Day 34 - 30th July 2010

Second last day of a marathon week. Just one more day and then a rest day! Now I know why its mentioned as a rest day and not holiday in the calendar ;-) Morning lectures were on MLE and Marketing. After a brief ray of hope in the previous lecture, MLE came back to being a dry subject.PM was a little interesting today's lecture was on pricing and distribution. Had CT in the afternoon which was based on how films are used to influence opinions based on the times we live in. This was explained with Hollywood as an example, pretty interesting stuff. Was able to fight off stupor attacks until the movie screening, however once the lights were off and the AC was doing a really good job, I lost the battle and slept for 15-20 mins. The movie screened today was a french movie called Chorus , a nice movie which screened as a tribute to our Prof's teacher who passed away last week. A very nice movie which has a plot similar to Mr.Holland's Opus.

Since it hasn't rained for the past couple of days the tennis court was dry today. So I could play a bit today, in the process though the guts of my racquet gave way. They lasted for almost thirteen years!

In the night almost all of PGP1 was in the library studying eco. We have a lecture tomorrow and aren't very sure if there is going to be a test or not, but this time nobody wants to take a chance ;-) Studied a bit after dinner, went to Chota for chai, did tp with some friends and came back to the room and studied a bit again. Time just flies out here, its now almost 4 in the morning,was contemplating an all nighter but the past 34 days have made me realise how precious a commodity sleep is! Eyelids feel like they weigh a ton as I am writing this, should listen to them now. Over and out.

Day 33 - 29th July 2010

So far this week, every day seems to be like the previous day. Get to class by 9, try not to sleep or if sleeping try not to get caught sleeping, keep looking at the clock to see how much time is left, try to pay attention, that lasts for a maximum of 10 minutes and then drift away in to some random thoughts only to be snapped out of it when the prof. starts asking questions to people at random. Having your name tag in front your seat is a huge disadvantage in this regard. That was the story of my PM and OB class in the morning. Luckily didn't get asked any questions, but need to say something in the OB class at least, the grades are also determined by class participation. CT in the afternoon was a continuation of yesterday's class about the evolution of media and different models used for the dissemination or sometimes even distortion of information. I also realised today that the 1-2 minute power naps that involuntarily take place are quite useful - they help me stay awake for the next 10-15 mins :D Today's movie screening was a German movie called funny games, an extremely violent movie with hardly any violence in it. Personally I didn't like the movie much, found it to be too negative.

Ever since classes have started in full swing I haven't been able to play tennis, partly because of the timings and the weather. Felt a little guilty about that today so decided to go for a jog in the evening. Was good fun, explored a couple of places outside campus and in the process found Harshad Mehta's brother's bungalow. After getting back decided to work on my CV. Even though its a one pager, its no easy task! Took more than 2 hours to come up with a career objective and Im still not happy with it. Have to submit it noon tomorrow, so still have some time to think about it. Right now will try and go to sleep so that the power naps in tomorrow's lectures are lesser in number :-)

Day 32 - 28th July 2010

Another loong day! Had MLE and PM in the morning, nowadays people have become very strict about being on time for lectures, so the class being half empty for the first lecture has become a very common occurrence. MLE was a little interesting (surprisingly) , the session focused on IP laws and regulations. Saw various examples of cases that could classify for IP violations.

The afternoon session was on CT. Learnt about how the media has been used a vehicle for propaganda through the ages. This is something that started off in the US and now is taking roots in India as well. Over the past couple of days I've realised that its not very easy to stay awake in class, especially the ones which are in the audi. Falling asleep for a minute or two seems to happen quite often. The only saving grace is the fact that Im not alone ;-) Also had our first MICA Lecture Series (MLS) session today. The VP of TNS came to campus to talk to us about Brand Management and Market Research. A person with industry experience can give a really refreshing perspective of things, liked some of the points that came out of his presentation, especially the part regarding the irreverence associated with a brand like Virgin and how it can be used to the company's advantage.

Got done with MLS at 630, so really didn't feel like doing anything in the evening. Read a few articles on cricinfo after a really long time. God scored his 48th test century today :-) , found a nice article on the site. After dinner decided to work on the creative strategy group assignment, that took more time than expected. Also had a PlaceComm meet at midnight, just a general meeting regarding our CVs. Had to finish the remaining part of the assignment after the meet. Got back to my room at 2 and started typing this post. Another long day beckons tomorrow(or should I say today?). Time for some shut eye.

Day 31 - 27th July 2010

Had our first lecture on media law and ethics (MLE) today. Was just a brief introduction to our legal system and its history. You know a subject is not going to be very interesting when the prof. himself says its a very dry subject. The good part was that it got over 45 minutes before time, so got nearly a good one hour break before the next lecture.

The topic for the afternoon class on CT was syncretism, didn't know the meaning of the word(even the editor shows a spelling mistake :-S ). Nevertheless here's the wikipedia definition - "Syncretism is the attempt to reconcile disparate or contrary beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought". The session focused on how places of religious importance always developed around or in trading hubs and how there has always been a close relation between trade and religion. There was a movie screening as well today, this one was based on a true story, on the Guildford four. The movie is called In the name of the father, a must watch and it also has an amazing background score.

My evening was made when vada pav served in the mess for snacks :D A slighlty different rendition of the dish where the pav is toasted, but it was awesome(I had 3 of them :-P). Because of that I wasn't really hungry during dinner, so my tam bram instincts took over and I settled for a small portion of curd rice.Post dinner went for a walk around campus with a friend, the weather is finally clearing up now, the clouds have finally cleared up, hope it stays like this now.

Day 30 - 26th July 2010

This is going to be a relatively short post because of the fact that I woke up at 2 p.m today :D Sleeping at 730 in the morning after 4 hours of non stop dancing can have that effect. Luckily I managed to wake up in time for lunch. Headed to Chota's for some chai after that, the rains have subsided a bit today, so the weather was pretty pleasant in the afternoon.

Rest days have become synonymous with ISCON mall, need to change that soon. Went there today evening as well, had to buy new floaters. Got back to campus by 8, went for a walk after dinner and then headed to the Asoka terrace for some more tp. Just realised that its been about a month since I've come here, need to start studying soon!

Day 29 - 25th July 2010

Sunday bloody Sunday :D another night out. This time it was spent dancing in the rain courtesy the freshers party. The dance floor was packed even after sunrise! Was awesome fun. My kerchief dance made its debut at MICA :D A nice way to cap one month at Shela.

Apart from that a relatively relaxed day. Slept in the afternoon to ensure that I would stay up for the entire duration of the party. Its been raining incessantly over here, its either the irritating drizzle or its been pouring heavily. In spite of that we played cricket on the badi court. Its fun playing with a wet tennis ball, its literally impossible to bat, it comes towards you like a scud missile!

Before the freshers party the seniors put up a culnite for us. Lots of MICAn traditions out there also. But the highlight of the show for me was the 'legends on stage' act - an electric guitarist and a drummer played this Shloka. Its amazing how a tune played on an electric guitar sounds so different from the original tune, reminded of the time when I heard national anthem being played on an electric guitar in Bombay, gave me goosebumps.

If this is post seems to be a string of unrelated events or thoughts, please forgive me for that, a night out dancing in the rain and going to sleep at a time when my alarm clock generally rings are the causes :-P

Day 28 - July 24th 2010

The weather today made me feel like I was back in Bombay. It poured throughout the evening so much so that the Palaash courtyard and badminton court were flooded. Apparently in some parts of the city the water levels were waist high.

The day began on a great note- got to know that I made it to the junior committee of Team Interface!! Its a good feeling , being a part of a committee on campus, didn't make me feel too sleepy during the morning lectures. :D Had only two lectures in the morning, so headed to ISCON mall in the afternoon with friends. Azhar Bhai's rick with the heavy duty music system and awesome song collection added to the fun. We had to be back on campus by 3 for a QT tutorial so didn't have much time to have lunch anywhere. So we packed burgers from McDonalds and had it during the ride back to college.

The sports season at MICA kicked off (pun intended) with a football match between PGP1 and PGP2. Cheering from the sidelines was fun. Few of us found a vantage point on the roof of the admin block which overlooks the football field. The icing on the cake was PGP1 winning 3-0 :-)

Had nothing to do the in the night so continued watching South Park. I like this feeling of being jobless once in a while. Will also make the most of it and go to sleep early (read as 1230 a.m)

Day 27 - 23rd July 2010

It took 27 days for me to finally put my laptop to some good use - started watching South Park again :-) Reminds me of my engineering days when South Park and Simpsons were my staple diet and that was more than 3 years back(damn I feel old!). Have to go through the common share here which has lots of movies and sitcoms.

Had a pretty eventful couple of hours in the morning. We had a marketing lecture first up and the other section had eco. During the marketing lecture we started getting messages from the other section that they had a test! So most of us tried to read up as much of eco as we could in the 15 min break between the two lectures. Then we got to know that there was no test in the other section because there weren't any answer sheets available, however our joy was short lived when we saw the prof. entering our class with answer sheets. He said that the test would be conducted towards the end of the class, so some people in class came up with the idea of doing some major DCP (desperate class participation) so that there would be no time left for the test. I,unfortunately could not contribute to the cause as I had absolutely no idea what doubt(s) to ask! It seemed to have worked and there was no time left for the test, but I'm pretty sure the prof. had no intentions of conducting the test in our section anyways, he was having some good fun at our expense :-D

The afternoon session was on communication theory which was on imperialism and the media's role in propagating it. This was followed by a movie based on a true story that took place during the civil war in El Salvador - innocent voices. A brilliant movie, the 11 year old kid has done an amazing job.

Slept for an hour in the evening, which I don't want to do from now on, makes me feel really groggy and ruins the evening, takes at least an hour to get back to normal. Did absolute tp throughout the evening and night. Accompanied a friend to Chota for a passive smoke, watched South Park, went to MICAfe for ice cream after dinner and then played a little badminton after that. Came back to my room and continued watching South Park.

It's 130 now, will watch another couple of episodes before calling it a day, have a 9 o'clock lecture again tomorrow.

Day 26 - 22nd July 2010

It's 245 a.m and Im wide awake. Just got back from Chota where a friend gave a treat for making it to SCAM. That place is buzzing with activity at 2 in the morning, no wonder its a part of MICAn folklore.

Had our second workshop on creative strategy today. Learnt about the SCAMPER technique to devise visual campaigns, also saw some examples of how its done, pretty interesting stuff. We also got the chance to interact with the gentleman who came up with Raymond's complete man campaign. Got some good insights from him on whom campaigns should target and how important it is to evoke a strong emotion within people through a single image. Apart from that our group had to work on an adult literacy campaign, which went on till about 430. Came back to the hostel and slept for an hour, felt groggy throughout the evening because of that and the inclement weather. It poured almost throughout the day,because of which the clothes I had kept out to dry were subjected to another rinse cycle!

There is a very strong rumour doing the rounds that we are in for a surprise eco test tomorrow. Apparently the library was packed with people from PGP1. If it doesn't happen, whosoever started the rumour is going to have a tough time ;-). I also studied a bit of eco but have a gut feeling that there won't be any test tomorrow (using that as an excuse to sleep early).

P.S Had my Team Interface interview today, was quite chilled out, will know tomorrow if I've made it through to the next round.

Day 25 - 21st July 2010

Another 9 to 5 day. The marketing lecture in the morning was quite empty,I was under the impression that quite a few people would be catching up on sleep but it turns out that they were late for the class and weren't allowed to enter! Need to be careful from now on. In the afternoon as a part of communication theory a french movie - An affair of love was screened. I'm no expert but I liked the way it was presented with the two protagonists talking to an interviewer and giving their interpretation of the same events. This was followed by a session on gender and how the patriarchal nature of society has taken shape over the ages. Every class of CT a misconception is cleared, today we got to know about how women is Islam aren't as suppressed as we think they are. There are a lot of provisions in the Quran to ensure that women have a good amount of rights if not equal to men.

Had plans to play tennis in the evening, but it rained in the evening,so could only go for a walk around campus. Had a couple of assignments that had to done for tomorrow so worked on that a bit. I have changed my mind about committees and have applied to Team Interface - the media and PR wing of MICA. They also gave us an assignment which needs to be submitted by six tomorrow evening. We also have a group assignment that needs to be done for tomorrow's session on creative strategy, worked on that after dinner, coming up with a campaign for adult education. After that we headed to Chota's for nimbu paani.

Back to my room now. Listening to MIA's paper planes as I type this,not feeling sleepy but will force myself to sleep now, otherwise will end up sleeping in class tomorrow.

P.S. Couple of my friends have cleared 3 rounds of the alumni junior committee selection process and are now waiting for the final results. Fingers crossed, hope they make it.

Day 24 - 20th July 2010

The day after a rest day is so difficult to get through. Moreover had a full day of lectures today, 9 to 5! Somehow managed to stay awake during the marketing and ID lectures. The marketing class had a discussion on marketing research and the different methodologies involved to extract/interpret data from potential consumers. ID dealt with motivation and we were introduced to our first theory in this subject. That was followed by 2 hours of communication theory, the prof.wasn't in his element today, he himself admitted it, so the session wasn't too captivating either.After lunch had a tutorial on marketing, we were expected to read a case,which no one did because of the fact that we got to know about it during lunch :-P So instead of that we were broken into groups and had to come up marketing plans for different organic products - foodstuff, paint,cosmetics and clothing. Turned out to be a free for all with each group trying to find out mistakes in the other group's plan, was kinda fun,it came to a point where the prof. had to remind us that we were still in a classroom :D

In the evening went for a walk around campus, want to start playing tennis again but don't know when its going to happen. Went to the library to study a bit of eco in the library but halfway through got a call from a friend who had got a task in one of his committee interviews, he had to clear 10 rooms in 15 mins and mine was one of them. The room was stripped bare with everything being dumped in the cupboard. It looked like how I remember it from the first day. But he also took it upon himself to set things back in order.

Post dinner had the elections for Sports Committee at MICA (SCAM). Similar to the PlaceComm
and MCSA procedures - candidates give a speech followed by election/selection. Got done with that by around midnight, nothing much to do after that so calling it a day!

Day 23 - 19th July 2010

10.30 a.m. - Wake up to get placement data verified.
11.30 a.m.- Come back and hit the sack again.
1 p.m. - Lunch
1.30 p.m. - Siesta
4p.m - Pushed myself out of bed, though would have loved to continue sleeping!

In the evening decided to go for a haircut. This place is so cheap! What used to cost me 100 bucks in Bangalore costs 30 bucks out here(and he threw in a free head massage), talk about value for money :-D. During the course of the day also got to know that I didn't make the cut for MICANVAS. Guess I screwed up my second round interview/assignment,cant help it now. Other committee selections have also started, don't think I'll be applying for any of them now. Would definitely volunteer for events though.

Lectures again from tomorrow, just saw the time table - got a pretty rigorous week ahead!

Day 22 - 18th July 2010

Most of the day revolved on the CulNite. As per MICAn tradition PGP1 puts up a CulNite for PGP2 following which PGP2 reciprocates. Our batch had a lot of events planned for the evening,15 performances I think. Songs, dances,a movie and even a poetry recital. A lot of other things happened as well which were a part of the MICAn tradition, guess we can continue that when we are in PGP2 next year ;-) The dance I was a part of was the grand finale, pic attached. It was good fun, my kind of dance :-)
CulNite got done by around midnight, did a little tp in the hostel and at Chota after that. Tomorrow is a rest day, read as sleep day!

Day 21 - 17th July 2010

I just realized that most of my posts have had something or the other to do with sleep, or rather the lack of it. For a change today morning I woke up after sleeping for 10 hours! Guess all the accumulated loss of sleep came back to hit me. Could afford to sleep for so long as we had our first lecture at 1130. Have been having an overload of Quantitative Techniques over the past couple of days. We even had tutorial in the afternoon which turned out to be an open book exam! :-D

We have our CulNite tomorrow where PGP1 puts up a show for PGP2. I am taking part in a group dance on this song,where my visarjan dance skills can be put to good use. Had a 2 hour long practice session for that. Hope it comes off well tomorrow. During the course of the day also got to know that I had another MICANVAS interview at 145 in the night. The interview lasted for about half an hour and I was given 2 more assignments to do with a 5 a.m deadline. Came to the library to work on it.

It's 4 o'clock now and I have just mailed them the assignment. Guess the law of averages has ensured that I my average amount of sleep for the past week remains below 4 :-P Might go to Chota's to grab a bite before calling it a day.

Day 20 - 16th July 2010

Miraculously sat through lectures today with without feeling too sleepy(slept for 45 mins last night or should I say this morning), but got knocked out after lunch with 3 hours of sleep feeling like 3 minutes! I also realized another thing about B-school life which might hold good for life in general from now on - it is bloody competitive! In college and at office I took a lot of things for granted. Now I feel privileged to have got opportunities to do things which I enjoyed. After coming here its hit me that everybody is like that and you've really got to stand out to be counted. All this enlightenment is courtesy the MICANVAS selection procedure;-)

In the evening tried to study a bit of marketing, although interesting to read its very difficult to prepare for it from an examination point of view. That's another thing about this course, there is so much of stuff to read that one needs to be smart enough to know what to read and what can be skipped, unfortunately I am yet to acquire those skills.Spent the rest of the evening doing general tp. While talking to a friend today about the dream job experience I remembered these poems written by one of my friends from the show. Its a nice little ego massage and is also fun to relive those 15 days in Delhi.

Its been a relatively quiet evening/night compared to what has been happening over the past few days, don't want to spoil it and will try and get some shut eye now,hopefully it shall be an undisturbed affair. Don't know when I'll be able to sleep before midnight after this!

Day 19 - 15th July 2010

Second night out in the past 5 days! Its 6 in the morning as I post this one. Had my MICANVAS interview at 245 in the morning following which I was given an assignment which had to be submitted before 9 a.m. Headed to the library after my interview to work on the assignment, it was quite an interesting one, regarding how I would go about selling different kinds of events to corporates for sponsorship. Had to research a bit on that before I could actually come up with a plan. Im not very sure how my interview went, it didn't last for too long, will know whether thats a good or bad thing pretty soon.

Apart from that had a workshop on creative strategy during the day. We learnt a bit about how ads work on and use human emotions to get their message across. This was a day long workshop and we will be having a similar one next week.

Need to head back to the hostel now and get at least an hour's sleep. Have lectures from 9 to 4 out of which 3 hours will be in Quantitative techniques! Dont know how Im going to keep myself awake for the whole day.

Day 18 - 14th July 2010

Had the photoshoot for our summer placement brochure today. In the process also realized how hard the PlaceComm team works. They haven't slept for the past 3 days as they have been interviewing candidates for the Junior PlaceComm and then they also co-ordinated today's photoshoot, commendable dedication! Apart from that had only 2 lectures during the day on marketing and OB. Slept for a couple of hours after lunch and finally in the evening studied a bit of eco. Met up with a few classmates in the night for an OB group assignment and headed to Chota's after that. Spoke to a few a seniors regarding different committees. I will be applying for MICANVAS, have to choose which vertical I need to apply to and then answer a few questions pertinent to those verticals. Took me 2 hours to do that and Im still not satisfied with what I've written. Will go through it again tomorrow morning and see if I can improve it. Don't know why there is this tendency to submit something at the lst minute, need to submit the questionnaire by 3 tomorrow so my deadline is 2:55 :-)

Day 17 - 13th July 2010

Had a holiday today, on account of the Rath Yatra that started off from Ahmedabad. Used the opportunity to catch up on some sleep. Since I woke up at 1030 having breakfast at the mess was out of the question(it closes at 930 for breakfast), so headed to Chota's for Maggi and coffee. Had plans of going out for lunch, but everyone seemed to be pretty lazy to do anything. Did absolute tp till the evening and by then plans to head out to the city finally materialized. Went to ISCON mall to buy a few things for the room and had sizzlers for dinner at Kobe's. Got back to campus at around 10.

Had made plans to study today but again it never ahead from the planning stages. Hopefully will start from tomorrow. Quite a few seniors are known by their nicknames and each nickname has a history to it. Our batch also seems to be moving in that direction. I have been christened "Maccha",tamil equivalent for yaar in hindi. Apart from the obvious reason that I am a pseudo Tam Bram there is another reason as to why I got that name,but wont let it out so soon :-)

P.S Just as I had expected I am also headed for a flu and I shall join the coughing chorus in class tomorrow!

Day 16 - 12th July 2010

The effects of lack of sleep seem to be taking its toll on the batch. Quite a few people have fallen ill. In class today there were times when we couldn't even hear the profs properly cos most of the guys were coughing at the same time. Knowing my luck, I will most probably fall ill once the whole batch has recovered :-P We had an interesting tutorial on the principles of marketing today, we were broken up into small groups and had to do SWOT analysis for brands like Jet Airways, Kelloggs,Women's Horlicks,Dairy Milk etc. Got to learn quite a lot about how to approach a SWOT analysis and how important it is to rely on facts and not ideate. We also got an interesting case on Southwest airlines which will be discussed sometime later. The case study approach to learning has always intrigued me, there is so much to learn from a 5 page case as compared to a 50 page chapter in a text book!

Had another round of committee presentations in the evening today. Each committee had prepared an audio visual presentation of their experiences from last year. Makes you realize that in the space of 8-9 months our seniors have had so much fun and so many stories to relive. Before coming here I heard a lot about the culture and traditions here, now I'm slowly realizing why it is the case and I'm pretty sure our batch is also going to be pretty protective about it :-)

Got done relatively early today (pls note the emphasis on relatively ;-) ) ,tomorrow is a holiday, don't know if its the excitement of an impending rest day that is keeping me awake till 330 :-D

Day 15 - 11th July 2010

Pulled off my first all nighter on campus last night. Not only did I manage to see the sunrise but I also sat through 4 hours of accounting and eco! Never realized that the campus is a sight to behold early in the morning. Saw a a couple of peacocks, until now I actually thought that the whole peacock on campus bit was an exaggeration. Slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon, getting used to this kind of a sleep cycle is one of the biggest adjustments that everyone has had to make so far. Once again had one of those evenings where time just flew and before you know it , its dinner time. Had the Junior PlaceComm elections in the night, which was a very serious affair and rightly so. The candidates were given 2 minutes time to give a speech supporting their candidature followed by 3 mins of questioning from the batch. The voting and counting process went on till 4 in the morning.

I realized today that I have completely lost track of what day of the week it is, never expected Sundays to be like this :-) Anyways its all a part and parcel of B school life I guess. Have a 9 o'clock lecture tomorrow as well, sleep is a very precious commodity now, need to make the most of it, until next time Adios!

Day 14 - 10th July 2010

Had our first lecture on financial accounting today. Introduced to balance sheets,profit and loss statements etc. All seemed to be greek and latin to me. Had to come back from class and go through the entire case again to get a slight idea of the case.Having lectures only in the morning is a good thing as it gives me siesta time. Class rep elections were scheduled to be held today and the whole batch was abuzz with who all were going to be standing for the elections, felt good to be a part of something like this again, its slowly sinking in that I am back in college. It rained in the evening which ruled out any chance of tennis. Had a MICANVAS meet before dinner. MICANVAS is MICA's annual brand management fest, so the senior committee had an open house with PGP1 to get any doubts clarified. Post dinner had the CR elections. Each candidate had to address the class and explain why they felt they should be elected, following that they were asked questions by the class. This went on for about an hour following which we had to vote for our choice. The top 3 candidates were then interviewed by the Senior MCSA. Its a very fair process of election followed by selection as everyone in the batch was not familiar with all candidates.

I am still undecided regarding which committee I want to apply for, the elections for other committees will start from tomorrow, starting with Junior PlaceComm, one of the most prestigious committees on campus. Lets see how that pans out.

Day 13 - 9th July 2010

Another day of lost sleep,woke up at 730 after hitting the sack at 530. Had our first eco lecture today, although I had my apprehensions about the subject, the prof is pretty awesome. He's a hardcore capitalist, unlike the communications theory prof. who is a socialist. Both men speak about their ideologies with such conviction and back it up with so many facts its very difficult to decide which one to follow, which is a good thing. As one of them said, the whole idea of a post grad course is to shake people up and get them out of their comfort zones. Wonder whats going to happen on days when we have their lectures one after the other! Our second lecture for the day got cancelled, that meant the rest of the day was free. Caught up on sleep in the afternoon and apparently my lack of sleep was quite audible ;-) In the evening went alone for a walk around campus, the weather is now so much more better compared to what it was when we just came here.There was also an assignment in Financial Accounting that had to be done, since most of us dont know anything about balance sheets, one guy from a commerce background helped us out with that.

Post dinner had a PlaceComm meet for the entire batch regarding general info that we need to provide. Committee elections for our batch start from tomorrow with MCSA being the first one to elect/select. I am still undecided on which committee I want to apply for, will need to talk to a few seniors regarding that. The meet got over by midnight, which by now has started feeling like 6 in the evening. Headed to Chotta's from there, after having some random discussions over a few nimbu paanis came back to the room. For a change tonight Im going to sleep before 4 am :-)

Day 12 - 8th July 2010

This had to happen someday or the other - woke up at 845 for a 9 o'clock lecture! Was so tired last night that before going to sleep I kept the alarm for 730 pm instead of am :-/ Was woken up by one of my hostel mates otherwise I would have continued my journey in slumberland. Had a marketing lecture in the morning. Managed to have my breakfast and daily dose of caffeine in the 1.5 hour break that followed the lecture. Had our second session of communication theory today, this time the focus was on gender bias. The more we see of this prof the more we are enamored by him. Anyone who can keep a bunch of 150 guys enthralled for 2 hours must be special. The session focused on gender bias through the ages, the perceptions and misconceptions that we have, for e.g. did you know that women are allowed to drive cars in Iran?

Had another film screening today. We were shown an English movie called Precious, pretty hard hitting stuff. Also got our eco textbooks today, God knows when it will be inaugurated. Can already feel the workload increasing. Have to do some pre reading and assignments before tomorrow's Individual Dynamics class and also some pre reading for the eco class. Some things never change for an engineer, first thing I check is the number of pages in every chapter :-)

P.S. In case you are wondering, I was able to have a shower and attend the lecture on time :-P

Day 11 - July 7th 2010

Had only one lecture today and too was in the afternoon. So could take the liberty of waking up slightly later than usual. In spite of that came back after the lecture and slept for 2 hours.

Had planned to read a bit of OB in the evening, but it did not move forward from the planning stages. Today's lecture on Individual Dynamics had 2 case discussions - one based on a personality mismatch for a marketing job and the second one about how the perception of working in a big shot IT company and ground realities for a freshser are poles apart. That also made me realize why there is so much stress being laid on having some kind of work experience before embarking on mgmt. course (I dont have anything against freshers, I just feel that people who have worked before can relate to the situations described in such cases and bring in their personal experiences).

Had a PlaceComm meet for PGP1 in the evening. Just a formal intro of the Senior PlaceComm and some ground rules of what to do and what not to do. Another late night tonight/early morning, sleeping at 415,guess it'll be abnormal if I start going to sleep early.

Day 10 - July 6th 2010

Getting this feeling that Im slowly getting into b-school mode. Could clock in only 3 hours of sleep last night. Had a lecture on Principles of Marketing at 9 in the morning followed by a 1.5 hour break. Tried to make the most of it by squeezing in a 30 min power nap. We also had our first class on communication theory (coming from an engineering background,the same name had a completely different meaning 4 years back). This is the course which is conducted by one of the most popular profs on campus. Got a little insight as to why he is so popular.Pre lunch he conducted a 2.5 hour session on perception which captivated all of us, the way he explains things and his knowledge about any topic under the sun is awe inspiring. Religion and its implications, bollywood cinema and how it is a reflection of our times, advertisements that don't go down well with minorities,capitals of countries in South America,the percentage population of Christians in Goa (quite surprisingly its only 20-30%) and many more such things were all a part of the discussion. It may all seem random without any common thread, but trust me by the end of the class everything came together and not one part of what he said seemed irrelevant to the topic of discussion.

Post lunch had a film screening. We were shown a Spanish movie, All about my mother. More about it over here. The air conditioned audi with lights switched off and lack of sleep conspired against me and there were times when it felt like my eyelids were weighing a ton! But in no ways did it mean it was a boring movie. We are now expected to write our thoughts on the movie,not a critique, but what we could interpret from different layers of the narrative. Also got to know something interesting about film screenings, it is considered rude to clap at the end of the movie, its a guaranteed way to get evicted at the Cannes film festival!

Once Im back at the hostel in the evening, time just flies! Before you know it, its time for dinner and whatever plans were made for the evening have been postponed/cancelled. We also had some of our seniors from the special interest groups give presentations for each of their groups. Based on that we had to send them expressions of interest. The interviews for these groups were conducted immediately after that. Pretty much the entire PGP1 turned up for that and it went on until the wee hours of the night or should I say morning. Finally going to sleep at 445, need to start getting used to this sleep cycle!

Day 9 - 5th July 2010

Our course officially began today. Had the program inauguration in the morning. The keynote speaker was the country head for O&M who gave us some general gyaan on life and the importance of growing with an organization. The entire program got wrapped up in less than an hour following which we had our first set of lectures. Our first lecture was the Principles of Marketing, the prof. tried to make it relevant for all of us by referring to this article. The second lecture was on Individual Dynamics, which was majorly a class discussion. People were discussing various issues that they faced in their organization (both good and bad). Post lunch tried to read a bit of Kotler's book on Marketing, but slept off after 5 pages, more because of my lack of sleep than the content of the book. Woke up and went to the mess for snacks,ended up spending almost an hour at the mess doing basically nothing!

During the inauguration got to know some interesting stuff about the batch profile. Out of 150 in our batch 86 have prior work experience(me thinks this is happening for the first time), sex ratio is 1:1(apparently its a coincidence, no conscious effort was made to achieve this ;-) ) and 47 people are from Maharashtra - mainly Bombay and Pune (Jai Maharashtra! ) . And Im also guessing more that half the batch has an engineering background.

Tomorrow we have a class conducted by one of the most popular profs. on campus whose pedagogy includes film screenings. Until then, over and out!

Day 8 - 4th July 2010

Had our first rest day on campus today. Had a very heavy breakfast today - which has been quite good over the past week, so I take back my statement from one of my previous posts. Headed out to Ahmedabad city in the afternoon. Had to buy some shirts and a table fan. Went to ISCON mall which is one of the bigger malls in the city. Went out with the intention of having butter chicken for lunch but soon realized that finding a place that serves non-veg here is not an easy task. So settled to go to a place called Uncle Sam's pizza for lunch. And boy what a lunch it was! Imagine an all you can eat spread of soup,salads,pasta,chinese,pizza and dessert - all for 140 bucks!! Hogged like pigs over there. Got back to the hostel at around 430 and setup the table fan, its quite effective. In the evening did a bit of the pre-reading and assignments for tomorrow's OB session.

Lectures begin from tomorrow onwards, my biggest worry is how will I get back to handwriting.Had to write an assignment for tomorrow's class and after I was done with it even I couldn't decipher what I had written!

Day 7 - 3rd July 2010

Last day of the orientation week today. In the morning we had a feedback session on the orientation week wherein we could give our views to the dean and registrar on what we liked and where there was scope for improvement. We were also asked for feedback about the MICAT and GE/PI. I personally thanked the admissions committee for not accepting CAT scores this year, if it weren't for that I wouldn't be here ;-)

In the afternoon there was a cultural programme organized by and for PGP1. We have some supremely talented people in our batch. Singers,dancers,stand up comedians, musicians,poets,actors,directors - just to name a few.One of the girls in our batch was the winner of boogie woogie! Makes you realise that no matter how good you think you are you should never underestimate other people. Played tennis again in the evening. The weather here is quite baffling,it was damn sticky in the evening, was wearing a Mumbai Indians jersey from IPL1, perspired so much because of the weather that by the end of the tennis session it looked like their jersey from IPL3! Dinner in the mess was soup,garlic bread,pasta and vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Most of the people ended up having chocolate sauce with ice cream ;-)

Want to end today's post with something that was said during the feedback session. Someone pointed out that the bonding going on between people, especially after last night's rain dance , is really good and that one really hoped that people are truly being who they are. How true that is only time will tell..

Day 6 - 2nd July 2010 - Rain Dancing

By far the best day of this week. Began with a presentation by a few of our seniors on the MICA Council for Student Affairs (MCSA). They gave a brief overview of the various committees on campus followed by some general gyaan about the do's and dont's. In the afternoon we were taken to a club near campus which the insti has tied up with for golf sessions. We were allowed to try our hand at the driving range. Golf is a very addictive sport and is not that easy play. My shots were influenced by cricket because of which they looked more like cover drives. Had another session of tennis in the evening.

The real fun though began after dinner when it started raining. Since it was the first rain everyone gathered at the badminton court which is also the common area for the hostels. Initially there was no music so we sang the songs and danced as well. As the enthu levels picked up a music system was arranged for. As usual yours truly could perform only one type of dance - the visarjan dance :) Dont know how many people I scared away with that, but at the same time found others who were also experts in this field. That went on till about midnight and from there,totally drenched we headed to Chotta's for chai. Garama garam chai after the rains was a divine feeling but that also meant we were fresh and wouldnt go to sleep soon. So after changing, met up with some guys at the community centre. Campus was so much more cooler thanks to the rains and for a change I feel I can sleep tonight without waking up in because of the heat. Ended the day by watching a bit of Mithun da's cult movie - Gunda.

Day 5 - 1st July 2010

Surprisingly woke up early today. Didn't expect that to happen after yesterday's tennis session. Had the second part of our interpersonal communications session today. Had to discuss an interesting case within a group. There are 6 people stuck in a cave which is going to collapse and only one can be rescued. A brief writeup on each person was given and based on that there needed to be a consensus on which person should be saved. Pretty insightful findings came out from each of the groups, some of them even brought in the media angle, wherein the person rescued could be used by the media to garner support or generate sympathy. That was followed by another round of alumni interaction, one of them was from Virgin Mobile and another from Mudra. Both gave some interesting gyaan on what to expect over the next couple of years. Another interesting tidbit was that both of them found their respective spouses at MICA :-)

Was relatively free in the afternoon so went to the library to study a bit of OB. There is some pre reading and assignment work required before classes start next week. In the evening had a marathon tennis session - 3 hours! Was lots of fun and I even topped it up with 15 mins of basketball. All calories burnt because of that were however replenished thanks to Channa Bhatura being served for dinner at the mess :-P After dinner went for a walk around campus and also opened an account at Chota's. Apparently he has 1lakh 40 thousand credit pending from some of the seniors :-D. Since there was nothing much to do after that I am now sitting in the cool confines of the library. Will head back to the hostel in a while and call it a day.

Day 4 - 30th June - Heritage Walking

Had a pretty interesting day today. Started off with a session on interpersonal communication which focused on perception and its effects. We also had an alumni interaction session, one person from JWT and another from Tata Teleservices came to talk to us. The highlights of the session were this video of Ben Zanger - the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and also an interesting situation faced by marketing and advertising professionals - how do you sell a product which you do not believe in. For e.g. how does a person who despises drinking or smoking devise campaigns for such products? The afternoon session was an orientation on the various resources available via the library. The insti has an amazing database of ads from yesteryear which we saw on the big screen -hamara bajaj, yeh hi hai right choice baby aha! anyone?

In the evening headed to the tennis court. Played for almost an hour and Im pretty sure that I am going to face the repercussions tomorrow morning. It was fun though. Dinner in the mess was chinese food which was yummy, but couldn't do justice to it as we had to rush to board the bus which was going to take us to Old Ahmedabad for the heritage walk. We were taken on a guided tour through the Pols and Havelis of the old city. Although its not my kind of thing I liked the initiative taken by the insti to get us acquainted with the city. Got back at around 123o and now Im dead tired. Have another round of alumni interaction lined up for tomorrow,looking forward to that. And I also heard that rains are around the corner, never wanted it to rain so badly in my life!