Day 534:24th Mar, 2011 - Last but one

Some random function ensured Kisaan's abrupt goodbye early in the morning (i.e. 12.30 noon :-p). Around the same time, Vanki left. It's getting quiet around here...

Did a little more packing; time spent on it directly being proportional to time available/time to be wasted. Gave off whatever stuff could be given to the facchas. Trudged all the way to the bank for my last teensy-weensy bit of INDEX work. And for the best time, got to see a monkey on the hostel terrace :D

As a bit of luck, even got to eat burgers in the mess. Stuck to our plan of going out in the evening, just to hang out one last time. Our first choice was Zero Degree since both myself and the madman hadn't been there. As luck would have it, it was pre-booked for a party :-S . Next stop - Mint. Strange quirks of fate, here again there were no seats inside! The Ind-Aus semifinal had turned out to be a proper crowd-puller! We settled for the outside seats, partly because we felt this would be the state wherever we go, and mainly because we just got bored to go searching again :-p . Decent enough experience, except for the mosquitoes! :-S . At least got to see all the places in Lucknow, which we had associated with 'timepass'.

Went at around 1am to Fauzi for a cup of tea, and they were pulling down the shutters on what had recently become a '24 hour place'. On further inquiry, the reason was divulged to be "lack of activity" :-( . Guess that's the effect of the sudden exodus of 350 full-time vellas...

Whiled away another couple of hours by watching this movie Taken. Pretty fast paced and action packed, worth one watch. After that, I have just got back after wishing Madman a goodbye, officially making me the wing's sole PGP2 inhabitant. 

Am in no mood for it, but I guess I'll get some sleep. One last time, one last night, as a proud PGP student of this heaven called helL...

Day 532:22nd Mar, 2011 - Convo & INDEX room painting!

Woke up at 7.00 (just 1.5 hrs of sleep) as I had promised my parents of showing them around the campus early morning. Was definitely worth it :-) . Took them on a half-way walk around the circumference, showed them the library, PGP block, my classroom! Even got to see a couple of peacocks on our way :-)

Of course, all this took a little toll and I dozed off when I got back. Got up straight on time for the convocation. First was the batch photo session - that was when I envied the ABM batch size :-p . I hope I can manage to spot the pixel which would represent me in the (abruptly taken!) pic. Anyways, was pretty excited given that I never had a convocation for my UG. Our chief guest, Kapil Sibal, could not make it, and sent a video recorded speech instead. Our chairman, Dr. J J Irani spoke really well, on values that we need to always follow. It was indeed a proud moment for me to go up the stage and take that degree :-)

Still a little tired, came back to my room after dinner with my parents and slept off. But in an hour or so, was woken up to do the customary INDEX painting (every outgoing INDEX Core team writes the names of all members on the INDEX room wall) ... :-) :-) . Man, and then I just kept wondering how every day night suddenly becomes SO VERY AWESOME! It was SO much fun doing that painting, remembering moments that we had spent, my most cherished moments on campus with my most cherished pals. And of course, the output was as legendary as can be expected from us :D

Over a finishing chai at Fauzi, I have decided to keep myself awake for some time, so I can go and wish good bye to my parents. If I sleep now, even an earthquake won't wake me up :-p

Day 531:21st Mar, 2011

A pleasant and early wake up call from my parents and sis to indicate they had reached the city and were on their way for their first visit to my campus. Excitement at both ends :-) . Also realized Pachpan was supposed to be have been back by now. Sure enough, I found him in his usual elements in his room, uninhibited in his praise for himself for his 'packing abilities' :D 

Quickly got ready and ran down to the guest house to meet my parents. Got them settled = dumping luggage in the room, so we could go down for breakfast. Showed them the "basic utilities" of the campus - the mess, Fauzi, JustTea, GnB ; made me remember my own first day when I consciously had to try to NOT get lost :-P . Since we were supposed to have rehearsals for tomorrow's event in the afternoon, I had my parents visit around the city + shop in that time period. The rehearsals themselves were a pain, mainly because of the afternoon heat (the free tropicana didn't help much :P). Trying to 'blast' the empty tropicana packs were a lot of fun though :D

After a brief period of rest (skipping PGP day occasion), I went off with my friends to the High Tea. Had a nice time there - generally talking amongst ourselves and also meeting a lot of my friends' parents. My parents came in halfway through (chikan shopping had taken priority :-p), and then it was my turn to introduce them to my friends. Luckily, there was enough mutual consideration to ensure appropriate behaviour :D

Went back to my room but was still pretty bored. So back to Fauzi with Pachpan and Shru. And that is when one of those absolutely random things happened which would become life-long memories. Arora had his car, and along with Buddhi and Kisaan in full flow, we went for a drive. An awesome drive, going to random places in the city (including DM Sahab's ghar), with Arora engaging in absolutely random but highly entertaining conversations with people. Of course, a special appreciation for his one-track mind :D. At one point, we were just 4 seconds away from consciously driving down a flight of stairs :-p . We came back for yet another round of the campus, even stopping to get pics clicked in front of our Diro's residence! Also saw for the first time Bodhigraha-2, the extension of the existing PGP block. Seems well made. A place that will soon beckon a lot many students in the coming years.

One of the craziest nights I have had in helL!

Day 526:3rd Mar, 2011

Woke up late and lazy today. This time, it wasn't just about not having anything to do for the day, but not having anything to do regards my MBA! Had a small celebration with lunch at Aryans followed by a visit to CCD. Man, this will be missed.

Had to finish some of my 'No Dues' formalities, and spent all the afternoon covering all the different departments, going to offices in basements which I didn't know existed :-p . Sat around gossiping at Fauzi for the rest of the evening.

Since we didn't have too many days left with us (all of us PGP2 INDEXians had trip plans), we decided to give our finals treat to junior core today itself. The final treat had to be grand, and what grander than Taj! :-) . Went there for the buffet dinner; had to use a little coaxing a persuasion, but we did manage to get a nice big table for ourselves. Had an awesome awesome time, special thanks to Makwana. :D :D . "There is always a goalkeeper, but we will still score" ROFL! :D . An awesome bike ride later on the empty night streets of Lucknow, got back to the INDEX room - for M.A.F.I.A.! Was a plan long pending, and it finally happened. Super fun - even Madman didn't sleep :-P

And just like it has happened for so many other days, this day too has been made special with some a light shower from the skies above :-) Wonderful! :-)

Day 524:1st Mar, 2011 - Udhaar khatam

Had quite a few shortlists today. Found the interviews to be quite entertaining ;-) Increased my knowledge base during interviews ;-) . Surprisingly, all but one of the shortlists were from fin. And in the one mark shortlist I had, a few GD crashers did the usual :-S

You get this feeling of tending to move towards being an outcast soon, when you visit the vendors on campus. Credit accounts for PGP2s have now been frozen. Was super hungry towards the end of the day, and realised I was short on cash. Luckily, had just about enough somewhere in my bag for a paratha and a pack of peanuts.

Anyways, new day tomorrow :-) . Cya on the other side.

Day 518:23rd Feb, 2011

These days, the body clock of all PGP2s has adjusted itself to a new external factor - the ppt schedule. Some 20 minutes before some ppt is scheduled, you could see all soggy eyelid-heavy faces going to the bathroom for a quick wash, and in extreme cases a quicker shave. 

So was it with me. Was glad I managed to wake up on time for the 1.45 afternoon presentation. Was infinitely more glad, when the last mover advantage played out and I could manage to stay outside the classroom and get attendance for nothing :D 

But just like two days back, this was avenged too. We had this presentation by one global bank. And another at around the same time by a local Indian bank. As per sat for the ppt, we saw from the back windows that pizzas were kept outside, and became all happy (free food some how has that effect), especially because, no way would a local Indian bank spend as against a global giant right? But Murphy's law won, mocked at us fair and square, through the pizza stuffed mouths of the students who went for the other one :( . BTW, should we take it as a sign of changing times? :-)

Some more wrap-up work w.r.t. INDEX. Had called an old vendor for some "negotiations", thanks to some things that weren't delivered as promised. As expected, didn't reach a definite conclusion, but made some headway in better understanding some points. Missed dinner (and apparently, one awesome new dessert :-( ...) and subsequently fell back on Fauzi. Had a nice time recalling and remembering some of the kaand that happened till now :-)

Have just spent some good bit of time mechanically reading and consciously closing the too many tabs that had been opened up on my browser. And now, one Contra session, TBBT episode and night snacks @ Fauzi later, it's time to bid good night!

Day 517:22nd Feb, 2011

Woke up (at noon :D) to find the adjunct student finally back on campus. Which meant sweets + tp (including fooling him about the "insti party") + lunch at Fauzi + pulling his leg by drawing attention to his Pcom group mates :-p

Spent the afternoon trying to rank companies. Made one initial list. Tried doing it on an excel first, then figured it was pretty useless to do that. Directly did it on Aghanim. Came up with a preliminary list - first cut, ranking around 70 companies, many of which might not even come on campus :D . par umheed pe toh duniya kaayam hai

Pachpan keeps complaining about always feeling pressure only on his biceps and forearms, whatever exercise he does! Finally today, he realised the importance of doing the exercises right rather than trying to be all macho and add high weights, thanks to your truly and one junior. And sure enough, the 50kg on the triceps press came down to 32kg :-) ..and still had him gasping and clenching his teeth :-p

Post dinner, sat down to finally finish off with the rankings. Came to know Ms. "sincere-as-ever" Chatur ranked 170 companies as against my 95 :D . In spite of having every DayZee shortlist! :D . Talk about confidence :-p . And then, for some strange and still inexplicable reason, started reading some fin at 2.30am :-| . And surprisingly, have sustained myself in that activity till 5.30am. Guess that's enough of being a Valuation God. For now ;-)

Day 513:18th Feb, 2011

Woke up (pretty late) to find that I needed to give the final touches to the FRA document. Got that done just in time to have some (crappy!) lunch, and then dashed off for the Jack&Jill ppt; only to find the guys walking in a complete hour late :-x . And then break the promise of finishing off the ppt in an hour. (No, the few soaps and lotions that were distributed did NOT compensate!)

Some intensive chest exercises at the gym today. Also spersed with some triceps exercises and a 3km run :D . I can feel my muscles getting tougher now ;-) . Might be a little biased though :-)

Had kutte jaisa bhook and even the dinner at the mess was really sad. Kisaan had gone to play a cricket match for sikander and so poor me had to go all alone to Fauzi. But then, you just need to sit at Fauzi for two minutes and you are sure to get company :D . Had dinner with cyberKGP and my Bridge colleagues, funnily over giving some Fin electives' gyaan to some facchas. Had a marketing session scheduled just after that; attendance wasn't mandatory for me, but I figured I wouldn't be doing anything productive anyways. With that simple logic, I went along. Don't know what I learnt, but I know I didn't lose anything.

The night mess visit that followed suddenly left me with a new brainwave - we get brownie there, heated up, with chocolate sauce. How about buying an ice cream from Guptaji to have some home-made (not so) Sizzling Brownie?! Definitely an idea worth a try I guess!

Went to my INDEX junior Mak's room to collect KungFuPanda's sweatshirt. Also ended up giving a little electives' gyaan to him as well. Poor fellow reminded me of the crossroads I was standing at last year...

I think I need to start locking my room when I leave. (Have I mentioned I (and many others) NEVER lock the door of the room while going out?). Yesterday had the instance of a friend randomly posting a status update from my FB account, regarding the way my name is (mis)spelt. Today, I suddenly saw my USB mouse was missing. My detective instincts told me the suspicion would be on Bala. And then, true to his remarkable style, Bala gave yet another demonstration.

Me: Do you have my mouse?

Bala: No, it's with Kisaan

Anyone reading the above statement would infer Kisaan came and took my mouse. But no, the great Bala came, took my mouse, went to Kisaan's room, gave my mouse to him, and took his mouse. And on my quizzing a little more about this 'arrangement', I was (in his characteristic style) "ordered" to use my "hands" till my mouse is available again :-S . The e-sikander AOE addiction :-S

Anyways, my intentions of sleeping early have gone bust big time. Been randomly reading stuff (as usual). 4.20 am now. Just read a random mail from some committee on campus who (God-knows-why) called someone, and now we all mandatorily will have to attend that. Arghh!!

Day 495:31st Jan, 2011

An LD quiz to start the day off with. As stated before, quizzes these days seem to aid in only one thing - having breakfast :-)

I now seem to be the IIMPrints renovation expert. Post my FRA and Prod Man class, spent the next hour or so modifying and correcting a few more testimonials, including revamping Kisaan's completely. And then, got back to (re re reading) another top favorite book of mine - Godfather!

Post gym, my quest to find a bathroom that had hot water (we have the facility, but finding some actual hot water in the tank is tough!... I so miss the solar-powered 24/7 hot water in the slums!) got me delayed for dinner in the mess. The only thing worth missing because of that was the Gajar Halwa.

Day 493:29th Jan, 2011

In spite of sleeping at 6am yesterday, I managed to wake up on time for the 9am class. Initially snoozed the alarms, then stopped them. Got up from the bed. Even applied toothpaste to my toothbrush. And then Pachpan told me the futility of attending the morning class (our group presentation was not happening :-S). And just like that, I went back to sleep :D

Attended LD. And then attended QAF after God knows how long. Nice prof though! I learnt I had exhausted the number of bunks available :-( . In the prof's own words, I need to "be more organised while indulging in this exercise" :D

The boring dinner at the mess (almost an everyday phenomenon now :-| ..) was compensated by some good company, parathas from Fauzi (speeding up the process by collecting them and taking them to my friend's room) and songs on youtube. Back to my room and a little more of Fountainhead. Will have an early Sunday tomorrow, got a presentation, it seems.

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 372: 24th Sep, 2010 - Angrez and Aaloo

Really interesting incident in the mess at lunch. Whilst trying to make up my mind on what would be the most edible choice, my eyes fixated on a plate of what looked like some awesomely cooked plain aaloo. Very happy, I drifted in that direction. And just as I was to take some, that plate was harshly pulled away by a worker citing "yeh angrez log ke liye hai"!! (referring to the Students on the Exchange program). Independence, an illusion in your own country?!

It is always so fulfilling to come up with something creative. Something that you can call - your own, even if it may not be the best. So some designing work came along after a long time - Pachpan wanted me to come up with a template sorta thing. Meddled around a little here and there. Found out this powerful feature - Brushes! Really cool stuff! So much potential to do so much more. Now, if only I had a more designer-oriented head on my shoulders :-p

Well, normally I do not have too many problems with the mess food. However, just as I was going to the mess, I made a mistake of casually asking my friend, the menu. The short conversation -

Me: "Abbe mess mei kya hai?"

Friend: "Hagga"

Which, err, means, ahem, shit (literally). Which definitely is not a very enticing choice.

So off we went to Fauzi for dinner. Oh, but our first one here this term? Pretty late. Had what, you asked? Haven't you like by-hearted the Aloo-jeera, Dal & Roti combination by now? :-)

Day 353: 29th Aug, 2010

Absolutely lost track of Sundays! Just by coincidence, I didn't have any exam today (again! :P). Luckily the day felt a lot more free :D. Made good use of it by finishing of season5 of HIMYM. And no - we still don't know who the mother is :-S

Can't remember the last time we had dinner in the mess on a Sunday. As I have ranted before, it's mainly because of the mess conspiracy to encourage people to dine outside sometimes (that we do it often is a different thing :P). But this Sunday was different. Almost all of us are bankrupt. Kisaan decided to stretch his credit and we (+ Chatur) had dinner at Fauzi - the usual tried, tested and safe fare :D

Day 333: 8th Aug, 2010

Heee haw haw haw! Super funny incident - I was lying on my bed in the afternoon when all of a sudden Vanki comes up and asks this -

"oyee.. what do you call an umbrella in hindi?"

:D :D

Apparently, he wanted to communicate something with one of the fellows at (the Awesome) GnB, but couldn't get his point across for want of this :D

Spent a good amount of time on the Retail Marketing Final Project. But the problem is, having people like Sud in my group is super helpful, but in a weird sort of manner, also a little painful. She has just completed her internship at PUMA - and all the knowledge which I discovered and documented after these long hours seems peanuts for her :-( . Sheah - have promised to put in some more time and improve my deliverable - hope to get that done asap.

Our Ops guru is on campus (yet again! :-p). We all met up at Fauji, along with the facchas and did some tp. Then had the laugh of my life as he showed me one particular pic that was taken last year during recruitments - hahahaha! Some people are just so weird!! :D

Day 287: 23rd Jun, 2010

So there it starts - the waking-up-late-to-miss-breakfast-before-class saga. Woke up at 8.08 for the 8.15 Int Fin class. Luckily for two aspects a) my bike and b) our prof , I didn't have too much of an issue attending the class. 

Spent the other classes of the day with some help from the book - 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' by Mohsin Hamid. A slightly weird kind of a book. It is a monologue spoken by the author to an American visitor in Pakistan. The good thing is it's a short book. So I'll finish it before I start getting too bored :-p

As usual, with yet another thanks to the mess, I report yet another dinner at Fauzi. A very small discussion on what to order eventually reminded us of the futility of this activity, as once again, we ended up ordering the same standard fare !

Had a small INDEX meet after that. I am sometimes (more frequently these days) surprised on how small points suddenly become the focus of a discussion and take up so much time! 

Went with Pachpan to watch how how day 2 of the induction is going. Not very interesting :-S

Day 286: 22nd Jun, 2010

The effect of 800 students and an under-construction mess was at its fullest potent. There was so much crowd that myself and pachpan went off to Fauzi for lunch. Had the standard fare - roti, dal, aloo jeera, dahi. This is definitely something which does not go wrong at Fauzi.

However, this 3.45 timing for the SM class is turning out to be a major pain. Invariably, the free time post lunch happens to be an extremely sedative-oriented hour. But it is such an 'in-between' time that we can't even enjoy a proper siesta. Took 2 alarms (and 2 snoozes!) to motivate me into going for the class.

The induction session for the fachchas has started. Was pretty surprised to see that it ended as early as 12.30am :-O ..A far cry from the niteouts we had last year. This timing should definitely be extended in the coming days if they are to be introduced to the rigour that lies ahead.

Day 251: 12th Mar, 2010

I don't know why.. but for some strange reason I woke up thinking today was a Sunday. (It's only Friday, not even Saturday!) Maybe it was because lectures started only at 10. Which I eventually bunked exercising my luxurious attendance backup.

We had a section photoshoot today. We did have one a few months back - but that was the official one. And not all of us were in it together. This time, we planned and coordinated to have everyone together :D . Some great pics & videos have come out, which I'll cherish for years to come.

Met Mr. Psycho in the mess. He now seems to have graduated to psycho^2 levels. Attended PGP day - a function to commemorate a lot of students for the various events as also to award trophies to the various departments at IIM L. Shruti gave a nice speech on behalf of INDEX. Then took a 'peanut butter sandwich' treat from Shanky @ Just Tea and we three had a nice looooong chat in the backdrop of the convocation dinner and the fountain :)