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 525:2nd Mar, 2011 - Pappu place ho gaya!

Had to reach early since I had one early morning quiz for a trading profile. Really nice quiz - only some quick calculations to do :-p . Not too surprising that I got shortlisted to the next round.

Had a nice breakfast after that; and it was only then that I came to know that it was Maha Shivratri today. My annual fasting event :-) . Didn't want a short-term thing like placements come in my way, and hence I decided to hold my fast anyways. 

Quite a few processes then to keep me busy for the day. For the first time, I experienced being dragged out of one process to attend further rounds of another particular process, indicating an interest in me - feels good :-p . Also had a very interesting GD round of a South based leading telecom player - we argued (sensibly!) for a good 15 minutes on a topic which NONE of us were sure what really meant :D . Truly, I think that marked the end of our MBA journey :-p

By late night, I came to know I had an offer from that fin firm for the next best position than the one in which I was more interested (in which unfortunately they had frozen recruitments). A tick against the last item pending on the MBA list :-) 

At 2am, was celebrating at Fauzi with the INDEX gang (me only with a cup of tea) when I came to know I also had received an offer for the trading role I had tried for in the morning. (The subsequent interview just had one puzzle and some basic questions - was pretty short for me). Never expected to face a problem of plenty in this context. Some thinking and greed-based analysis later, I opted for the trading one. Don't know how positive the final payoffs will be, but it's now time to take some risks ;-)

Day 507:12th Feb, 2011

Now, in my 6th term, the third last exam of my IIM L life, if I myself come up and say I prepared quite hard for this exam, you really MUST believe it! Major fatta hua haalat, especially given the huge weightage to the quiz and very minimal weightage to project :P (and our performance in it :P). 

But eventually, when going to give the paper, I was reasonably confident of turning in a decent enough answer sheet. Except, that didn't happen. Pretty tough paper, damaging grades across the board. Of the two nuclear bombs that can spoil my future plans, one has exploded - tomorrow will know the fate of the other one.

Anyways, this was the last exam for Pachpan, and the fool immediately left for home. Well, I know he is going to be back this time, but it did put my mind on the same track it has often drifted to off late.. - that very soon, we'll all be gone, never to return (for quite some time at least). Sad :-( :-(

Days 453,454: 20th-21st Dec, 2010 - Walking the last mile

Wow! Just can't believe the speed with which 5 terms have passed by!

Anyways, the combined post is because I slept off early yesterday, 8.30pm, a little too early infact for helL's standards :D. Not much to do yesterday. Finished off with the registration formalities. Caught up with a few stex-returned batchmates - finally saw the guy who lost half of himself back there! A few others who were back from stex also seemed to have lost weight, except of course for my good friend Kung Fu Panda, who seems to have gained a few more kilos of awesomeness :P + of course it was freezing cold and I had this feeling that excessive exposure to it wouldn't bode well. And hence, I just found a nice excuse to snuggle myself on the bed and get some sleep.

Today morning I attended my first class of the last term. (Even had breakfast after what seems like a zillions years!) Due to the PGP1 exams, we ended up having the class in CR103 - my old classroom. My actual seat was already occupied, so I ended up sitting one row behind. But that didn't stop me from reminiscing about all the super brilliant moments spent in that class - 3 cheers to section B for that! :-) . Then went to Chatur's room to gorge on all those sweets gotten from home. Not to mention the bonus of getting a few chocolates from the stex people nearby :D . And finally saw the movie 'Usual Suspects' - I found it OK.

Had a company ppt in the afternoon. Many more to follow. I guess a good amount of time this term is going to go this way. The funny part today though was that a Pcommer's name was called out and he wasn't there! :P . Had the burger in the mess (newly rechristened as 'Annapoorna') - seems like a 'Warm Welcome' sign with the most popular item.

Meanwhile, TG got his pappu. Spent some time talking about that, a lot more negotiating for the scale of the treat and then a lot more on random bakwaas. Which somehow ended up in the decision that we were not going to eat in the mess. And so we went to the (by now default) Brij ki Rasoi and stuffed ourselves to the max - no one else paid and it became a 'starter to the main treat' ;-)

Also Pachpan, Bala and me were riding triples and we kind of had a 'standstill skid' from the bike at 3.4 :D. Nobody got hurt or anything, but it was uncanny considering I had joked about it just that evening with a couple of other friends! Spoooky no?! :D

Slept off immediately when I came back. But then got up a couple of hours ago. Anyways, too much of pointless browsing done. It's 5.30 am now :-p . Good by helL's standards and have now more than made up for yesterday's early retirement. Time to go to sleep again so I wake up for tomorrow's class. Gn.

Days 429,430: 20th-21st Nov, 2010 - INDEX 2010!

IIM Lucknow's INDEX would be India's biggest Disguised Market Research Fair. INDEX 2010 saw a lot of firsts. A record 18 live market research projects from the industry including 2 on Rural Research, big names like Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, some awesome videos, even a website!

But yet.. I find myself falling short of words thinking how I could do even moderate justice in describing all that crosses my mind as I write this post :-) . And I don't think I can manage. So instead of describing INDEX, I would rather say this -

INDEX has been the most memorable journey of my 2 years at IIM L. I have learnt a lot and have had infinite level fun (very highly compressed in one statement). But most importantly, I have made some brilliant friends for life. This post is a thank you to all of them!

And also a big thank you to the 500+ students involved in INDEX, either as a part of an MR team or as a part of the organizing team. Brilliant job everyone!

Three Cheers to INDEX!! Hip hip.. hurray!!

Day 323: 29th Jul, 2010

Committee results!! New members to the INDEX family :) 

Set for more brilliant times ahead! Woohhooo!!

Day 322: 28th Jul, 2010

It's 6.20 in the morning and the rays of the sun crowd through my window even as I write this post. I haven't slept one wink though. Well , none of us at INDEX have. Tomorrow (or should I say today) is going to be one of the most important days for a lot of people - committee selection results are to be announced. I remember well, my own state at this time last year, the curiosity in me, to know where I stood. Today, we were on the opposite end - and let me tell you, it's no bed of roses. All 8 of us argued A LOT through the whole night on A LOT of things - one very high-intensity meeting! Some tough calls to be taken; with only one objective - the best thing for INDEX has to be done...

Sigh, got class at 8.15. Am sure I won't wake up if I doze off now. Guess I'll just stay awake through!

Day 263: 24th Mar, 2010

Many of us 'slums' people were in a very Inqilab Zindabad sort of mood since yesterday over the room allocation thing. Multiple emails in one fiery thread discussed new alternatives and strategies. Heck.. we even had a small precursor meeting to the batch meet in the afternoon.

Never mind all this turned out to be a damp squib eventually, but still, I enjoyed taking a stand and voicing an opinion. You might think everyone would do this if it concerned their interests. Unfortunately though, it's not quite true... a lot of people just do not participate in such activities!

The effect of this was yet another huge 'game-theory' based activity. Lots of number-crunching all around - how many groups are moving, moving where, will we get rooms and many such questions being discussed. Man, choice does become boring!

PS: my late sleeping saga continues.. comparatively slightly early today - just 4.45 am :P

Day 182: 27th Dec, 2009

Sooner, not later

I guess I must be amongst the first people to be running off after exams. I had taken a flight at 2pm and my exam was supposed to end at 12.30pm. Which was a close call (unless of course I left the paper a little early ;-) :D ). Fortunately or unfortunately, the flight got delayed by 45 minutes, so now the gap was enough.

Anyways, about the DWO paper. Have already told you about my level of preparation. Let me now tell you that it had no connection with the paper. The last 30 marks question was amongst the weirdest ones I have seen. We had to analyse EVERYTHING about a case from EVERY aspect of the course. And the funniest part - there was no case ! We were supposed to take any example (real or hypothetical) and go ahead!

As I said, it was intention to finish off the paper asap. And though I was writing to the speediest of my abilities, I was shell shocked to find Bharat submitting the paper in 1.5 hrs! :-O

I finished the paper with about 20min to spare and then caught up with Swapnil Thakre and shared an auto to the airport. After dealing with some of the worst roads in India and a tyre puncture, did manage to reach the airport well in time.

Time for vacation now. Time to chill out and enjoy. Time for a vacation for this blog as well. Brutally short break this one. I hope to make the best of it ! :-)

So long folks!! Cya soon!!

Day 128: 3rd Nov, 2009

Saw lots more of Rocky today. That's turning out to be one nice series.

Seems like I am destined for extended shortlists. Generally made a better impact here. Progressed to step 2 this time around. And then, stopped.

The air around is now chilly with emotion. You can sense it when you speak to people. The cold is biting. Honestly speaking, my feelings of disappointment are way too temporary and transient. I think I am just plain lucky. Well a little ironical in the current context but true in a more long term sense.

And as the roller coaster comes down, each of us will have little memories of this little ride.

-The random surprises! I mean, you just can't help but go 'W-T-F' when you see their names present and yours absent.

-The shortlist bonanza for some, adding to theirs (and others') agony.

-The GD crashers :D. Apparently one of the girls got so aggressive during her GD, she just waved her pen around so hard that it suddenly slipped out of her hand. And the guy in front had to duck to avoid the lethal assault weapon making a hole in his head. Guess someone needs to remind her that the pen is mightier than the sword, NOT word. And then again there was this guy who got so aggressive with his hand gestures that by mistake he kind of slapped his neighbour :D

Ah, well ... now for tomorrow ...

Day 64: 23rd Aug, 2009

My MOST eventful day at IIM L till date. And will definitely remain one of the most important days of my entire stay at IIM L. (No wonder the post will be long! .. but it will be nice)

Had breakfast on a Sunday morning for the first time in 2 months! Inspite of the fact that I eventually slept only at around 4am yesterday, I somehow automatically totally woke up by 8.30! And this was after I had already snoozed a couple of alarms before. Was the first time in 2 months that I was awake so early on a Sunday..!

Which meant even after breakfast I had wayyyy too much extra time for the rest of the day (which could either have stretched long or pruned short.. depending on committee selection results). Anyways, started off with something productive. Finished off coming up with part of the questions for a 1 BIO questionnaire that we need to make. Managed to meet the deadline that I myself had set yesterday (fortunately saved my own face there).

Then came the class t-shirt! Had taken it upon myself to make a t-shirt for the section. I personally thought I came up with something nice for the front side :) . Took a little bit of thinking but got implemented quickly. For the back design, thought of incorporating all names as per the seating pattern. That took a LOT of effort, considering each line in the pattern was a layer and each of them had to be adjusted in size. And then it had to be incorporated into a 'B'. And finally when I sent the designs to the class for feedback, most of them didn't get it :( .

Again, different kind of lunch occasion. It was a pizza party thrown by the Manfest team, only to convey a negative in a no hard feelings sorta way. I definitely didn't mind the free pizzas :D . Also got a sweatshirt, which is nice! Needs to be washed well though! :-p My hands got all itchy when I tried them out :-\

Took a stopover at Guptaji's on my way back, accompanied by Meshed R and Dhamdhere. Meshed suddenly expresses his desire to ride a bike and Deshpande (who is also there) throws him on his 194CC Bajaj Avenger :D. As we left Meshed to continue his practice session for another 10 min and reached my room, I couldn't find my keys! Sent Meshed back to search for the keys, meanwhile realised I had kept it inside my wallet :-p . After some rounds of abuses hurled at me, we settled down to take further our video making effort. (further from zero :p). Only thing we managed to do was catch up on a few funny animations (search castrol rajni, maakad man on youtube) and record another funny sound making conversation featuring yours truly. I personally killed some mosquitoes as well. Anyways, we also just wanted to spend some time that was left for the committee results. That was well achieved.

As a person from Aamchi Mumbai, Ganeshotsav is a big thing. Every nook and corner you go and someone or the other is blasting off the Ganesh Aarti. So many Ganesh pandals. But it was pretty low key here. Had a Ganesh Aarti in the evening.

And now for the most awaited moment. Committee results!!! Finally the time had come when all suspense would be put to rest. A lot of people assembled in CR 107. As we reached, the presi had already started announcing names in the alphabetical order of committees. Thoughts flooding the mind as he spoke out the names. Still 'A' going on.. so my result was still a suspense. And then .. "in INDEX" .. "Ashish ... Rohit " 1-2 names gone.. where am I .. "Saurabh Agarwal" .. cool!.. but am I? .. my name's announced .. yeyyy!! :D .. more committees .. "Placement committee" .. this one is the biggie .. " .. Kans*" sahi hai! game afterall! .. "Duryodhan* .. Menaka* .. " awesome! they pulled off the coup! .. Finally all names were announced. Felt bad for people who couldn't make through any. Really hard luck for quite a few of them. But then, it always happens.

And now I am INDEXed. Forever! :) We went to a place near the Medusa sculpture. Had a small intro session. Felt excited to be a part of one of the biggies on campus. It was time to party! Came to my room and quickly changed. And went to Taj ! Most committees were there, but we went into a special reserved area :p :D . A little delay since pCom was also there. Greatttt fun there. Went around chatting till 1. From there went to this place Park Inn (so many places in Lucknow.. sahi hai!) which has a 24hr cafe. Sat there again for some time. Some story sessions, random nicknames, random facts... hahahaha.. total tp all in all. Left from there at around 3am and came back to college. And there, we got INDEX t-shirts! The only ones amongst our batch to have that INDEX t-shirt. Time of my Life.

Definitely the end of a phase... And me .. Am surely on the right track to having a good time ahead. Yoohoo!

* names have been changed to protect identity :)

Day 63: 22nd Aug, 2009

Day started at 11.45, with a call from my mom :) .. who apparently postponed the call so that I may not be disturbed out of an early sleep :D.

Went to attend a session on what-consulting-is by some alumni. IMHO, the session was OK. Lots of questions around CG again, basically suggesting that is what is going to get you your shortlist primarily.

But the main thing to be spoken about is the air on campus. The anxiety is there amongst so many in the batch. It is almost tangible...

Actually you know, time periods can be divided quantitatively - as in 3months, 6months, 1st term, etc. But more importantly perhaps, it can be divided qualitatively. Into what I would say phases...

Probably phase 1 would be our initial induction by the seniors. Brought the class together. Introduced us to a rigorous non-sleepy routine, etc.

And now this is phase 2. Probably might be one of the most important phases. Tomorrow, after committee results, there will be a change. Good amount of change in the life path ahead. Will be defining much of the remaining 2 years on campus. Heavy feeling? Yes, it is ...

Anyways, in the midst of all this, did the best possible thing by running off to the city again! :D Went to this place 'Cultures' @ FUN Republic for dinner. Kaushik, Dhamdhere, 55 and myself. Kaushik is almost on the verge of bashing up someone. But there are good chances the whole thing is a setup to psyche him. Suspense unfolds tomorrow...