Day 441:2nd Dec, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

Day 390: 12th Oct, 2010

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

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

Day 311: 17th Jul, 2010

What is the worst preparation one can do for an open book exam? Yup - Not have the book itself! Just wrote this to let you know there were people much worse off than me. Atleast 3 people (including pachpan) sourced books from the prof himself today morning. And I know one guy who issued an entirely different book from the library as he hadn't collected any of his books!

Went for Inception at WAVE - for the night show. The interval was awesome - half the hall was IIM L junta! And all PGP2s; bloody, who would say midterms are going on! :D . Great movie! And of course, the super brilliant bike ride back, WAVE to campus in 13 minutes :)

Day 308: 14th Jul, 2010

Oh my my, why did I just wish for *drama* yesterday! Vanki was such a brilliant scene today in conB! :D . Caught repeatedly, over and over again, even for smiling! I escaped by showing off my PromStrat polycopy, unfortunately Vanki and the sleeping Ramasaravana got 70 page assignments :D. Damn! I seriously should have wished for something meaningful! But then again, this was priceless :D

Re-entered the gates of knowledge, Gyanoday - the beloved library - for academic purposes! Seems like ages since I did that :-P . Yes yes, you guessed it - exams from tomorrow. Not to worry much though - cool course (Prom Strat), cool prof - 2/3rds of the paper was to be MCQs. Got a quick brush-up from the super-sincere Britto in around 3 hours. Will probably go through some slides tomorrow.

Day 299: 5th Jul, 2010

I had subscribed to the assumption that the mess has some sort of hidden under-the-table contract with Guptaji - the juice wala. The food has been so bad on quite a few occasions that it has kinda become mandatory to gulp down a milkshake with every meal. Now of course, the mess has done a smart thing - they are offering the milkshakes themselves! (at an additional cost of course :P). Jokes apart (though not too much of a joke), something seriously needs to be done about the mess. Under mysterious circumstances, they even took off the popular items like maggi (during snacks).

Hectic day academically. Had to review 12 articles for our RM prof. Had to search for another 3-4 articles for our ConB prof. Argghh!! We have access to a whole bunch of good databases from our library, but still found that it took ages!

The best part of today was however the last part of the day. Me, pachpan and kisaan riding triples on my bike - headlights not working - and going for a purposeless round around the campus :D

Day 262: 23rd Mar, 2010

I have an alarm set at 5.45am. Why so early? I don't know. But I like to have it then. Interestingly, for the last one week, that alarm has primarily been responsible in alerting me that it is time to go and sleep!

As I said yesterday, submissions were due soon and today somehow was that day of the term when all your submissions need to be completed in those few hours. So there we were, sitting in the library till around 3-3.30am putting things together. (It's still an improvement over our first term performance when we used to sit till 6-7am.)

Once we had finished off with our MM (donnn), ADA (the jugaad) and FM (Golden GLOBE nominee), I left and came back to my room with the intention of doing the HRM project (which was again to read those never-ending cases and summarise them).

But the night was dark and beautiful. The silence was soulful. It needed a melody. So there I was - earphones plugged in, listening to some nice soft numbers. Awesome!

Never realised the time go by, until of course, my alarm reminded me that it is time to go to sleep..

PS: We also had an FM quiz today - 10min was the time limit. Everyone came out and complained about the lack of time to arrive at all answers. By the way, I had finished it in 8min flat. This way or that way, atleast I know to respect time :-p

Also, mass mobilisation in progress to argue over the proposed 2nd year room allocation procedure. More on that tomorrow. So long then!

Day 170: 15th Dec, 2009

Lag-g(u)ard alert!

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

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

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

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

Day 120: 26th Oct, 2009

Had these two HR forms to fill today. And guess what - they were totally different from any of the HR forms I had filled in earlier!! Quite a few people didn't apply for one of them on 'moral grounds'. I am not complaining :D

Am making frequent trips to the library now. Not that I have started studying early, just that we still don't have the net! And it's quite a pain walking through the chilly cold at night.

Speaking of which, the winter fashion has struck. The haute couture consists of sweatshirts, sweaters, hooded jackets, etc etc. Much to the awe of some people, I am still roaming around in the usual t-shirt and denims combi. Partly because I am psychologically preparing myself for more chilly days ahead, partly because I don't have winter clothes and mainly because I have so far been able to bear it :-p.

Day 31: 21st July, 2009

As expected, the ordeal has sustained even today. Am making this post at 4.45 am :-p . The good thing though is that I am not too sleepy or even sleep-deprived at this point of time. I don't mind this kind of pattern where I can work a little more when required and doze off during weekends.

One great thing about IIM L is the library. Very well stocked, even with respect to lots of journals and periodicals (so people say). But for me, and I would confidently say many others, the draw is: Air Conditioned - 24/7 :-D :-D . That is actually the USP. Provides a nice relaxed atmosphere in contrast to the rooms. Lots of people get their lappies to the library or Computer Center (24/7 AC here as well) and watch movies :-D . Hope to find time for that soon!

As I always say, the best thing about being in such an institute is the type of people you meet. I was just coming upstairs to my room when I met a senior on my way. Had a small conversation with him - but it was a really interesting and fruitful conversation. These are times when your perspective widens (aah.. the management jargon bug has bit me!) and you learn things that are beyond any books.

Anyways, today I bunked my first lec here, thanks to sleeping late yesterday. When I went for breakfast, found that majority of the class had skipped the lecture - something like - 'oh... even you didn't go?!' :-)