Day 451:12th Dec, 2010

So exactly how casual and careless does one get by the time they reach the end of sem 5? I even forgot to fill in my name, roll no. etc details on the answer booklet in the morning exam! That was definitely more interesting than all the literature I think I created.

Had a "pizza party" for lunch. Dada, dhams, myself and some good old times.

And followed up that morning stunt with a ringing cellphone (2nd time in 3 days!) in the evening exam! Confiscated cellphone :-( . Even the ploy of sending able substitutes didn't work!)

Attended a general session on finance by an alum. An optional lecture that I attended a day before the exam - and good I did! Was a good one.

PS: Created a new record in Crazy Taxi! + Getting hooked on to Dexter!

Day 450:11th Dec, 2010 - Crazy Taxi wars!

One of my favorite days on campus! :D

No exams today. So the day started with getting up late, then watching movie #1 i.e. Social Network, then half of movie #2 i.e. Rakht Charitra, then a snack break and chat session with Haathi and his exact physically opposite friend, then 4 episodes of HIMYM and then starting off with a new series Dexter. And whilst I was in the midst of the 1st episode of the 1st season, Pachpan came back after his BF paper. Basically the whole idea was to disturb me :-p , so he took control of my laptop, paused my show, played 2 games of Crazy Taxi, scored poorly, cribbed about my laptop and 'how he couldn't adjust to my silly space bar key' and ran off. 10 minutes after that, I was urgently summoned to his room, only to be greeted with a wide smirk on his face and a computer screen that indicated that he had overtaken my painstakingly attained Crazy Taxi score!

And then came the golden moment. Exactly 10 minutes later. When I walked back into his room - his record eclipsed and mine re-established. Muaahahahahaa!! Brilliant moment! Best part is - now slowly a lot of people on campus are realising they are extremely jobless and choosing to effectively utilise this time on Crazy Taxi! So now, it's a war out there! :D

2 exams tomorrow (yes, it's a Sunday! :-( ..) . Doesn't feel like even one. All I pray is I should wake up on time for the morning paper! Gn! :)

Day 444:5th Dec, 2010 - Lucknow Mahotsav & some Fog!

While I woke up real late yesterday, had to wake up really early today (Sunday!), thanks to the SDM quiz that we had! Indulged in the good takeaway i.e. breakfast. And then got back to my room to resume my siesta. 

Slept right through most of the early morning and noon. Woke up at around 2pm to find TG knocking for my bike's keys. Now, I had come to know that today was the last day of Lucknow Mahotsav, an annual cultural fair than happens here. Couldn't visit that last year, and it would indeed be a shame to not go there in our 2 years of stay. So somehow, alongwith Pachpan convinced him too to join us.

But first, hunger pangs had to be dealt with. So the four of us (Mr. Happiness too) first made our way to Dominos for some of that awesome double cheese burst pizza. And then we rode and rode and rode and rode. And finally reached the Mahotsav place.

But guys, for those of you reading this, you must visit this if you are going to study at IIML for 2 years. The kind of crowd there was at that place was awesome! Super traffic - couldn't find parking space - till literally God came to our rescue and people started parking their bikes inside a temple close by! :D . The fair had that proper feel that you are so often shown in Hindi movies, a kind of place where you could easily get lost (BTW, it did happen amongst us too - twice). There was a big replica of Rumi Darwaza created as an entrance. And so many of those little toys - we bought all of them - the hooter, the horns, the bow and arrow, bubbles and a parachute! :D . It was super duper fun to keep playing with the hooter and try hitting each other :D. Saw the Maut ka kuan game after many years - so risk those guys take! The ferris wheel ride (somehow keeping just the 4 of us instead of the usual 6) was awesome too, mainly because of TG getting scared :-p. Lots of food items too, a tad expensive though, compared to the other items at the fair. There even was a concert by Sonu Nigam - free! And even before he had come, the crowds had gone berserk at the performance of one local singer - and it was at that moment that we got a substantially better idea of what the local Lucknow junta exactly wants ;-) . No wonder that Planet Salsa show used to be such a hit :-P 

The return journey was no less eventful. We took the shortcut route that goes to the airport. And maybe because of all the open space around it, but I saw fog so dense I had never seen before! Or rather never imagined could be! In fact, the fog was so thick, that at so many points, our shadow due to the lights from vehicles behind us, was being formed IN AIR! It was almost as if a wall of fog was in front of us. The visibility was so poor I could hardly see 2-3 metres ahead of me, that too with great difficulty! :D . So basically, summing up, AWESOME bike ride! :D . Need to have a couple more of these! :-p

Day 443:4th Dec, 2010

Woke up pretty late today. The good thing about that is it leaves you with that much less time to think and wonder how you will spend it. Not only for the time you were asleep, but for the next couple of hours spent away eating, bathing and generally in a state of laziness, drowsiness and inertia.

Late evening, when some senses were about to hit me and prompt me into some action, a movie plan came up. And off went Pachpan, Shomu, Chatur and myself to wave to watch Phas Gaya Re Obama. Now suddenly these kind of movies are being made these days which concentrate on one simple plot and weave a humourous story around them. And just like the rest, even this one turns out to be a pretty decent plot. Has a pretty ingenious climax too :D

We thought of watching one more movie straight. But didn't have enough time. So we just had dinner outside at the eatery in the lane behind Wave. For those who don't know, it is a pretty nice place. Very cheap, and good stuff. I had pav bhaji - they make it well here, but couldn't help remembering that I'll be having the authentic version in 10 days! :-)

Somehow, when Pachpan came to my room at night, the conversation restarted from where we left it yesterday. Discussions ranging from foreign profiles to money to entrepreneurship to career options to career goals to feasibilities and such arbit stuff happened in quick succession. Unintentionally took up quite some time.

Anyways, remember my CV work? A couple of people told me my 2 page CV is twice as weak :-P . So right now, I am remaking and remodeling it to fit it in one page. Using the great MMR's CV template - so well structured that I am finding it difficult to modify it :D. Finally getting to understand that thing though - more than anything, I keep learning a little more about MS Office through these little experiences. Anyways, have done some bit on the CV to get it down to one page. 4.30am now. Will get some sleep. Have a quiz at 8.15am! :-S . Hope I wake up.

Day 442:3rd Dec, 2010

Woke up suddenly to realise the SDM presentation was still pending. Sat on it and finished it off at one go. And consequently very efficiently played the role of 'slide-changer' during my group's presentation :D

These days, I am spending most afternoons in front of my laptop watching my new addiction - the stock markets. Dirty mind! :P

Once again, went to Brij for dinner. My bike just wouldn't start because of the cold - and therefore I found myself riding a junior's 200cc Bajaj avenger - man, 200cc is some power! Some extra riding happened, thanks to Shomu da exhausting his bike's fuel midway. Standard order - I don't think the waiter will even ask us the next time we go :D. And somehow, especially these cold winter days, Brij seems to double our appetites! We ate voraciously. Even the simple rice and dal here is SO awesome! Wish the mess picks up a cue!

At night, went to ask Pachpan a few things about a fin career. Ended up talking a little about that and a lot about a lot more. Jointly came up with a plan to salvage some lost time. Lets see how that works out!

Day 441:2nd Dec, 2010

Spent all the afternoon getting super bored doing routine stuff. That is why I decided to watch a movie in the evening. Saw 'The Illusionist'. Another movie which has magic as its backdrop (after 'The Prestige') and comes up with a brilliant climax.Time well spent.

And exactly at the same time as I was watching this movie full screen on my laptop, with earphones plugged in, it so happened my SDM group had a meeting. They tried to reach me through incessant pings and calls, none of which I realised :-p . But I am not to blame - they sent out the email at 6.20 asking everyone to assemble in the library at 6.30! By then, the show was already ON.

Had the CV verification activity late night. It is an essential activity, chiefly because of the tendency of a big big bunch of MBA students to inflate their "achievements" to unimaginable proportions. In fact, with the kind of figures people state on their CVs, one would imagine half of India's GDP is contributed by IIM L students. However, there are things about the verification process which need to be ironed out. "How?" would be the million dollar question though. It is ailing mainly from the same disease India's legal system and everything else is - the "influential" and "big" people know to bend the rules to win the game, while the system eventually often troubles the poor, simple lot.

Anyways, the process was running late - thanks to some in the latter category. I waited in the CC for my turn. Discovered something new ;-) 

My own verification happened quickly, as I had a simple honest CV with all the proofs in order. Now working on the SDM presentation for tomorrow. Halfway through it, but super sleepy. Will finish it tomorrow. So long!

Day 412: 3rd Nov, 2010

Almost forgot that classes are also a part of life :D . Was mighty bored to drag myself back to the routine of attending classes. And that too starting with one at 8.45 am. But kya karein.

For the past week, 30-70% of my talktime with my mom goes into combating queries as to whether or not I have "bought anything for Diwali". Now, this "Diwali shopping" is a concept that I have not been able to understand fully; I am the kinds who would rather buy "as and when needed". But, mainly to have a simple answer to this question, I have been making plans to go and buy something since the last couple of days, but unfortunately some stumbling block comes up! Today some stupid submission required people to go to the city and meet some distributor and all, and I was left with no company to go even today! Tomorrow - for sure! (No other option :) .. :-p)

PS: Got a great new business idea \m/ :D

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 400: 22nd Oct, 2010

Wow! Some spider seems to have got really hyperactive yesterday. I saw one big cobweb from my chair to the window, even though there wasn't even one single thread till 3.30 in the night yesterday!

Holiday today, no exams i.e. Thought of watching a movie. Since long, there was this movie lying on my PC and today I finally saw it - Harishchandrachi Factory. It's a marathi movie, and traces the life of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema. I would say it's a must-watch, simple because everyone must know the origins of something that has now become a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry.

But I still happened to be majorly bored through the day, for all the rest of my time. Super bored and victim of inertia. After much coaxing, I finally agreed to go out for dinner. We went to Brij (again), especially luring TG under the pretext of getting him some awesome kadhi. Unfortunately for him, kadhi was available only on Sundays! Still ended up having a good dinner, and a good time (discussion centered around Pachpan's re-kindled IAS obsession). And very heavy tummies! Super sleepy now, will open the book tomorrow in the exam! :)

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 387: 9th Oct, 2010 - Robot!

Being super cut off from the main city has its disadvantages. One of those is it often becomes boring to go all the way there to do things which you would otherwise have done, a prime example being getting stuff repaired. And the chief in this category would happen to be none other than the ubiquitous cell phone.

Now, I had been having issues with my cell for quite some time - I had just collected my phone after repairs yesterday only to find that it STILL wasn't working. A lunch conversation with a random sample brought out interesting statistics - more than 50% of us had a Nokia cellphone to be repaired :) . (BTW, we seemed to be quite confident it could be extrapolated to the batch). So two more of my friends jumped in to accompany me to the Care center. Another one decided it would be a good idea to catch a movie as well. And of course, one can't refuse that kind of a suggestion (even if it meant missing the guest lecture :-p).

So off we (MMR, Taklu, AdiJ, Pachpan and myself) went, first to the Care center. And from there to Fun Republic, to watch... ROBOT! With a speed 1 Terahertz, memory 1 zetabyte, how can you expect anything less than awesome :-p . Basically it seemed like people finally realised there is no villain worthy enough of Rajnikant, so they just pitted him against himself. Who wins? ;-) Seems like even Rajnikant himself as a villain is not good enough for Rajnikant, the HERO!

Went with AdiJ to Ghate's birthday at Genesis. A nice little meet that also included sud, justice and of course, Ghate himself :-p . For a change, sat outside on the lawn though. Pleasant ambience, they even had a live singer and all (though he wasn't really that good :-p).

Day 365: 17th Sep, 2010

The urge to avoid the right-up-the-front benches is pervasive across all student communities. I have usually always been someone who magnetically gets attracted towards the back benches (in school because of height, now because of name, but mostly because of choice). And of course, the last bench phenomenon is an interesting game. Sitting on the very last bench is risky; high chances of being called ahead! It is safer to take a middle position in the last but one row. However, in a land where this kind of smartness permeates every brain, it also becomes very difficult to get that place, because of the high demand.

Anyways, I digressed again. Even as we became comfortable in our chosen thrones (location-wise), the prof asked everyone seated behind to occupy the benches in front - because - we were having some sort of a photoshoot! :-P . Trying to capture students while they are learning in the classroom ;-) . Now things like that are no attraction to me. But to one self-obsessed guy like Pachpan, it was an opportunity that just should not be missed. So, off we were, to the 2nd bench or something. Can't remember the last time I was encountering a lecture from that close a range :-| . In all fairness to the prof, he allowed students to go back once the photoshoot was over :D , but I was overcome by too much inertia to change my place again.

Had an INDEX meet at night. Turned out to be one helluva discussion. Rules, rural, rumour. But always interesting to see extreme views eventually converging at one single point :-)