degrees lower than the main city. So much so that a few days back, when I was coming back to campus, it was actually warm outside the gate. And just when I came inside, it was cold! Pretty early onset of this level of temperature though.

However, what's heating up the campus is that the Summer Placement season is ON. I seem to be hearing that new decimal systems are being introduced now, what with Day 0, Day 0.5 etc. proving to be insufficient to describe the latest scenarios. And the more it happens, the more I think it's all a farce. The short-lists that you are going to get, the filtering that is going to happen, the final selections, all of that is going to be quite random! And almost 99% of that has zero correlation with your ability and the final kind of work you are going to do. But I know for a fact 2 days into this, a lot of people are going to break down. It's almost a pseudo-caste system. And I strongly think a better alternative needs to be put in place.

Went to Pizzaport for dinner. (I don't seem to be eating in the mess at all these days!) The new thing we tried this time was the dry manchurian. And I must say it tasted pretty good! We originally had plans to take a "sizzling-brownie" diversion at CCD on our way back, but considering the way we raised funds for our pizzas, we had to have a change of plans :D

Day 405: 27th Oct, 2010

Sometimes you need an external trigger for some things to happen. Not that you don't want to do it, but just that you may be a little apprehensive to actually commit to it. So when Chatur showed me the SMS sent by Spicmacay informing us that the artist had to be confirmed immediately, I actually was kinda happy :D . And that is how INDEX'10 gets it's first major performance :-)

Buoyed by this, I immediately jumped on to my Discover and went with Vanki to the city (badly dug up everywhere! I think I must have inhaled 2-3 kgs dust today.) to hunt for some local sponsorship. Mostly people weren't even in office. Did get to meet a few people though, and gather some mild to some slightly-enthusiastic responses. Sometimes, it is just good to take that leap of faith and see how things work out! And how did that work out. When I came back to campus, understood that Kisaan also had some nice news at his end. Great job! We are now one-up as compared to last year ;-)

Day 404: 26th Oct, 2010

Woke up to find this mail from Pachpan.

Subject: "Kal subah 8:30 class hai .. so jao .."

Content:

Last mail sent :

Pachpan: 4:02

Me : 3: 54

Chatur : 3:50

Consultant : 3:49

MMR : 3:36

Kisaan : 3:25

Haathi : 3:20

One of the advantages with our CBM class is that the prof allows you to attend any of the sessions held during the day. Due to that, Pachpan has stopped attending the 8.45 am class since ages. Today, even Vanki adopted to that strategy. He blissfully slept off through the early morning class. So seems like Chatur and myself are the true champions - slept late, but still made it to class :D

Lately, my blog seems to have become a rant about my handset, but what to do. Every fault needs two visits to the city, once for depositing the handset and once again to collect it. This time, the new piece given also started giving problems. Went today and deposited my "new" handset back - waiting time two more weeks!

From there went to check on the status of an MR project. Happiness met tragedy. The good part was that I didn't even have to go up and meet the person. I got the required info at the reception itself. Now the bad part was that in those few minutes, my bike seems to have committed suicide :-( . Suddenly, it's self-start and horn stopped working  :-(

INDEX is coming near, quickly! A long list of tasks, only getting longer by the minute. Finished off some of them today - collecting some bills, meeting a vendor, arranging permissions. Allowed myself a little sleep after that as we had a meet at 01:00 hours, to draw up a tentative budget and a little bit of short term planning. Ended up spending quite some time on the former, peppered with some random deviations ranging from parties to PPI/PPOs to stuff on DC ;-) . It's 6.15 am now, and complete daylight. I have a class again at 8.45 am tomorrow (today??!). Will I make it? :-)

Day 403: 25th Oct, 2010

Woah! Stumbled across an old mail while I was data mining my outlook. Seems like some old things could still be used. Spent a good bit of time hunting for business intelligence for myself ;-)

Now in any B-school, placements happens to be a period of solidarity and unity. Everybody helping each other. Random juniors barging into random seniors for info/help. The summers placement process is nearing. Last year, thanks to my awesome looks, I could evade being anywhere near the PGP block. This year, seems like I am going to be a part of the support team. We had a dry run today for that. I was in the role of a company liaison, the people who directly interact with the company people. Got introduced to some (perhaps) far-fetched (?) , but nevertheless highly interesting possibilities!

Day 402: 24th Oct, 2010

Now although I had had a preliminary glance through quite a bit of the PPTs that had been uploaded, I knew for sure that I wouldn't remember anything if I didn't get a chance to revise it. Also needed to read a few handouts. With this intention, I set myself the target of waking up early. I didn't miss this target by much. However, today was one of those days when I was destined to have a slight stomach upset early in the morning and consequently all my grand plans went haywire. Just saw a little bit of some new theory and ran off to the exam. Paid the price of not going through the stuff once again. Also had a mini sense of deja vu when we got a very similar question as was in the EPA exam. Had a small conversation immediately after the paper, which resulted in an ..appointment of sorts :-P .. which I did not honour, mainly 'coz I wasn't sure where it would lead :D

In the afternoon, meddled around a little bit more with my handset. Have been trying various permutations and combination to find more details, i.e. the circumstances under which it does / does not conk off. And what I have learnt till now is that the phone seems to be working fine in the Offline Mode. In fact, even after the SIM has been inserted, the phone continues to be ON only when it is being used in that mode. 

Even while I was fiddling around with my handset, an urgent plan to watch Jhootha Hi Sahi at 5pm at Wave was hatched at 4.10pm. A really bad and unfortunate moment.. the movie must be amongst the worst I have seen! Pachpan's almost in a mood where he wants to start a blog, exclusively to categorically give the choicest abuses to this movie!

Back to the campus; had dinner in the mess. 2nd consecutive Sunday dinner in the mess! Must be a record of sorts in the 2nd year :-p . Back to my room, I was still trying to explore some new tests for my handset when randomly Vanki and Kisaan made me go all the way to 3.4, just for their "celebration"! It has started to turn really chilly outside, need to keep my pair of gloves ready at all times.

A proper "genuine" post this one ;-) . After quite some time I believe! Somehow managed to finish this post..  in between juggling with shayari-jugalbandi with Kisaan :-p . Going to get some early sleep. At 01:00 hours, bon nuit!