Day 520:25th Feb, 2011

Woke up.. no no.. was woken up at 1.30 (yes, in the afternoon) and rather abruptly by a group member insisting there was a ppt to attend in 30 minutes. Didn't even shave, secretly hoping I would get kicked out :-p . Alas, luck was not to be. Neither did I get kicked out, nor was there enough people to seize the last mover advantage, and worst of all - there wasn't any attendance :-(

After a long time went back to the Friday tradition of watching a movie - Tanu weds Manu it was, at PVR. OK movie, easily a one time watch. Also helped avoid the dinner in the mess :D . Had a little something at Yo China! in the food court and followed it up with some awesome sizzling brownie and chocolate fantasy at CCD! God bless the inventor of chocolate :D

The night mess session has almost become a mandatory practice of whiling some time of the day, and so be it today as well. Made and had some plans to study, but kinda sleepy now. Will look into it tomorrow.

Day 485:21st Jan, 2011 - Manfest 2011 starts!

Wasn't feeling too good when I got up. But still somehow went to the LD class as we had a presentation today and I was playing a substantial role this time, answering 2 out of 3 questions about the case. Had to leave the lecture midway though. Turns out it was just a case of a slight tummy upset :P

After a string of bad movies, we were really looking forward to see Dhobi Ghat, especially given the fact that it starred Aamir Khan and that the trailers were very promising. Could not have met with a bigger disappointment :-| . It definitely can't be called a "movie". At best, it was a stitch of 3-4 extremely amateurishly shot videos. The first time I actually experienced absolutely not understanding when the movie ended - suddenly the screen blacked out and names started rolling. Makwana's surely not getting the money back for this one! :P

Anyways, our annual management fest or Manfest is here! Today started off with a performance by Rahul Sharma on the santoor. (As expected, Vanki didn't even know that instrument :D). Good performance - these instruments have such a pleasing sound! Pachpan, kisaan and myself had pizza for dinner, sponsored to us by Manfest's Mr. Olam :D

As usual, lots of alums are here. Nice catching up with them. In fact, was about to get some sleep at around 2.30 when this bugger Jiggy came up. Some general chit-chatting and the usual 'corporate' cribbing and now the time is 4.30am. Sigh, just can't seem to avoid it.

Day 473:9th Jan, 2011

Good Sunday! Woke up to two plans. First was a call from home asking me to book their travel tickets for my convocation. Having partly acted upon it (booking the urgent train tickets), I switched over to plan #2, which was a call for a movie - The Tourist. Another emergency call that couldn't be refused. Improved on existing plan by adding a lunch at Aryans. Those guys should seriously considering prefixing "Awesome" in front of Chole. 

Went from there to PVR - finally those guys have gotten some sense and made some shelves where visitors can keep their bags/helmets. (Believe it or not, this system wasn't there at least for the past 1.5 yrs, and they used to turn away people who couldn't find alternate arrangements for their baggages!) The movie had an interesting plot, but became slightly predictable towards the end. Warmed ourselves up with some hot coffee and chocolate pastry at Barista. And I purchased some cold protection cosmetics before setting off against the super chilly weather. 

Had seen only 15minutes of Shutter Island a couple of days back - so came back today and finished it. Once again, I found the end to be slightly predictable (am I too sharp :P) but good storyline. Definitely worth one watch. And now, a few more episodes of Big Bang Theory, time to put myself to sleep at 3.30am.

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 401: 23rd Oct, 2010 - Tomorrow, it dies

Nearing the end of what would be my last mid-sem here. Have my BE paper tomorrow. Unlike most of the other exams, this one would be a closed-book one. And not a paper where you can simply 'globe around'. Realised this pretty late, and that is why I am making this post at 4 am. Tried to study a little, and tried to keep myself awake much more :-p . For a good amount of time, I have just been blasting off songs at full volume, not to mention my own vocal addition to all of them :D

But interesting day. Had SDM early morning. Took my place in the exam hall and noticed that the guy in front of me hadn't come. Made a mental remark on what kinda ass that person was. 10 minutes into the exam, the supervisor comes up to me and says - "Do you know TG?" Then it struck! Woah, the missing fellow was a wingie + friend. Gave the supervisor contacts for everyone else in the hall. Then after another 30 min, Mr. TG marches in, all zonked, disheveled and sleepy :D . Nicely took his case after the exam in our hostel corridoor. Also came to know about his funny encounter in those 5 minutes before he entered the exam hall. "Exam ke time toh aaplog bahut dava lete hai?" ROFL!

But of course, the God-giri level today was set by Bala. He has set a standard which he himself is going to find very very difficult to meet. None of us can ever forget his brilliant innovation with ICE! :D :D ROFL max stuff! Literally!!

Now I had a good bit of time till my evening exam - LTL. Nothing was to be read for that paper in any case. So decided to make maximum use of that available time and went with Kisaan for a movie :D . Saw Raktacharitra. It's an RGV movie, but quite disappointing. He has tried to bring in some of those Sarkar elements, but the movie falls flat on its face. Had to leave 15 minutes early to make it back on time for my paper. Tried a new strategy of taking some learning over phone, but didn't achieve much success through that :-p

BTW, also made a quick stopover at the Nokia outlet. Now my handset had gone for repairs for around 4 times in the past month. This time, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a new piece itself! However, my happiness seems to be shortlived! :-( . This handset is switching off by itself every now and then. :-( :-( Arrgghhh!!! When will my phone saga end!

Day 393: 15th Oct, 2010

Woke up pretty late today morning. So late that I might have almost missed my 12.15 pm lecture :-p

You never know the intensity with which some thing might hurt you will you actually get hit. Probably now you are expecting some masala stuff :-p . Sorry to disappoint you; all I am talking about is my loan. So many times, in so many problems, I have calculated principals, interests etc and understood how the outstanding dues keep piling up. But only a few days back, when I took a print of my loan statement, did I realise how expensive it is.. I was paying around Rs.100/- each day as interest :-| . I could instead avoid the mess food one each day! :-| . so today, finally, on my dad's advice (and expense! :-p), I pre-paid the entire amount :-)

So why didn't I do this before? Point is a lot of us at this point of time want to be "independent". Having a loan against our name seems to be better than taking money from our folks at home. Especially since there is a high possibility that they won't take it back from us! Fair and ideal thought. But then, as I read the loan statement, I realised it is far better to take money from them, and gift them something if they don't directly accept money. The moolah stays home anyways.

Company presentations have started for the first years. We constantly find ourselves going to meet the various HRs/marketing people for INDEX. Sometimes, it so happens that a lot of companies come down simultaneously, and it becomes tough to coordinate amongst ourselves, given the various class timings, other engagements etc. Leads to some high-charged moments as we rush to solve that DI problem :D. I even got chided for asking many questions :-|

But not much time for all that. It's Friday! Movie time! And these days we often even seem to find a car easily. We went to PVR this time (instead of the usual WAVE). After some persuasion, we zeroed in on watching Aakrosh. And well, after a sustained string of extremely average to horrible movies, it turned out to be a good choice! Definitely recommended.

Day 337: 13th Aug, 2010

One super nice thing that I have done is I got a White Board fitted in my room. Am finding it nice to track schedules, and follow up on things/targets/hobbies. Somehow, it also gives a nice 'feel' to the room.

Had gone to the city with Vanki for some INDEX work. Had to rush back again for some other INDEX work! Saw one of the worst traffic jams of Lucknow today :-S ..some rally I guess.

It is actually quite satisfying when you pursue something and take it to a higher level. Went to play Bridge at the Lucknow Bridge Club today, along with Tiwari, Ghate & Kunja. It was a completely different experience playing in that sort of a 'professional' setup. Of course, I must also acknowledge the help, courtesy and support that the members have extended to us to help us develop an interest in the game - they keep giving us tips during the bidding and after the game play; and even waive the entry fees for us :)

Had dinner at this place called Indian Coffee House. I don't know how I missed even seeing this place! Went on to watch Peepli [Live] at PVR. Really nice movie - a superb satire based on the farmer suicides issue - highly recommended!

Super late to sleep even today :-| . I have no idea how the clock has suddenly struck 5.35 am :-| . Realised it only when the darkness totally escaped from the sky! And the weirdest part is that I am not sleepy at all. Anyways, will put myself to sleep, else will doze off the whole of tomorrow - and that I definitely don't want!