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 180: 25th Dec, 2009

Kal exam hai ?

Doesn't seem like it when you woke up at 11. (With hazy recollections of some senior walking into your room and switching your helmet - yea Naveen, you can't hide :-p).

Doesn't seem like it when you spend another two hours in the afternoon repairing your specs, not because you'll need it in your exams, but because you'll need it while watching movies in the vacation!

Doesn't seem like it when you vehemently stop yourself from going to remedials, even though you know nothing.

Doesn't seem like it when you haven't started studying even till late evening and stick to the company of people who are also not doing anything :D

But there is. And what's more, it's early morning instead of afternoon! :(

Started studying. Went with Saurabh to the 9 pointer's room to get a past paper explained by someone. Absorbed a little bit of that. The major motivation obtained was that MANAC 2 was a lot more about common sense and DI than MANAC 1. And survival should not be a problem. Aur kya chahiye? :D

Day 171: 16th Dec, 2009

Owlery

A new eco(logy)-friendly initiative @ L ! We are making better use of wildlife now. A path breaking pilot project has been started by one of the groups here. They are testing how owls are used as a medium of communication, especially in the world of magic! :-O

Ok, I took it too far :-p . Owlery is actually this great new initiative from Team SynapsE to show your blogs to the rest of the world (well..not the world.. just us IIM L people..oh ok..the world :-p). You just add your blog link on your profile and lo and behold.. it automatically pulls any content that you post on your blog. Pretty cool na?

Yesterday's late night sleep took its toll. After the first lec (MANAC), I went to the library. My plan of action was to sleep for 15min, study for the QAM quiz for an hour (missing OM) and come back for the MM lecture. As always, things happened in exactly the opposite manner. I collapsed on the first floor couch (what a demand they would have if that section was open during the night!!) and woke up after a good 2 hours.. missing all the remaining lectures :P. On the bright side, my mind was more fresh and I could spend an hour studying in the library post lunch. Menghani came by in between... but had to leave because NOBODY in the entire library had an extra pen :D. He did teach me an empirical formula though, which had application for one entire section.

The problem with QAM actually is not knowing the formulae; infact, the prof gives out all the formulae in the question paper. The problem is in trying to realise which formula needs to be applied for which problem. I blanked out in the first 4-5 min, but eventually did decently, though I could not finish for want of time.

The more interesting thing happened immediately after the quiz. Actually I had, by mistake, carried my bag into the examination hall (**not allowed**). Nobody (that includes me, my friends, supervisors) noticed the act. Things would have passed away blissfully except for the fact that I forgot to collect my bag while leaving. So I had to go back to claim it. And unfortunately now I came in exclusive observation. So I had this small encounter/debate where I was cited examples such as ticketless travelling and so on, all to which I replied using different permutations of 'yes sir', 'right sir', 'sorry sir' accompanied by a sorry-for-the-act face.

Did a good bit of INDEX work in the evening. Designing some certificates mainly. I don't even know why I tried to do it with MS Word. Just could not get things to align there! Came back to good ol' photoshop .. smooth!

It's 3 am now. What am I doing? Jo pachees baras mei nahi hua, woh ab hoga. Finally watching Deewar :D . Feels insane? No, feels just helL :D

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 163: 8th Dec, 2009

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

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My Day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day 157: 2nd Dec, 2009

What a useless start to the day. Even before I could put my bag down and take my seat, there came the announcement of yet another surpise quiz in MANAC :-S . I guess 80% of the class did not have any clue about 80% of the paper. Not that it matters much anyways.

Well, in this cruel world of academic reality, I must also mention that projects and submissions still exist. Just that I am yet to get into them. Had our FM submission today, and my good hearted group allowed me the task of taking printouts and submitting the report. (I later learnt some other groups had members who didn't do even this on time, so yea, that way I did score :-p). I did do a decent job of it, even searching for a new image for the front page, replacing it with the old pixellated SpiceJet logo and taking a new printout, all within the last 15min of submission \m/

Oh yea, and another of those awesome things happened, which wouldn't have happened but for the IIM brand. The Media Relations Committee on campus got a deal with which we could get copies of 'The Economist' at just Rs.20/- !! Which is 10% of the actual price! Good job MRC! :)

Day 148: 23rd Nov, 2009

Post midterm we have this prof for MANAC 2. He is the proper character-sketch strict prof types. Always comes on time. Shuts the door. AND the worst part... asks questions to hapless students.

Now my seating in class is in a pretty noticeable position, due to which I NEVER put my nametag. But this guy, in a typically expected behaviour, forces us all to place our nametags on front. And immediately after that, catches me and asks me some fundu question on the case which 50% of the class hasn't read, and 90% of the remaining half hasn't bothered to solve! :S .. Anyways, I am taking refuge in my usual stoic and stony non expressive face mask.

Was super sleepy in class nonetheless. I don't even remember much of what happened. My kinda hangover :-p

Had to go to the city with Shruti. Some more work here and there. The awesome thing was that I was going on MY DISCOVER now! Yippeeee!!

Day 143: 18th Nov, 2009

Got to sleep late even yesterday. As a result missed MANAC for the second consecutive time! Can't afford to miss more of it now!

Stayed back on campus today again, this time for the poster work. Really really bad vaastu on 1st floor CC, unproductive afternoon again!

Anyways, today we gave a treat to INDEX seniors for our summer placements. Went to barbeque nation. As I said some days back, the place is awesome and so is the food! :D

The journey back was legendary. 00.30 hours and the chilling Lucknow cold - and I rode back on a bike WITHOUT wearing a sweater, jacket, sweatshirt or any of the likes (H). Ain't that something!

Reached campus at around 1am. I had had an overdose of photoshop over the past 2 days (and nights!) and therefore took a break today. Thought I'll go to my room and get some early sleep. But guess what.. downloaded GBs of new data - The Centurions, HIMYM, TBBT :D . Finally started off with some series on campus - HIMYM - 5 episodes straight before I slept off at around 4 :p

Day 141: 16th Nov, 2009

Slept super late yesterday, doing INDEX work. Consequently missed the first lecture of the second part of the semester. (MANAC 2 - Vipul).

Lot of INDEX work through the rest of the day. Ops took a lot of time for me (tracing LIU @ Jawahar Bhavan) and Riza. Hence couldn't manage to go to colleges. Lots and lots of walking. I really envy Riza though on his ability to sleep anywhere - the ass slept off even when I was standing and taking some printouts!

Today's meeting @ 11 was followed by some refinement work on the sweatshirt through the night. The funny part was when Naveen was trying to come up with something 'brick by brick' (literally!!) with some 42 layers and 3 hours and I did it in some 30 seconds :-p

Almost 6 even today. Hope I don't miss the first lec tomorrow as well !

Day 140: 15th Nov, 2009

Woo-hoo! After one and a half terms, finally I managed to finish solving one problem completely in MANAC. I mean, I am not even sure if it is right, but first time that I even managed to reach some end. (The fact that the question was straight out of a book definitely helped :-p ).

Immediately after midsems started with INDEX work. Left to the city immediately to take permission from the fire department. Saala the work got delayed by a day there. Will need to go again tomorrow.

Evening was very very free. Saw Blood Diamond (had been wanting to see that one since ages!). Pretty hard hitting movie. And some good acting.

Had a meeting @ 11. Realised the colossal amount of work lying ahead. Got to forget sleep for the next few days :-| . Starting ... NOW !

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 117: 23rd Oct, 2009

M v/s M. Sir was explaining one problem on some costing method when our Mr. Hansraj M. asks "Sir, why don't we calculate this on a monthly basis?" The boy sure had to pay his price for this. Came the reply, "if you think it is a better method, why didn't you get the answer?" :-|

Another interesting never-before thing happened today. PK sat down to have lunch with us! (And that's a hattrick as far as a mention on this blog is concerned :P)

Went to the police station to get some permission. And as I say, it is only when you step outside that you realise the value the college has. We were actually received warmly even in such power-oriented places.

Went to Saharaganj from there. Finally I was able to cross off some items from my ever growing list of things to do. Well not things like scaling the Everest and all, but I started off with buying some dry fruits and stuff. And of course some air-tight and more importantly ant-tight containers.

PS: The tents outside the PGP blocks are coming up. The tension has not come up. Yet.

Day 110: 16th Oct, 2009

Today a path breaking phenomenon happened! The scene: MANAC 2 lecture. Against all natural inclination, I actually put my hand up and asked a doubt. To the great Mr. Mishra himself. And the return comment "it's good to see that people are taking interest in my course and asking difficult questions." :D

The mood on campus is all happy happy. Everyone's gtalk/facebook status is now 'Happy Diwali'. And the smiles are just bouncing off each other.

Some of us INDEX people went out for dinner to this place 'Chotte Nawab'. If you ever go there, you must try the paneer malai seekh starter... it's yum! We came back and went to the mess to have some tea. Vigi was still in the stud mode with jacket open, white t-shirt and a glass (of tea) in his hand. Suddenly Praveen pushed a helmet right on to Vigi and transformed his t-shirt into a TEA-shirt (credit to Swetha for the term) :D .. am not going to risk writing Vigi's reaction. He might just hack this blog and destroy it or worst case perhaps may he might hack me itself :p

Day 99: 5th Oct, 2009

Even with all that exertion, my in-built alarm managed to wake me up at 7.30. However, I wasted time trying to coax myself out of the bed. Finally I was rushing to the mess at 7.55 to grab a quick bite before the 8am lec when I see a Kiran Kumar of my class standing and trying to capture something with his mobile cam. Going there I realised it was snake that he was shooting - a tiny one crawling along the very path from which I was to walk :-p. Finally I got to see a snake on campus!

The late sleeping took its toll during the lecs. Had to keep my eyelids wide awake during MANAC 2 by Ak-47. Just put my head down when the prof was taking attendance, and in the space of 40 odd roll numbers, I fell asleep :-| . Luckily for me my neighbour woke me up on time. However, thanks to CPC, managed to get through MM easily. Must appreciate the creativity of people, incorporating words like water-buffalo, grasshopper,beer, air hostess, etc in their CP effort! Today's 1st list of words was exhausted in under 10 minutes!

Day 86: 14th Sep, 2009

The issue of scalability is not just restricted to technology. It manifests in quite a profound manner in MANAC, typically during exams. I solve all those mini problems and have my concepts pretty clear (or so I delude myself). But in the exam, you get one big 10 marks problem and bamm! I think I can do better in that subject, then again, it may just be some hindsight bias :) Anyways, am not going to get the chance to prove that again... hopefully!

Memory is another weird thing in life. Met pachpan and Harlalka at the mess during dinner. Harlalka has 2 papers tomorrow, LAM and ITC ( MUAAAHAHAHAHHAHA @ sec D,E,F). And pachpan seemed to remember practically the entire LAM paper that we gave over a month back. I couldn't even remember the questions in today's paper :-p . hehehe. (@pachpan and Harlalka... you got your mention :-p).

Anyways, ITC tomorrow. That silly concept of a computer technology subject on paper comes again. Standing in the class is not too great. Will tomorrow bridge the gap or widen it? Wish there were some technology to answer that ... or wait... good there isn't :-p

Day 85: 13th Sep, 2009

CV verification today. During CV reviews, was asked by a lot of people to put numbers and quantify statements. Now ironically those same numbers may have to be deleted :-| ..

Anyways, end terms starting from tomorrow. Starting off with MANAC ! Started studying pretty late in the evening... wasn't able to do much myself. Then later on, Mr. pachpan took a few 10 min sessions that were more productive than the many hours I spent staring at the laptop. Anyways, back at my room now. We got exams in the morning so need to get some rest. It is only 4.30am today. I think I will finally beat the sunrise :-p !

Day 75: 3rd Sep, 2009

We had this super fun thing in our BIO session today. Simple funda - the class was divided into teams of three. Each team had one leader, one follower and one observer. The follower had to be blindfolded and the leader had to give proper instructions and guide the follower through some obstacles, while the observer ensured that rules were followed and made some other key observations. No big deal.

I got to play the blindfolded fellow. My closed eyes helped me see things in a new perspectives. I was totally dependent on the instructions that I received. Did a pretty good job of clearing the obstacles placed. After completing the task, I opened my blindfold to check what exactly I had done... and I saw that it was a 1 minute task with open eyes that took me around 30 minutes with my eyes closed. Thanked God.

Also had a MANAC test. First time after after 2 months that I gave a decent performance in this subject. **self applause .. (you are free to join in :p) ** Had plans to study for the Eco quiz tomorrow. But before that went to Gupta for some timepass. And ended up sitting there for around a good couple of hours :D . Nothing that gives more happiness than joyfully chatting and whiling away time when you know you are neck deep in quizzes, assignments, submissions and you haven't even started anything :D

Day 74: 2nd Sep, 2009

They say, as you sow, so you shall reap. Quite the opposite happened. Yesterday, we made the mistake of forgetting Sankar's bday. But today, we celebrated it with a cake and he had to bear an extra round of kicks :D

Today's OM lecture (which I bunked) was apparently full of CP, with Kaushik majorly doing all the redirection work. All random people throwing in random points and walking away with a few brownie points at the end of the lec.

Back to those late night blogs btw. It is 04:45 hours now. MANAC quiz tomorrow. Trying to put things together. Point is, you feel you have understoof stuff, but then when you try to solve something by yourself and construct a cash flow or something, bamm!.. :-S

Got the timetable for next term. We have 2 classes on Saturday as well :-( . AND an extra fin subject. That should be fun! :-p

Update: it is almost 6 and still stuck in the lib!! It is raining since the last 2 hours, can't go out with the laptop and all! :(

Day 72: 31st Aug, 2009

It is raining surveys! Anyways we get a barrage of mails from a lot of different sources. To add to this pain, people are randomly spamming the group with links to their BIO project questionnaires! Every time I do a send-receive on my outlook, there are a dozen new survey links in my inbox :-S . Because of this volume, the effect is just lost. I am personally just deleting those mails now. I doubt if anyone else is doing anything different. But wait, how do I confirm that? A new survey perhaps :-p

Had an event called Finrush. A treasure hunt where the clues are accounting problems and the solutions would turn out to be places you need to run to next. Usually I am good with treasure hunts where the clues are puzzles, but was MANACally handicapped in this case. Had a couple of other studs in my team, so we did OK. But didn't win :( Only lots of running around. Apparently I was the lucky guy (303) with the 1st clue, but then our luck ran out there I guess :-p

Got marks for 2 more subjects - Communication and QAM. Comm marks have been totally arbit. Ranging from 32-35 for most people. I am 33, might be a mark below the class average, but never mind. Holding on to the average in QAM as well.

Day 61: 20th Aug, 2009

Wow! After many many days woke up with the rays of the sun falling on my face! :D . Now I know the PJ maker in you will arise and say "toh subah subah kya moonlight aaega". Well, my initial statement is significant because the last entire week was the wettest week till now. Mad perpetual rains. And hardly any sunshine. Today was nice.

There is such a barrage of mails here that most mails are just read superficially. Just 3 days back, a mail was sent informing people that classes have been preponed by 15 minutes. Still, majority junta walked in at the usual time! With a nice shocked expression on their faces :D

Had the MANAC quiz in the evening. As I said, love such quizzes where everyone gets screwed :D. Actually, a little-short-on-time types paper. Some more time would have helped. Oh well, not helped me, but some people atleast :-p .

But all in all, super chillax day. Nothing apart from these things. I slept off at approximately 10.15! HEEEHAHAHHAA! :D