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 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 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 205: 25th Jan, 2010

Life suddenly becomes so empty and boring when these fests end. I remember having this kinda feeling after INDEX (to a much higher degree of course) as I suddenly ended up on the routine.

Today I recorded my first absent (excluding the sad HRM incident) of the term. Woke up late and missed the CFM class. Would have missed the next ones too but thankfully ADJ happened to call and wake me up :D . Ran to the class after getting ready in 5min (am becoming more and more proficient at that). Even gave a surprise quiz in HRM :-p

Sat in the INDEX room in the afternoon as the alums were leaving. Nice fun again :D . Ended up recording my second absent as well while talking to them. Nothing to worry, I have enough buffer left.

Anyways, it's only 12.30 right now, but I think I will go to sleep. Want to wake up for tomorrow's function.

Happy Republic Day guys! Jai Hind!

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 202: 22nd Jan, 2010 - Parikrama!

Just when we thought the cold would go away, it's back! And worse than what it was! Damn cold day today. Dense fog from around 8pm itself!

Today's lectures were painfully slow, even with the novel. Worked on another small INDEX notice after class. (NB was kinda empty!) Had a meeting in the evening.

Day 1 of manfest today! We INDEXians then went to watch HellRaiser - the rock show/competition. That was OK. Had cheese burst domino's pizza. That was superb! :D . After that we had a show by Parikrama. That was AWESOME! Super energetic! A great start to day#1.

Back in the confines of my room.. listening to a couple of parikrama songs. No lectures tomorrow. So no tension of waking up :D . Am making use of this by randomly listening to a lot of songs now. It's almost 4.15 am. Guess I'll go to sleep now, awaiting another good event tomorrow!

Day 201: 21st Jan, 2010 - Zero Visibility!

Unlike yesterday, lots of classes today. Half the MIS class was spent in random gyaan. Passed the remaining lecture hours with Kane and Abel.

Immediately after class, had to leave for some urgent work - going to a couple of schools and handing over their trophies. (Riza chickened out because of the lathi charge rumour :-p). Didn't even have lunch.

Had the INDEX meeting with seniors - a small doubt clearing session sorta thing. Some useful points there. Worked a bit on a collage for the NB. But then Ops Guru called me to SC's room to tally some transactions. Got a bit delayed in attending Manfest 2010's cake cutting ceremony. Missed the cake!

It's zero visibility state on campus! Impossible to see anything/anyONE even a few metres away! and nobody on campus needs a cigarette to smoke :D

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

Day 184: 4th Jan, 2010 - Term III starts !

And so the grind begins (again!) ...

I don't recollect the last time I woke up to a pleasant alarm tone. Typically, I would use the alarm feature of my motorola C-150, specifically a tone called the burning train or something. Trust me, it could wake up a corpse :D . A new year, a new term and more importantly a new cellphone ensured a more calm wake up today. But this works only in ideal scenarios where I am mentally aware of the need to sacrifice sleep and rush to the class. And doesn't work in situations where I actually need to depend on some external intervention. And that is why I now have the Tipu Sultan tone as my alarm tone. And yes, this one can make a corpse on Jupiter wake up :D.

We seem to be having a number of GLOBE courses this sem. However, had 3 lecs today and it does feel like the profs this time are nice. Vinod (b'day boy today!) got christened as 'Chatur' in HR's HR class :-p

Finished off the registration stuff in the afternoon. Collected the usual truckload of books from the program office. Those books only seem to be helping in exercising my biceps and triceps once in every 3 months.

Spent the rest of the day majorly watching LOST. That's a new series that I target to finish this sem. Collected the manfest sweatshirt during dinner. Pretty cool one, this as well. Anyways, continued with a little more LOST post dinner.

It's midnight. Pretty early for helL standards, but am dead sleepy. Not sure of what I am writing. Will read the post tomorrow. Good night guys!

Day 165: 10th Dec, 2009

Today's post is definitely going to place my blog a few notches above on the babe quotient ;-) . Yea guys, today's post is by the evergreen etrigan topper - Meenal Anand. A very talented and popular figure on campus, with a very charming personality. Spotlight!

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It is Friday, 3:54 pm. Some 12 minutes back, Shivku reminded me to send him the blog entry. I spent 3 of the 12 minutes cursing myself for having forgotten all about it, and 9 cursing Shivku for having conned me into writing it in the first place! Ok so the ‘thing’ is, I can’t recall a word taught in the lectures today and they only just got over. And I am to recall the entire yester-night and yesterday! Talk about screwed up expectations! (Ouch! What’s with the mood?)

Ok. Thursday! Thursdays for Section F are pretty chilled out. Relatively. (Now if you notice, a section F blogger will never let go of a chance to brag about Section F. It was sometime during World War 2, while combating Fuhrer's forces that this sense of fraternity developed. As it happens, Fuhrer won, but at least we all came out alive. Sigh! Good thing that the war is over.) Ok so Thursday.. This thing about snoozing the alarm half a dozen times, and running down the corridors with a brush in one’s hand, is true for all of the 700 IIML students. All except one. But that aint me. So snooze I did, and run I did and found myself in the classroom at 9:47 am. Only a couple of minutes late for the first lecture. And.. I have been trying to recall what happened next ( Shivku, I swear on you I have been trying. So if I am lying, you will die and we’ll know ) .. “The next thing I remember.. I was running for the door, I had to find the passage back, to the place I was before..” And so at 12: 05 pm I found myself in my blanket, only to be woken up thrice by three Manfest-ors about ‘The Big Photo Shoot’ that was to ‘change our lives forever’. I dragged myself out of my blanket and got ready (read suited up!) for the event of the year. 10 of us Barney figures reached the MDP to be greeted by the only direct descendent of chimpanzees we have here in IIML. (Rule Number 1 of blogging: One has to be subtle while making fun of colleagues. Here I try. I am talking about the chimp who is often seen with a DSLR hanging around his neck, owns a pair of inline skates he never uses, blogs about girls, calls them Rare Flowers, is in love with a dimpled rare flower and is called Hansraj).

For the next two hours, the chimp arranged us in queues of three, four and five, circles, triangles, squares, semi circles and question marks. It ended with the chimp and Shantanu climbing the terrace to click an aerial view of Us-The Question Mark. For ten good minutes while clicking the aerial shot, Hansu hung over Shantanu’s arm like a pile of washing freshly plucked from a roof-top clothes line. Just like that! Reminded me of the games of cricket, when, after a simple catch, we used to just dive and topple over to make it look like a tough one. (What! You never did that?)

Anyway, it was 4:30 pm now. Any guesses as to what I did next? I slept. I wouldn’t have slept all this much had I remembered it was my turn to blog for the blog I am blogging for. But I did not remember, did I? So I slept. Blissfully. For two hours. (Why I can’t I talk about Friday!!)

I got up at 6:30 pm, to go for a ..wait for it.. jog! Ahem Ahem. Yeah so Kapil, Ashish and I go for a jog. Regularly. Ok let us call it a jog-walk-mix. Ok it’s really majorly a walk. Whatever! I am sure you don’t even do that, now do you? Huh!

Fast forward to 9 pm. I pinged a few people to ask for deliverables for the next day. Only an Economics presentation! Some two hours of work. So I decided to leave it for the morning (and that saves me from talking about it in this blog! Does a little victory dance).

“..And she slept happily ever-after..”

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Thanks Meenal! Great entry to mark the end of the first Guest Writers' week on my blog :) I got some really good feedback on this idea from quite a few of you readers out there. Thanks to you guys for following my blog! It would be great if you could also post your comments on the articles. Feedback, positive AND negative, is nice!

For now, it's back to me. And when I'll have guest writers in future, I'll make sure you know.

Day 163: 8th Dec, 2009

Today's post would be interesting in the sense that I am getting it from one of the (very) few freshers on campus - Shantanu. I, for one, am waiting to see whether the fact that you have landed here right after college makes any difference to a 'normal' day!

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My Day.

It is for the sixth time in 20 minutes that my phone, which is usually quiet, starts blaring ‘Arriving Somewhere but Not Here’ by Porcupine Tree. I open an eye and see 9:10 a.m staring back at me. I hear Sarin, my neighbour, banging on the door. Since I have come to IIM Lucknow, I have required an increasing number of alarms in the morning to wake up. Initially, one would be enough. Then two, then three. Well now when I sleep, I have alarms set for 8:45 a.m, 8:50 a.m, 8:55 a.m .. Well, you get the point. And yeah, I have a Sarin too.

I run to the mess and run to class holding my omelette and bread in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. That run is complete in exactly two minutes, but those two minutes make my day. Basically, they get me ready for one drilling class after the other. That is the thing with an institute like ours. You not only have tight and impossible deadlines, you have OVERLAPPING deadlines. You find yourself competing with yourself to do a hundred things in, well, no time. The first class is Management Accounting which includes stuff like cost analysis, variance, absorption and what say you. Prof. V is one of the straightest and probably the best professor we have had yet. He is a taskmaster and his classes are good. The Math professor is busy cracking jokes half the time, the Operations professor walks a record 7 km in one teaching hour and the Marketing prof comes with this minion whose only job is to sit in a corner and note down the class participation. Honestly, I am yet to see a more boring job. And a bigger loser. After 4 long hours, classes are done.

This is when my day starts. I have my lunch and rush to office. A million thoughts rushing through my mind. A million things to do. Let me explain. I am a core committee member of Manfest, the Annual International Business Conclave of IIM Lucknow slated to happen in the next 40 days. As you can understand, time is tight and we have loads of work. More so because the senior Manfest team is busy with exams, and hence we are doubly loaded. I meet Karthik and Sharath in the office and we get down to business. Every minute, all we think about is Manfest 2010. Through the exhaustion and moments of give up, all that drives us is the dream of a spectacular Manfest 2010. We make mistakes and face horrible moments of self doubt, but there can be no learning experience greater than this. Being at the centre stage of a body which organizes an event budgeted at 96 laks and more is something no classroom or even prof. V can teach you.

I did forget to mention, in between all the work there was an Operations quiz at 5:30 p.m. That went OK. Or maybe I just have stopped caring. We have reached a stage where marks and grades no longer remain significant. Or more rightly framed, relevant. There are bigger things to do, bigger things to worry about. Marks will take care of themselves.

Post dinner, I work in the office for a while and at 1:00 a.m trudge to the mess. A soldier, tired and bruised. But alive. Smiling. After breakfast, this is my second favourite moment of the day. Just as the run from the mess to the PGP office takes two minutes, this peaceful march of mine takes 20. A cheese toast in hand, I make my way to room 707. I drop my bag on the bed, sit on the chair, turn up the music and check my mail. There are so many new ones. Didn’t I just check it 30 minutes back? 17 new mails at 1:30 a.m in 30 minutes? I accept that it cannot be a lie and carefully read each one. Replying where necessary. Meeting at 3:00 a.m? Why? I feel my eyelids dropping. Heavy. I feel my nose connecting with my keyboard.

‘Wake up Shantanu!’ Bang Bang! It’s Sarin.

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Hahahaha. Must confess one thing here... this blog is almost a day late :-p . And poor Shantanu has kinda combined the two days here :D Hehehe. Won't blame him! It could just be another day.

Another interesting thing happened today. Our OM prof had yesterday sent back two students as they came to class a minute late - as they went to quickly compensate the lack of breakfast with a cup of coffee. Today our prof gave them their attendance, saying (in retrospect) it wasn't really their fault (which is true considering the prof for the earlier lecture had extended the class!). Anyways, I liked that gesture.. it's in keeping with my general idea about people who are ready to take a step back and accept their mistake - not an easy thing to do na?

And yes, today our mess served GAJAR HALWA during dinner! It was just DIVINE!! :D . Way to go mess!!