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 181: 26th Dec, 2009

Mei aa raha hoon !

As expected, MANAC 2 paper turned out to be a mixture of problems based on by-hearting some formulae (variance kind) and problems based on common sense. Managed a little bit of both. So should get through with respectable marks overall.

One decision had been hanging. A problem of plenty, which is sometimes more difficult than the problem of scarcity. I had multiple choices, and had to choose one. Made that decision. And finalised it before I could have second thoughts again.

Slept off in the afternoon. Woke up coolly in the evening. And just didn't want to study. Who keeps a stupid paper like DWO as the last one?! How on earth is one supposed to study anything in that?! (though I guess I would have said this for any subject falling on the last day of exams :-p). And nobody around was studying.. nobody! I indulged in some music, little bit of HIMYM and general tp. Went to the mess at around 12 midnight to meet the topper himself (coincidentally .. Shreyas :-p). Chatted along for some time. Came back to my room at around 1.30 am. Finally started studying... or should I say tried to start... since I eventually started listening to music again! Finally at around 3, I opened up some ppt.. and now after reading it for some 15-20 minutes, sleep is taking over :D

And just before I end today's post.. must mention this.. sudden deluge of 'coming back' kind of messages as the gtalk status of people. And so I go with the flow. My gtalk status - (Mumbai) mei aa raha hoon !

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 174: 19th Dec, 2009

No one can eat just one!

For all those of you who are in IIM L, will be in IIM L or just come down near IIML, this is something you must do. There is this bakery a little into the city (8-10 km away) called Mr. Brown. You just have to have one coconut moroccan biscuit that they sell ! It's awesome!! Literally melts in your mouth :D . I bought some of them last week with Tarun and they disappeared into my tummy within no time. Yesterday I asked Saurabh to buy another batch of that thing for me :D . Will make it last through my exams :D

Had two 1.5 hr lectures of Eco today. Final presentations! The eco prof came up with this ingenious idea of making other students ask questions at the end of each presentation. But it was redemption time for me; considering the innumerable times I was caught during eco lectures for no fault. Today, I did not have to speak at all, neither during the ppt, nor to ask questions.

Have DWO final presentation tomorrow. Nothing could be farther than expected as far as requirements/deliverables are concerned. Anyways, sat down with Shreyas and Kaushik and almost completed the ppt and report, skipping dinner in the process. Compensated that at the night mess - good match practice before exams. Met again with the rest of the group for final touches. Doctor sahab made a special appearance, contributed a DWO textbook to the cause and left :D . Anyways, we have stitched something together, including a story ;-) . Tomorrow, the test is not the content, it's the acceptance of content :-p

Day 166: 11th Dec, 2009

I Ran the Half Marathon! ;-)

There comes this epic moment in the life of every IIM L dweller. And yesterday was mine. I did not run 'the distance' physically. But my feat? Yesterday, I watched 20 episodes of How-I-Met-Your-Mother nonstop! Skipping snacks and dinner :D . Now I know why they are called 'sit'coms.

Anyways, the fact that you are now hearing about what I did does indicate that the guest writers' phase is over. My blog enjoyed a good amount of attention then which makes me realise how much all of us look to break the monotony. I will try my best to come up with something interesting on my blog even further :)

Remember that towards-the-end scene from Predator? Where Arnold suddenly falls in that mud and the alien fails to spot him out. I suddenly realised how Arnold would have felt (not the falling-in-mud but the not-getting-caught part) in this one eco lecture where the prof didn't catch me out! QAM - the great leveller - papers were out. After the MANAC and DWO result, finally the toppers were back in place. And as far as the previous toppers were concerned, they were back to topping as well, in their own league :P

For dinner, went to this place called 'Brij-ki-Rasoi'. (I don't know how we haven't been there yet considering it is quite close to our college.) And the food was really good! And inexpensive! That's equivalent to the combination of chocolate cake and vanilla icecream - awesome! More visits are definitely due!

Day 160: 5th Dec, 2009

Guest writer for today is Sudeshna. Interesting titbit, she happened to have been in the same Lucknow panel as I was during GDs. Gifted writer, am sure she will put together a nice read. I only pray I don't have to sit with a dictionary to comprehend it :)

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I will be called Simply Sud (no relation to the radio icon(?))....

A big thanks to aapro COM.P for the “exceptional personality” tag (assuming that was meant for yours truly, banishing the nagging thought that the chances of it being meant for someone else are very, very high). And of course, a big round of applause and immense gratitude to my friend appan (a shortened form of Verappan, not to be confused with Appam of fake IPL players), christened so because his moustache is related by hair and follicles to the late brigand’s moustache :D (Applause for this brilliant blog and gratitude for the guest entry, in case you were confused)

Ok. So without further ado, since I was allotted Dec 5^th, Dec 5^th is what I shall describe. It started as any other day of mine does- in sheer disbelief that the night’s sleep was so fleeting, sigh. And since the night before (3^rd Dec, that is) was spent working on a ridiculously time-consuming DWO presentation till the wee hours of the morning (mainly because parts of our DWO group were afflicted by either CFA, COM.Pitis Minora- one contracts COM.Pitis Majora in the second year of one’s membership in the cabal, social loafing and amnesia- we forgot this one chap was in our group :O)- I was understandably tired and therefore treated myself to a good night’s sleep. Yay!

So, where was I? Oh right, Dec 5^th- I woke up reasonably fresh as a day old daisy and trudged to DWO, which as usual was as interesting as watching paint dry. But I didn’t have the gumption to sit in the first row (which is where I normally sit) for a 1.5 hour long Eco marathon and so scampered to one of the empty seats in the back rows. Have been called an ‘illegal immigrant’ for all my efforts to thus evade harmful subjects and er, smells- oh well. Tried to read ADJ’s Economist, but it was futile to lower my head without being discovered. Even cut a deal with him about splitting the subscription, which I was afraid to take because I knew the mags would meet the same fate as TOI and ET, which line the shelves of my closet. So, I resorted to some half-hearted C.P. and Pills, who was sitting next to me, mouthed “I hate you”, while all I did was get really lucky at guessing the answers (alternately mumbling “increase” and “decrease” as regards interest rates, income, output and such horrors). The highlight of the class was Shivku being singled out again for another Eco inquisition (poor chap, it’s becoming routine now) and Rajat’s message about my illegal immigration. Yes, we lead scintillating lives.

Watched two movies in the afternoon- Wicker Park and (500) Days of Summer. Loved both. Read a few pages of Of Human bondage. Later in the evening, Kanny J and I went to watch a Hindi play, “Ponga Pandit” by Habib Tanvir, staged as part of a theatre festival called Repertwahr (Repertoire, ruined...sigh). The play was a disappointment of gargantuan proportions primarily because they chose to stage it in some UP dialect Hindi, which I totally didn’t comprehend. But it had some amazing moments of humour and the acting was par excellence. The show-stealers? The paneer and salsa wrap and fries we picked up from McD’s before the show and snuck in somehow. Am watching Hamlet on Monday, it’s by Rajat Kapoor, and I’m a biggg fan! Miss my NCPA and Prithvi days. Sigh, miss Mumbai.

We decided to grab some grub at Royal Cafe and were stopped by a traffic cop on the way because KJ entered a one-way in the wrong direction. Pretended to be new to Lucknow and generally ‘damsel-in-distressy’ to avoid a hefty fine or worse. And due kudos to KJ for some seriously gifted acting and thinking on his feet. The food was divine- made KJ , the incorrigible carnivore, eat veggie food (Muhahahahahaha!)- Paneer tikka, onion kulchhas and dal makahni. Had some double flavoured ice-cream. Oh and met the QCOM in RC celebrating another one of Sumo’s quizzing victories. Vipin of 3.4 and QCOM fame, ate the end of my ice-cream cone while wagging his admonishing finger, “singers don’t eat ice-cream”. Got some mutton Biriyani packed for Harlie, who kept calling to ensure we didn’t forget his precious.

Got back at 11:30 and wrapped up the day with South Park, with scant regard for the DWO quiz on Sunday, the 6^th .Forgot to attend the QCOM meet which I really wanted to attend. C’est la vie!

Till we meet again, dear readers. Cheerio!

P.S: Oh and before I forget, some people DID NOT have a problem with some other people. I can say such with certainty because I know Some People intimately. Some other people just need excuses to live by some obscure code of conduct of the cabal they belong to. Amen.

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Thank God, got through without a dictionary :D. Thanks Sud!

Just a small addition to the highlight of the Eco lecture. This nametag thing is becoming a nuisance. Today I even interchanged places with Shreyas to try my luck on the inside seat. But no use! :-x

I also saw PAA today. Liked the movie, but didn't find it awesome :-p

Day 159: 4th Dec, 2009

Random boredom inspired creativity prompted this new idea. Starting today, I will be having a 'Guest Writers' Week'. Basically, a few of my friends will be writing the entries for the blog, describing their day - as just another student at IIM L :)

The inaugural entry is by Shreyas. He sits right next to me. We share a kindred spirit, especially in our nonchalance to academics. Here is what he wrote, reproduced as it is.

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Let me start by thanking, the electricstorm for giving me the first opportunity for a guest column in his famous blog. Yeah believe me its famous, he has references! Plus you will get to know its popularity when you will read guest columns from exceptional campus personalities in the days to follow.

To keep with the tone of this blog, I will stick to the daily happenings, sharing what transpired and add my take on what all of it meant. So the day was Friday the 4th and it started off in the worst possible way, with Sehwag missing his thrid tripple. Just so you know the tambrahm was hardly bothered. But the day rode on to better things. In the first lecture itself, SS gave me the offer to write this column. Now, these are the kind of things that we do during classes. That is only when the moustache monger doesnt doze. That day was inclined towards brainstorming on the ideal genetic qualities that the tamil manus' better half should have. Now i think its a bit personal to him for me to share what he thought were the desired attributes, although i know all the galz out there must be dying to know. But broadly they included a complementary set to his attributes, so basically fairness and intelligence are a given :P.

As the day wore on, 99 and me parted ways after lunch to get to our own things. Now that Index is over he is by and large free (please don't judge me for making a politically incorrect statement here :P). I on the other hand did my regular stuff, which is not relevant here. 101 had a b-plan competition for which he had to leave mid way through a class after completing that presentation. This guy is really cut out to be self made, and even though he might have been second in the competition, he is going to be first one day and make it count. There is ofcourse an ongoing competition between Soumen Abhiyaan Das and Shindex on who is more free each day. I think it will go on for a while :P

So cut to the evening, as the fellowship of the ring went to watch the movie, but we did not bring SK and Sud along, because some people have some problems with some people. We went to Mint, had good chicken and then watched the movie of our times - Paa. Now needless to say that AB is the master and all these tatpunjia's such as Shahrukh khan and aamir khan are not even as good as his crap. But the movie takes you with it, you feel like you are practically in the actual setting. The dialogues are crisp, the script is discrete and the fun is amazing. And its not just an AB devotee like me who is saying this, even Americanised dehateez like Maanas loved the movie. That says quite a bit.

So that was 4th Dec for you, another day in the life of I-am-still considering-Fin Kumar. Its actually wonderful that he has maintained this blog on the money. Since I sit right next to him, I practically share half the day with him. So even if I have to look back at these memories in the years to come, I can count on this account. I hope Shivku takes it to the end and hopefully he will invite me again to write for his blog.

Adios everyone,

and thanks Shiv(a)kumar

Shreyas

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Thanks Shreyas :) Good one! Just an additional note to remember the small bit where Besgi and Souvick were competing :D. And Souvick won hands down ;-)

Day 147: 22nd Nov, 2009

Sundays are really pointless if you don't get to just waste the entire day. So you can imagine how much more boring mine was considering I had to get up early morning, attend a class AND give a presentation. Well atleast the presentation went off fine, thanks to three team members being ex-employees of the same company which we were supposed to analyse ;-)

We had a 'European nite' celebration on campus, organised by the Stex (Student Exchange) committee. Different menu items such as garlic bread, pastas, salads were prepared. Was pretty nice actually! Don't understand why the bloody mess workers make crappy food on other days when they can very well bring out some better output :-S. Of course, there was also one ultra delicious cake, which only became infinitely more yummier as I got to share it with some others ;-) , evoking strong feelings of jealousy amongst some others :D

Had our first Ops support team meeting for the night. Just a small briefing on what they are supposed to do. These guys have some good (amount of :D) work coming up.

Day 146: 21st Nov, 2009

Went to BbC again, to get the written confirmation. Well actually the intention was to rake out money from him, but I guess that would have to wait another couple of days.

Spending the evening 'sleeping' was a complete 'sacrifice' of time ;-) :-p

Vinay called me and woke me up around midnight. CC again. Super duper sleepy. I would literally click something on the screen and then freeze into a stare as I had suddenly lost all ability to interact with the external environment. Then Vinay would shake me up and I would click on a couple things and then after 3-4 minutes.. same story again :-/

Got into a more awake-state sometime later (fortunately). Finally finished off with all PS and design work that we would require!

Tomorrow is Sunday, but no respite. I also have a DWO presentation tomorrow. Haven't read the case. Haven't seen the slides. But I am not very bothered about that. My only worry is that I should manage to wake up and be present on time tomorrow!

Day 139: 14th Nov, 2009

What a paper DWO was. It is already such a globe subject and the questions only amplified this nature of it. All about setting yourself some 5-6 arbitary keywords and reusing them again and again and again. Squeezed more out of those words than what a sugarcane machine can squeeze out of one sugarcane.

'My friend's' paper tomorrow - MANAC. MANAC 2 is such a wrong subject to be the last paper :-S. Even less mood to study. Played TT after lunch. Then slept. Then blogged. Finally took my books and went to Saurabh's room to study.

The highlight of course was when myself and Shreyas were studying in the mess. And then Shreyas the bond was explaining a whole group on how to solve a particular sum :-p . Sometimes, sum times change :-p

Day 138: 13th Nov, 2009

My sleep saga has no end. This phenomenon of unforced extra sleep is a sure fixture in atleast one paper. This time the opportunity cost involved eco. Slept off at 11pm and woke up straight at around 8.15am :-O . Thankfully for me, the respite was that it was one of the easier papers we saw this term. Not just in relative terms (which wasn't too difficult to achieve given the other papers) but also in absolute terms. Post exam analysis revealed that the ENTIRE paper was an EXACT COPY of last year's paper :-S . And then he cuts our marks for copying in assignments :-)

First time this semester that we spent time doing random tp. Afterall, DWO tomorrow. Although it has maximum syllabus, the very thought of going in its vicinity is sleep provoking :-S . We were treated to enlightening facts about RBI and Air India by Pills. The 'proud-of-being-an-AirIndia-frequent flyer' literally has the timetable of AI flights by heart :D . Not to undermine Riza's stories about Bangalore's uncovered under-bridges and the plight of the people when a train passes above :-p

Played some TT post dinner. Although at best an average player, I do take TT a little seriously in a weird sort of way when it comes to improving myself. My game has improved a little. Very little though. Lots more to achieve in terms of reduction of unforced errors.

Came to my room and finally was about to start studying when Dhamdhere called me to the mess. There I go again. DWO... so long...

Day 116: 22nd Oct, 2009

I have a serious doubt about some biology fundamentals. I have a strong suspicion that females have a 47th gene - for sincerity! What else can explain the general sincerity with which girls study and come? Today for eg. we had an oral quiz in DWO. The queen of this game, Preeti, just went on and on and on. The girl just doesn't have a stop button :D. Next was where we had to get data on some recent M&As. Again, Madhavi and Jinal went on a rampage. I just don't understand how they motivate themselves to study such subjects in so much detail! But the most important point of the day - PK called me "*andu" :D . Hehehe.

Again slept off at around 10.30! I must be the subject of envy amongst people here. But bloody had to wake up in between, and that too 'coz that ass Bellam didn't write his birth date on one form! :-X

Day 106: 12th Oct, 2009

Yesterday night the entire batch was suddenly presented with a new DI problem with the sudden population of the e-notice board. Some of the groups solved it (including ours). Others just didn't have enough resources.

Anyways, on to more mundane things. Used the day to create a poem. You can read the poem at this link. Took a span of three lecs - eco, MM and DWO. Mainly because MM and DWO were distracting because of CPC with Pandhi going over the top to incorporate 'alternating current' in the session.

Soumen dada is in mohabbatein mode with his sweater and all. Considering the placement season buzz of PPOs and PPIs, we are happy to introduce a PPA on our bench. PPA - Parampara Pratishtha Anushasan :D . We also have plans to introduce awards under his name. Soumen Das scholarship: for display of high academic consistency, i.e. people getting 4 CG throughout.

Day 95: 1st Oct, 2009

Was a comparatively chill start to the day in the sense that lectures started only from 9.45. But the extra DWO lecture in the afternoon more than compensated. When I realised that my brain had stopped responding to whatever was happening in class, I resorted to focusing some energy on doing something 'creative'. Came up with this,

Trying my best to stay awake

Hardly happens to be a piece of cake

My eyelids droop now and then

Random senseless words flow out of my pen.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Trying to discover new sources of recreation

A little fun is in watching others fight sleep

Some have succumbed, in slumber deep.

Disconnected sound waves crown into my ear,

A stifled yawn there, an open one here

Hey! CP challenge some have decided to play

That's an innovative one I say.

I stopped here because now my attention was totally grabbed by the banging of desks over CP points. That is when I realised CPC had come into implementation! Boy, creativity at its best! :D This one is a nice trend. Am actually looking forward to lectures now ;-)

Had an INDEX party in the evening! Went to this place called Genesis. It's a nice place (by Lucknow standards, not by Bombay standards :-p) with OK food. Doesn't really matter much when you are in the company of friends. Got some nice funny stories which cannot be shared here :-p. Maybe I can mention that Vinay got a very exclusive SMS/invitation from one of the most "in-demand" stex female on campus :D

Have a nice loooooooong weekend now. Three whole days. And the best part - I have nothing to do then! Yoohooooo!!