Day 445 - 2nd April 2012

Woke up relatively early today. Had breakfast at Chota before taking care of some last minute packing. The painful goodbyes continued through the morning. Donated a lot of my stuff to the housekeeping staff and Chota.
Made a trip to the main building and administration block for one last round of goodbyes with the staff. It still hasn't hit me that the MICA journey will come to an end in another half an hour. I am pretty sure that sinking feeling will hit me when I least expect it. It is only fitting that the trip to the airport will be made in Azhar Bhai's rickshaw. Its been an amazing two years out here, this place has exceeded all the expectations that I came with.  Will have my last meal in the mess as a student of the institute before leaving.

Adios!

Day 444 - 1st April 2012

The penultimate day at MICA. Spent the first half of the day in arranging for the bike to be packed and sent to Bombay. A lot of people started leaving campus, saying multiple goodbyes wasn't an easy job. Had our last group lunch at Pizza Hut - Kalkar, Shibani, Sania, Kore, Dua, Apu and Buds were there. Got back to campus by 5 in the evening. Caught up on some sleep in the evening. Spent most of the night copying as many serials as possible from myzone. The last dinner in the mess happened to be biryani. With so many people leaving, the campus felt like one of those deserted towns we see in westerns. Spent some time at Chota in the night. Saw the convocation video online before calling it a day one last time.

Day 443 - 31st March 2012

Today was the big day. Spent the first half of the day packing. It seems incredible but MCSA work continued to keep us busy for the first half of the day. We all had to gather in the auditorium by 430 before the batch photograph would be clicked on the cricket field. The convocation ceremony went off quite well - doing the rehearsals actually made sense ;-) The chief guest was Mr. Arun Poorie, Editor in Chief of the India Today Group. He spoke really well. He shared with us his experiences and learnings from a career in media that spans more than 3 decades. The ceremony was followed by dinner in the Nescafe Plaza.

Had our last batch meet in the audi at 1130. Thanked TI for arranging for a webcast of the convocation. Placecomm was given a standing ovation for the brilliant job that they did this year. This was followed by a pillow fight :P Football was played under floodlights one last time. This is the beginning of the end.

Day 442 - 30th March 2012

Woke up by 12 o'clock and had to spend most of the afternoon waking up people for the prize distribution ceremony. The awards ceremony is an annual fixture that is held the day before the convocation and awards are given to students for outstanding academic performance. Yours truly won an award for the best all round performance. Also had to give a speech in my capacity as the President of the MCSA.This award has been instated in the memory of a MICA alumnus who left for his heavenly abode. His batchmates have contributed to this award for the past two years. The award was given by the adviser to the Prime Minister. Post the ceremony the MCSA had a meeting with the Governing Council of the institute wherein we presented our feedback to them based on our experience at MICA. We were given a half an hour slot but the meeting ended up getting extended for almost two hours. Its been extremely hot out here and was completely dehydrated by the end of the meeting. Hadn't eaten anything since morning as well. Just before heading to the mess for dinner Shibani said that she would be getting pizzas for us as her birthday treat. Dinner at the mess was duly skipped ;-) Ordered a cheese burst pizza for myself and finished it in no time on the Asoka terrace :P The heavy dinner coupled with sleep deprivation over the past couple of days meant that getting sleep in the night will not be difficult!

Day 441 - 29th March 2012

MCSA work kept the first half of the day occupied. Had an MCSA 'power' lunch in the afternoon which was good fun. Had the last of the convocation rehearsals in the evening. The farewell culnite took place in the audi. There were some really good performances and very emotional videos that were played. The MCSA also did a surprise performance. We staged a fight in the auditorium which we went to sort out, as people started wondering what was happening, the three of us started dancing to All izz well :D A special mention also needs to be made about the Kachnar video made by Avinash Verma which was pure brilliance. This was followed by the farewell party. I was there for an hour before coming back to the room and sleeping (had been terribly sleep deprived for the past couple of days).Woke up at 7 and rejoined the party. There were just way too many people crying on the dance floor. Was expected though. The party got done by 830 in the morning. Called it a day after that!

Day 440 - 28th March 2012

The last week at MICA is taking everyone down memory lane. LitComm got the year books today. Reading testimonials is one big ego massage and it also reminds of things that you may have conveniently forgotten. It was good fun reading some testimonials. It is also a little embarrassing when someone writes a testimonial for you but haven't reciprocated :P 

Tomorrow is the farewell culnite followed by the farewell party, seems only like last night when we were at our seniors' farewell party.

Day 439 - 27th March 2012

Woke up at 2 in the afternoon. Summer has set in - it was horribly hot throughout the day. Skipped lunch at the mess and had a late lunch from Chota. Had convocation rehearsal in the evening which went on for an hour. Dinner was at Chokhi Dhani - courtesy our dissertation guide who wanted to take all of us out for dinner. It was good fun. Got back to campus by 11 in the night. Had the Kachnar party after that. The party will go on into the wee hours of the morning but I am calling it a day early, am too old to pull off back to back nigh outs :P

Day 438 - 26th March 2012

Today marked the beginning of the last week at MICA. Woke up at 11 and had some MCSA work to take care of. 12 of us were giving a joint birthday party in the night which meant that most of the afternoon went in preparing for that. Swati, Manu and I went to ISCON to pick up cold drinks and snacks for the party. Got back to campus by 5 in the evening. SCAM had organized an arm wrestling championship which provided ample entertainment in the mess during dinner. Post dinner the party preparations took over again. The party was good fun with the dancing going on till 730 in the morning :P Its been a while since an all nighter has been pulled off after being on the dance floor for so long ;-)

Day 437 - 25th March 2012

Woke up a little earlier than usual today since Jhamb and I had to take care of some MCSA work. Spent the first half of the day working on presentation that has to be made on the 30th of March. Went for a jog in the evening. Post dinner there was a batch meet wherein we took feedback from the batch for the presentation that was being prepared. Got done by midnight after which did some tp with Buds, Kore and Sania in Kalkar's room. Tomorrow onwards my last week at MICA begins, will take some time for that to sink in. 

Day 436 - 24th March 2012

Today's highlight was the movie screening by Prof. Mathew. He screened two movies - Bicycle Thieves and Beijing Bicycle back to back. Both were based on the same story but were made almost 60 years apart. The way the director's worked with the story was noteworthy. The former was an Italian movie and the latter was a Chinese movie. After the movie screenings, had some MCSA work to take care of which took about an hour. Read a bit in the night before calling it a day.