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

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

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

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

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

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

Day 196: 16th Jan, 2010 - INDEX '09 Results!

Was a day when I surprised myself. I actually asked doubts (not exactly doubts..more like points that I felt were not right :-p) in QAM. And not once, but twice! Of course, had to pay a heavy price for it .. the prof ended up asking my name :-( . That's the most dangerous thing that can happen. Need to come up with some hiding strategy..

Had our INDEX 2009 Prize Distribution function. Enjoyed a lot :D . Especially Tarun's "unprecedented" speech :D :D

Came back to my room and finished designing the poster. That ate up time and consequently I ate dinner @ GoBi. (GoBi a.k.a. GnB - Gossip n Bite, a snack shop started on campus by a few 2nd year students!) with Saurabh. And then suddenly randomly came to know of this manfest competition that was going on. Played O-zone, starting 30 min late :-p . Was fun trying to solve that loooooong case :D

Days 152,153,154: 27th-29th Nov, 2009 - INDEX'09!

Woah!! 3 super hectic but super memorable days. Words really wouldn't be able to capture the feelings that run behind. After all, this was the grand culmination of all the efforts we were putting in since the last few months!

Started 27th by going out to get some more new stamps. Went to a closer, more recognisable place this time. And also had the (happy?) realisation that I was overcharged two days back :-p. Bought A LOT of stationary items for the events team.

Had some little work here and there when I came back to college. Trucks had come by now, to carry teams' props to the ground. Helped a bit there. But left it to someone else as I had to go to the fair venue.

The setup looked nice :) . My personal favourite was the huge backdrop to the stage. Anyways, didn't have time to pause and admire anything after that.. work work work was all I did. Right from arranging food for the support team to raising curtain lengths to providing carpets to fighting for the loo arrangements (becoming legendary in INDEX circles for years to come :D). Went to the local police chowki to inform them... had to go to this whole new area called 'Naya Hyderabad' (in Lucknow :D). It is right behind a very important city road but still it was totally cut off! Was running with the tent wala to ascertain things were perfect. I remember dozing off and swaying even as I was standing :-p , but there was no way I could go and grab even 4 winks. And chilllllllllyyyyyy cold all through! Finally at around 6.30 am, I slipped into a razai in the ops tent and slept for an hour.

28th, day 1 of the fair, had finally arrived! And being an Ops guy is tough! Murphy's law invariably had to come true to mock at us. There was a power failure just as the fair was supposed to open. And there was apparently not enough diesel ! Spent the entire afternoon going with the electrician (which involved finding him out first!!) to get additional power points at multiple stalls. Without getting into specifics, let me just say there was a lot of running around for the rest of the day. One awesome sight which I had not been .. how do I put it.. exposed to before ;-) . Of course, things got better towards the end as I grew in power ;) and learnt to make phone calls and get the work done :D. The Sufi Nite event in the evening was pretty good! We would have liked more numbers, but can't complain! Ended the day bargaining with a local food stall vendor, more for the fun of it than for anything else :-p . Went back with Saurabh, first to GnB to grab a bite. Just couldn't feel my legs!! I somehow dragged myself to my room and was flat out sleeping probably even before I hit the bed.

Woke up on 29th and realised I had slightly overslept past the 7am target. A few calls later I realised same was the case with other first year Core members :D. Got dressed quickly and went to the ground. Things were pretty much in place though. The tent wala had even put carpets over some dusty areas as I had asked him to. Came back to college to deal with the small stomach upset I had :-p (which in itself was surprising considering my lunch comprised of oranges). Even getting work done was easier today as the labourers were all familiar with me and I didn't have to tell them things twice. Had another good set of events today. Saw the crowds grow up, especially towards late evening.

So that was INDEX'09 for me. Couldn't even watch the final few events as I was still.. yea.. running around..! Ordered pizzas for the support teams, which was only a small appreciation for all the hard work they had done! Jumped around a little over the last 2-3 songs being played by the Rock band. Got a few photos clicked. A couple of random videos (which I am yet to lay my hands on). Bumps for everyone!

And then my last bit of work for the day. Packing stuff, getting them loaded on the trucks and have them back to college. Leading the truck, then waiting for it to come into visibility, then realising the truck was far ahead (Riza should really be beaten up :-p) and then coming back to campus before the truck :D. Unloaded stuff. Spent some time in the INDEX room.

Finally pulled off INDEX '09 :)

Hip hip hurray!!

Day 151.5: 26-27 Nov, 2009 - Night out in the city !

So this is a special night you get to enjoy only if you are in INDEX Ops! :D As the last leg of publicity, we have a night out in the city where we just go around putting INDEX posters ALL over the city :D.

We had two vans, one headed by Riza and the other by myself to cover different spots in the city. As it turned out, the space in my van turned out to be a little insufficient to seat all the Ops support team members and the workers. So in that freezing cold, I took out my bike to ride in the city :D. Definitely armed myself well for the cold, multiple layers of clothing, including two pairs of gloves :P.

Went around sticking posters at a lot of places. We had to only cut down because we ran out of the glue. Were stopped by an inspector in between. Told him we were IIM students sticking poster for our fair. Worked like magic :D

Stayed out till around 4am sticking posters. From there, myself and Jayadutta went to this place where they put handouts inside newspapers. Waited there for sometime while the guys inserted/stuck our pamphlets on the newspapers. Pretty fast those people are, I must say!

And from the there back to my room. Time to hit my bed for a couple of hours. Lots of work left in the day. 1 day to go for INDEX! :D