Day 513:18th Feb, 2011

Woke up (pretty late) to find that I needed to give the final touches to the FRA document. Got that done just in time to have some (crappy!) lunch, and then dashed off for the Jack&Jill ppt; only to find the guys walking in a complete hour late :-x . And then break the promise of finishing off the ppt in an hour. (No, the few soaps and lotions that were distributed did NOT compensate!)

Some intensive chest exercises at the gym today. Also spersed with some triceps exercises and a 3km run :D . I can feel my muscles getting tougher now ;-) . Might be a little biased though :-)

Had kutte jaisa bhook and even the dinner at the mess was really sad. Kisaan had gone to play a cricket match for sikander and so poor me had to go all alone to Fauzi. But then, you just need to sit at Fauzi for two minutes and you are sure to get company :D . Had dinner with cyberKGP and my Bridge colleagues, funnily over giving some Fin electives' gyaan to some facchas. Had a marketing session scheduled just after that; attendance wasn't mandatory for me, but I figured I wouldn't be doing anything productive anyways. With that simple logic, I went along. Don't know what I learnt, but I know I didn't lose anything.

The night mess visit that followed suddenly left me with a new brainwave - we get brownie there, heated up, with chocolate sauce. How about buying an ice cream from Guptaji to have some home-made (not so) Sizzling Brownie?! Definitely an idea worth a try I guess!

Went to my INDEX junior Mak's room to collect KungFuPanda's sweatshirt. Also ended up giving a little electives' gyaan to him as well. Poor fellow reminded me of the crossroads I was standing at last year...

I think I need to start locking my room when I leave. (Have I mentioned I (and many others) NEVER lock the door of the room while going out?). Yesterday had the instance of a friend randomly posting a status update from my FB account, regarding the way my name is (mis)spelt. Today, I suddenly saw my USB mouse was missing. My detective instincts told me the suspicion would be on Bala. And then, true to his remarkable style, Bala gave yet another demonstration.

Me: Do you have my mouse?

Bala: No, it's with Kisaan

Anyone reading the above statement would infer Kisaan came and took my mouse. But no, the great Bala came, took my mouse, went to Kisaan's room, gave my mouse to him, and took his mouse. And on my quizzing a little more about this 'arrangement', I was (in his characteristic style) "ordered" to use my "hands" till my mouse is available again :-S . The e-sikander AOE addiction :-S

Anyways, my intentions of sleeping early have gone bust big time. Been randomly reading stuff (as usual). 4.20 am now. Just read a random mail from some committee on campus who (God-knows-why) called someone, and now we all mandatorily will have to attend that. Arghh!!

Day 506:11th Feb, 2011

Pretty free the whole day today. Led to me spending even more time on my laptop. Led to me finally get too irked by my "crowded" desktop, and finally I cleared out the random clutter and put the files to folders where they belong.

Pachpan had plans for a movie - Patiala House. But with the unsurmountable mountain called QAF in front of me, I decided to stay back and try and start climbing. The good thing was, there were others like me who had taken these courses with slightly ulterior motives as well ;-) . Did get around reading a bit, but didn't manage to make much sense of what I read. I guess the only knowledge I gained properly was when Pachpan arrived to explain one topic for some 30 minutes or so. But, the struggle went on (hoping for some sub-conscious absorption :D) and it's about 4.15am now. Guess I'll resume tomorrow morning, hopefully with someone to explain and make things easy!

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 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 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 361: 13th Sep, 2010 - Ink wars!

My timetable for this term is bad!

From Mon-Thu, I have the first class of the day (8.45 am), the last class of the day (4.30-6.00 pm) and one random class in between. Which basically means a lot more sleeping - what else can you do during those short periods of rest? :-p

The Service Marketing class has turned out to be a surprise packet. The prof kicks ass! :D . The guy has industry experience, and spices up the class with a good number of real life examples and jokes. A sample - try figuring out what USA and OUU can stand for in Consumer segmentation (TG: SEC A, 35-45 years)!

Pachpan's finally back on campus. So as always, my white board and laptop became entertainment hubs. And all of a sudden, in spite of my warning, they pulled out the plastic wrapper on the sound panel. That set off similar triggers as on this day. Today's weapon of my attack was this bottle of INK I found in Kisaan's shelf. Splashed a little in both their rooms :-p

After an exchange of promises of revenge :D, Kisaan, Pachpan and me went out to get our handsets repaired (weirdly, everyone's piece had a problem). After a Lucknow tour by Kisaan (which I don't know whether it was a part of a plan to frustrate or not), finally only Pachpan managed to get his charger. Went to Dasaprakash for dinner - it lived up to its reputation. Revenge for yesterday :D

Day 257: 18th Mar, 2010

How many times do you think to yourself that you must backup your data? And you never do it. And then one fine day your PC stops working and you curse yourself.

Similar thing. Somehow, my appointment with some personal IT issue never ends. It has often been due to my desktop, sometimes due to my phone and these days with my laptop. Yesterday after watching the movie, as I was closing all the folders, suddenly my OS hung and Windows Explorer service stopped working. I wasn't in much mood to explore it so I slept off. Unfortunately the problem continued today as well - so I spent the whole morning and whole afternoon trying to take backups, as I thought I'll have to reinstall the operating system. And since I could not open any folders - I had to share stuff on DC - then run all the way to Praveen's room (wake him up!), and transfer data. And miraculously, after all this running around and effort, my laptop started working fine :| . The good thing is atleast I have substantial backup now!

Went ground hunting in the evening. Some real quick action required there!

Came back to be a part of the game the entire PGP clan was playing - the dry run for the electives allocation. Am choosing a lot of 'nice-sounding' courses as of now. I am still not sure if they are the ones I'll take up after 2 days. Lets see..

Day 228: 17th Feb, 2010

I learnt an important lesson in negotiation today. My Dell laptop's battery is horribly messed up, and that too within just 8 months of usage. So I called up their service center and asked if anything could be done about it (obviously I wanted them to replace the battery on their own accord). And they gave the standard reply that battery is a consumable item (i.e. life depends on usage) and it is not covered under warranty. This is when I played my IIM L card and told them how we had gone for a different make of laptops for the bulk deal but I still stuck with Dell. And how it would be an embarrassment for me and the brand if I now end up looking like a fool. And it worked - I was promised a new battery as a sign of goodwill :) Thanks Dell!

This encounter and also my tryst with some INDEX brochure designing attempt ensured I was to stay hungry till around 3 in the afternoon. Went to this place - Manbhavan Dhaba on the highway (take a right from .7 then further ahead around 200-300m on your left) with Saurabh. The best thing about these places are they are pretty economical. A sumptuous lunch for 2 cost us 75/- (including a bottle of bisleri) :D

Day 97: 3rd Oct, 2009

As a soon-to-be manager (safe assumption), today I am truly impressed with the importance of delivering a promise to a customer. So basically what happened is my DELL charger stopped working suddenly. And unlike all the innumerable bad experiences one typically has with many other consumer firms (telecom service providers, malls, food courts, restaurants), getting this issue resolved was a breeze. I called a toll-free number, got through easily to a support person, who asked me to run some program. When that didn't work, I called up the support line again and this time they said they'll just replace the charger. Next day (INSPITE of the fact that it was a holiday!), the DELL guy promptly delivered the new working charger right to my hostel room. Really impressive! As a consumer, this is something that would weigh a LOT on my mind when I would be making a purchase decision.

Went off to catch 'Wake up Sid' in the afternoon with Chajju. Pachpan ditched us for his XL-ency but eventually paid the price for it :-p . I really liked the movie though.

Evening spent time with all the INDEX junta. Random timepass and gupshup. In between went out to see the much awaited Fash P (fashion parade) ! Was pretty nice (as if that wasn't obvious why :-p). Made good use of my RSP whistle :D .

Varchasva sports are going great with IIM L winning almost everything. (No match fixing, I assure you!) Apparently in tennis, XL guys were serving underarm and Vanki comes up with dialogues like - "Serve like a man dude". hehehehe :D

Also had caught some sleep sometime in the evening . So at 5.30 am, I am wide awake as an owl. Will miss breakfast for the third consecutive day I guess. Lets see.

Day 68: 27th Aug, 2009

I don't think I have mentioned this.. We are alloted permanent seating places for the whole year. But in today's eco lecture, anyone was sitting absolutely anywhere. The vantage points (which remained hidden from the prof's view) were understandably in great demand owing to their higher sleep utility. I had opened my laptop to start studying for the ITC quiz that we had later in the day. Realised that I was even able to connect to the net :D . So studies aside and back to chatting/orkutting etc.

Finally bought a nail cutter. The first time I have ever bought one. Made me suddenly wonder how a nail cutter manufacturer even makes profits. I mean.. I don't remember anyone in my family or friend circle ever buy a nail cutter. It just exists!

Was talking yesterday to a friend about how the government is thinking of incorporating 12th marks as a criteria to get into the IITs. Today I read about the Cabinet approval for increasing the number of IITs and IIMs. As my friend said, these are the things that generate so much brand value for India. Although it is essential to have more institutions that foster academic excellence, no point in going for volume at the risk of deterioration in quality. Not an area where tradeoff should be exercised.

Had the ITC quiz today. Excel on paper :-S . The test actually required us to remember excel formulae :-S . Lost the point of the course here. The best thing about the digital format is the convenience to correct things on the fly as and when you go wrong. Quite the converse on paper.

Slept off nicely in the evening. (am making this post at 4.15 in the morning :-p). Went off for another CV review. Had to also complete a writeup for the Eco project. Thanks to Shantanu and Shipra for that!

My laptop bloody is suddenly showing 4-5 random lines on the screen! Noooooooo clue where it came from suddenly!! Wasn't there even in the morning!! :( ... Will wait and see if it auto-corrects by tomorrow or something (hope it does!).. else will need to call the service people..