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

Day 469:5th Jan, 2011 - Life in a freezer

A surprise test greeted us today in the FRA class. Luckily for me, it was non-evaluative :D.

But the big thing to write about would definitely be the temperature here! The barometer is hitting rock bottom! I woke up at 6.15 in the morning to check why my heater had stopped working. Only to realise it has not! :-S . It is THAT cold! And the fog too! At 9am, I can't even see Umang (the sports center - easily visible from my balcony usually).

Had a company ppt to attend late evening. Inspired myself to squeeze in a quick gym session before that. Didn't feel too well though. Managed only 3 minutes on the tread mill. Reduced all the other exercises to ensure I would shave, bathe, suit up and still get to the ppt on time. Only to realize the ppt was getting too delayed. And yea, the 'last mover advantage' theory is now more wide-spread. A lot more people were willing to explore that option, even bringing themselves to face the deterring cold outside the classroom. But, jo jeeta wohi sikander ;-) and yes, yours truly managed to ace it again :D

Day 468:4th Jan, 2011

Must give it to our FRA prof for all his attempts at humour :D. First was his attempts to draw participation of the Stex student by asking him to pronounce the names of the foreign authors. Today he talked about the importance of a 'proposal' (the reference point of pun being our submission).

Spent the afternoon trying to see if I could use some opportunity for trading. Didn't seem to find a successful one. Pachpan returned after his newly attained chacha-hood and got some good amount of sweets. That was good.

Went to the gym on time today. It also doubled up a bit as a way of catharsis. Funny incident - I started using a new piece of equipment to work on my shoulders. And I was feeling all proud and happy exercising with one particular weight; until Fauji Khare suddenly came behind me and asked me to work out with 2.5x that load. And man, the first time I tried holding that rod, I could easily sense being "pullled up" instead of "pulling that weight down". 

And I have no idea why - but somehow suddenly got hooked on to yet another new sitcom - The Big Bang Theory. Found it really hilarious :D . 10 episodes on season one finished off in almost a trot! \m/

Day 467:3rd Jan, 2011

All that I should note today is a conversation I can never forget...

Day 466:2nd Jan, 2011

I have this weird sort of work experience duration which makes me just eligible for the laterals process as such, however still keeping me NOT eligible for most companies! The good thing about that was that I started working on my CV a little earlier and since this does not matter too much to me, the 'final version' of CV for this one would be a pretty good 'rough draft' for the actual finals process. The flip side of course is that it is boring to be the 12th man; kinda like you are a part of the team but you aren't playing. (I think sitting in the audience is a better deal.) Anyways, now and then a company comes along willing to take a look at those few people (who for some reason are considered 'immature' because of a 6-month lag, but some systems are difficult to explain). And there I was, back to filling those long HR forms. The good part of such an exercise is that it makes you pause and ponder what you have been doing with your life. The bad part is the honest answer that pops up in your head.

But still there I was, putting some ink on the paper. Worked on it in the morning a little and then again a little post lunch. Couldn't really figure out some things, tried to take some feedback from Chatur, resulting in two confused souls instead of one :D. Well I just put if off for later.

A company ppt was a bit of a speed breaker there. Luckily for me, a new phenomenon just seems to have hit town. It's called the 'Last mover advantage' ;-) . Thankfully, that allowed me to spare enough time for a kebab paratha dinner at Richi Rich. Long time after which I had something other than mess food. Good Sunday.

Back to my room and to the form. Was a couple of minutes late for submission :-( . Hope the fine is spared!

Day 465:1st Jan, 2011 - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year again (to honour the day that I am describing :P). Unfortunately, no holiday as far as lectures are concerned. I still had to wake up and attend the LD class. Today though, mostly the entire lecture was about calculating our 'Leadership Quotient', which really could have been a little simplified with marking the answers on a spreadsheet :S

Anyways, the good thing is the New Year has started on a healthy note. Yea baby, started off with the gym (again :P), but this time with greater intention to continue. Term 6 is really really free :) . Hope this works out good!

Day 464:31th Dec, 2010 - Bye Bye 2010! :)

Some people take their work super seriously. The maid here (persistently) came here THRICE in the morning. Now I had slept late yesterday, and so each time I kept asking her to come back "later". But finally I had to relent. She even (all by herself) took up the challenge of cleaning my super cluttered table (even though that was primarily just dumping all those things at other places :D).

After the LD class (the entire session btw was a video lecture on 'Emotional Intelligence' by Daniel Goleman, based on the book I am reading :P), we had made plans to go for Gulliver's Travels for the 4.30 show at Wave. As usual, the ideal plans got delayed (last minute bike jugaads + too much traffic!), and we reached the movie hall a couple of minutes into the movie. The hall was full of schoolgoers, including us ;-) . Nice movie, I am sure some scenes would have looked awesome in 3D. Though I would have it liked the movie more had they given some more time to Gulliver's stay at Brobdingnag.

Squeezed in a quick movie just before the insti party - Rogue Trader. Saw how easy it is for human nature to get deeper and deeper into the vortex of trouble. I think it is very difficult for humans to curb such things by themselves, mainly because of the realistic possibility of the end intentions being good. Made me think how important it is to have unbiased checks and balances in a system.

And then of course, time to welcome the New Year in style! :D . Had an awesome awesome New Year party. Honestly, I didn't expect to have that good a time here, but then, the little surprises in life are always nice :) . Wished a whole bunch of people, hugging and wishing everyone I bumped into. As usual, danced like crazy with all my friends and section people. And sang and sat till the very very end. Two brilliant cups of coffee later, I am now back in my room. In fact, it's been 2 hours since I came and I still haven't slept. Or felt sleepy for that matter. Always happens after an insti party - the effect shows only the next day :P . 

But anyways, got a lecture tomorrow. And I don't want to be missing the first lecture of the year :D . So will finally go get some sleep now [6am]. 

And with that, I end my last post of this year! Which technically would be posted in the New Year, but we know what we are talking about :D . And yes, once again my dear blog reader/follower, wishing you a very very Happy New Year! :)