Epilogue

I don't know why I started this blog. Probably it was a whim, as most things are with me. I don't know what made me sustain this particular thing. Probably it was ego. People have asked me WHY I did this. Some thought I wanted to improve my writing, though that myth would have easily got shattered by reading a few posts :D . Few speculated that I wanted to write a book. 

Surprisingly though, this WHY is one question for which I have always had the answer and which I had put up right on top of the blog - "Yoooo!! Am just another guy @ IIM Lucknow 2009-2011 batch. I intend to use this blog exclusively to keep track of what I will be doing here for these two years. May be some day, when I look back and read through all the stuff, I can refresh my memories and relive all the moments I spent :)" . Nothing more, nothing less. 

And it was a great moment for me when one of my seniors recently commented that he was able to relive some of the best days of his life, through my blog. What more could I ask for! :-)

PS: For people looking forward to join IIML (or any campus for that matter), I promise you that you are going to have some brilliant times ahead. In the midst of everything, don't forget to enjoy yourself! Here's a small video made by Nishant Shekhar, (a friend and a batch-mate and a super creative brain) which exhorts you to live your dreams and follow your passion!

Day 535:25th Mar, 2011 - So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Since this is going to be my last post, let me go beyond just describing my day and say a few other things I have wanted to.

2 years, 535 days. Feels like a long time, yet they breezed away like the shortest two years of my life. Sorry to make it sound like an award acceptance speech, but a big big hug and thank you to all my dear friends who made life happen here. I doubt if I'll ever go back to a place which sees so much intelligence, so much passion, so much energy.

Have now spoken the last of difficult goodbyes I had to. The last bit of uncertainty on this campus has been sealed with me finally getting a confirmed ticket, as informed by my travel agent. The last bit of essential stuff has been packed. And the last bit of some remaining fun / useful stuff has been given to my juniors.

Time for this one last post.

Good bye :-)

Day 534:24th Mar, 2011 - Last but one

Some random function ensured Kisaan's abrupt goodbye early in the morning (i.e. 12.30 noon :-p). Around the same time, Vanki left. It's getting quiet around here...

Did a little more packing; time spent on it directly being proportional to time available/time to be wasted. Gave off whatever stuff could be given to the facchas. Trudged all the way to the bank for my last teensy-weensy bit of INDEX work. And for the best time, got to see a monkey on the hostel terrace :D

As a bit of luck, even got to eat burgers in the mess. Stuck to our plan of going out in the evening, just to hang out one last time. Our first choice was Zero Degree since both myself and the madman hadn't been there. As luck would have it, it was pre-booked for a party :-S . Next stop - Mint. Strange quirks of fate, here again there were no seats inside! The Ind-Aus semifinal had turned out to be a proper crowd-puller! We settled for the outside seats, partly because we felt this would be the state wherever we go, and mainly because we just got bored to go searching again :-p . Decent enough experience, except for the mosquitoes! :-S . At least got to see all the places in Lucknow, which we had associated with 'timepass'.

Went at around 1am to Fauzi for a cup of tea, and they were pulling down the shutters on what had recently become a '24 hour place'. On further inquiry, the reason was divulged to be "lack of activity" :-( . Guess that's the effect of the sudden exodus of 350 full-time vellas...

Whiled away another couple of hours by watching this movie Taken. Pretty fast paced and action packed, worth one watch. After that, I have just got back after wishing Madman a goodbye, officially making me the wing's sole PGP2 inhabitant. 

Am in no mood for it, but I guess I'll get some sleep. One last time, one last night, as a proud PGP student of this heaven called helL...

Day 533:23rd Mar, 2011 - Endless Goodbyes...

When I came back after dropping my parents, I stayed awake since I had to see off Pachpan in an hour. When that moment actually happened, I myself was surprised by how hard it hit me. You are sometimes so used to just bang open the door of a friend, enter their room for anything - be it timepass, cribbing or advice. And suddenly you know, when you open the door the next time, nothing's going to be there... :-(

But anyways, the show must go on. Didn't feel sleepy after that. So I started off with this newly recommended series 'Death Note' - a Japanese manga. Seems pretty awesome! Went off for lunch to Aryans for one final awesome choley. Also the last time my Discover blazed the streets of Lucknow.

Had been trying all this while to get some cab person for our one-day trip, but unfortunately no one was available at that time. So it was time to indulge in all the usual activities of whiling time. Took the chance and went for one final swim in Umang. (The water is still so cold!) Finished all the latest episodes of HIMYM & TBBT. Got my bike packed and sent.

Point to be noted is I had had only around 6 hours of sleep in the past 60 hours :-p . I wish I had some mechanism to postpone all my sleep requirements over the next 2-3 days to later. But anyways, was feeling a little sleepy around midnight, but decided to have a movie session with Kisaan and Chatur. And once I had evaded that one phase of sleep, I went on to finish two movies Back to the Future and Ice Age 2. (Absolutely loved the latter one!). In between, bidding goodbye to Shomo and Bala as well...

And now finally, after sending my buddies to sleep, I think I shall pay heed to what my body is demanding and get some sleep. But for sure, am having multiple alarms to ensure I don't end up wasting my last few hours at helL .. sleeping!

Day 532:22nd Mar, 2011 - Convo & INDEX room painting!

Woke up at 7.00 (just 1.5 hrs of sleep) as I had promised my parents of showing them around the campus early morning. Was definitely worth it :-) . Took them on a half-way walk around the circumference, showed them the library, PGP block, my classroom! Even got to see a couple of peacocks on our way :-)

Of course, all this took a little toll and I dozed off when I got back. Got up straight on time for the convocation. First was the batch photo session - that was when I envied the ABM batch size :-p . I hope I can manage to spot the pixel which would represent me in the (abruptly taken!) pic. Anyways, was pretty excited given that I never had a convocation for my UG. Our chief guest, Kapil Sibal, could not make it, and sent a video recorded speech instead. Our chairman, Dr. J J Irani spoke really well, on values that we need to always follow. It was indeed a proud moment for me to go up the stage and take that degree :-)

Still a little tired, came back to my room after dinner with my parents and slept off. But in an hour or so, was woken up to do the customary INDEX painting (every outgoing INDEX Core team writes the names of all members on the INDEX room wall) ... :-) :-) . Man, and then I just kept wondering how every day night suddenly becomes SO VERY AWESOME! It was SO much fun doing that painting, remembering moments that we had spent, my most cherished moments on campus with my most cherished pals. And of course, the output was as legendary as can be expected from us :D

Over a finishing chai at Fauzi, I have decided to keep myself awake for some time, so I can go and wish good bye to my parents. If I sleep now, even an earthquake won't wake me up :-p

Day 531:21st Mar, 2011

A pleasant and early wake up call from my parents and sis to indicate they had reached the city and were on their way for their first visit to my campus. Excitement at both ends :-) . Also realized Pachpan was supposed to be have been back by now. Sure enough, I found him in his usual elements in his room, uninhibited in his praise for himself for his 'packing abilities' :D 

Quickly got ready and ran down to the guest house to meet my parents. Got them settled = dumping luggage in the room, so we could go down for breakfast. Showed them the "basic utilities" of the campus - the mess, Fauzi, JustTea, GnB ; made me remember my own first day when I consciously had to try to NOT get lost :-P . Since we were supposed to have rehearsals for tomorrow's event in the afternoon, I had my parents visit around the city + shop in that time period. The rehearsals themselves were a pain, mainly because of the afternoon heat (the free tropicana didn't help much :P). Trying to 'blast' the empty tropicana packs were a lot of fun though :D

After a brief period of rest (skipping PGP day occasion), I went off with my friends to the High Tea. Had a nice time there - generally talking amongst ourselves and also meeting a lot of my friends' parents. My parents came in halfway through (chikan shopping had taken priority :-p), and then it was my turn to introduce them to my friends. Luckily, there was enough mutual consideration to ensure appropriate behaviour :D

Went back to my room but was still pretty bored. So back to Fauzi with Pachpan and Shru. And that is when one of those absolutely random things happened which would become life-long memories. Arora had his car, and along with Buddhi and Kisaan in full flow, we went for a drive. An awesome drive, going to random places in the city (including DM Sahab's ghar), with Arora engaging in absolutely random but highly entertaining conversations with people. Of course, a special appreciation for his one-track mind :D. At one point, we were just 4 seconds away from consciously driving down a flight of stairs :-p . We came back for yet another round of the campus, even stopping to get pics clicked in front of our Diro's residence! Also saw for the first time Bodhigraha-2, the extension of the existing PGP block. Seems well made. A place that will soon beckon a lot many students in the coming years.

One of the craziest nights I have had in helL!

Day 530:20th Mar, 2011 - Guess whoz back \m/

Back after an awesome trip to Sikkim, and a (mandatory) impromptu deviation to include Bhutan, thus ensuring my first foreign trip :D . In keeping with the mandate of this blog, won't talk about that trip here though.

One thing is for sure though - wherever you go, nothing like home. And for now, no home like helL. Made our way back to the campus at 8am. After a little email and facebooking, I went off to get some breakfast, trying to stay away from all the pakka colors being used in the Holi celebrations. Of course, didn't manage to do that entirely, and consequently was forced into having a nice early oil bath. All this ensured a nice little afternoon siesta to get me kick-started.

Although I didn't really get what the kick-start was for. Most of my friends still weren't on campus and I mainly stuck to downloading stuff from DC and watching Heroes. No dinner in the mess today, and unfortunately all PGP2 bikes had been packed and sent off. Big bonanza day for Dominoes, including some little contribution from us. MadMan, Shomo, Bala and me had a pizza treat and a random discussion.

Met up with Kisaan at night. Made a visit to Gupta to compensate for the lack of night mess. And then, a little more Heroes to end the day.

Day 529:6th Mar, 2011 - The mandatory trip!

And this is when the time comes when all PGP2s realise their next 2 week vacation is a long time away! At the same time, there comes this mixed feeling that you won't meet with a lot of your friends who would go on other trips. With this in mind, I didn't wake up too late. Made the most of my time by finishing up with some basic packing (including washing some clothes to accommodate the long trip). Met up with some friends, finished some formalities regarding my parents' stay etc.

And now, it's time to meet another friend or so, before I leave for a 2 week long Sikkim trip with my section B mates! Adios, will be back, one last time... :-)

Day 528:5th Mar, 2011 - Last Insti Party

In keeping with the inverted nights and days, was to wake up pretty late once again. Really useful in times when there is nothing to do. But on the other hand, had a sudden plan for a buffet lunch at Mainland China with my Bombay cartel, Mr. JD, Sardesai and Mr. Just Tea. Good food, good fun. Spent the afternoon getting stuff packed and sent. Almost all my books and quite a lot of other random stuff have been sent back home. My room looks a lot more empty and sparse now. Guess these are all those mini signs and milestones to prepare you for the one last goodbye...

After this, it was only about waiting for the last insti party that the we shall officially celebrate as a PGP batch. Due to the newly introduced 'no drinks' rule, the party (mess 1st floor) was pretty dull in the beginning. But then, MBAs are resourceful and most people made some of their own "arrangements" and then entered the party ;-) . The party took off well then. And it was yet another night of some mad men and ladies head-banging and jumping and moving around under the pretext of dancing :D . As usual, was there right till the end, belting out song after song even after the music had stopped. And even beyond that, with an endless playlist and enthusiastic band members (Nappy Singh, Budhi, Rawat, Kisaan, Pachpan, Chatur) at Just Tea.

However, the fact that it was the last party made it different for PGP2s... One could feel it in the air. Too many hugs thrown around. A few people even breaking down... But everyone with only one common wish - that of freezing the moment forever..

Day 527:4th Mar, 2011 - 'The Dhol' & INDEX Farewell!

So as so often and so easily, once again the Circadian cycle seems to have been inverted. Woke up pretty late and very hungry. However, was in no mood for lunch at the mess and all the 'other' places seemed "too usual and boring". That is when we decided to do the bike ride, all the way to the much acclaimed Break Point dhaba. And the long ride (with innumerable stops for directions) turned out to be worth it.

Got back and spent around an hour chatting with Chatur. In the evening, we had plans to go to Genesis for our INDEX farewell. But then, word got around about The Return of the Dhol! To celebrate the placement of the entire batch before the end of the placement week, the legendary dhol accompanied by some really wild dancing was organised. No way we could miss this one. One of my best times as PGP2 was that enthusiastic hour of energy in the mess, with so many of us dancing in the water thrown by the people of the mess, tearing each others' shirts off and gyrating our topless bodies :D

(Uploading the part before the shirt tearing spree started :-p)

And then - back to my INDEX farewell! Just my statement that the farewell beat even the Dhol must be enough to describe it. Since we couldn't go to Genesis, we had our own little setup in the common room of H11-H12. Some awesome home-made DJing by Kisaan, some great food from Aryans and unhindered dancing and masti by a group of very very very close individuals = AWESOMENESS! One of my best nights ever, right from the celebrations to the (extremely fantastic and well though out) gifts given by our juniors to Tila. Ending our journey at the exact same spot where we started :-)

Day 526:3rd Mar, 2011

Woke up late and lazy today. This time, it wasn't just about not having anything to do for the day, but not having anything to do regards my MBA! Had a small celebration with lunch at Aryans followed by a visit to CCD. Man, this will be missed.

Had to finish some of my 'No Dues' formalities, and spent all the afternoon covering all the different departments, going to offices in basements which I didn't know existed :-p . Sat around gossiping at Fauzi for the rest of the evening.

Since we didn't have too many days left with us (all of us PGP2 INDEXians had trip plans), we decided to give our finals treat to junior core today itself. The final treat had to be grand, and what grander than Taj! :-) . Went there for the buffet dinner; had to use a little coaxing a persuasion, but we did manage to get a nice big table for ourselves. Had an awesome awesome time, special thanks to Makwana. :D :D . "There is always a goalkeeper, but we will still score" ROFL! :D . An awesome bike ride later on the empty night streets of Lucknow, got back to the INDEX room - for M.A.F.I.A.! Was a plan long pending, and it finally happened. Super fun - even Madman didn't sleep :-P

And just like it has happened for so many other days, this day too has been made special with some a light shower from the skies above :-) Wonderful! :-)

Day 525:2nd Mar, 2011 - Pappu place ho gaya!

Had to reach early since I had one early morning quiz for a trading profile. Really nice quiz - only some quick calculations to do :-p . Not too surprising that I got shortlisted to the next round.

Had a nice breakfast after that; and it was only then that I came to know that it was Maha Shivratri today. My annual fasting event :-) . Didn't want a short-term thing like placements come in my way, and hence I decided to hold my fast anyways. 

Quite a few processes then to keep me busy for the day. For the first time, I experienced being dragged out of one process to attend further rounds of another particular process, indicating an interest in me - feels good :-p . Also had a very interesting GD round of a South based leading telecom player - we argued (sensibly!) for a good 15 minutes on a topic which NONE of us were sure what really meant :D . Truly, I think that marked the end of our MBA journey :-p

By late night, I came to know I had an offer from that fin firm for the next best position than the one in which I was more interested (in which unfortunately they had frozen recruitments). A tick against the last item pending on the MBA list :-) 

At 2am, was celebrating at Fauzi with the INDEX gang (me only with a cup of tea) when I came to know I also had received an offer for the trading role I had tried for in the morning. (The subsequent interview just had one puzzle and some basic questions - was pretty short for me). Never expected to face a problem of plenty in this context. Some thinking and greed-based analysis later, I opted for the trading one. Don't know how positive the final payoffs will be, but it's now time to take some risks ;-)

Day 524:1st Mar, 2011 - Udhaar khatam

Had quite a few shortlists today. Found the interviews to be quite entertaining ;-) Increased my knowledge base during interviews ;-) . Surprisingly, all but one of the shortlists were from fin. And in the one mark shortlist I had, a few GD crashers did the usual :-S

You get this feeling of tending to move towards being an outcast soon, when you visit the vendors on campus. Credit accounts for PGP2s have now been frozen. Was super hungry towards the end of the day, and realised I was short on cash. Luckily, had just about enough somewhere in my bag for a paratha and a pack of peanuts.

Anyways, new day tomorrow :-) . Cya on the other side.

Day 523:28th Feb, 2011

The much awaited placement week begins. There has been a lot of apprehension and speculation on how things will pan out. Have waited a long time at the edge of the cliff, contemplating whether we shall be able to fly. Time to jump.

Of course, was a pretty chill day for me. And like it was the Rocky series in my summers, this time, it was all Heroes. Some interesting stories did come out though, as well as some interesting results. Right from one guy who had the balls to reject the top 2 offers on campus to the guy whose risk worked out very well in his favour to Pachpan's awesome case-study topic :D . But one thing, really ruthless the way these companies operate.. :-\

Day 522:27th Feb, 2011

Spent quite some time watching the match today. India batted first against England, and posted a pretty good score, though definitely less than what it should have been :-S

Shortlists for most of the impending processes tomorrow (the top marketing and GM profiles) are out. Didn't make it to any :-( . Still don't know why that happens. Hopefully it's not an impending sign of times. 

And since I did not have anything to do (and because the shortlist gave me no motivation for any more studies :-p) , trudged my way back to the gym, mainly to get some endomorphins alive and kicking. And then a little more tabbed browsing :)

Day 521:26th Feb, 2011

Spent the entire morning through noon "trying" to wake up early. Started with targeting breakfast, ended up with almost missing lunch :-p

Since I had already read up a little bit of fin day before yesterday (cough cough), I thought I might as well get a bit more acquainted with marketing. Even sacrificed meeting up with a close friend who had come down from IMT G for that! Luckily, I did manage to get through quite some portion of that ppt, side by side enjoying the live streaming of the world cup.

The good part of the day - had pizza for dinner. Seemed like ages, mainly the delay due to extreme poverty :-p . Got some funds from dad (thank God we live in India), and celebrated with a double burst pizza, treating Pachpan as well. Felt really sleepy thanks to that, but somehow crossed that dozing off threshold. Trying to read up a little more on fin, but as usual, ended up reading a lot of random tabs! 5.30 now, time to get some sleep!

Day 520:25th Feb, 2011

Woke up.. no no.. was woken up at 1.30 (yes, in the afternoon) and rather abruptly by a group member insisting there was a ppt to attend in 30 minutes. Didn't even shave, secretly hoping I would get kicked out :-p . Alas, luck was not to be. Neither did I get kicked out, nor was there enough people to seize the last mover advantage, and worst of all - there wasn't any attendance :-(

After a long time went back to the Friday tradition of watching a movie - Tanu weds Manu it was, at PVR. OK movie, easily a one time watch. Also helped avoid the dinner in the mess :D . Had a little something at Yo China! in the food court and followed it up with some awesome sizzling brownie and chocolate fantasy at CCD! God bless the inventor of chocolate :D

The night mess session has almost become a mandatory practice of whiling some time of the day, and so be it today as well. Made and had some plans to study, but kinda sleepy now. Will look into it tomorrow.

Day 519:24th Feb, 2011

Feels so nice to wake up on a day, and find out you don't have any ppts lined up :-p . Did have one form filling to do. Was initially happy since the company had come during summers, and I had all the answers ready. Turns out the questions were different, and also more in number :-S

Finally finished with my KT session for the juniors. Gave this half with Pachpan; I think it's a good idea to give it in groups. You can remember more by bouncing thoughts and opinions off each other.. INDEX is definitely in good hands though :-)

Quickly finished off whatever was left of the form (thinking and filling two answers at super speed :P) to make myself free for the hostel party! Had good fun there :-) . Just like it marks all special occasions, it rained even on this night, to make the senseless dance a senseless rain dance :D

Had a really long and really random bakar session in my room after that with Pachpan, Kisaan and TG. Always so worthwhile to talk and enjoy for 3 hours on topics right from 'biology' to engineering days to stuff here :D

Day 518:23rd Feb, 2011

These days, the body clock of all PGP2s has adjusted itself to a new external factor - the ppt schedule. Some 20 minutes before some ppt is scheduled, you could see all soggy eyelid-heavy faces going to the bathroom for a quick wash, and in extreme cases a quicker shave. 

So was it with me. Was glad I managed to wake up on time for the 1.45 afternoon presentation. Was infinitely more glad, when the last mover advantage played out and I could manage to stay outside the classroom and get attendance for nothing :D 

But just like two days back, this was avenged too. We had this presentation by one global bank. And another at around the same time by a local Indian bank. As per sat for the ppt, we saw from the back windows that pizzas were kept outside, and became all happy (free food some how has that effect), especially because, no way would a local Indian bank spend as against a global giant right? But Murphy's law won, mocked at us fair and square, through the pizza stuffed mouths of the students who went for the other one :( . BTW, should we take it as a sign of changing times? :-)

Some more wrap-up work w.r.t. INDEX. Had called an old vendor for some "negotiations", thanks to some things that weren't delivered as promised. As expected, didn't reach a definite conclusion, but made some headway in better understanding some points. Missed dinner (and apparently, one awesome new dessert :-( ...) and subsequently fell back on Fauzi. Had a nice time recalling and remembering some of the kaand that happened till now :-)

Have just spent some good bit of time mechanically reading and consciously closing the too many tabs that had been opened up on my browser. And now, one Contra session, TBBT episode and night snacks @ Fauzi later, it's time to bid good night!

Day 517:22nd Feb, 2011

Woke up (at noon :D) to find the adjunct student finally back on campus. Which meant sweets + tp (including fooling him about the "insti party") + lunch at Fauzi + pulling his leg by drawing attention to his Pcom group mates :-p

Spent the afternoon trying to rank companies. Made one initial list. Tried doing it on an excel first, then figured it was pretty useless to do that. Directly did it on Aghanim. Came up with a preliminary list - first cut, ranking around 70 companies, many of which might not even come on campus :D . par umheed pe toh duniya kaayam hai

Pachpan keeps complaining about always feeling pressure only on his biceps and forearms, whatever exercise he does! Finally today, he realised the importance of doing the exercises right rather than trying to be all macho and add high weights, thanks to your truly and one junior. And sure enough, the 50kg on the triceps press came down to 32kg :-) ..and still had him gasping and clenching his teeth :-p

Post dinner, sat down to finally finish off with the rankings. Came to know Ms. "sincere-as-ever" Chatur ranked 170 companies as against my 95 :D . In spite of having every DayZee shortlist! :D . Talk about confidence :-p . And then, for some strange and still inexplicable reason, started reading some fin at 2.30am :-| . And surprisingly, have sustained myself in that activity till 5.30am. Guess that's enough of being a Valuation God. For now ;-)

Day 516:21st Feb, 2011

Had been trying to get a room booked for an alum since 3-4 days, and somehow has been a little extra painful this time. Luckily, got it done today morning after one (short and sweet) ppt of a media company recruiting for their OOH division. Got to learn a little about a completely new industry.

Was due for another ppt in the early evening, as some of my group members weren't on campus. This one turned out to be very bad. Firstly, it got delayed by 45 minutes, then those Red and Blue telecom people took some 15 minutes "doing some setup". And then gave a ordinary ppt for 1.5 hours. I am mainly super irritated because I missed the chocolate pastry in snacks :-(

Spent around an hour at night giving (mostly just trying to give) some pep talk to a friend, who was worried about the way preparations were going for all the DayZee shortlists held. I congratulated myself for not imposing such problems on myself :P

Day 515:20th Feb, 2011 - Movie marathon day

Ardh Satya in the afternoon (when the day started i.e.), Saath Khoon Maaf at Wave in the evening, and Rain Man on my laptop just now.

Day 514:19th Feb, 2011

Since quite some days, there was this one tab that I hadn't managed to close. It was a youtube video, part 1 of a 6 part series. Finally saw it out today. Came to know about this solo adventurer called Mike Horn and the amazing challenges that he has conquered - covering the equator, travelling the entire length of the Amazon, going around the Arctic circle, etc.

Had missed out on donating blood the last time around, wasn't going to miss it again. Felt good. Got quite a bit to eat as well :P

Skipped gym to instead settle for some Bridge. Mr. Tiwari was leaving for his hometown and hence the request had to be honoured. Didn't play too well though, probably the lack of practice :( . Went to the mess for dinner; found it to be so bad I settled for a glass of milkshake instead. A little more form filling after that - today was a short one from this paint company. Squeezing answers in a small box with a small font was fun :-P , even wrote a couple of new incidents!

And magically, it's 2.40 now. I just don't seem to have a clue on what I do to make time pass by this way! Do I need to get checked for a multiple personality disorder? :P

Day 513:18th Feb, 2011

Woke up (pretty late) to find that I needed to give the final touches to the FRA document. Got that done just in time to have some (crappy!) lunch, and then dashed off for the Jack&Jill ppt; only to find the guys walking in a complete hour late :-x . And then break the promise of finishing off the ppt in an hour. (No, the few soaps and lotions that were distributed did NOT compensate!)

Some intensive chest exercises at the gym today. Also spersed with some triceps exercises and a 3km run :D . I can feel my muscles getting tougher now ;-) . Might be a little biased though :-)

Had kutte jaisa bhook and even the dinner at the mess was really sad. Kisaan had gone to play a cricket match for sikander and so poor me had to go all alone to Fauzi. But then, you just need to sit at Fauzi for two minutes and you are sure to get company :D . Had dinner with cyberKGP and my Bridge colleagues, funnily over giving some Fin electives' gyaan to some facchas. Had a marketing session scheduled just after that; attendance wasn't mandatory for me, but I figured I wouldn't be doing anything productive anyways. With that simple logic, I went along. Don't know what I learnt, but I know I didn't lose anything.

The night mess visit that followed suddenly left me with a new brainwave - we get brownie there, heated up, with chocolate sauce. How about buying an ice cream from Guptaji to have some home-made (not so) Sizzling Brownie?! Definitely an idea worth a try I guess!

Went to my INDEX junior Mak's room to collect KungFuPanda's sweatshirt. Also ended up giving a little electives' gyaan to him as well. Poor fellow reminded me of the crossroads I was standing at last year...

I think I need to start locking my room when I leave. (Have I mentioned I (and many others) NEVER lock the door of the room while going out?). Yesterday had the instance of a friend randomly posting a status update from my FB account, regarding the way my name is (mis)spelt. Today, I suddenly saw my USB mouse was missing. My detective instincts told me the suspicion would be on Bala. And then, true to his remarkable style, Bala gave yet another demonstration.

Me: Do you have my mouse?

Bala: No, it's with Kisaan

Anyone reading the above statement would infer Kisaan came and took my mouse. But no, the great Bala came, took my mouse, went to Kisaan's room, gave my mouse to him, and took his mouse. And on my quizzing a little more about this 'arrangement', I was (in his characteristic style) "ordered" to use my "hands" till my mouse is available again :-S . The e-sikander AOE addiction :-S

Anyways, my intentions of sleeping early have gone bust big time. Been randomly reading stuff (as usual). 4.20 am now. Just read a random mail from some committee on campus who (God-knows-why) called someone, and now we all mandatorily will have to attend that. Arghh!!

Day 512:17th Feb, 2011

Yet again I woke up at dawn! And took me a good 30 min or so to get back to sleep again. Fortunately woke up earlier than yesterday. Too much inertia though - skipped breakfast.

I seem to have made my 'casual steps' into an algorithm to pass off the day. Stuck to it. Lunch, laptop, gym, dinner. And that's a little flexible in the sense I could squeeze in 2 movies today, due to well, lots more free time. Fight Club was kicka** I thought, but Rocky Balboa was kinda disappointing, didn't match up to the Rocky series one bit.

And in the midst of all this, I found time to fill in the rudimentary details and then flunk the numerical part of this STeN-Chy online test. In a way, lucky for me; was saved from the 150 question long psychometric test which most others flunked :P

And then, I probably became the one of the only 4 PGP2s still working on a project - yes, the much discussed FRA. As noted previously, we thought we should be giving in more decent stuff. Spent around playing a little bit with some databases we have subscribed to (OK, only one database. OK, that too was done by my friend :P)

Was pretty sleepy somewhere then in between. But the night mess seems to have driven it away. And now at 5.20am, I am unfortunately not sleepy, but hungry :-S . Look on the bright side though, my sleep won't be "disturbed" at dawn :P

Day 511:16th Feb, 2011

I think third day in succession that my sleep got disturbed at dawn. Pretty cold today though, thanks to a fresh bout of rain. The poor blower's post winter break had to be abruptly cancelled :P

The next (and thankfully final) waking pit-stop happened straight at 12.15 noon :-S . No semblance of any afternoon though - it was a tad bit dark and still drizzling. But amazingly beautiful - clean and green in a way only nature does :-)

Typical vella day otherwise - mostly spent sitting in front of my laptop. Resumed gymming though! Was dead tired and wanted to go for a quick dinner, preferably outside. But neither did plans for 'outside' work out, nor did the 'quick' part, as my room was invaded by TG and Sheldon Salhotra for some INDEX budget clarifications. Luckily though - TG agreed to come for dinner to the ever-dependable Brij. Ate right till my oesophagus was full :P

Day 510:15th Feb, 2011 - Last exam at helL!

My last exam at helL today! :-) Leadership Discovery. And thankfully, it was a case-based open book, open slides exam :D . No pain.

And I don't know how I can describe it; but as I took those few steps away from the PGP block after my paper, there was this intense thrill and a feeling of "liberation", mixed with the feeling that it means the end is only near..

Lots of celebrations happening, some celebrating outside, and many more boisterously celebrate in hostels. I spent the sudden unexplained surge of energy with a music-filled walk around the campus. Followed it up with a mush movie - P.S. I Love You. Pretty typical one time watch, but doesn't come close to Notting Hill :-) . And special thanks to the great Bala for the choco-chip fudge dessert from Genesis!

And just before I sleep, God decides to make the day a little more special, with thunderstorms and rain :-)

Day 509:14th Feb, 2011

Heroes season 2 in one straight session \m/

PS: Happy Valentines Day! (Or all the best lookin for one!)

Day 508:13th Feb, 2011

Unabashedly, I admit to having sincerely studied for FRA today, especially given yesterday's debacle. But seems like the choice of 2 Fin subjects in the final semester might prove costly for me. Literally, since today's 19 mark FRA paper had a weightage of 60 marks overall, and the questions didn't have partial marking :-|

Had to come back and sit to complete the form for a General Management biggie. Frankly, I think that's my dream company :-) . But I really don't know if I'll even get shortlisted. Given the midnight deadline, I sat around filling the form fast, but neatly; mostly using answers that I had prepared for last year. There's one answer though which doesn't seem too satisfying, and just as I was about to copy that, I came to know the deadline's been extended :P . Good, let me think about it tomorrow!

Day 507:12th Feb, 2011

Now, in my 6th term, the third last exam of my IIM L life, if I myself come up and say I prepared quite hard for this exam, you really MUST believe it! Major fatta hua haalat, especially given the huge weightage to the quiz and very minimal weightage to project :P (and our performance in it :P). 

But eventually, when going to give the paper, I was reasonably confident of turning in a decent enough answer sheet. Except, that didn't happen. Pretty tough paper, damaging grades across the board. Of the two nuclear bombs that can spoil my future plans, one has exploded - tomorrow will know the fate of the other one.

Anyways, this was the last exam for Pachpan, and the fool immediately left for home. Well, I know he is going to be back this time, but it did put my mind on the same track it has often drifted to off late.. - that very soon, we'll all be gone, never to return (for quite some time at least). Sad :-( :-(

Day 506:11th Feb, 2011

Pretty free the whole day today. Led to me spending even more time on my laptop. Led to me finally get too irked by my "crowded" desktop, and finally I cleared out the random clutter and put the files to folders where they belong.

Pachpan had plans for a movie - Patiala House. But with the unsurmountable mountain called QAF in front of me, I decided to stay back and try and start climbing. The good thing was, there were others like me who had taken these courses with slightly ulterior motives as well ;-) . Did get around reading a bit, but didn't manage to make much sense of what I read. I guess the only knowledge I gained properly was when Pachpan arrived to explain one topic for some 30 minutes or so. But, the struggle went on (hoping for some sub-conscious absorption :D) and it's about 4.15am now. Guess I'll resume tomorrow morning, hopefully with someone to explain and make things easy!

Day 505:10th Feb, 2011 - You bet! :P

Had our Brand Management paper early in the day today. The paper was one DI problem; no issues :-) . Though I do feel it might be a good idea for profs to make it clear that the book/slides are never going to be used in the "open book" exam. Might as well save some paper & printing ink and contribute to the environment.

Followed up the exam with a movie (after a long time!). We went to see Sanctum, a James Cameron movie. Being in Lucknow, we are compelled to watch such 3D movies on a normal 2D screen; though we got to sit on 125/- seats for 100/-, thanks to the theater being practically empty :-p . The movie was OK; I guess the 3D stuff is the essence of the movie.

Had higher motivation to go to the gym today - had to win a bet, condition being I would do 3 sets of 10 reps with 44kg on the chest fly machine! And yes, I did it, rather comfortably :-p . Though from today, I have started a more disciplined regimen :-)

I have no exam tomorrow. Tried putting myself to sleep but didn't feel particularly sleepy. So some change in plans. Just spent an hour enjoying with the ipod earphones tucked into my ears, listening to some soft music and of course, regaling people around with my rendition ;-)

Day 504:9th Feb, 2011

Had our Product Management exam today. The trickiest part about the paper was that answers seemed to be only of 20-30 words, but they carried 5-10 marks. Now, our classic Indian mentality simply does not allow us to write such "short" answers for so many marks. So all effort went into inflating the actual answer to as-much-as-you-can levels :D

And very very surprisingly, I think it's around 2-3 days after which I am sleeping past midnight :-O . That's so NOT like helL, but I guess gymming takes its toll ;-)

Day 503:8th Feb, 2011 - Last class at helL!

Woah, 3rd consecutive day or so when I am having breakfast! Some record indeed!

The extra morning time and the breakfast turned out to be pretty useful as I had to miss lunch whilst I (started and) finished the PM report (and presentation) for today's class. My last class at helL :-) . My special contribution to myself - inserting a video in the ppt for the first time :P

Day 502:7th Feb, 2011

Woke up early, had breakfast! Then started getting bothered about the FRA project which was due, in 5 hours :-| . Went to the rooms of two of my group members; both were sleeping :-| . Man, term 6 is special! Anyways, one of them told me he had seen "a little" of what's to be done, and that he would come up with "something". Pretty risky terms in that statement, but I was helpless as I anyways had to attend my LD class where again our final presentation was due. That went OK. 

Immediately after my LD class, I contacted my group mates. As guessed, we were still close to have done nothing. Got an AMR guy to do "some regression" on "some data" and get "some result". Meanwhile, I even had to go to our prof to get our presentation scheduled, since we had already missed our alloted time. The good thing is profs are cooperative, definitely so in term 6 :-) . He agreed to see our ppt without any fuss, and having seen our ppt, very calmly declared the lack of effort, but fortunately he gave us another deadline to make improvements :-) 

The good part was in the small time gap between negotiating with the prof and waiting for my group to come, I managed to jump in and have some gulab jamun and Kwality ice-cream for this company's ppt which I didn't even attend. But as you sow, so you reap. The ppt that I was stipulated to attend - for the same company's IT division - didn't have attendance taken. To add salt to the wound, the next ppt which I skipped for my gym session, had attendance :-(

But God's generous. Good ending to the day :-) . Pizza for dinner - KungFu Panda's treat for his General Management PPO! And then lots of (re)Beginner's Luck at bridge! Naice!

Day 501:6th Feb, 2011

Today somehow seems to have become a day of self promotion. Now that I had finished 500 posts, it was time to give some publicity to the effort :P . And there went my blog URL on facebook :-) . Actually, apart from the publicity which I gladly welcome, a major intention was to give my batchmates a peek into the past. Although I write very specifically about my point of view, I am sure a large number of elements would be common to most of us.

Without putting in too much effort, I finished the application the way I had answers yesterday. Seems to be some issues with the assessment though - it never loaded for me! Got to look into that.

By now, most of us have been extremely poverty stricken. In these desperate times, visits to the mess have increased. Including for Sunday dinners! :-( . Guess it's time for one last major funding rescue call to home. And now, after one 'reflective' walk around the campus, it's time to have one look at what to do for all the pending presentations. I have given my laptop to Pachpan and asked him to take it to the library so I can come there and work. In a weird way, I suddenly feel free from all digital shackles. Guess.. on second thought, may be I'll push the project work for tomorrow :P . Will tuck myself into bed now. tada!

PS: I was also the Etrigan topper today ;-)

Day 500:5th Feb, 2011 - Five Centuries :)

Woke up comparatively early (8.30 is early dude), partly because I still had to finish the LD report by noon, and partly because I had to be (nominally?) present in class for our QAF presentation. Worked around these two conflicting interests by taking my laptop to the QAF session :P

Much of the day was spent filling the application for this multinational FMCG; more specifically in coming up with answers for three HR questions. Each time this happens is like suddenly hitting the 'Pause' button in life and trying to think of what you did. Has the potential side-effect of making you think you live a rather shallow and empty life, hardly doing anything beyond the mundane. But given the fact that we are MBA students, that cannot be true ;-) and thus you keep thinking and re-thinking and writing and re-writing, usually till the deadline appears. I had to attend a game+learning combo session by the same organisation in the evening, and by then I came up with what I thought were pretty decent answers.

Got back to my room and suddenly entered into a Reformist Mode. Day before yesterday, a particular incident happened regarding the way a certain amendment was done. I personally thought the process was unfair, and have been trying to mobilize opinion. All I want to do is have the batch re-think over it :-)

Just got back to my room after a night mess session. Pachpan just got a huge download of politics, scams and other GK stuff from his KGP batchmates and we sat around discussing that for some time. And yes, the deadline for the application has been extended; yes, as usual, the answers were kinda trashed by Pachpan; yes, will give it a re-visit tomorrow.

And yeah, 500 days in helL, every single day on this blog :-) ! Three cheers! :-)

Day 499:4th Feb, 2011

Woah! Seems like someone forgot to tell the fog that winter's over! I woke up pretty early today, at 6.30am the first time. As I stepped out of my room, I saw that the dense blanket of morning fog is back. I hope it does not bring along it's friend - Mr. Cold.

Had made a lot of plans yesterday on what to do today. But eventually, the first thing I did with the extra morning time (apart from breakfast :D) was finish season 1 of Heroes :-S .Couldn't help it, but at least now there is some closure on that front (pls God, don't make me start season 2).

Spent the early part of the evening doing some pending INDEX work. Post that I had one company application which I wanted to finish - 3 HR questions for a major FMCG company. But I had already missed gym since two days, and for sure I knew if I skipped it today, I'll fall out of the habit. And thus the choice was made - I even added a complimentary run around the campus to make up :P

Post (yet another) dinner at Fauzi, my room was raided by INDEX juniors trying to reconcile accounts :D. Now now, that part is going to be fun for them :-P . I have a report to make by tomorrow noon, analyzing the leadership styles of 2 people from the industry. Still deciding whom to choose so I can make optimum use of resources ;-) . Add to that I am feeling all tired and sleepy... may be ... tomorrow morning...

Day 498:3rd Feb, 2011

Heores all day long!

Day 497:2nd Feb, 2011

The barrage of quizzes and projects are here, for one final time. Had 2 quizzes today morning. PM was fine, but as feared yesterday, I had to pay the price for sleeping during yesterday's QAF crash course :(

Kisaan's lying-on-the-bed-full-time-watching-sitcoms fever seems to be rubbing on me. Having bunked my FRA class (optimising available bunks :P), I had way too much time in the afternoon. And I suddenly started not one, but two new series! Two and a Half Men, of which I saw one episode and Heroes, of which I saw 8 episodes! The latter one is gripping! Even skipped gym because of that (though had a brisk walk along the campus after snacks).

After a long time, went to Brij for dinner. One place where the food is consistently simple and good! Felt really sleepy after that heavy meal, but I had a KT session with the juniors. That ran pretty much into the night, around 3.45. And now, another episode of Heroes later, I think I'll call it quits for today.

Day 496:1st Feb, 2011

Grudgingly made my way along to the early morning class; I already had 3 bunks in the subject and didn't want to take any chances. But one good thing I did - I used up that time to "plan out" my day ahead. Off late, I am guilty of wasting way too much time, but now I am back to my actual sticky notes to keep myself on track. The list did come in useful. I, especially, love scribbling tasks out of my pad and thus preparing the plan was a good way to keep me motivated.

PM lecture was fun too as I had my laptop with me. I cheated my mind to believe "we didn't have net" which created useful time to read up on some of those tabs as well as to update my previous blog posts. BTW, got our quiz 1 marks. I got 15/15 in that - how cool - last time that happened must have been in school! :P

A tiring visit to the gym, a rejuvenating shower, and a simple dinner later, Pachpan,  Kisaan and myself were playing with the huge General Awareness book that Pachpan has procured (Kisaan won the game). Anyways, Pachpan, MMR and myself just made our way to the night mess. And now, I just had a crash course on what to do for tomorrow's quiz, by finGod. Just hope I am not SO sleepy that i forget everything! :S

Day 495:31st Jan, 2011

An LD quiz to start the day off with. As stated before, quizzes these days seem to aid in only one thing - having breakfast :-)

I now seem to be the IIMPrints renovation expert. Post my FRA and Prod Man class, spent the next hour or so modifying and correcting a few more testimonials, including revamping Kisaan's completely. And then, got back to (re re reading) another top favorite book of mine - Godfather!

Post gym, my quest to find a bathroom that had hot water (we have the facility, but finding some actual hot water in the tank is tough!... I so miss the solar-powered 24/7 hot water in the slums!) got me delayed for dinner in the mess. The only thing worth missing because of that was the Gajar Halwa.

Day 494:30th Jan, 2011 - INDEX 2010: The End

Successfully made it to class for the presentation. That may partly be because of the early morning call I got from one member of my group to wake up Pachpan for some inputs for the presentation. But when we reached the class, and showed it to the prof, he said some additional things needed to be incorporated :-( . Task unfinished.

But none of that was really important. Today was to officially mark the culmination of one long journey - we had the final presentations and results of INDEX 2010 today. That made sure our afternoon was totally engaged, collating the results. It's really sad to see some deserving teams lose out very closely, but I guess that's just an unavoidable part of the game. It's harsh, but you got to do what you got to do! My heartiest congrats to the winners - Team S.I.G.Ma (Special Interest Group in Marketing) as well as to all the other teams for all the fantastic effort they put in.

After resuming my gymming, it was now time for some celebration! We went to this new place Cassia - a buffet kinda place (modeled on BBQ). The chinese was good. And desserts are always good :D . And the best part - it was converted into a treat from Haathi, Kisaan and MMR for their placements! :-)

Day 493:29th Jan, 2011

In spite of sleeping at 6am yesterday, I managed to wake up on time for the 9am class. Initially snoozed the alarms, then stopped them. Got up from the bed. Even applied toothpaste to my toothbrush. And then Pachpan told me the futility of attending the morning class (our group presentation was not happening :-S). And just like that, I went back to sleep :D

Attended LD. And then attended QAF after God knows how long. Nice prof though! I learnt I had exhausted the number of bunks available :-( . In the prof's own words, I need to "be more organised while indulging in this exercise" :D

The boring dinner at the mess (almost an everyday phenomenon now :-| ..) was compensated by some good company, parathas from Fauzi (speeding up the process by collecting them and taking them to my friend's room) and songs on youtube. Back to my room and a little more of Fountainhead. Will have an early Sunday tomorrow, got a presentation, it seems.

Day 492:28th Jan, 2011 - ZZZzzzzZZZZzzzz

What a sleepy sleepy day. I don't know why, but I slept all afternoon and evening, from 3 - 10 pm, a full seven hours! I think that's a new record!!

And as a consequence, am getting no sleep now. Have been whiling my time (re re re) reading The Fountainhead, one of the awesom-est books I have ever read! High chances I'll get into a slightly modified state of mind for the next couple of days :)

Anyways, 6am now. After a long time, I have actually stayed awake long enough to see a little bit of the sunrise :-) . Good night just doesn't seem the right phrase to use now :-) So, adios for now!

Day 491:27th Jan, 2011 - Biographer Mode

Woke up early morning 10 minutes before the quiz. Went to wake up Pachpan. Some quick logic told us a 30min paper would not be objective based, and consequently attempting anything with our preparation (??) would be futile. Went back to sleep.

Pretty high pressure day though. Today EOD was the deadline for submitting IIM Prints. Although I had quickly given inputs to quite a few people, compiling thoughts from others and third-person-izing them was a completely different deal. Halfway through yesterday night and then through today morning, I managed to finish one draft for Chatur. I casually showed it to her during LD class, and unfortunately it was trashed :( . Fortunately, Pachpan did approve the one written for him.

So spent the evening in renovating the sad version. Viewing it from a different 'perspective' altogether helped :D (This is when Pachpan gives short but very useful insights). Worked on it at a stretch post evening, even skipping dinner in the process.

And just when all this was finally almost done, came the deadline extension mail! After a mandatory visit to the night mess, I started working on a cover letter for an application. It's funny, but I had to run a little 10 minute search on the intention of a cover letter, and as it happens so often, ended up with links to contradictory views! :-S . And now, back to my own judgement :)

Day 490:26th Jan, 2011 - Happy Republic Day!

Although we tend to remain free almost all the time these days, it's still pretty nice to have an official 'holiday'. It's like having a license to kill (time, in this case). After a late, lazy morning, I simply did not have the mood for lunch in the mess. And so with, Shomo and Disha, I went to have some of that awesome chole at Aryans. It was nice and sunny, and I even took my own bike (after a long time, as it refuses to start easily in the cold weather). 

Seemed like providence wanted to compensate me for the Taj plan not happening. So even for dinner, Dada agreed to give us a pizza party! That was a good call, especially given the mess food was ultra boring :-S

At night, I decided to start up a bit on the pending IIMPrints thingie, but randomly, I first thought I'll just check out who is writing for whom. And there I realized there were still quite some people for whom no one had signed up yet! I didn't like that at all; due to oversight or whatever, this should not happen! So I sat down, noting down all ids who were left, looking up their etrigan details, trying to find out common friends and get someone to register for them :-)

Day 489:25th Jan, 2011

With some enormous motivation, I woke myself up as I had 3 quizzes today morning - ProdMan and QAF and then FRA (during the class). ProdMan was OK. In QAF, I stopped reading the questions after the first page, and directly marked random answers. FRA, well, no comments.

Now, I don't know whether it is a good thing or a bad thing - but I finished off all available episodes of HIMYM and The Big Bang Theory :-|

Now, tomorrow being a holiday, I rekindled the long-jinxed Taj breakfast plans. Finally things fell in place with a lot of people agreeing to the plan. And sure as hell, I was going to be wake up on time for that. Except that, I made a cautionary call there to confirm if the facility would be open the next morning. And we were told, if at all we get a place, it would be under time constraints, which was pointless. The jinx continues! :(

Day 488:24th Jan, 2011

As expected, a very sleepy day. Even skipped the morning class. And yes, as expected again, I now have a neck sprain :)

Heard about this video that simple grosses people out! My curiosity is ignited!

And somehow, I once again randomly spent so much time that is 4am! Got to be more conscious about this!

Day 487:23rd Jan, 2011 - A Tick on my Checklist :)

So finally another tick on my long-term checklist. I wanted to make myself marathon-capable in these 2 years. Am nowhere close to that, but at least in the past one week, I have made myself capable of running some respectable distance. Today I finished the 8km run successfully. First time I realized and felt how a change in conditions can affect performance. In campus, I trained in the late evenings, when it was quite cold. Today though, the run was at 9am, and the sun was out and bright! And man, does that sap energy or what! But anyways, I am happy. I was only competing with myself ... and I won :-)

Was dead tired after all that. But somehow managed to stay awake. In fact I even attended a ppt for a GM profile from an energy major, which was looking forward to hiring from B-school campuses for the first time. Most noteworthy about that presentation was the presenter ;-)

Didn't have anything to do post that. Met Chatur during snacks and then spent some time watching the informalz. The arm wrestling match between the ladies was super tp :D . It almost always never reached towards a result. Either all girls are equally very strong or equally very weak. (Am not passing any judgement :P). And of course, I would like to remember the one microsecond worth sneak-peek memory that I got in between.

Evening was Bollywood Nite with the famous music duo of Salim Sulaimnan giving music to a scintillating (and raunchy) performance by Neha Bhasin (of Apple Bottoms fame). This was then followed by the (rebellious) party, with drinks NOT being served at the party ;-) . The party was awesome. I tried not to exert my super tired legs, and for a good one hour sat on the stage, using only my upper body for any dancing activity. But couldn't resist the high-energy atmosphere much. I went back to my room, got the red devil horns and the Caribbean cap, and there I was - scorching the dance floor with my moves :D . Both the props turned out to be super hits, with almost everyone borrowing them, eventually even breaking the horns. But I guess it served its purpose well :)

Post some 'conflict resolution', Pachpan, Kisaan (in the angry young man mode), GD, QuizChamp and myself spent some time at Fauzi, generally chatting away. Back to my room and it's almost 5.30am now. My body's seems to be absolutely broken :) . Lets see what happens tomorrow :D

Day 486:22nd Jan, 2011

Just like last year, we had an awesome time with INDEX alums this time too. In fact, this year we even had INDEX super seniors from '05, '06, '07 batches, including one legendary guy who comes down every year :-) . Good timepass in the INDEX room, followed by some more timepass at Just Tea followed by a walk around the campus :-) . And exactly as I felt last year, once an INDEXian, always an INDEXian! :-)

BTW, we had the Swedish band Pain of Salvation performing tonight. One helluva show that!

PS: It's 2.30am. My feet are still aching from my day before yesterday's 4-rounds-of-the-campus stunt. I just hope I do manage to wake up on time :) . Can't let the week-long dedicated practice just go waste right?

Day 485:21st Jan, 2011 - Manfest 2011 starts!

Wasn't feeling too good when I got up. But still somehow went to the LD class as we had a presentation today and I was playing a substantial role this time, answering 2 out of 3 questions about the case. Had to leave the lecture midway though. Turns out it was just a case of a slight tummy upset :P

After a string of bad movies, we were really looking forward to see Dhobi Ghat, especially given the fact that it starred Aamir Khan and that the trailers were very promising. Could not have met with a bigger disappointment :-| . It definitely can't be called a "movie". At best, it was a stitch of 3-4 extremely amateurishly shot videos. The first time I actually experienced absolutely not understanding when the movie ended - suddenly the screen blacked out and names started rolling. Makwana's surely not getting the money back for this one! :P

Anyways, our annual management fest or Manfest is here! Today started off with a performance by Rahul Sharma on the santoor. (As expected, Vanki didn't even know that instrument :D). Good performance - these instruments have such a pleasing sound! Pachpan, kisaan and myself had pizza for dinner, sponsored to us by Manfest's Mr. Olam :D

As usual, lots of alums are here. Nice catching up with them. In fact, was about to get some sleep at around 2.30 when this bugger Jiggy came up. Some general chit-chatting and the usual 'corporate' cribbing and now the time is 4.30am. Sigh, just can't seem to avoid it.

Day 484:20th Jan, 2011 - No Pain :)

Will be remembered as that grand day when I managed to run 4 rounds of the campus (2.42 km * 4) :D. No stopping me for the Green Run on Sunday now! :D

And now, I sincerely need to cheat my brain into thinking that I am going to stay alive and healthy till then. Doing a LOT of pampering on my feet. Precautionary measures ranging from rubbing hot oil to soaking them in hot water. Ah, how I wish there was someone to give a nice maalish :D

Day 483:19th Jan, 2011

Had one fin process today. I don't think I had heard so many fin words in two years as I did in that 15 minutes case discussion. Absolutely arbit stuff flowing in from all sides! Man, people just want to speak in the GD!

The good part about that was I could attend the Brand Man class. As I noted before (consistently), that class is good. First time, I could keep myself involved through the entire case discussion! :) Brilliant flow all through.

For dinner, pretty quickly plans were made for Genesis. What took some time was the transport arrangement. Did manage to get a car eventually - a sturdy(??) old Maruti. Had a nice time there - first time that I sat in the bar section. My desire to have some nice chocolate icecream got fulfilled :D . Had to ride the bike on my way back though. And didn't have my gloves on me. Pretty sure I almost lost my palms to extreme hypothermia :-| . Thankfully, I can still type :P

Day 482:18th Jan, 2011 - Kronos is here!

The day started with the usual FRA class. What followed though was not so usual. Motivated by AdiJ's prior condition to have me as a disciple, I read up a little bit of fin (1.5 years late, but better than never). Was fun actually, and surprisingly, I did know quite a bit of it ;-)

Had the Brand Management class in the afternoon. Now that is one super fantastic prof - personally, the best we have had till now. Normally, I have a complete blackout 5min into the lecture, but this I have been able to hear for the entire 90min. Great stuff!

A batchmate and member of Team SynapsE has come up with this new portal - Kronos. And true to what it claimed in the teaser, it is going to change the way people live at helL! It is a fantastic shared calendar. Something that you see and wonder why it hadn't been done before! Hats off!

Just got back after celebrating TG's birthday. As last year, he got hyper, had a big chase with Pachpan and somewhere in between threw cake on my jacket :-S . But man, he did get some awesome beating! Thanks to a new weapon of mass destruction that has been recently discovered - Shomo's chappals!

Day 481:17th Jan, 2011

Apart from one FRA class in the morning, spent mostly the entire day in the process. Pretty long one that. First a one-hour handwritten analysis on a 16-page case, followed by a discussion on that same thing. Next up was a kind of a soft skill activity, crafts more precisely :D. And last of all, a preliminary assessment interview, which I rocked so much! :P

The good news was that my good friend Haathi really truly aced the process, and was the sole guy on campus to end up with an offer. Awesome! This post is dedicated to him \m/

Pretty exhausted from the whole thing though. Will get some good amount of sleep. Retiring for the day @ a super-early 11.00pm. Cya!

Day 480:16th Jan, 2011

Wowie - managed to wake up so early on a Sunday that I had breakfast! How awesome is that in term 6 :D . (Though of course, truth be told, I had to finish a psychometric assessment for an application :P)

Now that I was up early, I continued my stint of repeat-watching movies. Started off with Unbreakable today - that's my favourite Shayamalan movie, even more than the popularly accepted The Sixth Sense. Went for running today too. Found it easier to run those two rounds today. Fell down while running though :-| . Didn't get any bruises, but slightly twisted my finger while trying to balance myself. And damn! it hurts in this cold!

When I came back to my room, Pachpan informed me I had been shortlisted for a process tomorrow (GM profile). That was indeed surprising, considering my track record during Summers and the brilliant stuff I pulled out during their psychometric test. But I guess the two things aren't really that connected.

Sunday dinners are usually horrible. Combine that with a little celebratory mood for pizza and that seals the deal. That guy came very late though :-| . Thanks to that though, we got to have pizzas (+ garlic bread + choco lava cake) for 200/- bucks :D

Day 479:15th Jan, 2011 - Triple Thrill

Brilliant day!

Was just another ordinary day until I decided to turn things around. (Ok, that was a little too sensational :P).

Thrill #1

As I have said, I have been trying to get myself to be fit enough to run 10km. With just a week to go, I decided to practice running on the road rather than on a treadmill. So there I was - out with my jogging shoes, with the initial target of running one entire round around the campus (2.42 kilometers). No sooner had I run the first 200 meters was I exhausted, but I kept going on and on until I finished one round... and then still kept going on and on to finish 2 rounds! :) . Proud of myself :D . (And special thanks to Shankar Mahadevan for the fantastic Lakshya title track!)

Thrill #2

Three wingies (who stay in adjacent rooms) - Shomo, Bala and ChocolateSupplier got placed in the same company :D . Good for them!

Thrill #3

Confirmed that South Africa's cricket team would have the worst set of chokers. We won a fantastic match against them, by just 1 run. Was fun to watch it in the mess with so many others. What better way to end the day! :D

Day 478:14th Jan, 2011

Interesting incident in the LD class. As an activity, each team had to draw and depict a particular scenario. The catch was that the team members would take turns and individually contribute to the drawing. Was fun to observe the complete lack of any artistic ability in any of our team members :D 

Just like the financial world has a new definition for New Year as "April", cine-goers have a new definition for the beginning of the week - Friday. Today being one, we made our way to Wave for Yamla Pagla Deewana. Probably amongst the worst 1st half ever; and if you do manage to make your way through it, the contrast effect stands useful and helps you tide over the 2nd half.

Went to the Hazratganj Aryans from there - the fourth Aryans that I have been to. Definitely the worst. Very average food - only the paneer peshawari was good. Even the chole wasn't nice :( . The good part was the entire evening was converted into MMR's treat :D

Came back to get on to my "routine" of Big Bang Theory. Came across a .mkv file and one thing led to an other, and I downloaded and installed the latest VLC player, and next thing I know I was playing the .mkv file of Terminator 2: Judgement Day! And that is one super classic movie. Which meant I just had to watch it entirely once again \m/ . And now at 4.35 am (after 2 more episodes of Big Bang Theory), I finally call it a day (or night).

Day 477:13th Jan, 2011

Woke up pretty early today. Around 7.30! In fact, so early, that I went for breakfast exclusively with that intention, as I would otherwise start feeling really hungry by lunch. Just can't remember the last time this would have happened! Spent some of this early time closing up some of the many opened tabs in my chrome window. But compensated that by opening up a few new ones :-(

LD, lunch and BM took up the afternoon. Evening once again was spent working my thighs and calves off at the gym. To put things in perspective, during dinner, I came to know that I was burning 4 times as much calories as Shanky (who is twice my size). 

Have been putting off washing my clothes since quite some time. Since it is so cold (and therefore absolutely dry and non-sweaty), t-shirts run for more than one day. But the limit actually gets defined by the more critical category - undergarments :P . As a matter of fact, 2 days back, I bought a few new ones just so I could delay the washing cycle :D , but didn't have that option today. Yea, agreed we have a washing machine and our job isn't that tough, but it is still very boring to (typically first wait for the machine to be free,) put those clothes in the machine, wait for them to get washed and then dry those cold things with your bare hands. Just had to be done though :-S

Finished off with some little INDEX work - a little excel sheeting to have a digitized record of my expenses.. Followed that with some Big Bang Theory. Positive development for the day - Equal gym effort as yesterday, but managed to stay awake further.

Day 476:12th Jan, 2011

I am so often super quick in taking decision and action on stuff many people would consider trivial :P . When I checked my mails in the morning, I saw that we had one from Oculus, inviting us to quickly sign up for IIMPrints - the Annual Yearbook of IIM Lucknow. The yearbook has a one page testimonial each, for all students of the outgoing batch, prepared by their friends. Pronto, I signed up to upload the same for Pachpan and Chatur.

I was happy to attend the FRA class today, since it meant I could miss the ppt I was scheduled to. Unfortunately for me, the ppt got postponed due to some flight delays. Went to my room, changed and got back - only to find out there wasn't even attendance for this one! Damn :-(

A long 3-4 day break from the gym. Definitely motivated myself to go for it today. Am also trying to see if I can go for the 10km run at Manfest. To that end, practiced quite a bit on the treadmill and cycle and a couple of other leg-strengthening equipment. Really exhausted! Attended the brand man class immediately after that, followed by dinner.

Super tired and sleepy though. Will doze off soon tonight.

Days 474,475: 10th-11th Jan, 2011 - Inverted Circadian Cycle

One thing I feel genuinely proud of is the fact that no matter how late I go to sleep, usually I somehow manage to wake up on time to attend the morning class. Funny how I can manage to take pride in such things while entire sections on my HR forms remain empty :P . The FRA class, observing the bloodbath on Dalal Street, and some more of Big Bang Theory easily saw my afternoon through.

Had a ppt to attend in the evening, about a highly sought after profile offered by the most trusted brand in the country. That was followed by 'High Tea' which basically was all about a bunch of B-schoolers hogging up free food :-)

Now yesterday when I went to Kisaan's room, I realised of this new type of time pass - entering into the imprompto online quiz-types competitions of Manfest. There are only few of these - I had already missed the one yesterday - so today I made sure I signed up for it along with Chatur and Shanky. Call For Arms - definitely good tp. What was even better was it lead to even more tp after the event. We first saw a movie Fighter in my room. The movie's about a boxer, I found it extremely average. Then time for a night mess break, after which we started off with yet another movie. This one - Remember the Titans was much better. 

By then it was around 4am. Now we had a quiz 'the next day' (technically that same day) at 9am. And by experience, we all know this 5 hr window of sleep if super dangerous. Hence we decided to pull an all-nighter, chitchatting our way through the wee hours. Of course, eventually I was the lone man standing even as the others dozed off. They did wake up on time for the quiz. Shanky - in that sleep induced state - leaned on the side of the bed and the furniture broke :D

By the time I had given the quiz and struggled myself awake through FRA, my circadian cycle had inverted itself. Came back and fell flat on my bed and dozed away in full glory through the entire day :D

Woke up around 6pm, remained dazed for another couple of hours. Some aloo parathas for dinner at the morning adda, a little more tp, and I finally am going to go for an early sleep. Preferably waking up with my body clock on usual mode :D

Day 473:9th Jan, 2011

Good Sunday! Woke up to two plans. First was a call from home asking me to book their travel tickets for my convocation. Having partly acted upon it (booking the urgent train tickets), I switched over to plan #2, which was a call for a movie - The Tourist. Another emergency call that couldn't be refused. Improved on existing plan by adding a lunch at Aryans. Those guys should seriously considering prefixing "Awesome" in front of Chole. 

Went from there to PVR - finally those guys have gotten some sense and made some shelves where visitors can keep their bags/helmets. (Believe it or not, this system wasn't there at least for the past 1.5 yrs, and they used to turn away people who couldn't find alternate arrangements for their baggages!) The movie had an interesting plot, but became slightly predictable towards the end. Warmed ourselves up with some hot coffee and chocolate pastry at Barista. And I purchased some cold protection cosmetics before setting off against the super chilly weather. 

Had seen only 15minutes of Shutter Island a couple of days back - so came back today and finished it. Once again, I found the end to be slightly predictable (am I too sharp :P) but good storyline. Definitely worth one watch. And now, a few more episodes of Big Bang Theory, time to put myself to sleep at 3.30am.

Day 472:8th Jan, 2011 - Oh helL, what the fog?!

Writing in reverse order, reporting the most recent stuff. 

Just came back to my room after a visit to the mess. The weather today has gone big time bonkers. Apparently, the rumor making the rounds is that the temperature today on campus is 0 degrees! I sincerely thought it was a little exaggerated till small crystals of ice actually fell on me while I was walking at night. And the visibility is so poor, one can't see beyond 15 metres at all! I can't even see my hostel entrance from the corridor (just a distance of 15-20 feet). And although one could argue that all you can and should do is crib about this whole thing, many of us now actually seem to enjoy this :D . Experience of a lifetime! :D

Sangharsh has begun! It is the high profile inter IIM (A,B,C,L) sports tournament and this year, is being hosted by our institute. Got to meet my friend from IIM A. They seem to have a nice time witnessing this weather :D

Also, finally got Pachpan to teach me a little bit of fin. Realized I still need to read up quite a bit :-(

PS: Credit to Mesh for the tagline today

Day 471:7th Jan, 2011

These days one just can't make out whether it is 12 in the afternoon or 6.30 in the morning with a glance outside. No wonder, it is becoming more and more difficult to attend even afternoon classes! Luckily managed to make it to this LD class, which was good as we even had our presentation today. No issues there, I played my part of the slide-changer (and thus contributed more than 33% of our group).

Just as I was having lunch wondering how to spend the day, plans got made. (That is often a consequence of Pachpan being around). We left to watch No One Killed Jessica at Fun. The first theatre movie for 2011 and it turned out to be pretty good. (BTW, they played the National Anthem before the movie here too. Something I have seen happen only in Bombay. But definitely, something welcome.) Based quite a lot on facts (Jessica Lal case), the movie was quite hard hitting. I would highly recommend everyone to see the movie.

While Pachpan and Kisaan left immediately after the movie, Bala, Shomo, MMR and myself stayed back for some shopping and food. Got myself a new belt (and a pretty expensive Satya Paul one!), as if that's what is going to get me the job :-P . Also got myself a new brand of 'clothes', the first time I switched after many many years. Followed up all that shopping with a nice dinner at Cultures (where I should have ordered something better than a Risotto!), braved the freezing cold even though I was riding pillion and survived. Somehow, from somewhere, got into an ultra long, convoluted but engrossing conversation on gTalk. And now that it is done, time to put myself to sleep. So long!

Day 470:6th Jan, 2011

CV time again. Somehow, in spite of working on it for HEPP, and a little after that for finals, it is amazing how there still was something to do just before submission deadline. Did that have something to do with the fact that I still hunted around for projects to put on my CV? ;-) . And making multiple versions of it out of thin air? :-p

Started watching Shutter Island, recommended by Kisaan since a long time. However, got interrupted in between by a dinner plan for pizza. Somehow (not exactly somehow), it became a treat by Chajju for Pachpan, Chatur, Kisaan and myself. Followed that by a movie Mirch, based on adultery by women. The movie has 4 short stories and each story has some amazing though by the female protagonist on getting away! Scary for menfolk! ;-)

Thought of resuming Shutter Island, but then swapped that for Big Bang instead. A little light humour before sleep :D