Day 354: 30th Aug, 2010

2 things that I absolutely wasn't prepared for. One easily guessable answer of course is my Prom Strat paper - why and how did maths enter the picture?! Half the subjective part was calculations, based on formulae no one would ever have any use by hearting :-| . Though, this wouldn't really be a shocker or anything.

What was actually a bit of a shocker was this phone call I got in the morning. A random female suddenly told me  that my flight had been cancelled due to "operational reasons"! Spent SO much time on this through the day. Before my exam, after my exam, evening etc etc. What is most amusing is how they seem to think that they are doing me a lot of "service" by giving me multiple "options" such as "free" rescheduling on "select flights" OR a refund (when ticket prices would be double). Finally at midnight, came to an option that is 'workable'. But I'll have to spend the entire night at Delhi airport :-(

Int Fin tomorrow. Hardcore numbers - no globe :) 

Days 344,345: 20th-21st Aug, 2010

Shared responsibility is nobody's responsibility. Now that Pachpan ran off to his hometown, his ditching act inadvertently put the workload of getting the surveys filled on me; but I at least I knew I was to do it. That was my biggest incentive to go to Friday's prom strat lecture - got the surveys filled through my friends in class :D . Of course, equally troublesome was the part where I had to manually feed in the hard copy replies into excel. And bored of having the work pending against my name, I came up with an "innovative" solution for the problem ;-)

After I came back from my dinner, birthday-boy-Bala came and told us that we are going out :-S . Apparently Shomu's persuasion. We (expanded to Ritzee, Kisaan, Vanki, TG for the free food) went to Genesis, highlight being we managed to jugaadofy one car! Didn't eat much, kept nibbling on the Peanut Masala. Had the choco-chip icecream for dessert - its awesome !

But, that wasn't the end to the day. Came to know that iBrand'10 was witnessing unprecedented enthusiasm :D . Excess of anything of course, brings its own set of interesting and unique experiences :D . My room has suddenly become the discussion hub :-| . Consequently, even as I tried working on some projects, facchas kept coming and discussions kept happening.

Finally, found my peace at 3am. A knock on my door at 7am (actually it was a violent push and a loud shout) interrupted my dreams. Realised it was two of our facchas. Poor fellows had stayed up through the night :D . Nice practice for INDEX I say! ;-) . Went with them to the mess and stayed there for a couple of hours, had breakfast and slept off again.

Spent the afternoon mainly trying to come up with something substantial for this inter B-school competition - iCreate. Didn't really manage to do much, so dropped it halfway. 

Had missed going to Lafangey Parindey yesterday; and not wanting to delay it any further, we made arrangements to go tonight. That got interrupted through some nice negotiation practice. Anyways, dealt with that (or so we thought) and we left for the movie. Wow, again in a car! :D . Sudden rise in status over the past 2 days :D . Or is it because Pachpan isn't here? :P . Some more interventions during the movie (sorry Deepika!) happened, but finally reached one acceptable-to-all conclusion. Peacefully saw the rest of the movie.

Came back to see my room wide open. Saala once again full kabzaa by everyone. Quickly, some little analysis and explanations and then sabko bhaga diya :-P . Sat down to start work on my Strat Man part. Too tired now though. Put it off for tomorrow morning. So long, for now, its bon nuit.

Day 318: 24th Jul, 2010

Two guest lectures today. One guy from Ogilvy came for the prom strat class - every time I get drawn and think to myself I should get into advertising. Seems like fun! Had an extra class for Retail Marketing - a lecture from the CEO of Planet M, and an alumnus of our institute - 1992 batch. Good talk - he gave some nice ground level pointers.

Yet another movie! Saw Salt - the Angelina Jolie action flick. Was quite engaging - even though Jolie didn't exactly stick to her core competency :-p . Also, seems like Vanki skipped the show, to avoid "bumping" into us ;-) . Poor fellow, had to make do with the mess :D

Sleeping super late today. It's almost 4. Just gave some feedback to one mentee. Got to wake up in 4 hrs - a visit to ITC e-Choupal planned tomorrow!

Day 309: 15th Jul, 2010

So there begin the exams. Our new PGP chair also did this super job of reducing the time duration of exams. Which means we now spend only 1.5 hrs in a midterm exam as opposed to 2 hrs earlier. I guess we can bid good bye to extra long cases :)

Had prom strat today. 60% was MCQs - so cool - you can attempt everything :D. Second part revolved around an old Pepsi ad. This one:

We had to analyse if the commercial was worth the $50mn spent on it, back in 1983. Wrote my 2 cents worth of stuff.

My next exam only day after - that too in the evening :D . But, do you really need an excuse to remain chill? :)

Day 308: 14th Jul, 2010

Oh my my, why did I just wish for *drama* yesterday! Vanki was such a brilliant scene today in conB! :D . Caught repeatedly, over and over again, even for smiling! I escaped by showing off my PromStrat polycopy, unfortunately Vanki and the sleeping Ramasaravana got 70 page assignments :D. Damn! I seriously should have wished for something meaningful! But then again, this was priceless :D

Re-entered the gates of knowledge, Gyanoday - the beloved library - for academic purposes! Seems like ages since I did that :-P . Yes yes, you guessed it - exams from tomorrow. Not to worry much though - cool course (Prom Strat), cool prof - 2/3rds of the paper was to be MCQs. Got a quick brush-up from the super-sincere Britto in around 3 hours. Will probably go through some slides tomorrow.

Day 303: 9th Jul, 2010

A little regression and analysis (the MBA show-off giri) and some basic common sense (the truthful reason) made me realise that the highest frequency of missing my breakfast happens on Fridays and Saturdays. Must be because of this odd timing of the Prom Strat class - 11.45 :-|

Spent a typical afternoon - getting some INDEX work done with Vanki, in the city. Had a never-done-before interesting experience on our way back though :D - riding over a railway track! Actually the lone flyover to reach our college was blocked (innovatively, using some cycle rickshaws!) for some Queen's Baton or something. So off we went searching for a route from under the flyover. And that is when we realised we needed to cross a railway track, and that too not our any proper road! There was a narrow path where at one point, a few stones were arranged to give a little elevation. Was fun :D

Went to Cellar for dinner - Mine and Shanky's PPO treat! My first visit there actually. Italian fare mainly - surprised to find one at Lucknow :-p . Food was pretty decent - though the mocktails, desserts weren't too great.

With heavy tummies and sleepy heads, we still motivated ourselves to have a short meeting. Work is work - no compromise na :) . Just some updates, some allocations. And then the customary night visit to the mess, a milkshake on Shanky's account, and a good good night.

Day 289: 25th Jun, 2010

Of course this had to happen with all the different sections and classrooms. I woke up at 9.59 am ..and 10.00 am being the usual second session of the day - I rushed to the classroom. Luckily, just as I reached the classroom, ma'am called out the name of the guy just before me. Unluckily, the next name that was called out didn't happen to be mine. Surprised that I was, I thought I'll speak about it to ma'am after class. Made my way into class and luckily found a seat in the last row. Took my place and glanced around - and then I suddenly saw myself surrounded by new faces. And then it dawned - I was in the wrong class!! My class was at 11.45 am, shucks, wasted an hour of sleep :-p . The good part - made a smooth quick exit before anyone else noticed ;-)

Day 282: 18th Jun, 2010

Today is a red letter day. Finally, I make my debut at Umang. Eventually, as it turns out, all it takes to spur me is to make a bet :-p. Gymmed one complete hour in the morning :) Hope this lasts! 

The prom strat class breezed away - was an ad watching session today :D

But a hectic day otherwise. Finally made a closure with my old room. None of my stuff is there now. Bloody but I did turn envious - those rooms have been given nice new beds and pillows! :-o

Arranged for some docs in the afternoon. Arranged for Praveen's visit. Was out in the city today all evening with INDEX work. The good thing was - almost everyone I met in the day was nice! Had an unexpectedly loooong-ish chat with our flex printing vendor. Pretty interesting conversation! Also got some cost savings :)

Went to watch Raavan with the INDEX gang. I joined them directly at Wave. (BTW, the mystery of the vanishing 100/- happened yet again! :-X .. need to be careful and alert the next time!). Missed the title song as we stayed in the food court for an extra 5 min..and I guess we kinda missed the best part. Movie is okay-ish, pretty scenic, random at times and very Southie!!

Day 276: 12th Jun, 2010

It's kinda weird when you start making yourself feel "productive" after trying repeatedly and finally getting a 100+ continuous rebounds of a TT ball against the wall. But that's the great sense of achievement with which I started the day today.

We had to take a case write-up to our Prom Strat class today. Arbitrarily, ma'am caught this one guy. Who picked up someone else's write-up and went on stage and did manage to speak 'something'. One year of MBA, if not anything else, does help you learn to come up with impromptu bullshit. 

Pretty slow day after that. Became suddenly obsessed with 'Bhaja Govindam'. Was listening to a short version recited by MS. (Not that I am very much into music etc., got the link from a friend's blog). But it was nice and soulful, and the lyrics are profound and deep. Don't think the advice will last for long though. I tend to make my own philosophy for things \m/ , ones which change as per convenience :D

Played some TT today. I enjoyed it. Though I again didn't play as well as I can / should ! Read a little bit of 'Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish' by Rashmi Bansal. The 3-4 stories I read were interesting, but not exactly inspiring. Though ample scope to draw learnings from each of them.

Learnt from Shomu how to operate the washing machine. My first clothes washing stint in this hostel :D.

Have also fallen victim to a running nose. Nothing is more irritating than that ! Going to take a tablet and put myself to sleep.

Day 275: 11th Jun, 2010

Yaar!! On Fridays and Saturdays, I have just one lecture! Shucks.. I so wish it was adjusted to some other day! Would have had nice loooong weekends. Which could I have employed to cover the whole of North India!

Got my hands on a bike after around 2 and a half months! Feels AWESOME to be on a lean mean 2-wheeled machine! Yet to get my bike serviced and repaired though.. but not long before I am reunited with my Discover!