Showing posts with label The Economist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Economist. Show all posts

Day 170: 15th Dec, 2009

Lag-g(u)ard alert!

So here's a situation we are all familiar with. You have a small piece of work which you put off for later. And then, in a couple of days, you have another small piece of work which depends on the earlier work. So you think to yourself you will do both of them together real soon and put them both off for that moment. Thus begins the pileup of activities. It eventually becomes the size of a huge mountain which even the most enthusiastic trekkers amongst us wouldn't wish to climb. This is what is happening with my 'The Economist' subscription. Even before I have finished the first copy of the magazine, two subsequent copies have also found their way through my door!

I think the world's best alarm clock is the one inside you. NO other alarm clock is as effective as that. Today I somehow woke up at 7.30 am even after sleeping really late yesterday. Paradoxically, the same alarm clock is also the world's worst. I so didn't want to wake up early today, but the darn internal body clock just doesn't allow my brain to control it !

My getting-caught-inspite-of-not-doing-anything phase continues. Even as I stared at the QAM answer booklet, the QAM prof caught me and started asking questions. The whole thing looked so silly to me that I did not say the answer even though I knew it :-S .

Made a visit to the library after a long long time. The intention was to do a little bit of reading for the QAM quiz tomorrow. Have not been too successful, mainly because of lack of good reading material. (and the inability to take good notes - a condition I share with most others). Anyways, will get a couple of hours tomorrow after classes. Should be more than enough. Time to sleep now - with the undying hope of having conquering control on the body alarm clock :-p

Day 160: 5th Dec, 2009

Guest writer for today is Sudeshna. Interesting titbit, she happened to have been in the same Lucknow panel as I was during GDs. Gifted writer, am sure she will put together a nice read. I only pray I don't have to sit with a dictionary to comprehend it :)

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I will be called Simply Sud (no relation to the radio icon(?))....

A big thanks to aapro COM.P for the “exceptional personality” tag (assuming that was meant for yours truly, banishing the nagging thought that the chances of it being meant for someone else are very, very high). And of course, a big round of applause and immense gratitude to my friend appan (a shortened form of Verappan, not to be confused with Appam of fake IPL players), christened so because his moustache is related by hair and follicles to the late brigand’s moustache :D (Applause for this brilliant blog and gratitude for the guest entry, in case you were confused)

Ok. So without further ado, since I was allotted Dec 5th, Dec 5th is what I shall describe. It started as any other day of mine does- in sheer disbelief that the night’s sleep was so fleeting, sigh. And since the night before (3rd Dec, that is) was spent working on a ridiculously time-consuming DWO presentation till the wee hours of the morning (mainly because parts of our DWO group were afflicted by either CFA, COM.Pitis Minora- one contracts COM.Pitis Majora in the second year of one’s membership in the cabal, social loafing and amnesia- we forgot this one chap was in our group :O)- I was understandably tired and therefore treated myself to a good night’s sleep. Yay!

So, where was I? Oh right, Dec 5th- I woke up reasonably fresh as a day old daisy and trudged to DWO, which as usual was as interesting as watching paint dry. But I didn’t have the gumption to sit in the first row (which is where I normally sit) for a 1.5 hour long Eco marathon and so scampered to one of the empty seats in the back rows. Have been called an ‘illegal immigrant’ for all my efforts to thus evade harmful subjects and er, smells- oh well. Tried to read ADJ’s Economist, but it was futile to lower my head without being discovered. Even cut a deal with him about splitting the subscription, which I was afraid to take because I knew the mags would meet the same fate as TOI and ET, which line the shelves of my closet. So, I resorted to some half-hearted C.P. and Pills, who was sitting next to me, mouthed “I hate you”, while all I did was get really lucky at guessing the answers (alternately mumbling “increase” and “decrease” as regards interest rates, income, output and such horrors). The highlight of the class was Shivku being singled out again for another Eco inquisition (poor chap, it’s becoming routine now) and Rajat’s message about my illegal immigration. Yes, we lead scintillating lives.

Watched two movies in the afternoon- Wicker Park and (500) Days of Summer. Loved both. Read a few pages of Of Human bondage. Later in the evening, Kanny J and I went to watch a Hindi play, “Ponga Pandit” by Habib Tanvir, staged as part of a theatre festival called Repertwahr (Repertoire, ruined...sigh). The play was a disappointment of gargantuan proportions primarily because they chose to stage it in some UP dialect Hindi, which I totally didn’t comprehend. But it had some amazing moments of humour and the acting was par excellence. The show-stealers? The paneer and salsa wrap and fries we picked up from McD’s before the show and snuck in somehow. Am watching Hamlet on Monday, it’s by Rajat Kapoor, and I’m a biggg fan! Miss my NCPA and Prithvi days. Sigh, miss Mumbai.

We decided to grab some grub at Royal Cafe and were stopped by a traffic cop on the way because KJ entered a one-way in the wrong direction. Pretended to be new to Lucknow and generally ‘damsel-in-distressy’ to avoid a hefty fine or worse. And due kudos to KJ for some seriously gifted acting and thinking on his feet. The food was divine- made KJ , the incorrigible carnivore, eat veggie food (Muhahahahahaha!)- Paneer tikka, onion kulchhas and dal makahni. Had some double flavoured ice-cream. Oh and met the QCOM in RC celebrating another one of Sumo’s quizzing victories. Vipin of 3.4 and QCOM fame, ate the end of my ice-cream cone while wagging his admonishing finger, “singers don’t eat ice-cream”. Got some mutton Biriyani packed for Harlie, who kept calling to ensure we didn’t forget his precious.

Got back at 11:30 and wrapped up the day with South Park, with scant regard for the DWO quiz on Sunday, the 6th .Forgot to attend the QCOM meet which I really wanted to attend. C’est la vie!

Till we meet again, dear readers. Cheerio!

P.S: Oh and before I forget, some people DID NOT have a problem with some other people. I can say such with certainty because I know Some People intimately. Some other people just need excuses to live by some obscure code of conduct of the cabal they belong to. Amen.

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Thank God, got through without a dictionary :D. Thanks Sud!

Just a small addition to the highlight of the Eco lecture. This nametag thing is becoming a nuisance. Today I even interchanged places with Shreyas to try my luck on the inside seat. But no use! :-x

I also saw PAA today. Liked the movie, but didn't find it awesome :-p

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! :)