Day 439:30th Nov, 2010

I generally diligently attend all initial classes and save up my bunks for towards the end. Unfortunately though, strategy failed as we had a "final project quiz" in the CBM class today and I had to attend it. Not that much came out of giving that quiz anyway.

Pretty packed day though. This was immediately followed by a session about a company that evokes dichotomous reactions. A lot of us are very enthusiastic about it and an even greater lot want to have nothing to do with it. Mainly due to the location where they send us. And of course, the "rumours" about what kind of heads comprise of their CTC. Anyways, an alum had come down for the session, and it was pretty much informal (except for the dress code). The job sounds exciting and adventurous to me. Wouldn't mind it at all!

Immediately after that, I had to revamp a ppt for a presentation we had in our SM class. Did that in my room and then in the back benches of the classroom. The presentation itself went off smoothly though - that's one thing we have had enough practice of here :D

That was followed by an LTL class. Somehow, because of a few cancellations and reschedulings, turns out we have 5 whole sessions of LTL left. Still time for me to use my buffer. Also, funny thing during attendance - the prof looked up at me after I had answered my attendance. Courteously, even I looked back at him. Then he enquiringly nodded at me. I nodded back - confused. (Absolutely didn't understand where the dumb-charades game was going.) Then I realised the prof was asking me why I had missed the previous lecture. I had no clue why (!! ... who keeps a track of everything) and that is exactly what I told him :-p . Don't know why the class found it funny though :-p

Had a small meeting in the evening. Closing small small issues. Leaving the bigger ones for later discussion, since we all need to sleep early and wake up really really early tomorrow!

Day 438:29th Nov, 2010 - HEPPy

The temperature's dipped tremendously all of a sudden!

But the sudden chill may also be because of the dementor called 'CV Submission'! After a long long time, PGP2s (atleast a majority of them) are actually busy with something. And since we are allowed to have a 2-page CV for our laterals, I have been trying to expand my points and simultaneously retain it's strength and non-globe quotient. That's a really tough job, since we are so used to doing it's exact opposite :D

Just past 6am. And I have optimally used all the time available to keep modifying my CV. Time to sleep. Gn!

Day 437:28th Nov, 2010 - Double Mazzaa!

It would be criminal if I diluted today's super divine incident with anything else!

A few months back, I think I somewhat got an idea of how an orgasm would be when I had my first bite of sizzling hot cheese burst pizza from Dominos. Relived that moment today - seems there is a new thing on the market - DOUBLE cheese burst pizza! It has 2 layers of molten cheese, one the usual and another with a slightly sweetish tinge to it. 

Mahhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn .. simple AWESOME!! Special thanks to AdiJ and his other half Hansie for insisting on the pizza part. Thanks to Ghate for initiating the outing (and the Richi Rich panipuri). And Chatur and Sud, thanks jlt? :-p

Day 436:27th Nov, 2010 - The Ghost Resurfaces

It's CV time!

The demon has come back to jolt us out of our post-INDEX luxurious break. Try as I did, I hadn't been able to gather any tempo to work on this. Attended a Disha session though - and am glad I did. Mainly because somehow it made me a little more serious about the whole thing.

Outcome being - it's now 7am, even the lazy winter sun has risen by now. And I finally finished revamping my INDEX POR part. Looks nice to me! :-p

Day 435:26th Nov, 2010

Day started off pretty early as I had a CBM quiz. The main reason I went for it is because it was going to be a MCQ paper. And didn't see any harm in trying out my luck :D

Time for a new activity from now - trading :D . I finally have a properly functional demat account. And apparently I had to make a trade in the first one month. So there I was, trying to see in that complex maze if there is a path to make some profit. Gladly did manage to find one, and walked off with a princely profit of Rs.100/- .. :-)

Treat plans once again disintegrated due to miscellaneous reasons. We went out anyways - and this time, for the first time in 1.5 yrs - to Yokos for some sizzlers. And we were all left wondering why we had never been there before! 'Coz the ambience and the food both were excellent (sans the chocolate pizza :-p) ! Definitely needs a revisit.

Day 434:25th Nov, 2010

It's growing colder each day. And wrapped up in a warm blanket, you just don't feel like waking up :-)

Exactly because of this (and the cushion of attendance that I have saved up), I decided to give today's morning class a skip. And exactly like yesterday. later came to know that the session was officially cancelled :D

Apart from that, nothing special during the day. Have spent a big chunk of it playing this game called 'Crazy Taxi'. It's a light app on FaceBook and it's got me hooked pretty bad!!

Day 433:24th Nov, 2010

Am now reaching new levels of nonchalance. Had an EPA quiz in the morning. Woke up, even physically got up (yes, they are two different things) and then, in some 30 seconds, inspired myself to go back to sleep. The reason - a 5 mark quiz for which I haven't prepared wouldn't serve me from either the knowledge point of view and definitely not from the CG point of view. Even skipped the next 2 morning lectures to wake up at an extremely lazy 1.30 in the afternoon. (Later came to know the proj fin lecture was officially cancelled. Yey!)

As I said, day before yesterday couldn't catch up on HP 7 on account of Guzaarish and now it was time for amends. Made it a 'Bunk-all day' by skipping the EPA class. Saw the afternoon show - movie was OK types  though, probably a little slow. Spent some time in Landmark where Chatur exhausted her 'Topper's Gift Voucher'. Such a pity you can't buy chocolates with that voucher! :-p . A discounted cappuccino later (thanks to a free voucher), went to Brij where and had dinner with some more from the INDEX gang. Awesome time!

Day 432:23rd Nov, 2010

Had a small meeting today. To kinda take stock of the deviations in planning and a re-look at our budget. And since we had ample time on our hands, the meeting was enormously inundated with a lot of fun and narrations :D

PS: After ages, my whiteboard was completely erased and filled by absolutely new stuff!

Day 431:22nd Nov, 2010 - Empty!

Life suddenly feels so empty! Just a day ago, it would be criminal if you couldn't utilise each and every second for something. And now, you have hours and hours to idle away..

The last one week, not one phone call went by without having another "in waiting". And now, the only time my phone rings is because of those automatic calls from Airtel. (Though I am confess, my mind seems to hear the ringtone every now and then!)

The "tasks" column on my outlook, most of them in red (signifying - overdue :-p), is now absolutely clear. My study table was adorned by 'sticky-notes' indicating a zillion to-do things. Even my laptop screen was not spared, putting to good use the 'Post-it' software in Windows 7. Everything's been trashed now.

In order to save some minuscule seconds, I would always have open multiple explorer windows, one for each folder relevant and even one for a subfolder in that, so that I did not have to navigate each time. All those windows are closed. The perennially running resource hogger of a Photoshop has been closed. And so have the multiple browsers to check multiple gmail accounts.

But most of all, the mind is super free. No multiple thoughts fighting with each other for priority action. No thinking about what workaround to provide for the sudden last minute problems. Nothing dynamic.

Sigh. Life is suddenly so empty.

I am sure my fellow senior core are engulfed by similar feelings, especially considering the frequent trips that have arbitrarily been made to my room :D ; indulging in all sorts of conversations. The highlight of which was a band formation; and before anyone actually learnt any music, people started the photoshoot for the album cover :D

And just like that, we decided to go out for dinner. Fortunately for everyone, Pachpan and TG came to a quick truce - go to Mainland China this time and Barbecue Nation the next. Some nice food in some nice ambience, and brilliant company :-) . Even hatched a plan to watch a movie after that. Had to skip desserts for that :-( . Much debate on whether to go for HP 7 or Guzaarish. Eventually by the time we reached Wave, turned out HP 7 had already started 5 minutes back, simplifying the choice :D . Hoping and anticipating many more of such times in the next 100 odd days left!

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 428:19th Nov, 2010 - INDEX'10 eve!

It's still raining! And we just weren't able to procure water-proofing material at such short notice. Only thing is to pray and hope it remains sunny tomorrow! Spent a good part of the afternoon at the ground supervising the various arrangements being made, especially the teams coming down to have the MR stall set up as per their design.

When I came back to campus, I was shocked (or did I somewhere expect it?) to find that the most illogical conclusion had been reached. Just can't comprehend the way some things work out here. *angry + frustrated!* 

With INDEX tomorrow, billions of tiny things to be ironed out. Late evening, realised there was some communication gap w.r.t. the stage backdrop itself! Man.. spent some anxious time correcting that. And then of course, it is of course a must for the Ops guy to be on-ground. I remember my stint last year, patching up tents till late in the night. This time things were much more on time. Of course, the afternoon rains have played havoc. The tents are moist, and are catching dew like crazy. Almost all tents have a drip issue and teams haven't been able to put up their props entirely. But the good thing is rains have stopped now, and also the skies seem clear. That should give enough time tomorrow morning for the teams to finish their setup. It's 4am now - need to catch up with some sleep before heading off to the ground early morning tomorrow!

The D-day is finally here! :-) Yayy!!

Day 427:18th Nov, 2010 - Rains!

The last thing we could ever want - rains! :-| . That is something probably INDEX just can't hold out against! The only solace to be sought is that if it rains today and maybe a little tomorrow, it will be sunny Saturday onwards...

Meanwhile, the junior creative team has come up with yet another AWESOME video! Super stuff - Check it out!

Anyways, yesterday's problem doesn't seem to be heading towards any solution. As a matter of fact, we seem to be moving away from it slightly. One person's decision is to be diffused into a committee's. And highly probably that too many cooks will be spoiling the broth. But not to give up so easily - trying to "fix" some result. Lets see how it works out.

One very positive thing that I have seen over the past few days is the super spike in the enthusiasm shown by the junior core members post their midsems. The outcome of the above incident made them feel very angry towards us as well as others involved. This is brilliant, since in my opinion, it is a very healthy sign that they have now started feeling for INDEX at a very very deep and personal level. Took me back to one year ago, and I could easily identify this transition which happens as we draw close to the fair. Very soon, I am sure, INDEX, for them too, is going to be above anything else :-)

Day 426:17th Nov, 2010 - Problems Galore!

No amount of planning in this world can prevent last minute problems from cropping up. Especially in a world were there is scant regard for ethics and morals and commercial matters and personal insecurities take over.

The first cause happened early morning. Seems like some infrastructure issues "flooded" our venue suddenly :-S . A coincidence much too weird and uncanny. And definitely somewhat unpleasant deja-vu feeling. But where there is a problem, there is a solution. On-the-spot came up with alternative execution plans alongwith Pachpan, in the process also figuring out the logic behind our (now erstwhile) 27ft * 27ft dimensions :D

From there, went off on a stall filling journey. Kisaan dropped by and picked up Pachpan to cover a new area. Spent a few hours talking to random people. Yet another learning experience at the super-ground level. Learnt a new term - bazaari - basically individuals who every day of the week go to the area where the weekly market is on and (Problem #1) set up their stall there. Problem #2 - turns out a new month long fair is going to start on Sunday and everyone wants to rush there from day zero to get a good location. Anyways, still got quite a few contacts from a variety of vendors. But at such places, zero guarantee that even a single one will eventually turn up :D

While I was ending my stint with a sweets-eating session at Ritz, Pachpan and Kisaan joined me again. While Kisaan left to try and get some deal, myself and Pachpan stumbled upon this guy who happened to have a whole list of contacts for tiny things. Lots of mini-things would get crossed off my white board. 

In fact, in general, the "business sense" of these one-man-stalls was really applaudable. Case in point, when we went to them and spoke to them about so-and-so event and asked for their contact, each one of them had a proper business card to give to us. Just shows they are always ready to grab a bigger opportunity that comes along!

Came back to campus to realise that we have an absolutely new problem that has cropped up! Yaar just can't understand weird logic people keep throwing at us. Not focussing much on that right now. Finishing a lot of other sidey work.

Day 425:16th Nov, 2010

Sleeping late and waking up late seems to have become the norm now. Finished off with a whole bunch of creatives though. Now time for some extras ;-)

Now, a website does not have too much utility for INDEX. But seems like you don't exist these days if you don't have a virtual address. Hence we are trying a bit to come up with a website (a plan that for spent a long time on the drawing board :-p) this year. We have our infrastructure and content ready since a few days. Got a contact of a guy who could incorporate some aesthetic appeal, which we design-impoverished people just couldn't :D. Lets see how that progresses.

The white board in my room is now almost black :-) . So much of ink on it indicating so much load and infinite mini tasks to be completed - all on priority! :D

Day 424:15th Nov, 2010

Thanks to yesterday's power-play, gloriously slept through my stipulated CBM early morning lecture. But grade drops are the lousiest way of pulling your scores down. So I don't like losing out on attendance (and I don't give/take proxy either), and hence attended the 12.30pm session. Too good prof though - seeing the high strength in his class, all by himself he called out people who had been absent in his morning sessions, since he easily understood they have all attended this lecture :D

Remaining afternoon and evening again went in continuation of yesterday's topic. Finally reached a closure, which "right now" seems to be a bit unfair, but definitely better than what was being decided earlier.

Funny thing happened in the midst of all this. Exactly the kind of mischief your batchmates would play on you. We had a clubbed 3hr session for LTL, and I was able to attend only the first part. So after the 2nd lecture, I sheepishly went to the prof to tell him I couldn't attend the 2nd session and requested him to give me attendance for the first. On which I was told by the prof that he didn't have the attendance register, and hence everyone would get attendance! Argghhh - why didn't someone tell that to me before I went to the prof!

Day 423:14th Nov, 2010 - Power Play

Man o' man... Seems like a Super Sunday! Shattered all previous existing records - woke up at 1.30 in the afternoon! :-o . And that too with a week to go for INDEX :-p

Did fill in the afternoon with a lot of work though. Especially since there was a plan to finally head out for the facchas Summers party; to Barbecue Nation! But the place seriously seems to be jinxed. Just as I was returning from Body-builder's room (strategic location in my prev hostel :-|.. I missed it!), got a call from some people calling me for a "short meeting" at around 6.30pm. The last time such a thing happened, it ran from 11pm to 4pm or so. That never struck my mind at the start. But what followed turned out to be something absolutely unexpected. A discussion that with them ran for 3 hours, and then amongst us through the night. Simply incomprehensible things seem at times. Last thing one would want in the midst of all this activity. Not over yet, lets see how this goes forward tomorrow. Lots of plans and measures in the head - of all ranges and degree.

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 421:12th Nov, 2010

It is generally important to be in touch with all your stakeholders, even if it demands feeding them some not-so-important updates at certain time intervals. Yesterday, I got a call from one of them and the poor fellow was totally confused about what is happening. So today's agenda began by paying him a visit and appeasing him by "offering" him a few intangibles which would eventually be beneficial to us too ;-) Synergy! 

Another thing which is generally important and very very important when you are doing something on the scale of INDEX is efficiency. So whenever I need to make a visit to the city, I try and ensure that it is planned out and I can meet maximum people. Consequently, after making my first pit-stop at the proposed venue, I went and met some other potential sponsors - the usual ups and downs journey. Eg. We were "99%" sure this one guy would be in; but the 1% turned out to be more powerful, as his parent company decided a new strategy for their latest brand launch. Another likely guy who we approached (quite late in his defence :-p) couldn't go ahead due to time constraints, but he said was very nice and said sorry and all to me 3-4 times :-p . Really big deal in this context! Met a few new people too. It's challenging and fun though. And definitely a learning experience - since you directly interact with people who have been there, done that and are absolutely aware of all ground realities and ask surprisingly specific questions to understand what is in it for them. 

For example, today I went to this computer dealer to ask him to put up a stall in our fair. But he nicely pointed out that his shop is already in a prime location in an area famous for these goods. When he already has the "PULL" factor working for him in his existing place, why would he want to move out elsewhere? Good point! And many such small snippets have come across while working for INDEX. Thing I may probably have never learnt otherwise. The whole thing would probably be a separate post though.

And then one meeting at night. Guess this is going to be a lot more common for the next few days.

Day 420:11th Nov, 2010

I am somehow a fan of versioning. Through my stint of producing creatives for an event, I always store all my intermediate steps as something_v1 and so on and so forth. After a few draft versions, and taking feedbacks in parallel for those versions, I eventually reach a stage which I call something_final. But never ever has that been the final copy. And so once again, I found myself working on the finally_final copy of the hoarding. Luckily this time, since we didn't have any time and of course, the work would expand only as much as the available time - the hoarding finally was freezed!

Post dinner, Vanki, Pachpan, Kisaan and myself had an impromptu meet / discussion to assess our budget under more "practical terms". Seems like we are in a position to explore some new avenues :)

And suddenly, the worst possible thing has happened - I have caught cold! Nothing irritates me more in life than a running nose! Have taken a tablet and am going to sleep. Lets hope this goes off soon!

Day 419: 10th Nov, 2010

So in the midst of all this, we even had a CBM quiz today. The system to be followed was best 2 of 4. As I had done OK in the first two (+ had absolutely no time to even find out the syllabus of this one), I decided to skip it. And as luck would have it, the quiz apparently turned out to be a cakewalk! :-|

Now, my closing remark yesterday was that I wasn't sure how the new hoarding design would be received by my team people. Turns out - not so well :-p. And so immediately after my morning classes, I had to spend a few more hours modifying it. A few more calls and a few more mails took up the remaining afternoon-evening time.

Today we (senior core) decided to go out and enjoy. Work hard, party harder types. TG and MMR happened to have a very long, frustrating and not-so-positive day "in office" and therefore decided to take rest and not join us. We left with the intention of going to BBQ (after long! nice!) but mid-way, plan changed and we went off to Genesis yet again! :-S . It happens to be a nice place though, had a nice time, and got some nice pics clicked with Kisaan's digicam, instead of just my cell, the result being I am in a lot more pics than usual :D

Day 418: 9th Nov, 2010

Such a blissful feelings to wake up the morning, find out your class has been cancelled and go back to sleep again! :D . Did break my record of sleeping past noon though. Woke up at a much early 11am.

Had enough attendance (full :-p) in the subsequent lectures of the day. Bunked those to go to the city with Pachpan and get some INDEX work done. Roamed all the way from Gomti Nagar to Hazratganj. Discovered a whole new eating place near WAVE - those small roadside joints that serve good food! At Hazratganj, met up with Kisaan who had his own set of follow-ups to do. Indulged in some pillion-swapping :-p and Pachpan went off with him to meet a few other people; while I thought I'll go check out the status of my cellphone.

Yes, btw, my great cellphone was STILL NOT OK! :-( . Been more than 3 months since I had it in proper working condition! As you would recall (:-p), the last time I gave my phone for repairs, I got a new piece after the 15 day wait. Call it my luck - Turned out even that piece wasn't working! So today, when I went in after another 15 days, I got yet another new piece. This one wasn't a stunner in looks though :-( . Somehow, the silver grey front panel wasn't impressive. When I asked about that, I was told "The company uses any readily available piece". Which is downright silly, because I paid specifically for a good-looking phone! When I asked if it could get replaced, the response - "It will have to be sent back to the company again!". And that I just can't wait. But silly people - why can't they just keep an extra set of panels with the Care Centers :-S

When I came back to my room, I got to know some urgent modifications required in the hoarding creative. Sat on it. Almost 4am now. Not even sure how it is going to be received by others in my team. Just a sign of times to come, over the next one week :-)

Day 417: 8th Nov, 2010

Had come to know yesterday late night that we didn't have the early morning CBM class today. What else do you want to know beyond the fact that you can sleep uninterrupted. And that is how I clocked in yet another successive day of waking up post noon :D

But this was followed by a marathon spree of classes. Serv mark followed by LTL followed by another extra class of LTL followed by an extra session on Proj Fin! 2.30 - 9.30 pm straight! :-|

And after that, a marathon designing session for INDEX! Our poor facchas are caught up in their mid-sems and so time for us seniors to pump in a little extra effort! With less than a couple of weeks to go, too much work on the publicity front needed to speeden up. Had to come up with a basic draft to get some approvals and progress; and it's almost 5.20 now doing all that. Tomorrow's first session is CBM. Am not sure if that one also has been rescheduled! Lets hope so! *fingers crossed*

Day 416: 7th Nov, 2010

The hemisphere confusion phase continues.

Once again, woke up past 12. And it was an absolutely max-level vella Sunday. Spent a good 2 hours coming up to date with the latest in HIMYM. The series does not have its initial charm though. Escalation of commitment compels me to watch it till I know who goes on to be Ted's wife (and I am tending to get the feeling that would be a real dampener!). Even Barney seems to be losing some of his sheen! :-(

Now something that probably has never come up on this blog before (not sure about that) is that I adore boxing! I don't know why, but something in that sport has always attracted me. And not as a follower or critic; more so in a manner that I should be an active participant. Probably that's why, the few boxing movies that I have seen have also been interesting. So when I came across the fact that the "Cinderella Man" is one of the all-time top boxing movies, I just had to see it. And that is what I did; and wasn't disappointed :D . The movies is based on the real life fairy-tale rise of a boxer (James Braddock) who had almost been written off. Engaging movie; the fights were very well-shot.

And obviously, it being a Sunday, no scope of eating the mess food. And where else to go, but the mess away from mess - Brij ki Rasoi. Even had a new visitor amongst us, Karraju. Though considering that the placement process is now totally over, guess we can look forward to more of his presence henceforth.

Have been reading up a little more on random stuff, mainly boxing. Even saw a few more videos of Mohammed Ali, Mike Tyson. What players! Mohammed Ali's swiftness and Tyson's aggression would have been such a deadly combination! Shudder to think of the player who would come up against that combination :-P

Anyways, 2.45 now. Early by standards of the last 2-3 days. So hopefully will wake up a little sooner too. The only pain point - the early morning CBM class is cancelled. So how to motivate myself to get up?

Day 415: 6th Nov, 2010

Body clock's all messed up. Last night (or should I say morning), I slept pretty late and today again, with great difficulty, I managed to wake up at 12:00 noon, just in time for the 12.30 SDM class! 

All second year students seem to have evaporated into thin air. Pretty low attendance in the class too; every one seems to have gone back to their hometown for Diwali. Once I was through with the sole class of the day, I came back to my room with mostly nothing to do. Even my corridor is super empty as yesterday Kisaan also left for his home. So back to seeking entertainment on the LAN. After ages, got back to watching HIMYM. And after aeons, found one good episode - S06,Ep04. Followed those 4 episodes with a movie - Good Will Hunting. Actually Taklya Fresher suggested that movie to me over lunch. And when I started watching it, I realised it's a movie I wanted to see since long, but didn't know the name! Providence :D

The pcommers have started getting the retirement pangs :D . They now seem to have a problem of plenty (too much of time on their hands!) . So even while I was just watching the last part of the movie, GoraTam called me and made up plans for "Action Replay" @ PVR. The movie reviews are pretty OK, but in my opinion, the movie is easily worth once-watch.

Argghhhh... 5am now!! Sleep finally attacks me!! Got to do something to break this cycle! :-|

Day 414: 5th Nov, 2010 - Happy Diwali! :)

Had I been home, today I would have woken up at around 5.30 / 6 am, taken a nice oil bath after some initial smear by my grand-mom, got ready in 20 minutes and then burst crackers. But here, when you go to sleep only at 4.30 am, what would you expect! Consequently (discounting the phone call from home), I woke up only at around 12 noon :-p

For Diwali celebrations, few of us section B people (+ MMR + Gora Tam) who were still on campus, made plans to go out for dinner. And guess where we went - The Taj! :-) Had some awesome dinner over some nice conversation!

Plus, today happened to be a Friday, with two releases. To avoid the crime of missing both the movies even though it was a holiday, we quickly finalised + mobilized ourselves to reach WAVE just in time to catch the 11.30 pm show of Golmal -3. I liked it quite a lot! :D . Some really funny moments here and there. "upar wale ki umar bhi aapse bass do teen din zyada hogi". And the sidekick's AWESOME spellings! ROFL! :D

Came back to campus at around 2.45 am. Along with the cold, fog has begin to set in. Visibility while driving has thus become much less, making driving more safe/simple for the likes of Praveen, me who don't care too much for visibility anyways :-p . Anyways, some FB updates + a couple of short videos about boxing later, I am now super sleepy! 4.30 am - Time to tuck myself into the quilt. Good night  & Happy Diwali! :-)

Day 413: 4th Nov, 2010 - What we have all been waiting for!

Slept relatively early, but still managed to wake up only at around 10:10. Luckily we didn't have the early morning proj fin class. Read my way through the BE class, to follow it up with an INDEX meet at 12:00 noon! I think that's a first, never had a meeting in day time :D

I got too much exhortations from Kisaan on the necessity to go out and enjoy on Diwali eve rather than attend a class. (Did I really need it?). And anyways, my "shopping" was pending. Consequently, I bunked EPA and we instead went to the newly opened Phoenix Mall. It's definitely a disappointment especially in comparison to the publicity it did - much smaller than Sahara and Fun mall. Even the stores didn't have much variety. Ate a little in the food-court (paneer takatak - first time heard that name, so ordered, OK-OK stuff) and then left for FUN mall. But Kisaan brilliantly managed to be sure of the route and within 15 minutes lose his way. And so we somehow ended up going to Sahara mall - that place is definitely so much better. All the stores had a far better variety of stuff. Eventually however, I ended up buying one shirt, while Kisaan impulsively ended up shopping for a sweatjacket, a pair of shoes and a jeans :D . Ended the stint with a super Baskin Robbins ice-cream :D

Came back to my room and saw that our subcomm creative stud had finished the teaser video for INDEX 2010. And tell you what - it's just AWESOME!! :D

Also at,
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=454108805964

Just some time back, I suddenly saw the "Crazy Taxi" facebook application. And for some strange reason, threw myself a challenge that I would beat everyone else on my friend list :-| . After 40min, I now emerge victorious and as the highest scorer amongst my friends! \m/ Will sleep peacefully now!

And technically, it's 4 am, and Diwali now ;-) Happy Diwali! :)

Day 412: 3rd Nov, 2010

Almost forgot that classes are also a part of life :D . Was mighty bored to drag myself back to the routine of attending classes. And that too starting with one at 8.45 am. But kya karein.

For the past week, 30-70% of my talktime with my mom goes into combating queries as to whether or not I have "bought anything for Diwali". Now, this "Diwali shopping" is a concept that I have not been able to understand fully; I am the kinds who would rather buy "as and when needed". But, mainly to have a simple answer to this question, I have been making plans to go and buy something since the last couple of days, but unfortunately some stumbling block comes up! Today some stupid submission required people to go to the city and meet some distributor and all, and I was left with no company to go even today! Tomorrow - for sure! (No other option :) .. :-p)

PS: Got a great new business idea \m/ :D

Day 411: 2nd Nov, 2010

Diwali's around! And supposedly, every Marwadi on this earth would somehow reach home that day. And to fulfil this prophecy, Pachpan went off to celebrate at home. Infact, yet another wingie, Chinki also left for his home! The good thing is that all of these people have to get some (a lot) :D of those Diwali sweets! :)

My room's under siege again :) . Don't really know how this phenomenon started :D . Our facchas - coding genius and creative genius, both came down and we got down to finishing quite a bit of some initial level work, for creatives as well as the website! Meanwhile, got the news that we have yet another project confirmed! Awesome! Had a small update meeting with the facchas tonight. Guess that will be a regular feature going forward!

The Summers process is more or less over now. And my batch PCommer friends are now ex-officio members :-) . That's what is meant by signing off in style!

Day 410: 1st Nov, 2010

Since quite some days, the IAS bhoot has been haunting Pachpan again. Which invariably somehow tends to become a topic of conversation every now and then. And really long conversations when TG is a part of the discussion, mainly because he holds the exact opposite stance. Apparently, they reached a peak yesterday night by continuing a discussion on that topic till 8am :-| . And the "game-changing" point, after so much pondering, turned out to be the salary figure :-S . Which in turn led to another series of thoughts about how important it is for the Government to invest a lot more money to ensure high quality talent acquisition and talent retention.

The summers process is going on well. Lots of more companies, and each one picking more number of students. Heard a super-duper interesting and amusing interview experience of one of Pachpan's juniors, for his 2nd round of a major consultancy firm :D . Need to get a script of that! It is one of those never-to-be-forgotten-ever encounters! :D

Anyways, went with Pachpan to the city for yet another stint of raising money. It is amazing the kind of people you meet out there. Some people thoroughly professional and courteous, some others who are ultra-fond of advising but won't help beyond that, some genuine and honest people. And then some others who are absolutely third class; zero professionalism, simply unsuited to be in any position of authority. Like the guy we visited. (at the place outside which my bike met it's ill fate :( .. the subordinate who met us and started talking about rates all of a sudden).

Continued the eating-out saga. Lunch (awesome choley) at Aryans. Snacks was a round of panipuri. Dinner at Dasaprakash (a must when with Pachpan) .. :D

Many more offers and sign-outs today. Now all our INDEX facchas are placed with good offers :)

Day 409: 31st Oct, 2010 - Design Time still \m/

Some more designing. Spent a little time on coming up with the sweatshirt design. Infact spent more time searching for a decent background template! Everyone was insisting on a plain and simple sweatshirt with universal appeal, and that is exactly what they got.

During our Summers process, we don't have classes, but we haven't technically got holidays. And that is ensured by asking all of us to report to the Placement Office and sign against our pics. And to ensure no frauds, we even have a dedicated person to ensure a one-sign-one-person (right person! :P) process.

We see to be going out for dinner every other day. Once again, Brij got the majority vote due to its proximity advantage. The added drive for TG was that it was a Sunday and kadhi would be available. Or so we thought. Unfortunately though, seems like even on a Sunday, you need to be lucky enough to come on time for the coveted kadhi! Interesting dinner time conversation - a new conspiracy theory called Loose Change, which claims that the entire 9/11 episode was orchestrated by the US! Scary thought.

PS: Must mention my stud quotient. At a time when everyone was clothed in multiple layers of clothes, I went on my bike in just one t-shirt. Tuning my mind.. ;-)