Day 531:21st Mar, 2011

A pleasant and early wake up call from my parents and sis to indicate they had reached the city and were on their way for their first visit to my campus. Excitement at both ends :-) . Also realized Pachpan was supposed to be have been back by now. Sure enough, I found him in his usual elements in his room, uninhibited in his praise for himself for his 'packing abilities' :D 

Quickly got ready and ran down to the guest house to meet my parents. Got them settled = dumping luggage in the room, so we could go down for breakfast. Showed them the "basic utilities" of the campus - the mess, Fauzi, JustTea, GnB ; made me remember my own first day when I consciously had to try to NOT get lost :-P . Since we were supposed to have rehearsals for tomorrow's event in the afternoon, I had my parents visit around the city + shop in that time period. The rehearsals themselves were a pain, mainly because of the afternoon heat (the free tropicana didn't help much :P). Trying to 'blast' the empty tropicana packs were a lot of fun though :D

After a brief period of rest (skipping PGP day occasion), I went off with my friends to the High Tea. Had a nice time there - generally talking amongst ourselves and also meeting a lot of my friends' parents. My parents came in halfway through (chikan shopping had taken priority :-p), and then it was my turn to introduce them to my friends. Luckily, there was enough mutual consideration to ensure appropriate behaviour :D

Went back to my room but was still pretty bored. So back to Fauzi with Pachpan and Shru. And that is when one of those absolutely random things happened which would become life-long memories. Arora had his car, and along with Buddhi and Kisaan in full flow, we went for a drive. An awesome drive, going to random places in the city (including DM Sahab's ghar), with Arora engaging in absolutely random but highly entertaining conversations with people. Of course, a special appreciation for his one-track mind :D. At one point, we were just 4 seconds away from consciously driving down a flight of stairs :-p . We came back for yet another round of the campus, even stopping to get pics clicked in front of our Diro's residence! Also saw for the first time Bodhigraha-2, the extension of the existing PGP block. Seems well made. A place that will soon beckon a lot many students in the coming years.

One of the craziest nights I have had in helL!

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 478:14th Jan, 2011

Interesting incident in the LD class. As an activity, each team had to draw and depict a particular scenario. The catch was that the team members would take turns and individually contribute to the drawing. Was fun to observe the complete lack of any artistic ability in any of our team members :D 

Just like the financial world has a new definition for New Year as "April", cine-goers have a new definition for the beginning of the week - Friday. Today being one, we made our way to Wave for Yamla Pagla Deewana. Probably amongst the worst 1st half ever; and if you do manage to make your way through it, the contrast effect stands useful and helps you tide over the 2nd half.

Went to the Hazratganj Aryans from there - the fourth Aryans that I have been to. Definitely the worst. Very average food - only the paneer peshawari was good. Even the chole wasn't nice :( . The good part was the entire evening was converted into MMR's treat :D

Came back to get on to my "routine" of Big Bang Theory. Came across a .mkv file and one thing led to an other, and I downloaded and installed the latest VLC player, and next thing I know I was playing the .mkv file of Terminator 2: Judgement Day! And that is one super classic movie. Which meant I just had to watch it entirely once again \m/ . And now at 4.35 am (after 2 more episodes of Big Bang Theory), I finally call it a day (or night).

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 449:10th Dec, 2010

The problem with two-papers-in-a-day is that it leaves you with zero enthu for even a little studying in the rest of the day. Especially with addictive distractions like Crazy Taxi around! Consequently, hadn't started a word for PF yesterday. And not just me, nobody seemed to be doing it! This, even though, it was the scariest mid-term paper.

But of course, that had ensured that entire morning today was dedicated to it. One more super level threat from MMR - he is scary man when he does that! As far as answering the paper itself was concerned, I had to re-play my yesterday's role of the human photocopier. But this time from the question paper itself! You may find this very very confusing - but I really seemed to think all the answers were in the question paper :-| And I made good use of that!

But anyways, it had been a long long time, and we were still to celebrate the Summers of our INDEX facchas. So today finally, we all went to this place called UV (UltraViolet). The sad part was that the place served no alcohol (.. ;-) Muaahahaha! :D ) . The starters were nice, the veg main course was average (actually a little less than average). But the best part was the whole lot of chocolate that I had - 50% (shared with others) of - Kitkat shake, nutty mocha shake, cookie monster shake, choco chip fudge and a sizzling brownie :D . And no, I am still not (even a tiny bit) averse to chocolates! :D

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 440:1st Dec, 2010

Today seems like a reallllllyyyy long day. I think it is substantially due to the fact that I woke up at 5am - yes you read that right - 5am today! After a quick bite at GnB (and of course, capturing the atrocities committed on their staff), we made our way to Lohia Park. Today being World Aids Day, INDEX was supporting the local government organisation in organizing a City Run to raise AIDS awareness. The run went off very well - had a good response from people.

Though all this meant that I had lost out on a lot of sleep over the past 3 days. Made up all of that with a nice and not-so-short siesta :D

Through evening till now that, one of my old temporary addictions is back - the hunt for good mobile apps. I must have surely mentioned this before - that the very reason I bought my present N79 is to explore for apps, as I see that all the great features of a phone are going to be delivered through independent software apps. One major problem with Symbian though is that it requires all software to be signed and have a valid certificate - which is a big big issue when it comes to some ingenious apps available at sidey-types websites :-p . Finally remembered the way by which I had resolved this issue. Had to go through the whole process though - thanks to the new IMEI number on my new handset :-p

Day 435:26th Nov, 2010

Day started off pretty early as I had a CBM quiz. The main reason I went for it is because it was going to be a MCQ paper. And didn't see any harm in trying out my luck :D

Time for a new activity from now - trading :D . I finally have a properly functional demat account. And apparently I had to make a trade in the first one month. So there I was, trying to see in that complex maze if there is a path to make some profit. Gladly did manage to find one, and walked off with a princely profit of Rs.100/- .. :-)

Treat plans once again disintegrated due to miscellaneous reasons. We went out anyways - and this time, for the first time in 1.5 yrs - to Yokos for some sizzlers. And we were all left wondering why we had never been there before! 'Coz the ambience and the food both were excellent (sans the chocolate pizza :-p) ! Definitely needs a revisit.

Day 433:24th Nov, 2010

Am now reaching new levels of nonchalance. Had an EPA quiz in the morning. Woke up, even physically got up (yes, they are two different things) and then, in some 30 seconds, inspired myself to go back to sleep. The reason - a 5 mark quiz for which I haven't prepared wouldn't serve me from either the knowledge point of view and definitely not from the CG point of view. Even skipped the next 2 morning lectures to wake up at an extremely lazy 1.30 in the afternoon. (Later came to know the proj fin lecture was officially cancelled. Yey!)

As I said, day before yesterday couldn't catch up on HP 7 on account of Guzaarish and now it was time for amends. Made it a 'Bunk-all day' by skipping the EPA class. Saw the afternoon show - movie was OK types  though, probably a little slow. Spent some time in Landmark where Chatur exhausted her 'Topper's Gift Voucher'. Such a pity you can't buy chocolates with that voucher! :-p . A discounted cappuccino later (thanks to a free voucher), went to Brij where and had dinner with some more from the INDEX gang. Awesome time!

Day 426:17th Nov, 2010 - Problems Galore!

No amount of planning in this world can prevent last minute problems from cropping up. Especially in a world were there is scant regard for ethics and morals and commercial matters and personal insecurities take over.

The first cause happened early morning. Seems like some infrastructure issues "flooded" our venue suddenly :-S . A coincidence much too weird and uncanny. And definitely somewhat unpleasant deja-vu feeling. But where there is a problem, there is a solution. On-the-spot came up with alternative execution plans alongwith Pachpan, in the process also figuring out the logic behind our (now erstwhile) 27ft * 27ft dimensions :D

From there, went off on a stall filling journey. Kisaan dropped by and picked up Pachpan to cover a new area. Spent a few hours talking to random people. Yet another learning experience at the super-ground level. Learnt a new term - bazaari - basically individuals who every day of the week go to the area where the weekly market is on and (Problem #1) set up their stall there. Problem #2 - turns out a new month long fair is going to start on Sunday and everyone wants to rush there from day zero to get a good location. Anyways, still got quite a few contacts from a variety of vendors. But at such places, zero guarantee that even a single one will eventually turn up :D

While I was ending my stint with a sweets-eating session at Ritz, Pachpan and Kisaan joined me again. While Kisaan left to try and get some deal, myself and Pachpan stumbled upon this guy who happened to have a whole list of contacts for tiny things. Lots of mini-things would get crossed off my white board. 

In fact, in general, the "business sense" of these one-man-stalls was really applaudable. Case in point, when we went to them and spoke to them about so-and-so event and asked for their contact, each one of them had a proper business card to give to us. Just shows they are always ready to grab a bigger opportunity that comes along!

Came back to campus to realise that we have an absolutely new problem that has cropped up! Yaar just can't understand weird logic people keep throwing at us. Not focussing much on that right now. Finishing a lot of other sidey work.

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 413: 4th Nov, 2010 - What we have all been waiting for!

Slept relatively early, but still managed to wake up only at around 10:10. Luckily we didn't have the early morning proj fin class. Read my way through the BE class, to follow it up with an INDEX meet at 12:00 noon! I think that's a first, never had a meeting in day time :D

I got too much exhortations from Kisaan on the necessity to go out and enjoy on Diwali eve rather than attend a class. (Did I really need it?). And anyways, my "shopping" was pending. Consequently, I bunked EPA and we instead went to the newly opened Phoenix Mall. It's definitely a disappointment especially in comparison to the publicity it did - much smaller than Sahara and Fun mall. Even the stores didn't have much variety. Ate a little in the food-court (paneer takatak - first time heard that name, so ordered, OK-OK stuff) and then left for FUN mall. But Kisaan brilliantly managed to be sure of the route and within 15 minutes lose his way. And so we somehow ended up going to Sahara mall - that place is definitely so much better. All the stores had a far better variety of stuff. Eventually however, I ended up buying one shirt, while Kisaan impulsively ended up shopping for a sweatjacket, a pair of shoes and a jeans :D . Ended the stint with a super Baskin Robbins ice-cream :D

Came back to my room and saw that our subcomm creative stud had finished the teaser video for INDEX 2010. And tell you what - it's just AWESOME!! :D

Also at,
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=454108805964

Just some time back, I suddenly saw the "Crazy Taxi" facebook application. And for some strange reason, threw myself a challenge that I would beat everyone else on my friend list :-| . After 40min, I now emerge victorious and as the highest scorer amongst my friends! \m/ Will sleep peacefully now!

And technically, it's 4 am, and Diwali now ;-) Happy Diwali! :)

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 410: 1st Nov, 2010

Since quite some days, the IAS bhoot has been haunting Pachpan again. Which invariably somehow tends to become a topic of conversation every now and then. And really long conversations when TG is a part of the discussion, mainly because he holds the exact opposite stance. Apparently, they reached a peak yesterday night by continuing a discussion on that topic till 8am :-| . And the "game-changing" point, after so much pondering, turned out to be the salary figure :-S . Which in turn led to another series of thoughts about how important it is for the Government to invest a lot more money to ensure high quality talent acquisition and talent retention.

The summers process is going on well. Lots of more companies, and each one picking more number of students. Heard a super-duper interesting and amusing interview experience of one of Pachpan's juniors, for his 2nd round of a major consultancy firm :D . Need to get a script of that! It is one of those never-to-be-forgotten-ever encounters! :D

Anyways, went with Pachpan to the city for yet another stint of raising money. It is amazing the kind of people you meet out there. Some people thoroughly professional and courteous, some others who are ultra-fond of advising but won't help beyond that, some genuine and honest people. And then some others who are absolutely third class; zero professionalism, simply unsuited to be in any position of authority. Like the guy we visited. (at the place outside which my bike met it's ill fate :( .. the subordinate who met us and started talking about rates all of a sudden).

Continued the eating-out saga. Lunch (awesome choley) at Aryans. Snacks was a round of panipuri. Dinner at Dasaprakash (a must when with Pachpan) .. :D

Many more offers and sign-outs today. Now all our INDEX facchas are placed with good offers :)

Day 405: 27th Oct, 2010

Sometimes you need an external trigger for some things to happen. Not that you don't want to do it, but just that you may be a little apprehensive to actually commit to it. So when Chatur showed me the SMS sent by Spicmacay informing us that the artist had to be confirmed immediately, I actually was kinda happy :D . And that is how INDEX'10 gets it's first major performance :-)

Buoyed by this, I immediately jumped on to my Discover and went with Vanki to the city (badly dug up everywhere! I think I must have inhaled 2-3 kgs dust today.) to hunt for some local sponsorship. Mostly people weren't even in office. Did get to meet a few people though, and gather some mild to some slightly-enthusiastic responses. Sometimes, it is just good to take that leap of faith and see how things work out! And how did that work out. When I came back to campus, understood that Kisaan also had some nice news at his end. Great job! We are now one-up as compared to last year ;-)

Day 404: 26th Oct, 2010

Woke up to find this mail from Pachpan.

Subject: "Kal subah 8:30 class hai .. so jao .."

Content:

Last mail sent :

Pachpan: 4:02

Me : 3: 54

Chatur : 3:50

Consultant : 3:49

MMR : 3:36

Kisaan : 3:25

Haathi : 3:20

One of the advantages with our CBM class is that the prof allows you to attend any of the sessions held during the day. Due to that, Pachpan has stopped attending the 8.45 am class since ages. Today, even Vanki adopted to that strategy. He blissfully slept off through the early morning class. So seems like Chatur and myself are the true champions - slept late, but still made it to class :D

Lately, my blog seems to have become a rant about my handset, but what to do. Every fault needs two visits to the city, once for depositing the handset and once again to collect it. This time, the new piece given also started giving problems. Went today and deposited my "new" handset back - waiting time two more weeks!

From there went to check on the status of an MR project. Happiness met tragedy. The good part was that I didn't even have to go up and meet the person. I got the required info at the reception itself. Now the bad part was that in those few minutes, my bike seems to have committed suicide :-( . Suddenly, it's self-start and horn stopped working  :-(

INDEX is coming near, quickly! A long list of tasks, only getting longer by the minute. Finished off some of them today - collecting some bills, meeting a vendor, arranging permissions. Allowed myself a little sleep after that as we had a meet at 01:00 hours, to draw up a tentative budget and a little bit of short term planning. Ended up spending quite some time on the former, peppered with some random deviations ranging from parties to PPI/PPOs to stuff on DC ;-) . It's 6.15 am now, and complete daylight. I have a class again at 8.45 am tomorrow (today??!). Will I make it? :-)

Day 399: 21st Oct, 2010

Bamboozled! For today's Proj Fin paper, the whole batch had religiously understood one big excel sheet. And implicitly, what was unsaid but understood, was that any deviation from this pattern is going to result in a mass disaster. True to Murphy's law, that is exactly what happened. We got one big case, in which we had to hunt for all the numbers, and then use them to calculate some key ratios. Most people followed the strategy for cleanly writing down all the formulas once, just so that would qualify them for some marks, before they bungled up with all the incorrect number substitution! Funny how most people depended on the second globe part of the paper for actually getting marks :D . And btw, a lot of core marketing guys had taken this as the sole fin course. I truly wonder what they must be thinking now :D

Had to rush off to a place called Alambagh to meet an alum. The place is actually quite far off, but I took the peeche wala shortcut which goes to the Airport; made the trip considerably faster. And it was a pretty nice ride too (for most part). From there, I went to Hazratganj as Kisaan and Pachpan were already there. Did some local spons in that area while I was waiting for them :D . We three then went to a restaurant called Ruchika, just beyond Yoko's (which BTW, we have never been to :-| .. don't know why!). The place was the average sort.

Had a little meeting after that. After coming back to my room, had a .. memorable .. conversation on gTalk .. Loose ends, unfinished business and some pluck :D

Day 391: 13th Oct, 2010 - Chinese!

Had a very random trigger today. Bala suddenly came and declared that we are going out (in his commanding style). I had been eating out quite a few times the past week. But in spite of that, we said "yes boss". The plan was to go somewhere near. Richi Rich was the first choice. But now suddenly (especially as Pachpan wasn't there), the focus shifted to eating Chinese. So the consideration set was now filled with the choice of going to Shaolin. But then, came the genius' (me, of course) brainstorm - "If we are eating chinese, go to the best place for that!" And off we went - to Mainland China! 

It turned out to be a superb place! Great ambience, nice crowd, and of course, really nice food. But additionally, what set the tone and mood was Bala. He had some absolute gems stored up for today; his PJs (?) stooping to previously unmatched depths. The noteworthy ones that I recollect:

1) Why did Abhishek Bachchan go to see ROBOT?

2) GGB: "Abbe, tu chicken khate waqt terko woh animal yaad nahi aata hai kya?"

Bala, the great: "Tu ghaas-poos khate waqt tujhe ped ka yaad aata hai kya?" :-|

3) What treatment would a certain junior receive from her would-be husband? :D

4) Bala's latent desire that sprung up when he saw 'a wall'

Day 385: 7th Oct, 2010

It is not for nothing that they say necessity breeds innovation. What else can explain me writing one whole page about "Prisoner's Dilemma and how it manifests in Economic Policies" in the EPA quiz! Of course, one positive side is that one gets to eat breakfast.

Had our proj fin lecture after that. It was stopped midway so that we could attend the session held by the Chairman of our BOG. Being a veteran of the TATA group, he exhorted us to observe and respect ethics in a business environment. And his first advice to us students - "Enjoy". Yes sir, we shall! :D

Pretty packed afternoon thanks to INDEX. Making documents for some companies, reviewing documents for some others. Even tried to go to the city to get some prints. And what did I see while coming back? And what did it do to me? :-S

Interestingly, this seems to be a time when many of us are at some level of frustration, for no apparent reasons. (or did many of them small ones just pile up :-p ..) Anyways, Pachpan felt it was time to indulge in some 'self-pampering' of sorts. As non-smokers and teetotalers (excluding Pachpan's dharam-bhrast encounter), we concluded this could be achieved only by going to a slightly expensive restaurant. Barbeque Nation was the choice. Quickly Bala, Shomu were roped in, and Shomu was even convinced to give the treat.

Now when a treat (read free food!) has been finalised, you would think it would take 5 min for everyone to be on board. But NO. Mr. GolBol had different plans. And the impasse continued for what would be a full one hour, with at least 5 other neutral options also being discarded meanwhile. Finally, we narrowed in on MINT. I guess by the then the pervasive feeling amongst us all was - "at least we are going"! Great ambience, but the food and service are a let down!