Day 511:16th Feb, 2011

I think third day in succession that my sleep got disturbed at dawn. Pretty cold today though, thanks to a fresh bout of rain. The poor blower's post winter break had to be abruptly cancelled :P

The next (and thankfully final) waking pit-stop happened straight at 12.15 noon :-S . No semblance of any afternoon though - it was a tad bit dark and still drizzling. But amazingly beautiful - clean and green in a way only nature does :-)

Typical vella day otherwise - mostly spent sitting in front of my laptop. Resumed gymming though! Was dead tired and wanted to go for a quick dinner, preferably outside. But neither did plans for 'outside' work out, nor did the 'quick' part, as my room was invaded by TG and Sheldon Salhotra for some INDEX budget clarifications. Luckily though - TG agreed to come for dinner to the ever-dependable Brij. Ate right till my oesophagus was full :P

Day 497:2nd Feb, 2011

The barrage of quizzes and projects are here, for one final time. Had 2 quizzes today morning. PM was fine, but as feared yesterday, I had to pay the price for sleeping during yesterday's QAF crash course :(

Kisaan's lying-on-the-bed-full-time-watching-sitcoms fever seems to be rubbing on me. Having bunked my FRA class (optimising available bunks :P), I had way too much time in the afternoon. And I suddenly started not one, but two new series! Two and a Half Men, of which I saw one episode and Heroes, of which I saw 8 episodes! The latter one is gripping! Even skipped gym because of that (though had a brisk walk along the campus after snacks).

After a long time, went to Brij for dinner. One place where the food is consistently simple and good! Felt really sleepy after that heavy meal, but I had a KT session with the juniors. That ran pretty much into the night, around 3.45. And now, another episode of Heroes later, I think I'll call it quits for today.

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 416: 7th Nov, 2010

The hemisphere confusion phase continues.

Once again, woke up past 12. And it was an absolutely max-level vella Sunday. Spent a good 2 hours coming up to date with the latest in HIMYM. The series does not have its initial charm though. Escalation of commitment compels me to watch it till I know who goes on to be Ted's wife (and I am tending to get the feeling that would be a real dampener!). Even Barney seems to be losing some of his sheen! :-(

Now something that probably has never come up on this blog before (not sure about that) is that I adore boxing! I don't know why, but something in that sport has always attracted me. And not as a follower or critic; more so in a manner that I should be an active participant. Probably that's why, the few boxing movies that I have seen have also been interesting. So when I came across the fact that the "Cinderella Man" is one of the all-time top boxing movies, I just had to see it. And that is what I did; and wasn't disappointed :D . The movies is based on the real life fairy-tale rise of a boxer (James Braddock) who had almost been written off. Engaging movie; the fights were very well-shot.

And obviously, it being a Sunday, no scope of eating the mess food. And where else to go, but the mess away from mess - Brij ki Rasoi. Even had a new visitor amongst us, Karraju. Though considering that the placement process is now totally over, guess we can look forward to more of his presence henceforth.

Have been reading up a little more on random stuff, mainly boxing. Even saw a few more videos of Mohammed Ali, Mike Tyson. What players! Mohammed Ali's swiftness and Tyson's aggression would have been such a deadly combination! Shudder to think of the player who would come up against that combination :-P

Anyways, 2.45 now. Early by standards of the last 2-3 days. So hopefully will wake up a little sooner too. The only pain point - the early morning CBM class is cancelled. So how to motivate myself to get up?

Day 409: 31st Oct, 2010 - Design Time still \m/

Some more designing. Spent a little time on coming up with the sweatshirt design. Infact spent more time searching for a decent background template! Everyone was insisting on a plain and simple sweatshirt with universal appeal, and that is exactly what they got.

During our Summers process, we don't have classes, but we haven't technically got holidays. And that is ensured by asking all of us to report to the Placement Office and sign against our pics. And to ensure no frauds, we even have a dedicated person to ensure a one-sign-one-person (right person! :P) process.

We see to be going out for dinner every other day. Once again, Brij got the majority vote due to its proximity advantage. The added drive for TG was that it was a Sunday and kadhi would be available. Or so we thought. Unfortunately though, seems like even on a Sunday, you need to be lucky enough to come on time for the coveted kadhi! Interesting dinner time conversation - a new conspiracy theory called Loose Change, which claims that the entire 9/11 episode was orchestrated by the US! Scary thought.

PS: Must mention my stud quotient. At a time when everyone was clothed in multiple layers of clothes, I went on my bike in just one t-shirt. Tuning my mind.. ;-)

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 396: 18th Oct, 2010 - Why's the blog private?!

CBM paper today. A typical fin paper. One where you look at the practice examples and feel all confident that you are going to 'crack it'. And then, the tryst with reality where a minor twist in the question brings your dream down like a pack of cards :D

The paper was in the noon. I had missed my lunch as I had squeezed in the 5 minutes I had spared, to complete some formalities required for opening my demat account. So I was quite hungry after the paper and had a samosa and Amul Kool and came back to my room. But very soon, the news started pouring in from all quarters that awesome burgers were being available in the mess! Now when words of praise start coming from stark opponents of the mess, there obviously was a strong urgency to get the burger, lest it runs out. Of in spite of not being very hungry, I went to the mess. Met Chatur there, and had a mini spicmacay/music discussion. Then walked to the main gate ATM, as I wanted to test if my SBI card was working (yes!). Took a small shortcut walk around the campus, and then made my way back to the mess to take extra burgers back as parcel for Pachpan & Kisaan. The only person who didn't like the gesture seems to be Vanki; competition for his "restaurant" you see! ;-)

The saga of eating out continues! Today, on Vanki's request, we (also Pachpan + Kisaan) made our way to the no-longer-jinxed Brij-ki-rasoi. The highlight was Vanki's super-awesome hindi usage at one point. He actually used the word "yadi" in a sentence rather than the commonplace "agar"! I really wonder where he heard that word in the first place. And as for food, we had a quick, tasty and typical dinner - Rajma for Vanki, aaloo for Pachpan and one standard Paneer dish.

Pssst. It's my birthday now :-) . But nobody knows ;-) . I don't want external sources to provide this data, and so am off the social radar. No etrigan, no facebook, and hence, no blog :-p . Lots of calls from outside IIML though. Had a Skype chat with my folks at home. They cut a cake in my name! :-) . No wonder I love technology!

Day 374: 26th Sep, 2010 - Khel khel mei

A three hour Service Marketing class on a fine Sunday morning! Would definitely have found the choicest of words to curse it, but for the fact that it turned out to be time very well spent! We had to play a simulation game designed by a Harvard professor, and I can definitely say it was a fantastic way of "learning by doing". Left me wondering why we don't have these for all subjects!

Came back to my room and started watching a documentary on Shaolin Kungfu. Painstakingly reached till the end; found it to be quite boring. Slept off, partly the documentary effect, and partly of course to compensate the early waking up.

When it rains, it pours. Now that the Brij jinx seems to be broken, we visited it yet again within a space of a week! :D . Had a big discussion on how much freedom a retailer would have in underpricing a product (even by taking loss). Need to find that out from authentic sources..

Day 364: 16th Sep, 2010 - The jinx is broken!

Heard the entire ProjFin lecture today, but didn't manage to understand a word :-( . Tragic!

Last semester saw us making numerous attempts to dine at Brij ki Rasoi. All of them, by some quirk of fate, turned out to be unsuccessful; with the universe going so far as to create sandstorms to throw water (err, sand?) on our plans! But this was a new term, and it would call for a new attempt. With crossed fingers, and tossing minds, we finally plucked up enough courage to withstand disappointment that we might face. But, as always, fortune favors the brave :-P , and after over 5 months (2 summers + 3 last term), we finally had dinner at Brij!

Had an INDEX meet after that. I was super sleepy, but then I started randomly playing and tapping the guitar. And then, not just me, but nobody was sleepy :-P

Day 313: 19th Jul, 2010

Finally one of those days when I sat down to study for the exam :P . That's the thing with fin papers - they are not open book exams :( . Had Int Fin today. Lots of subquestions - the maximum weightage a question carried was 2 marks. That's nice :D

Went to PVR to watch Udaan. But it's luck is turning out to be like Brij :-p . Apparently some server was down at PVR :-S . Those buggers didn't even care to inform at the entrance - bloody they must have been made to reimburse the parking charges. So this became the second time that the plan was made but didn't get executed successfully! Worked well for Vanki though - we went to Wave and saw Inception - repeat for myself, Agarwal and Shruti. Watched it "analytically" this time :D 

The best part - I rode a car after ages! :D . Only from the campus gate to H14, but nevertheless, enjoyed it totally! :D

Day 305: 11th Jul, 2010

Almost as if God reads my blogs :) . I slept off ranting about the heat. And what do I know - it rained heavily at dawn, and I woke up to a really cool and pleasant morning :D

Nice lazy Sunday otherwise. Had a late breakfast, late bath, late lunch :D . Pretty interesting lunch convo with Vanki and Pachpan - a complete discussion on Vanki's "choice" of "Indian" movies, with one final conclusion - Vanki cannot understand the Indian Consumer's Behaviour :D . The guy didn't like Koi Mil Gaya. We were going to put him through the acid test - Jab We Met .. :D . But unfortunately, he hadn't seen that movie!

Started watching LOTR - part 1. Got interrupted midway over the Retail marketing project. Spent a good 3 hours over it. Interrupted by yet another plan to go to Brij ki Rasoi. The jinx continued - this time, the plan was shelved even before it took off :-p . After another little struggle for the project, I came back and finished the movie. And I was disappointed!! The movie, even with a running time of 3 and a half hours, did NOT finish! :-O There is a clear continuation and dependence on Part 2 to take the next logical step forward. Pretty silly, ain't it?

Now am back to my room after watching the Footie final at Samanjasya. Pretty tough match!! Though I personally would prefer one with a lot more goals :P . Anyways, congrats to Spain and well-played to the Dutch. Though they won't be remembered much. Aakhir, jo jeeta ..wohi sikandar!

Day 290: 26th Jun, 2010

It is indeed a little surprising that around 3 weeks into the course, this is the first time I am awake till 5.15 am. But then, this was the occasion :D. The induction for the juniors ended and we had our first insti party as well. Kept my record of staying right up to the end :) . Super fun, as usual, including attempts to bring together Vanki with bhabhiji ;-) ! Also witnessed the Limca worthy moment - Shanky being lifted :-o ..by Maanas Agarwal. Also, did learn a couple of fachchas who need to learn some behaviour.

Had gone to Brij for dinner. Seems to be jinxed - especially for Vanki and Pachpan. Third time unlucky they were - this time thanks to an overflowing crowd. Had dinner at Fauzi ka dhaba, which lies a little ahead. Not bad.

Went to get some t-shirt prints in the afternoon. Hot dusty winds blowing at my face :-| . I hope that road is repaired soon!

And as I said, after a looooong time, sunlight is flowing into my room even before I have turned to sleep. Chalo then, let me try and put myself to sleep. Good night (no sleep, no morning :-p) junta! :)

Day 270: 31st Mar, 2010 - 50% MBA :)

The days were long 

Yet so short seems the year 

The first day memory so fresh 

Yet the last day is here. 

It's time to sit back  

Let out a small sigh 

And to one super fantastic year 

It's time to bid goodbye.

What a great last day of the term! Too many interesting things. Since I am in the exam-mode, let me list them out point-wise.

• Almost made to wait outside the exam hall for 30min, as I had to walk into the washroom which cost me a precious 10 seconds. Fortunately, we were allowed to get in.
• As I said, I almost pulled off a night-out. Still allowed myself sleep for around an hour in the morning. Drank the red bull on my run to the PGP block. (I should have drunk it 5 min earlier no? May be I could have flown to the PGP block then :-p)
• Super short paper. The first part - true/false - was completed pretty quickly by me (speed and accuracy being unrelated). There were 6 more questions to be answered - writing single side answers for each of them would probably let me come out of the exam hall first - and that was the target I set for myself. As I was in my last answer, Shantanu got up and left the exam hall first, making me extremely jealous. I quickly completed my answer, and left the 3 hour paper in 1hr,5min - my personal best :D . Guess the Red Bull wasn't really needed :-p
• Was going with Shreyas to Brij ki Rasoi. Just as I was admiring the digital tachometer of the Pulsar, especially the part which indicated petrol by showing a small fuel-station symbol next to line. And then suddenly the bike stopped. And that is when I realised I wasn't actually reading the symbol correctly! No petrol.. and the bike was already running on reserve. Got a local fellow to give me a ride to the petrol pump and back.
• Many (temporary) farewells - Dixit, Tarun, Saurabh, Ashish, Shruti, Komal, Shreyas and quite a few more ... Truly temporary as I would probably bump into quite a few people during my internship! (Almost half the junta is headed to Bombay :D)
• Went to C2C with Ghate, Sud and AdiJ. It was a really nice place - am quite surprised how I have never been there in my one year of stay!
• Had Walls' Feast icecream after ages from a roadside Walls' fellow.
• Went to the terrace of the PGP block! The campus is SO beautiful.

Went to the INDEX room to collect the RSC docs left by Riza and ..well, just for the heck of it. Back to my room - my last night here...

Am a 50% MBA now :) Wow!

Day 186: 6th Jan, 2010 - Finally, it happened!

Finally, it happened!

First of all, let me talk about something that is so not happening these days - breakfast. Something about the weather, it's EXTREMELY sleep inducing! Yesterday my class started at 9.30, but yet I rushed in for a 2 min breakfast. Today, my class started only at 10.15, but yet I rushed in for a 2 min breakfast! The later the class is, the more I want to sleep. My bench-mate Shreyas is another case in point - he's missed all the first lectures till now :D

Anyways, back to the topic. So, finally what happened? Hmmm, before your mind starts running into all not-so-required directions, let me clear it up myself. I finally did an assignment all by myself. Well, it was a non-evaluative abstract that needed to be written, but even then, I would like to take the credit :D .. **applauds**

Non-mess day. Went to Brij ki Rasoi for lunch - the svastha aani mastha (marathi: cheap & good) option. Dinner was a pizza treat for Sudeshna's birthday. Only thing I had in the mess was the badam milk. Swell :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!