Days 75 to 89 - 11th to 25th September

Was on a break from updating this blog was forced for the first 10 days and voluntary for the next 5 days. We had our summer placement week from the second week of September and as a policy we weren't allowed to disclose details of any of the companies that visited campus. Thats why I couldn't post anything on the blog. Apu,Geeko,Fruit Loops and CR all got placed in firms of their choice and I am really happy for them. The only company I sat for was the one which had a sports marketing vertical but they did not have any openings in that department. I chose not to sit for any other company, will try off campus as well. The week was followed by term end examinations. Now in engineering i was used to a 3 week study leave for 5 subjects with at least a day's gap between two papers. Now imagine my plight when I have 8 subjects to study in 4 days - two papers per day! And that too some of the subjects were being studies for the first time. The paper that was really bad for me was FA, my engineering graphics paper (which I did not clear on the first attempt) seemed better than FA, so you can imagine how bad it must have been. Anyways can't do much about it now. But the highlight of the exams was the last paper - PoM, a 1 hour 50 questions MCQ paper which was completed in 2o minutes flat :D And most of the batch was out within 40 minutes. Left for Bombay on the same night, the reservation chart of the coach we were in looked like the roll call for our batch, at least 30 people were on the same train. Feels good to be back home, have been averaging 3-4 hours of sleep for the past week, so the agenda for the next week is pretty clear. ;-)

It's been a pretty eventful first term at MICA, met a lot of interesting people and looking forward to the next 5 terms. Apparently the second term is one of the best terms wrt extra curricular activities, looking forward to it. Will start posting again once I am back on campus on the 4th of October. Until then, Adios!

Time Out

On a break, will update the blog soon..

Days 75-76 - 9th & 10th September 2010

Combining 2 days because its really been hectic and plus I wasn't keeping too well. Have been sleeping the most when I should have actually been studying or completing assignments. Yesterday was all about preparing for the SSC term end examination. Four ppt's were circulated to everyone and that was our bible for the exam. However the tough part came when it came to understanding post modernism and all that jazz. A classmate of ours with a background in humanities explained some of the concepts to a few of us in the library. Was able to grasp a few of those concepts. It was actually fun to get back to examination mode after such a long time. Owing to the ill health I decided not to sacrifice sleep (and it was a very difficult decision :P), slept for a good 8 hours!

Woke up at 10 today that was also because of the fact that lectures began at 1130. Had only one lecture of eco which started half an hour late which effectively made it a 40 minute class. The highlight of the class though was the mimicry session by these supertalented guys in our class in the first half hour. They had the entire class in splits. Batchmates and seniors were at the receiving end- no one was spared :D After class went to the library with the intention of studying a bit before the exam. Did a bit of that before sleeping for 40 minutes in the cool confines of the reading area. That actually was quite refreshing. Had the exam at 4, it was OK - we were specifically told how many line answers were required, though the weird part was that there were fill in the blanks repeated twice and with the same options! We were told we can keep the same answer in both places or give different answers :-S Anyways once the exam was done there was a sense of relief but me thinks things will not be easy when we have two papers per day from 22nd to 25th.

Had a pretty hectic evening/night. Had to complete the ID and PoM assignments which had to be submitted the next day along with some TI work regarding the MICA website and blog. Got done with the TI work and managed to catch the last part of the champions league game which Mumbai Indians lost :-( Felt worse for missing out on watching Sachin score a half century. PoM was a group assignment so it didn't take much time after the work was divided. After that moved onto the ID diary. Got done with that by about 3 so decided to get a printout in the night itself. The printer room is near Chota, so couldn't resist the temptation of having a cheese paratha and chai - the joy of it at 330 in the morning :-) Didn't feel too sleepy so decided to come to the library, read a bit of eco and did some tp on the net. I have made up for sleeping so much over the past couple of days by pulling off a night out now! It's 7 in the morning now, will head back to the hostel in a while before attending the last day of lectures in term 1 - how time flies!

P.S. Amma/Appa - I am feeling much better now, thanks for calling. Its good to know at least two people read this blog ;-)

Day 74 - 8th September 2010

I don't know why I always fall sick at the most inopportune times. Woke up pretty late thanks to that and also ended up missing the QT lecture in the morning. Attended the SSC lecture though, we also have the SSC end term coming up in a couple of days. I dont know how I am going to get myself to study sociology,anthropology and psychology. Today's lecture was on Freud and his theories, some parts of which were quite interesting.

Post lunch a few of us had to go to the Mudra office in the city. We had to work on a marketing communication plan for an NGO and had to give some inputs regarding an event they are conducting next week. Was good fun, it really feels good to go outside campus once in a while, its literally a refreshing change. On the way back grabbed a bite at McDonalds. Got back to campus by 7 in the evening and have just been sleeping on and off since then. Its so humid but at the same time drinking cold water just aggravates the sore throat! Hate being in this kind of a situation. Will try and get some sleep now and hopefully wake up in time for tomorrow's class.

Day 73 - 7th September 2010

This is going to be a pretty short post. Have not been keeping too well, heading for a flu, as is the case with me it comes at the worst possible time. The workload just seems to keep increasing. Although today we did get a breather with the deadline for the ID submission being extended by a couple of days. Spent majority of the day at the, primarily to beat the heat. Ended up sleeping for a while as well. Tried to study accounts but just wasn't able to concentrate. Had a placecomm meet at 1 in the night, with the summer placement week approaching, things are going to pick up wrt placements. As for me, I need to decide whether I sit for the process or opt out of it and look for something off campus. After the meet tried studying at the library but couldn't get stay awake. Came back to my room at around 330 before calling it a day.

Day 72 - 6th September 2010

All our preparation for the Markops presentation resulted in zilch - the prof never asked us to present. Maybe Aila!Markops needs to work on how its brand is perceived :-) Those were the only lectures for the day. Since we have the ID submission coming up in a couple of days, decided to come to the library to start working on it. We have to write an individual diary based on the results of certain personality tests that we gave online. Not very interesting but can't help it.

As per another MICA tradition, the juniors are supposed to throw a party for the seniors before the seniors leave for their rural projects. That party was tonight, so slept for a while in the afternoon and helped in jazzing up Palaash. During the course of decorating Palaash a new committee was formed on campus; 4M - MICA Maharashtra Mitra Mandal, the group of all Maharashtrians and Pseudo Maharashtrians. Our punchline is 'Gheuntak' :-D The structure of the committee and designations will be decided in the due course of time.

The party was good fun, the people from our batch who organized it did a brilliant job. Was up till 7 in the morning, have loads of work to do today but first some shut eye beckons!

Day 71 - 5th September 2010

The eco. prof really knows how to make people study. After most of the batch stayed awake the whole of last night trying to complete the assignment, he didn't ask anybody to present it in front of the class. Instead he announced that there would be two surprise tests anytime this week! Thereby ensuring that we continue studying.

Something very strange has been happening over the past couple of days - no matter how much I sleep, I still end up feeling sleepy! I slept for 7 hours last night, which is a luxury out here, still I ended up feeling drowsy throughout class. Came back after lunch and slept for 2 more hours! That also didn't seem to help and continued to feel drowsy for the rest of the evening. Had plans to play tennis in the evening but laziness got the better of me and a I continued my journey in slumberland. All this has to happen at a time when sleep ought to be the last thing on a person's mind :D

Sankalp had planned the first set of performances of the year at the Open Air Theatre(OAT), this time it was from directors in PGP1. However there is something strange relationship between rain and our batch, during our freshers party it rained the entire night and it rained tonight as well, so the plays had to be performed in the audi. Nonetheless they were really good, there were 2 english plays, 1 hindi play and a mime. As repetitive as this may sound but our batch has some supremely talented people and it comes up at places where you least expect it! That got over by around 1 in the night and was followed by a batch meet with PlaceComm.

Once that was done our Markops group had to prepare a presentation on our company's performance and what were the key learnings. Our team has become famous not only in our batch but also amongst the seniors. Two major reasons, our (in)famous performance and more importantly the team name - Aila!Markops. That went on till about 3 after which I wasn't feeling sleepy at all. Went to Chota with Apu and Maushi before heading back to the room and calling it a day.

Day 70 - 4th September 2010

And so it begins, the initial two months here were too good to be true. Today we got a taste of things to come over the next 3 weeks. The first bomb to be dropped on us was by the eco prof. who gave us a 30 page handout on pricing and asked us to come to class tomorrow with a handwritten assignment explaining each topic in our own words and also stating examples from the Indian context. Apart from that we also have a pre read for tomorrow's class. This is his way of shaking us up and ensuring that we study now at least, though I know for a fact that quite a few people who have been taking his subject seriously by going through the pre-reads before the classes. The second bomb to be dropped was by the FA prof, who announced a mid term on the 11th, one may think that there is still some time, but here is the list of things to be done over the next week
5th - eco assignment submission
6th - markops presentation
7th - rest day with companies coming for pre placement talks
8th - ID diary submission
9th- nothing (as of now)
10th - SSC end term!!
11th - FA mid term/ Prinicples of Management Assignment submission
The CT movie reviews also need to be submitted this week, plus there might be a surprise eco test as well.

Got down to writing the eco assignment in the evening. Never written so much in the past 3 years! Had to take a break to complete the MICAMINDS project proposal as well which had a 11:59p.m deadline. Working with the principle of just in time (JIT), we submitted the assignment at 11:57 p.m :-P Then had to get back to the eco assignment. Got done with it and have to start the pre-read now, hope it doesn't put me to sleep..

Day 69 - 3rd September 2010

The IMEI presentation went off pretty well today. The prof. was quite impressed with our work and our understanding of the topic. Whenever we are done with an assignment/presentation/submission there is a sense of relief, the kind that you generally feel after the last exam in school or college. Today was one such day as well. After the presentation a few of us went to Mirch Masala for lunch. Had heard a lot about the place, turned out to be pretty decent, one of the few places in Ahmedabad that actually serves non-veg food. Had a really heavy lunch which needed to be given due respect (read as siesta).

Wrote a movie review in the evening and did some general tp as well. Watched some cricket videos on youtube after a really long time, found this one - Sachin walking in to bat at the Wankhede, something that will always give me goosebumps :-) PlaceComm had called for another batch meet in the night, same agenda as last night where seniors share their summer internship experiences. That got done by around 1 after which I headed to the library to work on the MICAMINDS project, the deadline has been extended till tomorrow midnight. That took a couple of hours to do. Need to give some finishing touches tomorrow. Will head back to Palaash now, have two lectures in the audi tomorrow, hope I dont doze off there ;-)

Day 68 - 2nd September 2010

Rest day = wake up after 12 pm no matter how much work is pending. That was the case today as well, woke up at 1245 when I had to work on the IMEI presentation which is due tomorrow, the MICAMINDS project and start studying for the end terms!! That was also listed in terms of priority :-P Our group had to give a detailed analysis of Mint, the financial daily of HT media in association with WSJ. Got to learn a lot about the paper through the entire process. Also did a bit of work on the MICAMINDS project, which is more research oriented. I don't know whether it can be generalised or not but a lot can be learned from these kind of projects as compared to theory taught in the classroom. Also donated blood today, there was a blood donation camp organized on campus by Red Cross.

Today also happened to be Janmashtmi, so CulComm had organised MICA Matki Phod Competition (MMPC). There were teams were all of the hostels and even the people who work in the mess, who eventually won. It was amazing fun watching the whole thing, facebook is now flooded with photos and videos from the event :-) PlaceComm had called for a batch meet at midnight, seniors who interned at various companies shared their experiences with us. Got back to working on the IMEI presentation with our group after that, which went on till 430 in the morning, hope it goes off well tomorrow!

Day 67 - 1st September 2010

Another day, another surprise test! This time it was the turn of SSC. Another very weird test -4 questions, 5 minutes, MCQ's and 5 mins! This subject so far has dealt with sociology and anthropology, not something that I have been able to grasp too fast, so the outcome of the test will be quite obvious ;-) Now just need to hope and pray that there are others like me as well.

Slept for a good two and a half hours in the afternoon. Decided to get some serious work done in the evening, so headed to the library to work on some of the movie reviews. Unfortunately that was all that I could do. One thing after another started coming up and before I knew it, it was midnight! It was a friend's birthday in Palaash, so the usual celebrations happened. A new tradition was started today, anybody who turns 21 in Palaash will also enter into holy matrimony with Shakuntala :D The cake that was cut was supremely delicious to say the least, with layers and layers of chocolate. Since tomorrow is a rest day, spent the rest of the night doing tp with a few friends before calling it a day at 430 a.m :P

Day 66 - 31st August 2010

After clocking in 2.5 hours of sleep the last thing you would want to hear in the morning is that there is an economics mid-term test in the afternoon! The eco prof. eventually did live up to his reputation, he announced the test when we least expected it. Had two lectures before the test, most of the class bunked those lecture because of the sudden turn of events :-P I headed to the library to study how much ever I could of eco. The test was supposed to be open book, but the seniors had told us that it really doesn't matter whether we carrying the eco text book would be as useful as carrying The Fountainhead for the test.The second bomb to be dropped was the paper pattern, it was a multiple choice questions test, 70 odd questions in 60 minutes with the following marking scheme -
+2 for a correct answer
-0.5 for a wrong answer
-1 for not attempting a question :-|
Had no choice but to guess for questions I didn't know the answers to(and there were quite a few of them). The paper was totally based on eco concepts and would definitely be a little tough for first timers. Nonetheless felt relieved at the end of it that at least we were done with it, no more living in the fear of the most dreaded surprise tests!

Went out to the city again in the evening. Wanted to get out of campus, so accompanied a couple of friends who wanted to do some shopping at ISCON. I kept myself occupied by playing 12 overs against the bowling machine at the mall. :-D Got back to campus in time for dinner which was really good! Soup,pasta,pizza and ice cream and each dish tasted the way it was supposed to taste ;-) After dinner worked a bit on the MICAMINDS project and wrote one more movie review at the library.

In continuation of friend of the day, today's spotlight is on -

Zoya Singh aka Fruit Loops

The other half of 1,Parijat, she has been my quizzing partner at the MICA Quizzing championships (MQC). Met her as well during the ice breaking session alongwith Geeko. She doesn't actually have a nickname but she did come up with the name Fruit Loops for our quizzing team. She is extremely proud of the fact that she is 5 feet tall and has already decided that she is going to name her kid Peter Pan :-) Another interesting thing is that we both dislike similar things and indulge in similar loser habits!

Fruit Loops - hope you haven't forgotten about the 'event' you are supposed to 'plan' for towards the end of October ;-)