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!

Day 401: 23rd Oct, 2010 - Tomorrow, it dies

Nearing the end of what would be my last mid-sem here. Have my BE paper tomorrow. Unlike most of the other exams, this one would be a closed-book one. And not a paper where you can simply 'globe around'. Realised this pretty late, and that is why I am making this post at 4 am. Tried to study a little, and tried to keep myself awake much more :-p . For a good amount of time, I have just been blasting off songs at full volume, not to mention my own vocal addition to all of them :D

But interesting day. Had SDM early morning. Took my place in the exam hall and noticed that the guy in front of me hadn't come. Made a mental remark on what kinda ass that person was. 10 minutes into the exam, the supervisor comes up to me and says - "Do you know TG?" Then it struck! Woah, the missing fellow was a wingie + friend. Gave the supervisor contacts for everyone else in the hall. Then after another 30 min, Mr. TG marches in, all zonked, disheveled and sleepy :D . Nicely took his case after the exam in our hostel corridoor. Also came to know about his funny encounter in those 5 minutes before he entered the exam hall. "Exam ke time toh aaplog bahut dava lete hai?" ROFL!

But of course, the God-giri level today was set by Bala. He has set a standard which he himself is going to find very very difficult to meet. None of us can ever forget his brilliant innovation with ICE! :D :D ROFL max stuff! Literally!!

Now I had a good bit of time till my evening exam - LTL. Nothing was to be read for that paper in any case. So decided to make maximum use of that available time and went with Kisaan for a movie :D . Saw Raktacharitra. It's an RGV movie, but quite disappointing. He has tried to bring in some of those Sarkar elements, but the movie falls flat on its face. Had to leave 15 minutes early to make it back on time for my paper. Tried a new strategy of taking some learning over phone, but didn't achieve much success through that :-p

BTW, also made a quick stopover at the Nokia outlet. Now my handset had gone for repairs for around 4 times in the past month. This time, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a new piece itself! However, my happiness seems to be shortlived! :-( . This handset is switching off by itself every now and then. :-( :-( Arrgghhh!!! When will my phone saga end!

Day 400: 22nd Oct, 2010

Wow! Some spider seems to have got really hyperactive yesterday. I saw one big cobweb from my chair to the window, even though there wasn't even one single thread till 3.30 in the night yesterday!

Holiday today, no exams i.e. Thought of watching a movie. Since long, there was this movie lying on my PC and today I finally saw it - Harishchandrachi Factory. It's a marathi movie, and traces the life of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema. I would say it's a must-watch, simple because everyone must know the origins of something that has now become a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry.

But I still happened to be majorly bored through the day, for all the rest of my time. Super bored and victim of inertia. After much coaxing, I finally agreed to go out for dinner. We went to Brij (again), especially luring TG under the pretext of getting him some awesome kadhi. Unfortunately for him, kadhi was available only on Sundays! Still ended up having a good dinner, and a good time (discussion centered around Pachpan's re-kindled IAS obsession). And very heavy tummies! Super sleepy now, will open the book tomorrow in the exam! :)

Day 399: 21st Oct, 2010

Bamboozled! For today's Proj Fin paper, the whole batch had religiously understood one big excel sheet. And implicitly, what was unsaid but understood, was that any deviation from this pattern is going to result in a mass disaster. True to Murphy's law, that is exactly what happened. We got one big case, in which we had to hunt for all the numbers, and then use them to calculate some key ratios. Most people followed the strategy for cleanly writing down all the formulas once, just so that would qualify them for some marks, before they bungled up with all the incorrect number substitution! Funny how most people depended on the second globe part of the paper for actually getting marks :D . And btw, a lot of core marketing guys had taken this as the sole fin course. I truly wonder what they must be thinking now :D

Had to rush off to a place called Alambagh to meet an alum. The place is actually quite far off, but I took the peeche wala shortcut which goes to the Airport; made the trip considerably faster. And it was a pretty nice ride too (for most part). From there, I went to Hazratganj as Kisaan and Pachpan were already there. Did some local spons in that area while I was waiting for them :D . We three then went to a restaurant called Ruchika, just beyond Yoko's (which BTW, we have never been to :-| .. don't know why!). The place was the average sort.

Had a little meeting after that. After coming back to my room, had a .. memorable .. conversation on gTalk .. Loose ends, unfinished business and some pluck :D

Day 398: 20th Oct, 2010

Yesterday, in some super jubiliant mood, I declared a National Holiday for myself. Chilled out all the time, not for a moment considering that I had two papers today. The morning one was Service Marketing. Consequently, the only effort I took for that was a) taking the printouts and b) waking up on time :-| . (Remember yesterday's BASH?)

Of course, the more interesting paper was the late afternoon one - EPA. Three questions - requiring 3 essay type answers. The prof's only request to all the students during the exam was to not exceed the 3-page-per-question limit. I honored it, comfortably.

I have often been impressed by the ability of a lot of people here to push themselves and work hard. Today, I got in touch with a person regarding publicity for INDEX. When I mentioned I had exams till 7.30, the guy had zero hesitation in saying that he'll come and meet me at the college after that. Unfortunately, due to some misunderstanding, the person ended up going to some other college! At around 8, he realised his mistake. But instead of postponing the meeting, he assured me that he will turn up in another 15-20 minutes! Really nice work ethos. Just today morning, I wrote my Services Marketing exam, but the lesson I learnt here on the practical aspect of going to great lengths to ensure customer delight, will stick with me much more easily, and forever.

Day 397: 19th Oct, 2010 - Bash-ed!

Now this is what is providence. My birthday fell right in the midst of my exams, but luckily for me, not one paper today! :D . But that has its own downsides. The task of meeting the company guys who had come down for the Summers process fell on me :-P . Saala I didn't even have proper beginner's luck; had to wait 2.5 hours for a less than 1 min talk :-)

In spite of the thousand hints dropping by (new t-shirt, phone calls at 12 midnight and many during the day), people around me didn't realize my birthday :D . And of course, I wasn't going to remind anybody of that. Also, definitely wasn't going to dine in the mess. Therefore, I got a super-duper Chocolate Fantasy and panipuri, that too after navigating through some random pathways (thanks to the dug-up-everywhere roads).

However, things were set to change. Had almost dodged everybody through the day, but suddenly there came this one call indicating a trojan. Seemed like the cat was out of the bag :-S . Some more info-hunting revealed the source of the whole plan to be closer around than expected :-| . "Chatur,  you will pay for this :-) "

Now of course, no time was wasted in making all necessary arrangements for the "bash", including jugaadofying enough number of people. And as last year, my birthday seems to be inspiring creativity in celebrations. Introducing a potent new weapon: ATTA (flour!). Add to that all the usual ingredients - sauce, mayo, cake, pepsi, etc. - and you can imagine the awesome-looking and brilliant-smelling concoction! Of course, the biggest highlight of the massacre - I didn't shout / cry even one single time :-)

Day 396: 18th Oct, 2010 - Why's the blog private?!

CBM paper today. A typical fin paper. One where you look at the practice examples and feel all confident that you are going to 'crack it'. And then, the tryst with reality where a minor twist in the question brings your dream down like a pack of cards :D

The paper was in the noon. I had missed my lunch as I had squeezed in the 5 minutes I had spared, to complete some formalities required for opening my demat account. So I was quite hungry after the paper and had a samosa and Amul Kool and came back to my room. But very soon, the news started pouring in from all quarters that awesome burgers were being available in the mess! Now when words of praise start coming from stark opponents of the mess, there obviously was a strong urgency to get the burger, lest it runs out. Of in spite of not being very hungry, I went to the mess. Met Chatur there, and had a mini spicmacay/music discussion. Then walked to the main gate ATM, as I wanted to test if my SBI card was working (yes!). Took a small shortcut walk around the campus, and then made my way back to the mess to take extra burgers back as parcel for Pachpan & Kisaan. The only person who didn't like the gesture seems to be Vanki; competition for his "restaurant" you see! ;-)

The saga of eating out continues! Today, on Vanki's request, we (also Pachpan + Kisaan) made our way to the no-longer-jinxed Brij-ki-rasoi. The highlight was Vanki's super-awesome hindi usage at one point. He actually used the word "yadi" in a sentence rather than the commonplace "agar"! I really wonder where he heard that word in the first place. And as for food, we had a quick, tasty and typical dinner - Rajma for Vanki, aaloo for Pachpan and one standard Paneer dish.

Pssst. It's my birthday now :-) . But nobody knows ;-) . I don't want external sources to provide this data, and so am off the social radar. No etrigan, no facebook, and hence, no blog :-p . Lots of calls from outside IIML though. Had a Skype chat with my folks at home. They cut a cake in my name! :-) . No wonder I love technology!

Day 395: 17th Oct, 2010 - Last mid-sems! :D

Woke up pretty late today. Late considering the fact that I did sleep comparatively early yesterday :-p , and early considering it's a SUNDAY! Breakfast of course was a distant dream. Settled for an early lunch at Fauzi. 

The afternoon was any other lazy one :D . Was listening to songs. Made a playlist after a long time.

Well, finally, something tangible indicating that we are inching towards the end of our course... From tomorrow, our mid-sems start. And this will be the last mid-sem here. Writing this sentence suddenly put me in a little bit of a flashback, my feelings about my first mid-sem here. Not that I was a super stud or anything, but for sure I definitely wasn't tensed even then (not even for the dreaded MANAC!). But I do remember putting in (a lot?) more effort :D . Including night-outs in the library! And not just me; the whole gang comprising also of Dhamdhere (teaching LAM to Mommy :-| ..), Vats et all. Memorable days for sure! And compare that to today, when we (Pachpan, Chatur & me) wrapped up studying for CBM in all of 2-3 hours :D . Smart work! :-p

By the time we finished, it became pretty late and nothing was available in the mess. So Pachpan and me went to Richi Rich. It was super crowded. So we had a pani puri while we waited outside :D . But still no vacancy. So we went to Zaffran. Sat there for 5 minutes, and then the waited told us they would take at least 15-20 minutes to serve any order! :-S . Back to Richi Rich! Luckily, we got a seat without any more to-and-fro trips. In retrospect, all I am wondering is - with infinite time ahead of us, why really were we being impatient? :-|

We had called for a small session with the Ops team. Although it was to be driven by the juniors in my team, I just went to see how it goes. Mostly just a nominal presence to boost their confidence :-) . All I did was narrate a couple of incidents from last year and ensure the team realises it's a happening place to be :D. Similar to what my senior did last year :-p

Day 394: 16th Oct, 2010 - Touchwood!

Super Saturday! 

The sole morning class was cancelled. Did a little INDEX work in the short afternoon that was left. Had two long (my standards i.e. 20-30 min) phone gupshup sessions with two of my close buddies from Bombay. Followed that up with a super lovely gtalk convo with a close friend on campus :D . One of a kind it was! :D 

A 2005 INDEX alum is on campus. Pachpan and me took him to the Dandiya Nite organised by Random Walk, enjoyed there for sometime, and from there we went to have a pizza dinner in the INDEX room. His treat of course :-) . Some really nice conversations we had there too. Got to know of some interesting titbits from yesteryear :D , including the inflationary trends then :D . And then, had a nice chat at home too :-) . Didn't end there. Came back to my room, only to find and join a group chat on MSN with my engineering classmates! :D . Will put myself to sleep early :D , before anything might irritate me :-p . For now, I hope Deepika Padukone comes in my dreams :-)

Day 393: 15th Oct, 2010

Woke up pretty late today morning. So late that I might have almost missed my 12.15 pm lecture :-p

You never know the intensity with which some thing might hurt you will you actually get hit. Probably now you are expecting some masala stuff :-p . Sorry to disappoint you; all I am talking about is my loan. So many times, in so many problems, I have calculated principals, interests etc and understood how the outstanding dues keep piling up. But only a few days back, when I took a print of my loan statement, did I realise how expensive it is.. I was paying around Rs.100/- each day as interest :-| . I could instead avoid the mess food one each day! :-| . so today, finally, on my dad's advice (and expense! :-p), I pre-paid the entire amount :-)

So why didn't I do this before? Point is a lot of us at this point of time want to be "independent". Having a loan against our name seems to be better than taking money from our folks at home. Especially since there is a high possibility that they won't take it back from us! Fair and ideal thought. But then, as I read the loan statement, I realised it is far better to take money from them, and gift them something if they don't directly accept money. The moolah stays home anyways.

Company presentations have started for the first years. We constantly find ourselves going to meet the various HRs/marketing people for INDEX. Sometimes, it so happens that a lot of companies come down simultaneously, and it becomes tough to coordinate amongst ourselves, given the various class timings, other engagements etc. Leads to some high-charged moments as we rush to solve that DI problem :D. I even got chided for asking many questions :-|

But not much time for all that. It's Friday! Movie time! And these days we often even seem to find a car easily. We went to PVR this time (instead of the usual WAVE). After some persuasion, we zeroed in on watching Aakrosh. And well, after a sustained string of extremely average to horrible movies, it turned out to be a good choice! Definitely recommended.

Day 392: 14th Oct, 2010

Had a quiz at 7.45am! Trust me, it is mentally more intimidating than 8am :-p . Yesterday, as I said, had such an awesome dinner that I immediately slept off after coming back. I thought I'll probably spend a few minutes reading up early morning, but managed to wake up just in time to give the quiz. How it went is beyond the scope of this post :-) . The good thing is that it is a best two out of four system for this subject; so there is still a next time :D

One of the problems of being in a system/environment with many like-minded people is that it distorts or at least narrows your perception of reality. Generally having been in the company of nice people, I often expect people to be honest, open and frank. That is why I just cannot understand at times the kind of life some other people lead. Today we had to meet a guy for some INDEX fair work. So, Vanki, Ashat, TG and myself went all the way to a place near the airport. And the man we met really seemed to be one who promises to build castles on a foundation of air. And when the foundation seems to be a little shaky, the castle becomes a slum :-p . Seems like I wrote something pretty difficult to decipher, but I'll know what I meant. 

Took 3 whole hours. And we seem to have wasted that time! :-S . Nothing productive seems to have come out. Except for one idea. If that works out, I'll forgive him :-p

Came back only at 3am. Was pretty sleepy in the car, but not sleepy now. Have just been randomly browsing stuff. Watching videos of Milgram experiment (Very interesting! Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment) on YouTube. It's just beyond 5 am now. I guess I'll go get some sleep, lest I sleep through the afternoon class tomorrow.

Day 391: 13th Oct, 2010 - Chinese!

Had a very random trigger today. Bala suddenly came and declared that we are going out (in his commanding style). I had been eating out quite a few times the past week. But in spite of that, we said "yes boss". The plan was to go somewhere near. Richi Rich was the first choice. But now suddenly (especially as Pachpan wasn't there), the focus shifted to eating Chinese. So the consideration set was now filled with the choice of going to Shaolin. But then, came the genius' (me, of course) brainstorm - "If we are eating chinese, go to the best place for that!" And off we went - to Mainland China! 

It turned out to be a superb place! Great ambience, nice crowd, and of course, really nice food. But additionally, what set the tone and mood was Bala. He had some absolute gems stored up for today; his PJs (?) stooping to previously unmatched depths. The noteworthy ones that I recollect:

1) Why did Abhishek Bachchan go to see ROBOT?

2) GGB: "Abbe, tu chicken khate waqt terko woh animal yaad nahi aata hai kya?"

Bala, the great: "Tu ghaas-poos khate waqt tujhe ped ka yaad aata hai kya?" :-|

3) What treatment would a certain junior receive from her would-be husband? :D

4) Bala's latent desire that sprung up when he saw 'a wall'

Day 390: 12th Oct, 2010

Taking a printout usually turns out to be a super frustrating experience! More true for colour prints. Point is, for taking printouts, we have to go all the way to the Computer Center. The good part is these prints are available to us at a subsidized rate. But the bad part is it takes aeons for a print to come out! Took me an hour and half (one full Service Marketing class - simulation game ON in the adjoining room :-p) to get the printout of our brochure.

Update: My phone's on a vacation to Delhi! Chalo, mei nahi toh phone sahi!

Day 389: 11th Oct, 2010

Very dull day. Also had too many classes today. And an additional guest for Proj Fin :-S

Update (for whom?): The blog's now hidden :-p

Day 388: 10th Oct, 2010

As core members of INDEX - the market research committee on campus, our endeavour is to constantly improve the quality and relevance of research and final deliverables that the student teams come up with. To this end, we arranged an interactive session on Market Research by Mr. Rajesh Nair (ex-Director at A C Nielsen and soon to move to BCG as an Expert Consultant). He has previously associated with INDEX as the judge. He gave extremely insightful comments on how to adopt an approach which would be relevant in the industry and would best serve to deliver actionables to address the business objectives of the client.

Post the meeting, we headed off to Chanakya for lunch. It turns out to be my first go at a "formal dinner". Must say, I need to improve on the "small-talk" front :D

Came back and absolutely crashed into my bed. Perhaps it was because of waking up so early, perhaps it was because of the better quality food, I don't know; but, I slept like a dead man for the next 3 hours. Nothing much after that. Just heard a few songs, surfed the net. Such a boring day in fact, that I even had dinner in the mess - Been ages since that happened on a Sunday!

And expectedly, not too sleepy now! Have just been randomly browsing the net. I read that the Nobel Prize had been awarded to the guy who developed the IVF treatment. Tragically, I also came to know the guy who performed the first IVF in India (2nd in the world), committed suicide 3 years after the operation because of the opposition he suffered due to the then social mindset... Really sad. Read a few more random articles about any damn thing under the sun. Even relived a little bit of the random MSN chats that I used to have in engineering. And now it's 4.30 am :-) . I guess now I somehow must tuck myself into my bed, to ensure I wake up for the 8.45 am lecture tomorrow! Bon nuit!

Day 387: 9th Oct, 2010 - Robot!

Being super cut off from the main city has its disadvantages. One of those is it often becomes boring to go all the way there to do things which you would otherwise have done, a prime example being getting stuff repaired. And the chief in this category would happen to be none other than the ubiquitous cell phone.

Now, I had been having issues with my cell for quite some time - I had just collected my phone after repairs yesterday only to find that it STILL wasn't working. A lunch conversation with a random sample brought out interesting statistics - more than 50% of us had a Nokia cellphone to be repaired :) . (BTW, we seemed to be quite confident it could be extrapolated to the batch). So two more of my friends jumped in to accompany me to the Care center. Another one decided it would be a good idea to catch a movie as well. And of course, one can't refuse that kind of a suggestion (even if it meant missing the guest lecture :-p).

So off we (MMR, Taklu, AdiJ, Pachpan and myself) went, first to the Care center. And from there to Fun Republic, to watch... ROBOT! With a speed 1 Terahertz, memory 1 zetabyte, how can you expect anything less than awesome :-p . Basically it seemed like people finally realised there is no villain worthy enough of Rajnikant, so they just pitted him against himself. Who wins? ;-) Seems like even Rajnikant himself as a villain is not good enough for Rajnikant, the HERO!

Went with AdiJ to Ghate's birthday at Genesis. A nice little meet that also included sud, justice and of course, Ghate himself :-p . For a change, sat outside on the lawn though. Pleasant ambience, they even had a live singer and all (though he wasn't really that good :-p).

Day 386: 8th Oct, 2010

In Lucknow, it always rains suddenly in the midst of a bright and hot day, and then the sun comes out smiling again. So, one thing I have always wondered about is why there are no rainbows here. Obviously (like everyone else), I love rainbows and would love to have one popping up on the sky every now and then.

Now with hopes of getting a back-in-proper-condition handset after the third round of repairing, I planned to go to the city in the afternoon. Just as I was about to leave, the dark clouds got some jhatka and it started pouring :-S . As always, it stopped in some 20 minutes and plans were resumed. 

I recorded my slowest ever time navigating the 3.4 road, thanks to all the slush (the road is left dug-up!) and potholes. However, imagine my delight when I suddenly spotted a rainbow in the sky!! Beeee-auuu-tiful! :-)

After very smartly carrying my bag just for the phone and its papers, I realised I had forgotten my Job Sheet, a kind of receipt for collecting back the handset. Now forgetting / losing receipts shouldn't really be a big issue in India. And moreover, I had always had the impression that North Indian people were more bindaas in their outlook towards business. Unfortunately for me, this fellow heading the CARE center was perhaps amongst the most useless of all people there can be. He took photocopy of my identity card and told me to write the time by which I would come the next day! :D .. Ironically, he must have felt like some big Bond person after doing all this show, while everyone else just wondered the depth of his stupidity.

Went to catch a movie after that. Unfortunately had to wait at least for 2 hours for any show! Including all the 3 multiplexes! Such a waste; especially compared to the eternal line of shows in Mumbai! But then, it ain't even a fair comparison :-p . Compensated instead with a dinner at Dasaprakash.

Day 385: 7th Oct, 2010

It is not for nothing that they say necessity breeds innovation. What else can explain me writing one whole page about "Prisoner's Dilemma and how it manifests in Economic Policies" in the EPA quiz! Of course, one positive side is that one gets to eat breakfast.

Had our proj fin lecture after that. It was stopped midway so that we could attend the session held by the Chairman of our BOG. Being a veteran of the TATA group, he exhorted us to observe and respect ethics in a business environment. And his first advice to us students - "Enjoy". Yes sir, we shall! :D

Pretty packed afternoon thanks to INDEX. Making documents for some companies, reviewing documents for some others. Even tried to go to the city to get some prints. And what did I see while coming back? And what did it do to me? :-S

Interestingly, this seems to be a time when many of us are at some level of frustration, for no apparent reasons. (or did many of them small ones just pile up :-p ..) Anyways, Pachpan felt it was time to indulge in some 'self-pampering' of sorts. As non-smokers and teetotalers (excluding Pachpan's dharam-bhrast encounter), we concluded this could be achieved only by going to a slightly expensive restaurant. Barbeque Nation was the choice. Quickly Bala, Shomu were roped in, and Shomu was even convinced to give the treat.

Now when a treat (read free food!) has been finalised, you would think it would take 5 min for everyone to be on board. But NO. Mr. GolBol had different plans. And the impasse continued for what would be a full one hour, with at least 5 other neutral options also being discarded meanwhile. Finally, we narrowed in on MINT. I guess by the then the pervasive feeling amongst us all was - "at least we are going"! Great ambience, but the food and service are a let down!

Day 384: 6th Oct, 2010 - Ground work done, literally :-p

Had to go to the city with Vanki today afternoon. Turned out to be a very tiring journey - lots of roads dug up here and there for God knows what. That is just what the doctor ordered for this ultra-high-traffic-obedient city! :-S .. The weather chose to remain harsh too. The good thing was we were able to meet the intended people today. Officially finalized the ground for INDEX 2010 :-)

Tried my best to hear through the EPA lecture today. Lasted for 5 minutes.

Have an EPA quiz tomorrow :-| . Haven't read a word yet. Time for me to get some sleep so that I at least make it to the quiz on time (8 am!).

Day 383: 5th Oct, 2010

Exasperatingly slow net today! Seems some connection issue at the service provider's end. Shucks! It also gives that painful feeling of what would life be without the internet? The timing of this was very bad too - just around the last 3-4 overs of the super duper test match we had today! (I initially thought cricinfo server had collapsed 'coz of the sudden load :-p). VVS once again standing tall against the Aussies, super stuff!

Long time no movie! Have missed around 3-4 of the past few releases. So time to catch up. So off we went to Wave, and saw Khichdi - the movie. Was OK. Many PJs, some funny, most trying to be funny. The happiest guy amongst us was Bala of course. Must have been a God-level cult movie for him. And the most blissful guy - MMR - for his unshaken, unbeaten record of sleeping through every movie he comes to watch in a theatre :D

Day 382: 4th Oct, 2010

I sometimes amaze myself. Today was one of those days. What else can explain still managing to wake up at 8.20am and attending the class, and not sleeping a wink in it?

20 min after the class, I realized I was under the influence of what I would like to call 'The Tubelight Effect'. My pride at being neither sleepy nor feeling any pain suddenly took a massive beating. As soon as I came back to my room, an extreme state of drowsiness and body ache took over me and there I lay temporarily dead for another couple of hours.

I did manage to wake up again, in time for a quick lunch before I attended my remaining classes of the day. However, this time I could neither shake off the drowsiness nor the stiffness in my body. I desperately need to overcome this shortcoming of not being able to sleep in anything that is a not-comfortable state, like travelling, lectures etc. Can't maximize available time :-p

Anyways, guess I'll take off a little early today. Sayonara.

Day 381: 3rd Oct, 2010

Am I getting used to night outs? Yesterday was my second consecutive one, and I definitely woke up earlier than yesterday even though I slept later. Well, I know I woke up only at 1 pm , but as I said, earlier than yesterday.

Had a small meeting early evening with all the facchas. Pressing the accelerator.

Lots of music today though. Mostly in terms of duration, not range, since I kept playing a song repeatedly. Actually I forgot to mention yesterday that I also saw a movie Kannathil Mutthamittal. Nice movie I thought. But there's this A.R.Rahman song in the movie - Vellai Pookal it is called - which is simple super duper. Very very wonderful lyrics, and very nice music. Late evening, went for the performance by this group called Mrigya. They call themselves a 'World Music' group, and mainly are into fusion. They gave some brilliant music. One thing to be respected about them is they play only their own compositions, no covers. But sometimes, that gets a little boring :-p

And after many many days, finally we had our insti party! I personally felt the number of PGP1s was less. I absolutely can't understand how anybody can afford to miss insti parties! I sustained my record of staying right up till the end :) . As usual, along with the regular "high teetotalers" :D . We even came back singing along!

Almost another night-out. It's 04:41 am now. But unlike the previous 2 days, I do have an 8.45 class tomorrow! Off to sleep now! Tonight's gonna be a good night ...

Day 380: 2nd Oct, 2010 - Which hemisphere am I in?

Had a good 8 hour sleep. 06:30 - 14:30 hours :)

Now obviously when your day begins when it is supposed to be half over, you don't really have the right to make too many plans "for the day". But we did anyways. And the brainstorm was that we would head out to the city to some mall, have lunch (!!) there and watch a movie and come back for the other Varchasva programs. Sounded nice in our heads as we made our way to the city. But 2 minutes of riding reminded us of how hungry we were, and the plans were modified to quickly stop by at Aryans (Kapoorthala) in the city. We gave our order and waited. And waited. And then realised Mr. Pachpan never gave the copy of the order at the counter and our order hadn't even started :-| . By then, it was 4, and apparently our order for a veg thali could not be processed :-| . Some more delay. Consequently, by the time we finished our lunch, we decided to head back to campus. Compensated the loss of not watching a movie by a visit to CCD! :D

Anyways, what I forgot to tell you yesterday was that the marathon meeting hadn't reached a complete conclusion. So after staring a bit (??) at all the chicks from other colleges at the Fashion Parade, we assembled again to resume discussion. Yet another super long meet - went on till 6.30 am :-| 

Apart from the fact that this meeting was more rewarding in terms of reaching some conclusions, we also got this grand idea of skipping sleep and directly heading for the much acclaimed Taj breakfast! Super plan, except for the fact that we discounted the power of sleep :-( . Rest of the guys went back to their rooms to freshen up, and instead dozed away! Shucks! Plan shelved for another time (soon).

#Sleeping time: 07:30 hours!

Day 379: 1st Oct, 2010

Had a looooooooooooong INDEX meeting. Went in between for Ghate's birthday. One of the strategies of avoiding the pain of bumps is to gulp down a couple of drinks before you come :D. But the poor guy got hit so much, definitely "saale ki toh utar gayi hogi" :D . Strategy #fail. Rejoined the meeting which eventually went on till 5.30 in the morning :-| . MMR set a record of sorts by not sleeping a wink through those 7 hours :D

I thought it would be a good idea to follow it up with a morning walk. None of the other sleepy heads subscribed to it, but I am glad I went anyway. For all you readers, a morning walk around the campus is highly recommended! I have said this before and will definitely keep saying this - our campus is really awesome! It was that proper setting which you see in movies and read in books. Dew drops glistening in the first rays of the sun, to wake you up. A serene orange halo around the rising sun, embracing you gently with its warmth. Birds singing a melody which makes you think they are greeting all of nature as they wake up. Bliss.

And now, off to sleep. 06:30 hours :)