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 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 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! :)

Day 422:13th Nov, 2010

Was super chilly inside the classroom too for some reason. Not to mention my own internal running nose problem. And already I have an issue in not being capable of sleeping in a uncomfortable sitting posture. All these powers combined to ensure I couldn't even catch up on a wink of sleep during the lecture.

Anyways, broke all time records today. We launched our last MR project of the season. The final tally now stands at 18! That makes it more than any other INDEX by atleast 25%! \m/

Had an insti party. Got loads of work, but insti parties are not to be avoided. So I thought I'll just go there for 15min or so, hear some loud music and make my way out. The plan went off beautifully except for part 3. And instead of making my way out, I stayed on right till the very end, the part when we have randomly begun sitting in the lights AFTER the music is off, and singing a random bunch of songs :D. Pretty masaledaar party though :-p . Lots of happening stuff on the dance floor :-p . No limit to the things people do (and entertainment they provide to us) when they are a couple (ok, a little more than that) of drinks down ;-) . Finally back in my room. 4.45am. Work postponed to tomorrow :-p

Day 382: 4th Oct, 2010

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

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

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

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

Day 381: 3rd Oct, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

Day 332: 7th Aug, 2010

Swam 6 laps at a stretch today :) . Have now become successful in implementing my own simpler version of the backstroke :-p 

The advantage of having attended multiple insti parties is that you start learning to enjoy yourself even in adverse conditions - this time defined by a hopeless DJ. But we just kept on going - we being Vats, Mandals, Vivek, RK, myself and a few others - right till the end! For me, it is as usual :) . The innovation this time around was the new act of forming a sitting circle on the dance floor and singing/shouting those old slow songs. We really wanted the DJ to take the hint :P, but also got a lot of audience attention ;-)

5am now. The sun rays aren't here yet. Will put myself to sleep now. Expecting a Volini week ahead :)

Day 290: 26th Jun, 2010

It is indeed a little surprising that around 3 weeks into the course, this is the first time I am awake till 5.15 am. But then, this was the occasion :D. The induction for the juniors ended and we had our first insti party as well. Kept my record of staying right up to the end :) . Super fun, as usual, including attempts to bring together Vanki with bhabhiji ;-) ! Also witnessed the Limca worthy moment - Shanky being lifted :-o ..by Maanas Agarwal. Also, did learn a couple of fachchas who need to learn some behaviour.

Had gone to Brij for dinner. Seems to be jinxed - especially for Vanki and Pachpan. Third time unlucky they were - this time thanks to an overflowing crowd. Had dinner at Fauzi ka dhaba, which lies a little ahead. Not bad.

Went to get some t-shirt prints in the afternoon. Hot dusty winds blowing at my face :-| . I hope that road is repaired soon!

And as I said, after a looooong time, sunlight is flowing into my room even before I have turned to sleep. Chalo then, let me try and put myself to sleep. Good night (no sleep, no morning :-p) junta! :)

Day 245: 6th Mar, 2010 - Ruk kyu gaye, bajao!

It's 4.15 am. I am not at all sleepy. And this is even after returning to my room after 3 hours of non-stop dance and fun at the insti party we had today. Can be partly attributed to the fact that I have a feeling that I am in an inebriate state of mind, though not with a drop of alcohol. My mind is suddenly filled with lots zillions of random thoughts. And for the same reason given to you in the line above. Though I am not sure which is the cause and which is the effect.

Anyways, continuing the rant.

A random gtalk conversation suddenly shifted to a question in which I sat down to think of a reason for some action. And I suddenly realised I didn't have any. Things didn't end there. I thought of a few other things I did today. No reasons. Don't jump to conclusions and declare me to be a man devoid of logic and one who takes only emotional decisions. No, not me. But strangely enough, everything I did today was without reason. 

My day began with blissfully sleeping through multiple alarms and being a little late to class, mainly because I was finishing up an assignment. (in which, later I realised, I had written answers to the wrong Qs!). Anyways, I sat for 75 out of 90 minutes and did not get attendance. But I still sat. I had better things to do, but I saw LOST. I wanted to go to watch a movie, but I didn't. I didn't feel like attending the insti party, but I did (thankfully! :P). Basically you get the gist.

Ok, so? Well.. nothing. And that is why NOT having a reason is irritating.

Coming back to the insti party. (I already told you it's a rant). Am glad I went. Danced a lot, but we did not have a great DJ, so somehow seemed less active. 2-3 full sized people sat on me randomly, even as a classmate pressed my nostrils tight :D . Worst part was that this insti party got over at 2 am (even worse than the fact that those fatsos almost killed me ) !! Can you believe that.. !! as early as that..!! To whomsoever concerned - we haven't even warmed up guys!!

And ya, the promised book yatra. I completed '2 states'. :) Not that I wasn't able to locate a few of my own! :P . Anyways, his previous two books sucked, especially considering the standards set by five point someone but this one has that nice wry humor about it. I would definitely recommend a READ.

Day 204: 24th Jan, 2010 - AWESOME!

IIM Lucknow is a great place. Great great place. I may be cribbing about tiny things now and then, but all that fades away when I look at things from even a little distance.

Lots of PGP23s are here, and it is so obvious that they all miss campus so much. It's around 5 now and I have just come from the location where we had the insti party. One crazyyyyyyyyyyyyy night. Actually after the Kailash Kher concert (which I personally found a little disappointing), I went off to my room to relax and was almost about to skip the insti party. Some stupid thing in me prodded me to go and I am really glad I did! Had awesomeeeeeeeeee fun!! Many PGP2s making their debuts and some PGP2s and alums just extending their record.

Sometimes, it's a pity all nights have to end...

PS: Some Channel V lady took recordings of a few of us. I may just come on national television, thanks to my unshaved unkempt looks :-p . But if at all I do make it through the editing table, I don't know the date and time when it's going to be aired :-S

Day 175: 20th Dec, 2009

The Great Indian Fraud

Imagine this. You are asked to prepare some Chinese food. But all you do is order some pizza. And when the person comes, you treat him to the pizza. And yet, eventually when he leaves, he feels he had the best Chinese food ever! ;-) . Talk about GLOBE! This one far outclasses any other effort :D

Exams in 2 days. Most people have started with something. I started watching Inglourious Basterds -yet another Tarantino movie. Found it ok, not as great as Kill Bill definitely !

It's pretty chilly today. I guess the cold weather is catching up. I just hope it does not induce me to keep sleeping. Really can't afford that in the next few days!

Had pizza for dinner today with Saurabh, Riza and Shruti over some general tp/chat about Riza-Fiza, CG, insti parties, Saurabh's-hunt-for-US'T', etc etc. Good fun. And to top it all, the cheese was still dripping from the pizza! Yummmyyyyy!!

Day 169: 14th Dec, 2009

Gory Story

Well, I didn't exactly mean my life at IIM L with the title ;-) . The thing in reference is the movie Kill Bill. It was one of those many movies that I somehow was never able to watch from start to end - something or the other would ALWAYS interrupt the session. Until today. Finally I got to witness the bloody tale of revenge. And what a movie - in a league of its own!

A more pertinent association is with our esteemed alumnus, late Manjunath. He was heartlessly shot dead. His fault? He stood up to fight corruption. I wrote a small poem dedicated to him. You can read it here.

Some solid masala tales of the insti party are coming out now :D. Woww!

Sleeping pretty late today. It's almost 5 am. Of course, being winter, I don't get to watch the first rays of the sun before I sleep :-p

Day 168: 13th Dec, 2009

When a Sunday is a Sunday!

What used to happen week after week, until the last few weeks, finally happened again - A Sunday that was free! I woke up after 11 and I can't even recollect the last time I did that :D . So a yeyy for that definitely!

The more fun part of the day was when dada a.k.a. serial entrepreneur called. The guy had woken up with a big bump on his head. And without any idea of how he got to his room in the first place :D . And his attempts to try and realise what happened :D .

In the evening, I went to execute a top secret mission with my wing mate Pindyck.

Objective: To buy and sneak a banned substance into the campus.

We managed to find it, at a place closer than what we thought. And brought it back - in white and black plastic bags. No, I am not going to name what I bought. But it ain't alcohol (sorry!.. the black bag is misleading :P) or any banned drugs and definitely not any other extreme option that you are thinking :-p

Day 167: 12th Dec, 2009

The Charm of Craziness

I guess everyone always nurtures this desire to be or do something different and wacky. And insti parties always provide that environment. You would see perfectly normal people saturate every cell in their body with the highest possible alcohol content so that they can just 'let go' and (a little too literally) dance like no one is watching. I somehow don't need alcohol to be crazy :-p ; but today was one of those insti parties where I didn't indulge in dancing (read headbanging) but mostly just stood around drinking (juice :-p) and soaking in the loud music and watching others go bonkers :D . talli people are the funniest people on the planet, maybe even the universe. This guy who reeked of alcohol and who barely balanced himself on his feet came up to me sometime and said "dude... you are shaking. you need to keep track of how much you are drinking." :D . I was like "yes. thanks for pointing it out. my vision was kind of blurry by now."

BTW, today, after many many many days, we didn't have any class. Which meant I could coolly wake up at 9.40 without any feeling of guilt (hahaha) or remorse for missing attendance (ya!). Nothing much I did during the day. My mobile conked off yet again!! I was highly irritated at that point of time. But just as I was to go to the city, it miraculously came to life again! :D . Rest of the day was mostly a mix of HIMYM further episodes (which I now have to complete before end terms, else wouldn't be able to study then) and general chilling out.

Went to a movie in the evening - Rocket Singh at Wave cinemas. It turned out to be one of the best movies I have seen in quite some time. I can't specifically recall any great song or great scene... but the movie in general patched up really well and there was a good flow in it. A definite recommendation from my side.

Day 119: 25th Oct, 2009

It was not just another Sunday. Today we hosted Samvit'09 where we had corporate stalwarts discussing on the issue 'Emerging pillar of the new Indian economy'. The distinguished speakers were:

- Kalpana Morparia - CEO J P Morgan

- Pramod Bhasin - CEO Genpact and Chairman NASSCOM

- Ajit Balakrishnan - Founder and CEO rediff.com

- Sandeep Pandey - Ramon Magsaysay award winner, 2002

- Meera Sanyal - CEO ABN Amro

- Biswadip Mitra - President and MD, Texas Instruments India

Was nice hearing from such achievers from such close quarters. One of those things that could happen only and only because of brand IIM !

Went to the city for local sponsorship. Boy, it is so tough to make people part with money!

Came back and immediately into filling one more form! :-S .. The questions are similar, but still not the same! And always they take so much time! I filled the last part of the form almost with my eyes closed. Infact, for one of the questions, I wrote 2 completely contrasting answers and just chose the one which was longer :D

Also had the insti party tonight. Very bad timing for the insti party... hardly any PGP1s attended it thanks to the otherwise infinite items pending on each one's list.

Day 98: 4th Oct, 2009

Suddenly started raining today in the morning due to which the morning matches and cultural events had to be cancelled. I don't know about the teams but the to-be-referee, Ghate, sure was happy to know that he could continue with his sleep :-p

The rain managed to keep most people inside for a good part of the today, mainly by instilling and instigating the slightly dormant laziness inside the helL people. Not wanting to cave in to sleep, it was then that I resorted back to my music indulgence. Uploaded a few recent songs into my ipod shuffle, plugged it into my ears, loaded the lyrics from the internet and blasted my vocal cords off. Thus, I stayed insulated even as I subjected my wing mates to the torture :D .

Finally, went out for dinner. Next stop - the rock show that was going on. This was followed by a band called Faridkot. I must say they played pretty well. And the crowd numbers didn't do much justice. Just made me think that people really don't value something when it comes 'free'. Except may be alcohol. The performance was followed by the insti party. Although I stayed till the end, must say I was a little less active this time. Almost left a couple of times in between only to be lured back by the loud music. Finally came back and slept at around 4 am. Tomorrow (today i.e.) lecture begins at 8 am. Isn't that fun? :D

Day 96: 2nd Oct, 2009

Ah! What a great feeling to wake up and know that there are no classes and hence sleep again!

Varchasva - the inter collegiate sports and cultural meet - started off today. The atmosphere is brilliant. Huge contingents from XLRI, NITIE, IIM Indore and a few other colleges have come here. All guys are happy because the chick quotient presently is substantially higher. Great events happening all around the campus. The sports events have especially been superb - very close and brilliant badminton, TT and volleyball victories for IIM L boys team and comfortable victories in football and basketball. The female sports events have been as expected - lots of cheering/booing/sledging AND bird watching (yea hardly any game as such). Couldn't attend too many of the cultural events. However I attended a Kavi Sammelan in the evening where we had Kumar Vishwas, Surinder Sharma and one more person whose name I don't remember. Was awesome!

Also have Kaushik, an INDEX senior, on campus. Met him up. He was wearing the his INDEX Core t-shirt! Can't wait to get my hands on one :) . Then spent the afternoon doing some outsourced work for some friends in other committees on campus.

Thanks to Varchasva, we have some food stalls on campus. Ate hot cheese burst pizzas from dominos for dinner. With the dripping cheese and all! Was Wowwwww!!

Random post. No wonder - it was a random day as well. Went to the DJ nite - good music. I didn't dance much today. Have reserved energy to distribute over the next 2 days. Am going to expend all of it soon!

Day 50: 9th Aug, 2009

Of Parties, headbanging and VOLINI !

I will never indulge in headbanging again. Never ever! I make this promise to myself after every party and break it only to badly sprain my neck the next day. And trust me, a sprain in the neck is a major pain in the backside. Every time someone calls you, you need to slowly turn your neck around to respond. Like one of those robots that you have in Korean car commercials.

Infact I was wondering what could be a possible cause of this indulgence. And this what I felt holds true. Point is insti parties – or any other party that an average collegian attends – are defined by loud music, dance and drinks (soft/hard depending on budget :p). Now ‘dance’ in such a context is a little misleading. It can at best be described as crazy hypercharged youngsters moving around flinging their limbs in directions and ways they apparently feel are coordinated. And the easiest ‘step’ in such a ‘dance’ is headbanging! (alongwith patang udaana, note barsaana and going around in circles holding each others’ shoulders.) Because of this great levelling attribute called simplicity, headbanging is unanimously embraced and practiced.

Needless to say, I ended up with a bad sprain the next day. Which brings me to the adventure with VOLINI ! I don’t know how many of you have heard of Volini... it basically is a little similar to Relispray.

Well, that is what it is supposed to be atleast. In practicality, it is nothing less than molten lava. I just sprayed a little bit of it on my neck and – oh .. my .. God ! – in a minute, there was unbelievable burning on the nape of my neck! I mean... I can’t describe it here but if I just write ‘volini’ 4-5 times on this page, the webserver may catch fire. Boy, they should put ‘A’ , ‘U/A’ etc type signs on medicines(?) now as they do in movies.

And as the title of the post says, reached 50 days at IIM L today! *raises the bat* Just the start of the innings :)

Update: I forgot to add that today we had our photo session for the official pics. Everyone dressed in business suits! Looked great!

Day 49: 8th Aug, 2009

AWESOME! The only word that fits.

Ate outside. Fell madly in love all over again. Danced like crazy in the insti party. Full chillax.

Midterms ended today. Thought I will do some work and stuff instead of going out. Then thought... am going to get this day only 12 times in my curriculum! So left everything else aside and went to the city - saharaganj.

Ate at McDs there. Then saw a movie at PVR- Love Aaj Kal and I liked it! And Deepika is SOOOO nice man. Full babe! In love with her again...

Returned at 11. ROCKING insti party today. Danced like crazyyy. Broke my floaters in the process :-p . Party went on till about 4am. Went to Gupta, had a Amul Kool. Now going to sleep. It is daylight, but a new beginning from now :).

Impending photoshoot tomorrow at 11.45... hope I wake up! so long!