Day 366 - 21st December 2011

Last day of the term today. The EBM exam began at 10 in the morning. People started walking out 20 minutes into the exam, yours truly took about 30 minutes to complete the paper. I still remember the joy of completing the last paper of a term in the first year, there would always be huge sense of relief associated with it. However, by the time one comes to the second year, examinations fail to have that effect on you. Had to take Apu to the hospital in the afternoon for a checkup of her fracture and also to get the cast changed. Got back to campus by 130 in the afternoon. Came back and finished off the pending packing. Had to leave campus by 5 in the evening.

Its a good year overall, now to head back home for a 2 week break before we come back for our last term as MICAns! Until then, here's wishing you a merry christmas and a happy new year!

Day 365 - 20th December 2011

Last day of classes for the term. Had 3 CIM sessions in the morning. Could sit for only 2 of them since there was some MCSA work that had to be taken care of. There was a meeting with the director followed by a meeting with some of the faculty members regarding assignment submissions that are lined up. With placement week being held earlier this year, all assignment deadlines have been pushed into the term break and some of them into the next year! Needed to get those sorted out before leaving.

There is an end term tomorrow for EBM. The slides for the subject were circulated in the afternoon. After a siesta, decided to go through the slides but ended up watching some videos of old cricket matches on youtube instead. For every 3 videos I saw, would take a break and read 15 slides :P That went on for a couple of hours. Also had to start packing for tomorrow. In the night ended up doing a lot of tp with Kalkar and Buds. They have their econometrics paper tomorrow and under the guise of taking a break we headed to chota for a midnight buffet - parathas, pakodas and chicken chilly! All hoped of coming back to the room and studying were crushed after the heavy meal. The exam is at 10 tomorrow morning and will be for an hour, lets see how soon people start walking out!

Day 364 - 19th December 2011

The cough and cold pretty much ensured that I was bedridden for most of the day. Had to work on the semiotics assignment, major part of it was done with Sania's help. This is a really short post, cant write much about a day where most of the time was spent either sleeping or coughing :P

Day 363 - 18th December 2011

Had a full day of classes on Entertainment Media today. The sessions dealt with the business of music in India. There were two visiting faculty members, both of whom had experience in the music industry from two different  perspectives - one was an artiste who was part of India's first all boy band and the other worked for record labels. The revenue distribution models of companies alongwith the different types of royalty paid were covered. The problem of piracy was also discussed and how some bands were actually using it to their advantage. The lecture ended with a live performance of one of this song :D Dinner was at Havmor with Sania, though the place serves only vegetarian, the food is really good. Tried the chinese cuisine out there which was unexpectedly good. Got back to campus and had another round of sweatshirt distribution to take care of. Satya's birthday was celebrated in Chinar at midnight, luckily there was no dunking involved! Spent a good two hours just chit chatting with Apu, Manu, Jayati, Sania, Satya and Kore. The topics of discussion ranged from ragging in engineering colleges to campus gossip! Was up till 3 in the morning. Have 3 assignment submissions and 1 end term exam over the next couple of days, but will get down to tackling them from tomorrow :P

Day 362 - 17th December 2011

As expected, woke up with a cough and cold today. Had lectures only in the second half of the day. The BFSI lecture had a visiting faculty from the insurance industry who took us through the industry as a whole and the various products available. The second half of his lecture dealt with marketing and communication ideas for those products. The MICA sweatshirts arrived in the night and the MCSA alongwith the junior MCSA got down to the task of separating and distributing the sweatshirts among the student community. This was something we were doing for the first time, so it took us sometime to figure out the best possible way to go about it. Within an hour though we got into the groove of things and quite a few sweatshirts were distributed. At around midnight, Apu had a fall on her way out from the community center and in the process she got a crack in her ankle. She came back from the hospital with a plastered leg. Spent about an hour, chatting with her and pulling her leg (pun intended) before calling it a day.

Day 361 - 16th December 2011

Played tennis in the morning with Kalkar. Didn't have any classes in the morning but there was a company presentation to attend which went on for a couple of hours. Caught up on some sleep post lunch, well it was a lot of sleep actually, slept for a good 3 hours and was woken up because the CIM class got advanced by an hour from 530 to 430. The class dealt with an analysis of the FGD that was conducted a couple of weeks back. Class got done by 8 in the night. Dinner was with Sania, Kalkar, Kore, Apu, Buds, Dua and Shibani at Masti. It was Sania's treat for receiving her offer letter. As is always the case, the food lived up to our expectations and nobody went back with an empty stomach. Got back and hitting the sack now, I think I am heading for a cold and cough, which is quite prevalent on campus right now.

Day 360 - 15th December 2011

Played tennis in the morning for an hour or so. Had the first half of the day free so saw the highlights of the 2001 India Australia Kolkata test match. Was reminded of it courtesy Rahul Dravid's talk at the Bradman Oration in Australia. It was a brilliant speech, his knowledge about the business of sport is a rich as his understanding of the game. Some of the anecdotes he shared must have been eye openers for the Aussie audiences. Managed to squeeze in a pre lunch siesta since there were BFSI classes after lunch. Today's sessions were on mutual funds and we also had 2 tests in between classes. Got done with classes by 7 in the evening. Dinner in the mess was Thai (which also included pasta :P) Post dinner decided to watch a movie, found Horrible Bosses on myzone, so decided to see that. Its a decent movie, worth a one time watch. The weather has been inducing a lot of sleep off late, will continue the trend and call it a day early!

Day 359 - 14th December 2011

Played tennis in the morning for about an hour. Didnt have classes in the morning but had a company presentation at 1030 which went on for a couple of hours. Post lunch, managed to squeeze in a disturbed siesta. In the course of 2 hours, was woken up at least 4 times for different reasons. Played cricket in the Kachnar courtyard in the evening, following which had planned to start working on the semiotics assignment which was originally die tomorrow. Got a mail that the deadline got postponed to 19th of the month which meant the evening was relatively free. In continuation of going out for dinner over the past couple of weeks, went to Mainland China for dinner. The soup and starters itself were quite filling, so skipped the main course and went to Chocolate Room for desserts, the dutch truffle shake was a nice way to end a sumptuous meal! Got back to campus and did general tp on the net. Will make the most of the weather and call it a day early again!  

Day 358 - 13th December 2011

Another day of no classes. Woke up at around 1030. The weather has changed over the past couple of days with the nights becoming extremely cold and waking up in the morning becoming difficult day by day. Spent most of the day working on the B2B marketing group assignment. Also had to submit the B2B marketing individual assignment. Had to meet my dissertation guide in the evening. Have planned to conduct a few interviews during the upcoming term break. The discussion then moved on to the placement scenario and the kind of things the institute needs to consider during the admission procedure. Had planned to play tennis under lights in the evening, but that couldn't happen due to a 'technical' snag as the floodlights couldn't be switched on.  Mess food was really boring, but had no choice since the number of outings for meals has been awefully high for the past week. Post dinner, did general tp on the net. With the soporific weather its very difficult to stay up until late in the night, calling it a day early by MICA standards, going to sleep at midnight!

Day 357 - 12th December 2011

Didn't have any classes today, nonetheless woke up at 730 in the morning and played tennis for about an hour. Had breakfast in the mess (which is quite abnormal for a holiday) and then headed to the library to work on the B2B individual assignment. Now that placement week is over, there is a barrage of assignments lined up, with submission dates even going into the term break. The B2B assignment required us to analyse 2 cases and make appropriate recommendations for the business problems that were being faced. Managed to squeeze in a half an hour siesta following which there was a company presentation. Also met up with my dissertation guide to decide how to take things forward for the research that needs to be conducted. We will be having a more detailed meeting tomorrow.  Went back to the library post the presentation to continue work on the assignment. Got done with it by around 7 in the evening. During the alumni meet we had got these coupons from Subway which entitled us to one free sub on buying a normal sub. The coupon expires in a couple of days so Sania and I decided to head to Subway for dinner. Got back to campus by 10 in the night and have been doing random tp since then. Had to start work on the B2B group assignment which is due tomorrow evening, have just about started work on it, will continue the rest of it tomorrow since its another day of no classes. For now, will call it a day!

Day 356 - 11th December 2011

Had a full day of classes after quite some time. Today's sessions on entertainment media dealt with mobile marketing and the different strategies involved while devising a mobile marketing campaign. Classes got done by 4. Played tennis for a good hour and a half in the evening. Kore, Kalkar and I made a plan to watch a movie in the evening at City Gold. We saw Dirty Picture - and it turned out to be really dirty, with no storyline, songs just being squeezed in for the heck of it and random twists in the story. Got back to campus by 11 and grabbed a bite at Chota before coming back to Kachnar. Will surf the net a bit before calling it a day.

Days 347 to 355 - 2nd to 10th December 2011

During our seniors placement week last year I always used to wonder how our placement week would be. There are somethings that never change - the anxiety while a shortlist is being announced, the disappointment of  not being able to clear a GD after being shortlisted and the greater disappointment of not clearing an interview after clearing the GD. Placement week takes its physically and more importantly emotionally on all people involved. Sitting through endless company presentations from as early as 7 in the morning to as late as midnight. Giving interviews at 4 in the morning and the anxiety of waiting for the result. There were just way too many things that were common between last year and this year, which leads to me guess that its pretty much the same story every year. There are some fundamental changed that I think need to be brought about in the whole concept of placement weeks across B-schools. Will share my thoughts on that later though.

Coming to the placement week - apart from the hectic schedule it was an emotional roller coaster for a lot of people. There were a lot of good jobs on offer. Kore made to an analytics firm, Kalkar got into a gaming company, SIR will be working with a pre IPO startup firm, Sania had a PPO from a leading telecom company and yours truly made it to the leading spirits company in the world which is associated with a lot of sporting events and teams through both sponsorship and ownership. It was the only company I applied for and I consider myself extremely lucky for getting through - for starters they didn't conduct GDs which was something I was dreading. They shortlisted candidates and were conducting interviews for everyone, though the interview was a rapid fire round of questions. My interview started with my internship, moved onto my career goals and some suggestions for the company in their existing marketing strategy. Got to know in sometime that they had made me a spot offer, which was a huge relief! Got my offer letter the same evening.

All in all, it was a roller coaster ride and I'm glad that now its over. Regular classes start from tomorrow!

Day 346 - 1st December 2011

CIM lectures began at 12 today. The prof. did a mock FGD with students being panelists and the role of the moderator kept switching between the prof and another student. The purpose of the FGD was to bring out the differences perceived between motorcycles and scooters. The major learning was how to moderate a FGD by using subtle techniques to get emotional answers rather than probing questions which could panelists back into a shell. Post lunch had some MCSA work which kept me busy for a couple of hours. Had a meeting with the director regarding assignment submission deadlines over the next couple of weeks. Went to ISCON in the evening to collect my trousers which I had given for alteration. Most of the shops in the city were closed but luckily the stores in ISCON were open. With placement week starting from tomorrow, the sale of formals must have seen quite a spike! Got back to campus by 6 and got down to getting some clothes washed (yes placement week makes you more efficient w.r.t housekeeping responsibilities!). Dinner was at Honey9 with Sania, Kore, Kalkar, SIR (who has now been rebranded to Buds) and Ishan. Had some pretty interesting dinner conversations over Shikari chicken and Thums Up! Got back by 11 and decided to call it a day early.

With placement week starting from tomorrow, will now be able to post only once its done (as has always been the norm). I will be following the same approach that I took for the summers, though there might be a company which I might just apply to during the week. Until then, adios!

Day 345 - 30th November 2011

Had a late start today with a CIM lecture at 12 in the afternoon. The session continued with the different approaches towards qualitative research. Post lunch was busy with MCSA work, with 450 sweatshirts that needed to be ordered for the students and management. Had to go to the old city to place the order for the sweatshirts. Two members each from the junior and senior MCSA went to meet the vendor. On our way back we stopped at Bangs Fried Chicken on Judges Bungalow Road. It is a desi version of KFC and they make some pretty decent burgers. Got back to campus by 11. Did a little tp at the Gulmohar courtyard in the night, with a beach umbrella in the center and chairs all around it. A couple of guys had packed some fried chicken from KFC which opened its first outlet in Ahmedabad. The discussions mainly revolved around placements and what can be expected over the next ten days. Slept off at around 2 and then got woken up at 4 for an emergency MCSA meeting which went on for about half an hour. Going back to sleep at 530, luckily dont have any classes tomorrow morning!

Day 344 - 29th November 2011

Woke up late today and spent 5 hours non stop on MCSA work. It required data collection and sorting in excel which took a really long time. Skipped lunch and breakfast. Finally went to Chota at 4 in the evening to make up for both meals! Had a BFSI class in the evening which dealt with advertisements for financial institutions and how different approaches are used for communicating about financial products. Didnt have much work in the night, its been a relatively boring day. Will watch a couple of episodes of Futurama before calling it a day.

Day 343 - 28th November 2011

Got back to campus by 2 in the morning and slept for a good 8 hours. Had a late start to the day with a CIM lecture post lunch. The lecture covered the various sampling techniques used in qualitative research and how it is different from sampling in quantitative research. Also had a session on various the current scenario of various types of industries as a build up to the placement week. The industries discussed were retail and IT. The session went on till 9 in the night. Dinner in the mess was south indian food, which meant there was a huge exodus of people to Chota. Decided to go out to a chinese place nearby called crazy noodles, a very 'hatke' restaurant which serves decent food. Got back to campus by 11 in the night. Placecomm had a batch meet at midnight regarding the placement week. Spent the next couple of hours discussing the placement scenario with quite a few people at aamchair. Before I could realise it was nearly 4 in the morning. Have an early morning start tomorrow, hope to wake up on time!

Day 342 - 26th November 2011

Had the business conclave for the alumni today. Alumni who have done well for themselves in different industries shared their experiences after graduating from here. Most of them have spent more than 10 years in the industry and had a lot of interesting anecdotes to share. The common piece of advice that all of them gave was to read as much as possible and make the most of the facilities available in the library. Personally, I liked the idea of the conclave a lot as there was an instant connect with the alumni once they started speaking about their life at MICA. Post lunch was busy with some MCSA work. Had to pack and leave in the evening for Bombay. Going for a day for a family function. The next post will be once I am back.

Day 341 - 25th November 2011

Had a rest day today on account of the grand alumni meet. Woke up at around 1030 and did some general tp. Played box cricket in the Gulmohar courtyard with the standard 'one tip one hand' rule. Had a ppt in the afternoon which went on for nearly a couple of hours. Got done with that by around 530 after which I came back to the room and slept off. Was woken up at 620 since the buses for Natrani were supposed to leave at 630. Sankalp stages their annual play at Natrani which is an open air theatre on the banks of the Sabarmati river every winter. The play is staged on Friday. Saturday and Sunday with  the Friday performance for MICAns and the other two days for the general public. The play was pretty decent with some really good performances. Sankalp had arranged for buses to ferry the student community to and from Natrani. An important discovery was the cafe at Natrani which serves amazing sandwiches and juices. Got back to campus by 11 and caught up with some of our seniors who have come down for the alumni meet. Have another rest day tomorrow, so can take the liberty of sleeping in!

Day 340 - 24th November 2011

Had a rest day today on account of the grand alumni meet and Natrani over the  weekend. The day started off with the pgp-2 womens' cricket match. Quite a festive atmosphere at the cricket ground with quite a lot of spectators who came to witness the action. The ladies were as competitive if not more than the boys, with some brutal sledging happening on and off the field :P All in good humour though. The match was a closely fought one though with the result being decided only in the last over. Post the match MCSA work kept me busy for a good 4 hours! Had to go to the city in the evening to pick up sandals. Got back by 9, dinner was at Chota courtesy the mess food. Some of the alumni have already started coming in. More are expected over the next couple of days. Should be fun!

Day 339 -23rd November 2011

Had a late start to the day with a CIM lecture at 2 in the afternoon. The prof go us to do a role play where we were the research agency and he was the client who had come to us with a marketing problem. We had to ask relevant questions and come up with a research proposal which had to be OK with the client. The learning that came out was that while developing a  qualitative research we have to be as imaginative as possible. Had film studies class in the evening which had two film screenings - The Return a russian movie about how two brothers deal with the return of their father who deserted them 12 years back and The Barbarian Invasions a canadian french movie which shows how a man spends his last few days with his near and dear ones. The screenings got done by 1 in the morning after which came back to the room and surfed the net before calling it a day. 

Day 338 - 22nd November 2011

Had a 930 ROMI class in the morning but decided to sleep in and go for the second lecture. As has always been the case my luck in choosing classes to bunk has always backfired. Got to know that a graded assignment was being taken in class. Ishan (my neighbour) and I rushed to class to submit the assignment. After the class got over, we had a pre placement talk in the audi. Was free post lunch which meant another 3 hour siesta! Had a film screening in the evening. We were shown The Passion of Joan of Arc a silent movie which was made nearly 100 years ago in France. After the movie screening got back to reading Sacred Hoops. Finished reading the book by midnight. Harsha Bhogle had referred to this book when he had come to SAP, a good read on leadership and people management. Went to Chota for a midnight snack with Kalkar and ended up spending a good 45 minutes out there. Have a late start tomorrow with classes beginning only at 2 in the afternoon, cant wait to wake up late! :P

Day 337 - 21st November 2011

Had a 930 start today with a double session on CIM which was about a qualitative research is designed. The prof. gave a few cases that had the problems faced by clients and he took us through how the research question and the accompanying methodology could be formulated. Didnt have any classes after CIM, which meant I came back to the room and slept off for a good 2 hours. By the time I woke up, lunch time at the mess was over so had to settle for lunch at Chota. Started reading a book which I had ordered last week and was delivered today. Its called Sacred Hoops and is written by Phil Jackson, the former coach of the Chicago Bulls in which he writes about the techniques he used to get the Chicago Bulls together during their purple patch in the early 90's. He also speaks about how spirituality helped him in some of the techniques he used. Read the book for a good 3-4 hours.

Sankalp's annual performance at Natrani is scheduled to happen this weekend and in an effort to creating buzz around the play they got the mess decorated during dinner time in tune with the name of the play 'The Party' with the actors performing one of the scenes from the play. Post dinner continued reading and took a break for a 'C-9' session ;-) More about C-9 in a later post. Have an early morning start tomorrow so but the afternoon sleep will ensure that I dont sleep before 4 in the night/morning.

Day 336 - 20th November 2011

Had our make or break MCL game in the morning, which we ended up losing by 14 runs. So that marks the end of the MCL for the Chatur Chachas. Had a full day of classes line up after that. BA continued with behavioural sciences and how the brain functions and its application in retail marketing. It was also the last session of the course. Caught up on some sleep in the lunch break between BA and the course on FMCG branding. Had missed the first half of the FMCG branding course since I was travelling on FIF1 work. The course was conducted by a brand manager from HUL who took us through the brand management framework used by them. The thing I liked about the course was that apart from showing what worked in the market, he also took us through campaigns that bombed in the market. Learning from mistakes is a highly effective method. Got done with classes by 6 post which was doing general tp and reading some stuff off the net. Have a lot of books in the pipeline which I want to read, should start sometime soon. MCSA work took over after dinner, which incidentally was quite good today with Hot and Sour soup being the highlight. Saw a couple of episodes of Futurama before calling it a day. 

Day 335 - 19th November 2011

Managed to wake up on time for the BA class in the morning. But the lack of sleep meant that though the class was interesting, had to keep fighting sleep to pay attention. The sessions continued from where we had left off last week. How the brain functions and how we construct ideas/memory based on a context that is prevalent. Some examples from certain marketing gimmicks were explained as to how one option was made to look superior compared to another. Class got done by 1145 after which I was free for the rest of the day. Had a 3 hour long siesta, could have been longer had it not been for a phone call. Played cricket in the evening for a good hour and a half. Have an MCL game tomorrow which is a sudden death match. The match is at 7 in the morning followed by classes till 8 in the night! And we thought Sunday's were there to relax.

Day 334 - 18th November 2011

Had a very early start to the day with a pre placement talk at 830 in the morning. Wore formals after nearly 5 months! The talk lasted for about an hour and was followed by a class on ROMI which dealt with various brand valuation models. Came back to the room and caught up on some sleep. Had to do that since there was a 6 hour marathon class on EBM. The sessions today dealt with the radio industry. The visiting faculty had worked with Radio Mirchi for 7 years and shared a lot of information and insights about how the radio business works. The business of running a radio station was explained pretty well. There is tremendous scope for growth  of this medium in India, which we should see over the next 3-4 years. At the beginning what looked like a daunting 6 hour session actually moved like quite a breeze. Some innovative marketing campaigns through radio which involved telecom, automobile, FMCG and even and media and entertainment channels were discussed. All in all a pretty good session.

Dinner was at Havmor in Bopal with Sania. Discovered a new dish called 'Tapri Chilli Paneer', its Paneer Tikka which is then cooked in Schezwan sauce. Got back to campus by 11, a little MCSA work had to be taken care of. Have BA lectures again tomorrow, will call it a day soon.

Day 333 - 17th November 2011

Had only two lectures today starting at 930. After keeping an alarm for 830 and snoozing it once, I ended up waking up at 940! It meant I missed the first lecture of ROMI. Made it on time for the second lecture which covered brand valuation. Was free for the rest of the day once class was done. Had bought a book in June on the IPL which was about the Modi Tharoor saga and all the behind the scene happenings that transpired during IPL3 which led to both their downfalls. Written by a journalist who experienced the entire episode first hand, it felt like reading a fast paced novel. As is the case with most books that I like, finished this one in one sitting.

Post dinner Sankalp had organized Khula Aasma with 4 plays staged in the audi. That went on till 1 in the night. Have another early morning start tomorrow, cant afford to wake up late again!

Day 332 - 16th November 2011

Had a late start to the day which meant it was one of the few days of the term when I could wake up at 1030. The course on Electronic Broadcast Media (EBM) started today. A visting faculty from mindshare came to take the course. She focused mainly on television and took us through the evolution of the television broadcast industry in India. Upcoming technologies and services like DTH and HD were also discussed with some interesting data about adopting these trends. Organization structures in a television broadcast company were also discussed. Towards the end of the class we were taken through two distinct marketing campaigns for the launch of 2 channels, one which succeeded and the other didn't. At the end of the day it all comes down to the cliche, content is king!

Had our first pre-placement talk of the season which was a video conference which went on for an hour. That was followed by a CIM class which picked up from yesterday's class on FGDs. Mess food was avoidable for the third consecutive day which again meant that Chota did brisk business. Spent the rest of the night taking care of some MCSA work and watching Futurama. Have a 930 class tomorrow, hope to wake up on time.

Day 331 - 15th November 2011

Had a pretty relaxed day today with only 2 classes to attended. So decided to make the most of the free time by getting the bike repaired, that was on the to do list for way too long. Went to Bopal for a haircut as well. The CIM lecture was supposed to take place at 12 which got pushed back to 2 in the afternoon. The session was about ethnographic research, it also dealt with the ethical issues that arise from ethnographic research. Had a class on B2B marketing after that which dealt with market entry strategies. Not too great a class, mos of what was discussed seemed pretty obvious. 

The mess food was quite sad tonight as well, but have been having too many meals at Chota so had to settle for dal chawal. Since the bike is in working condition now, went to Bopal for an ice cream post dinner. Came back by 1030 following which there was some MCSA work that had to be done. Will see a couple of episodes of Futurama before calling it a night!

Day 330 - 14th November 2011

Third straight day of 930 class in the morning. Had two sessions of ROMI which covered the brand equity and customer equity school of thought. ROMI is a hotly contested topic in the industry nowadays especially when it comes to justifying marketing spends. Sometimes it is even referred to as an investment but the justification for the same is done through various models with each one giving a radically different outcome. Nonetheless, at least there is some theory in place. After the session on ROMI we were supposed to have a session on CCRM which got cancelled which meant we were free for the rest of the day. Made the most of this free time by taking an hour long siesta. Played cricket in the evening for about an hour and a half. MCSA work kept me busy pre and post dinner. Dinner in the mess was quite sad which saw a huge exodus of people to Chota for dinner! Have been watching Futurama for the past hour or so, have a late start tomorrow. Looking forward to sleeping in!

Day 329 - 13th November 2011

Had the second session on BA today. The session was more about how the human brain functions and also how context plays an important role for the brain to process information. Another interesting fact was that the brain reconstructs and doesn't retrieve information from memory. The sessions on BA were followed by Corporate Communications and Reputation Management (CCRM). There was a visiting faculty who was conducting this course. He was with Cadburys during the worm infested chocolate controversy. He gave a brief  theoretical setting before going into discussing how Cadburys tackled the issue. An important learning was how they tackled the issue internally as well, by sharing all information with employees and keeping their morale high.  That was followed by a session on media training called media training 101. It dealt what needs to prepare for if he/she is the spokesperson for his/her company. The session also had a few mock interviews which were quite interesting and some good learnings came out of it. Classes got done by 530, didnt have much to do after that. Have been watching futurama over the past couple of days. Munched on some midnight snacks from MICARE, continued watching futurama before calling it a day.

Day 328 - 12th November 2011

Had our first session on behaviour architecture (BA) today. The course is introduces the concept of neural marketing and how consumer behaviour can be influenced by marketers. Today's session was more about how the human brain functions. How much of our conscious and unconscious mind is used in making decisions was illustrated through a Sachin Tendulkar interview in which he explains even he doesnt know how he reacts and plays an incoming leather ball at 150 kmph. A good session overall.

Post lunch Kore, Kalkar, Apar and I went to the old city to meet a vendor for sweatshirts. The nights are becoming cooler now and sweatshirts will be required soon. Got back to campus by 5. Played a little cricket in the evening. Post dinner have been reading articles on the net about the prevailing airline crisis. Have also started watching Futurama. Will watch a couple of episodes before calling it a day. 

Day 327 - 11th November 2011

Another day with not too many classes. Had 2 classes of B2B marketing followed by a session of BFSI. The BFSI sessions covered non banking finance companies and their business models. Got done by 430 after which we played cricket. With winters setting in it gets dark quite early nowadays and the last2 over of the match were played in near darkness. Post the match, an impromptu plan was made to watch Tintin in 3D. Haven't read any of the comics but the movie was quite nice, never a dull moment and amazing graphics. This was followed by dinner at McDonalds in Himalaya Mall. Got back to campus by midnight. Have been doing general tp and listening to some music. Have a 930 start tomorrow, will call it a night early.

Day 326 - 10th November 2011

Classes started at 2 in the afternoon today so could take the liberty of waking up late. Had to complete the pre read for the BFSI class though, which took a couple of hours. The prof. teaches the subject really well, if only he were there to teach FA, balance sheets wouldn't be a source of many a nightmare! Today's sessions were on the banking system in India. The history of the system was discussed alongwith buzz words prevalent in the industry. Got done by 430 in the evening so decided to play tennis after ages. Realised today that ever since Ive come back, I haven't out even once because of which dinner was at Mirch Masala. A welcome change. Got back and did general tp before calling it a night. Such kind of days are very few, need to make the most of it :P

Day 325 - 9th November 2011

Had the second session of the semiotics workshop today. The faculty member discussed the rebranding exercises for Tanishq and Titan which he had worked on. The differences in rebranding for a jewelry brand and a watch brand were discussed. All in all a pretty interesting class. Had our first session on BFSI, we had an intro to the basics of a financial system. Was relatively free after the class was done. MCSA work took over in the evening. Post dinner had to get down to assignment submissions. Had a EM submission, the assignment was to come up with a storyline around a product/brand, wrote a story around blackberry messenger. The brief was not to make an advertisement for the product but to make the story revolve around it. Have a pre read for BFSI tomorrow, the class begins at 2 so will wake up in the morning and complete it. 

Day 324 - 8th November 2011

Didnt have the best of days on the field today during our MCL game. Managed to score only 6 runs with the bat and after bowling 2 good overs, 22 runs were conceded of my 3rd over which turned the run chase in the opposition's favour. We ended up losing the game by 7 wickets with a couple of overs to spare. Not all is lost though, we still have one more group game which is do or die for us, the good thing is there is no dependency on the net run rate. The morning classes were sessions on Semiotics taken by a visiting faculty. He led most of the discussions through case studies that he has worked on. Film studies in the post lunch session started with the screening of a Japanese movie, Departures. Liked the movie a lot, especially the way it dealt with death. The soundtrack of the movie also was very good. The classroom session was a case study on Iranian cinema and the changes it has gone through since the 1979 revolution and how women have used cinema as an effective medium of communication.  Post dinner had to do the pre reads for a course thats starting tomorrow - Business of Communication in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector (BFSI). This would ideally be the last finance subject to be taught at MICA. 

Day 323 - 7th November 2011

Had our first lecture on Return On Marketing Investment (ROMI) today. The course outline seems pretty interesting and I could find a lot of terms that are used in the business dailies. This was followed by B2B marketing which was case presentations made by different groups. These cases were shared with the class a couple of weeks in advance and people had to present their analysis of the case to the prof and the class. The session on Film Studies started with a movie screening The Shop on Main Street, which served as an example of East European cinema. Couldnt attend the classroom session that followed since there was some MCSA work that kept us occupied. Post dinner a french movie was screened He loves me he loves me not. The movie had a very interesting story and the Prof. had said while laying the context that it was a very difficult movie to make. Had a batch meet after the movie which got done by 1 in the night. Have a MCL match tomorrow, need to wake up at 630 for that!

Days 317 - 322 - 1st to 6th November 2011

Back to campus after a two week stint for FIF1. Had the opportunity to go to Silverstone and the Indian GP as well. Feels a little strange to get back to classes as a full time student now. Had the 10th edition of MICANVAS from 3rd to 5th. Managed to get the FIF1 show car for the event. There were two concerts - Avial on 4th and Salim Sulaiman on 5th. Most of the time was spent either at the food court or guarding the car! Had a rest day on 6th which was spent in sending the car back to Bombay and taking stock of the subjects coming up over the next couple of weeks. 

Day 316 - 13th October 2011

Had the first 930 start to the term. It was a double lecture of semiotics. For a lot of people from coming from  an engineering background this subject is a little difficult to grasp at the first attempt. Today’s sessions gave a brief introduction to Semiotics and went onto languages. Had left my laptop and books in the library last night, post the lecture came back to the library to continue working on the dissertation proposal. Spent the remainder of the day trying to wrap up the proposal since I wont be on campus starting Saturday. Met my dissertation guide in the evening and submitted my first draft of the proposal, she will get back to me tomorrow with feedback (fingers crossed!). Once that was done got down to the pending FIF1 work for the day. Posting this one from the library, will work for another half an hour before hitting the sack.

Day 315 - 12th October 2011

Made it a hatrick of having breakfast in the mess today! Had a lecture at 12, spent some time working on the dissertation proposal before that in the library. Had our first class of Consumer Insight Mining (CIM) today, its one of the more popular courses on campus and is taken by the same prof who taught us consumer behavior. It deals more with qualitative research and looks at finding consumer insights which are derived from research findings.  A brief introduction to the course was given after which the prof discussed a couple of cases in which consumer insights were generated. The brands discussed were Moov and Anacin. For Moov, the insight on which it was launched in the market was discussed and for Anacin the case revolved on how it needed an insight to realize why its competitors were performing better. Post lunch headed back to the library to work on the dissertation proposal. Had a meeting with my dissertation guide in the evening to freeze the topic and discuss the next steps. During the course of the meeting realized that there is a lot of work that needs to be done wrt the literature review. Got back to the library and started working on it though could do that only for half an hour so, was just able to search for research papers through our online database. MCSA duties required us to be present in the audi for a talent hunt organized by Ahmedabad Times. That went on for about an hour and a half post which there was a meeting with the Junior MCSA. Post dinner came back to the library and continued working on the dissertation proposal. Also had the MCL auctions tonight, wasn’t as much fun as last time though. The theme for team names this year is Indian superheroes – Naughty Nagraj, Shikari Shambus, Chatur Chacha’s etc. you get the drift. Yours truly is a Chatur Chacha, if only by brain actually worked faster than a computer I wouldn’t be up until 4 in the library working on the dissertation proposal. As another non Indian superhero would say “That’s all I can stands cos I can stands no more!”

Day 314 - 11th October 2011

For a second day running woke up in time for breakfast at the mess.  Shifted base back to the room today from the library. FIF1 work kept me busy yet again with the Silverstone round of the academy less than a week away. Tried to sneak in a siesta which lasted for about half an hour. In the evening had the excel training workshop. It was a 4 hour workshop in which we were taught the basic functions in excel. For someone with a limited understanding of excel, this was a really good workshop. Got to learn a lot of shortcuts and although had only heard about it until now, today I experienced first hand what a powerful tool excel is! And I must admit that it felt to get back into a classroom after such a long time. The session got done by 10 in the night. Have come back to the room, will call it a day early today.

Day 313 - 10th October 2011

Didn’t have any classes today but had to take care of the registration process for this term. For a change woke up in time for breakfast at the mess. Spent majority of the day in the reading room in the library. Though I wanted to start work on my dissertation proposal all my time was consumed with FIF1 work, the library turned into a virtual office. Never realized how time flew and before I knew it, it was dinner time.  Felt like a full day at work :P Some MCSA work throughout the day also kept me busy. Looks like the dissertation proposal work will have to start tomorrow!

Day 312 - 9th October 2011

Had a pretty eventful day today. As is the norm on a rest day, woke up at 1030 and had breakfast at Chota. Did a little FIF1 work before lunch. Post lunch a few of us went to see Real Steel at PVR. I hadn't heard of the movie before but it turned out to be quite entertaining. It was similar to the storyline of Rocky, just that this time it was Robots who were fighting. Came back to campus by 730 in the evening, just in time for the CLT20 finals between MI and RCB. Dont know after how many years I saw an entire cricket match. MI started off well but then a batting collapse after the 15th over saw them score a below par 139. It was expected that RCB would chase it down quite easily considering the fact that they chased 200+ scores in their previous two games. However the fact that they were playing at Chepauk for the first time in the tournament worked against them and once they lost Dilshan and Gayle it was never going to be very easy for them. This was MI's first tournament victory and it felt good to watch it live on TV. Surfed the net a bit and started with a little groundwork for the dissertation proposal. Hope start making some progress tomorrow onwards! 

Day 311 - 8th October 2011

Woke up at 1030 today (something which I havent been able to do for the past month) and headed to Chota for breakfast. People from PGP-2 have started coming to campus and hopefully by day after tomorrow almost everybody should be back. FIF1 work kept me busy in the morning. Had a meeting with the executive registrar in the afternoon which lasted for about half an hour. Slept off for an hour or so post lunch and had a pretty lazy evening. Played my first game of poker, which is quite popular in Kachnar. Traditionally I have been dyslexic when it comes to cards but at least I understood the rules of the game, hopefully with a little more practice I should be able to win more games :P Post dinner didn't have much to do, need to start working on the dissertation proposal which has to be submitted next week. But right now everyone seems to be in the mood of enjoying this feeling of joblesness that exists at the beginning of every term :P

Day 310 - 7th October 2011

Back to campus after being away for nearly a month! It feels really good to be back. Got back at around 830 in the morning, which is when most of Kachnar is fast asleep. Not too many people from PGP-2 are back on campus since regular classes start only on 10th. Spent the first half of the day meeting  my dissertation guide and completing other formalities with the administration. Had to also unpack and my room back in order. Tried to squeeze in a siesta but couldn't manage to sleep for too long. In the evening Kore, Rana, Sir and I went to Shailby hospital to meet Ishan who was admitted there since he had malaria. The good news is he has recovered well and should be discharged tomorrow. Dinner was at McDonalds en route to college.

Met the Junior MCSA in the night. PGP-1's classes have begun, so most of them are back on campus. Will call  it a day early, will take some time to get back to the MICAn sleep cycle :P

Days 306 to 309 - 7th to 10th September 2011

Am clubbing these days together since this update is coming quite late. As much as I hate not being able to update the blog on a daily basis, the past couple of week have ensured that I havent been able to update the blog. Had the course on luxury branding on 8th and 9th. The day prior to that was spent preparing for the LB presentation that was to be made on the first day in class. Summer placement week was also going to start for PGP-1 from the 11th onwards. One of the girls from PGP-1 wasn't keeping too well so she had to be taken to hospital. The LB course was quite good, initially I had my apprehensions of how it would be, since the entire concept of luxury branding wasn't very appealing. But the visiting faculty who had come down to take the course was really good. He had woked with HUL, General Motors and  American Express before starting his own luxury consulting firm. He had a lot of good examples to share from his experience. He also shared with us the market entry strategies of brands like Mercedes Benz and American Express in India.

The course got over on the 9th. Had to pack since I had an early morning flight on the 10th. I was done with my classes for the term and had to be in Goa for the national finals of the FIF1 Academy finals. College reopnes on the 10th of October, so its quite a long break. Will be back to updating the blog once I am back on campus. Until then, adios!

Day 306 - 6th September 2011

Had the second day of the rural communication workshop today. Woke up late which meant I had to miss the first session, utilised the time to work on the LB assignment in the library. Went for the post lunch session which was on rural economics. It was taken by the same prof who had taken our ME course. A lot of interesting facts  came out from the session, he shared his own experience in rural research. He also explained to us as to we how we should go about choosing a village for our research.

After the session, FIF1 work kept me busy for the next 3 hours. Everyday I realise that there is so much work to be done with the finals just a week away! Post dinner had the first night of Khula Aasman by Sankalp which had 4 plays. All of them were excellent and were excellent to say the least, its amazing how people manage to practice so much and pull off such plays in the middle of all assignment submissions and examinations. Also had the pre rurals party to end the day which meant some good food before sleeping! ;-)

Day 305 - 5th September 2011

Had a full day of classes today courtesy the rural communication workshop which is a prelude to the rural communication project we are supposed to undertake in the upcoming term break. We were given an overview of the general social structure, dos and don'ts and what we specifically need to look out for while undertaking the project. Most of my day though was taken up by FIF1 work, with the national finals lined up next week, a lot of last minute work needs to be done! Didn't attend one of the post lunch sessions of the workshop since there was a lot of work to be done for which mails had to be sent and calls had to be made.

Lectures got done at 430 and for the next 3 hours had back to back MCSA meetings -

• Placecomm and the Executive Registrar
• Executive Registrar
• Placecomm and the Associate Director
• Associate Director
• Programme Office
• Deputy Registrar

Was totally exhausted by the end of it all. Came back to the room and continued with the FIF1 work, a lot of calls have to be made to all agencies to ensure that everything is moving on track. In the night met up with group members for the luxury branding (LB) assignment. For the first time am working on an assignment which has nothing to do with sports :P In fact I didnt even know what the brand that we are supposed to work on was! The only saving grace is that Zoya is in my group and luxury branding is a piece of cake for her :-) Got back to the room by midnight. Have another full day of classes tomorrow with the rural workshop, its been one helluva tiring day today, getting sleep should not be a problem!

Day 304 - 4th September 2011

Had another rest day today, woke up early (read as 9 a.m.), had breakfast in the mess after ages! Went to Bopal for a haircut, luckily reached the barber's just before the Sunday morning rush kicked in. Got back to campus by noon. Post lunch had the PGP-1 v/s PGP-2 game. Didn't play today's game. PGP-1 won it quite comfortably, this time around chasing the target with 8 wickets to spare. Had most of the evening free, utilised that time to catch up with Geeko, Fruit Loops and Apu, something which has pending for quite some time!
A quintessential rest day, will call it a day soon, have a full day of classes lined up tomorrow.

Day 303 - 3rd September 2011

Got back to campus last night after a week in Bombay during which I had to go to office for some FIF1 work and also got to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi at home. Didnt have any classes today but had some work lined up which had to be taken care of. Have not been feeling too well over the past couple of days, wasn't feeling great today either. However I couldnt resist the temptation of playing a cricket match in the afternoon. It was an unofficial PGP-2 v/s PGP-1 match. Played on the ground for the first time since the MCL final! The match was a huge letdown though, we got mauled and lost by 65 runs, a very rude wake up call for all of us. It was extremely humid during the game and I must have lost nearly 3 litres of water :P Came back to the room and slept for an hour so.

Had Sania's birthday treat at the Marriot today, courtesy a pretty decent offer from snapdeal. 18 of us feasted on the buffet and as is the case in such buffets, the desserts took the cake(pun intended). Came back with satisfied bellies! Will sleep a little early tonight, still reeling from the after effects of the cricket match and just before sleeping SCAM has sent a mail announcing the opening match of the cricket season with PGP-1 playing PGP-2 tomorrow ;-)

Day 302 - 28th August 2011

Had the FIF1 Speed Nights screening at MICA and IIM-A today. I was handling MICA while Rajat and Manu were at IIM. Spent the morning putting up one last set of posters around campus and tent cards on all tables in the mess. Was supposed to go to IIM to check out the branding but couldnt do that since the people from the event management agency missed their flight from Bombay in the morning and were taking a later flight. Because of that had to stay back in MICA to ensure that the branding was done on time.

In every event that I have been a part of nothing has ever gone smoothly or according to plan no matter how much you prepare in advance. The races are screened on Star Sports and the previous day we had checked the TV connection in the audi, Star Sports was tuned and everything was working fine. With the screening scheduled to begin at 5 we decided to check the connection at 230 only to realise that Star Sports wasnt available! The cable guy had very conveniently decided to remove all ESPN Star channels on this very day! Sir, Tarang and Apar came in to help and see what could be done. Various options were worked out - the community centre had a Tata Sky connection on which Star Sports was coming, we could pull a cable from there (about 150 metres in length) to the audi and screen it in the audi. Another option was to connect a laptop to the TV at the community center and using VPN share the screen with another laptop which would be connected to the projector in the audi! In the meanwhile we also called the cable guy from Shela village to check what he could do. As all of this transpired, it started pouring and I got a call from IIM saying that the dish connection was not able to receive any transmission because of the weather. At the same time there was a power failure at the cable guy's place as well, which meant there was no transmission at MICA! All the activations and build up and imagine no TV transmission!! Those couple of hours were quite crazy. Things started to brighten up - both literally and figuratively at around 445, with 15 minutes left for the race to start. The cable guy figured out a way to get Star Sports at MICA and the weather Gods were kind enough not to interfere with the dish TV transmission. The screenings at both places were pretty decent, though the fact that there were exams scheduled tomorrow at both places meant the turnout didnt exactly live up to what I had expected. Overall though it was a decent response compared to what was done earlier. After that eventful evening, it was time to start getting ready to leave for Bombay. Have to leave campus at 6 in the morning. Will be back on Friday, until then adios!

Day 301 - 27th August 2010

Didn't have nay lectures today but the Speed Nights to be held at MICA and IIM-A kept me busy. Went to the IIM campus in the afternoon to do a recce and also the dish connection for the screening had to be setup. Rajat and Manu will be handling it tomorrow so they also came along. The screening is taking place in a classroom out there and most of our time went in figuring out where to set up the dish connection. After our work at IIM was done we decided to go to Hokey Pokey - an ice cream parlour with a difference which was nearby. The fact that a subway was attached to it ensured that we had a sub as well!

Came back to campus by 7 and kept myself busy reading and reading some articles off the web. During the course of the day also got to know that I would be travelling to Bombay next week since there are no classes. A good time to get in some FIF1 work done since the national finals are less than 3 weeks away.

Day 300 - 26th August 2011

Woke up at 11 in the morning, the AFM end term was 5 in the evening which gave me about 6 hours to go through the slides and whatever little notes I had made during the classes. It was an open book test, but one should also know where to look for an answer in the book! Practiced a few numericals with Sir and got a few doubts cleared from the commerce grads for whom this is a piece of cake.

The exam was pretty decent - a good mix of objectives, short answers and numericals. Again every paper in this field is compared with FA from term 1 which makes even a mediocre paper look like a very easy one. Post the paper,met up with a few juniors who wanted to know about internship opportunities in the sports marketing industry. Told them whatever I knew and shared my internship experience with them. Came back to the room and read a few articles on the net before heading to Chota for dinner (there was egg curry in the mess). Done have classes for the next 9 days but the FIF1 speed nights at MICA and IIM-A will keep me busy for the next couple of days at least. Started reading the book on sports marketing in India which I had bought sometime back before calling it a day.

Day 299 - 25th August 2011

Today was again one of those days when I considered myself extremely lucky to be a part of this institute. Had 3 sessions on sports marketing in the morning, the topic discussed was sponsorship - what drives it and what are the kind of options available for potential sponsors. There was also a case study that was discussed in class which dealt with ethical issues when it came to the sponsorship of a sports tournament. But that wasn't exactly the high point of the day. As a part of the sports marketing course one of the guest lecturers who agreed to come on campus was Sundar Raman, CEO of the IPL! The prof had anticipated that a lot of people would be interested in hearing him speak so this was positioned as an MLS so that everyone had an opportunity to attend it. I had spoken to the prof the previous day and asked him if it would be ok if I went to receive Mr. Raman at the airport and he had no problems with it. It was a great opportunity to interact with him during the drive from the airport to campus. Picked his brains on the business of sport, he wanted to know more about the course and he even suggested names of people from the industry who could come as guest faculty. Once we reached campus, he said that he hadn't had his lunch, so we decided to head to Chota. If a year back somebody told me that I would be discussing cricket with the CEO of the IPL over Aloo Parathas at Chota, I would have taken offence for playing with my emotions! The topics of discussion ranged from whether he really expected bid values for the 9th and 10th franchises to exceed those of the first 8 put together to how the IPL has changed the experience for fans who for once can actually watch a game comfortably in a stadium. He also went on to speak about how they put up the 2009 edition in 15 days in South Africa, they couldnt have done it without the all out support of the local authorities. In his words, "On 24th March when it was decided that the IPL wouldn't happen in India, I boarded flight to South Africa with one pair of jeans and a t-shirt and then I returned to India after 3 months!" He's not just about the business, the amazing part is how he remembers the result of every game that has been played in the IPL so far with the key performers in those games.

The MLS was scheduled at 630 in the evening and the audi was packed by 615, something that is unheard at this place! His talk was about the evolution of the IPL and the various marketing activities undertaken by them. He showed ads from each of the seasons and what they tried to communicate every season. The obvious question about the IPL having a negative effect on players while playing for India was also asked to which he drew a comparison between English football, the EPL and other leagues. There are 383 matches played between August and May every year and on an average every player runs close to about 15 km every game, nobody complains bout fatigue out there was his reply! He gave a couple of cricketing insights which were truly amazing through which he tried to explain why the IPL has actually improved the way players approach the game. The first one was from the final of the 2010 edition of the IPL, MI were cruising against CSK when there was a sudden batting collapse. Everybody expected Sachin to send in Pollard to finish it off, but for some strange reason he was pushed down the order. This was actually a battle of who blinked first going on between Sachin and Dhoni. Both of them knew that Pollard wouldn't be able to play Muralitharan who at that point of time still had 2 overs left, Sachin wanted to play out Murali and let Pollard loose on the fast bowlers and Dhoni kept holding him back. Eventually Pollard came to bat in the 17th over, with 50 odd runs to be scored in 18 deliveries, people thought that it was bad captaincy on the part of Tendulkar to have sent him in so late, but very few people know about the mind games being played between the captains on the field. Pollard went on to smash 20 odd runs of one over of Bollinger who until then was unplayable and then there seemed to be a match on our hands. In the next over when Albie Morkel came on to bowl, Dhoni had a brief discussion with him following which Morkel decided to bowl from around the wicket with Mathew Hayden standing literally in line withe stumps inside the circle at a fine long on position if ever there was a fielding position like that. The very next ball Pollard hit the ball straight to Hayden and MI's dream of an IPL were brought to an abrupt end. They had realised that when Pollard hits, he hits it dead straight. Such strategies were never used before and it was an exhilarating experience to watch such tactical prowess on display. It truly went on to show that captains and bowlers have cracked the format. The second instance was from the final of 2011 cricket world cup. People think Dhoni just decided to promote himself ahead of Yuvraj in a moment of inspiration and for no particular reason. However there was a very sound reason behind this move -at that point of time India were 130 odd for 3 around the 25 over mark and Muralitharan had 5 overs left. Dhoni and Murali have played a lot of cricket together for CSK and whenever Yuvraj came out to bat Murali would tell Dhoni to give him the ball, all he needed were 5 deliveries to get Yuvraj out. Dhoni knew that and had Yuvraj gotten out early that would have put extra pressure on the rest of the batsmen. Dhoni promoted himself up the order to play out Murali, so that by the time Yuvraj came out to bat he had to face only the quick bowlers, bread and butter for him. The rest of his talk left the audience spell bound and before we knew it, two and a half hours had passed by!

Post the MLS, dinner was in the mess during which a couple of committees on campus wanted to interact with him. Post dinner went to Chota for a cuppa of Chai where the cricket related discussions continued, this time it was about how the franchises dealt with the ownership of teams. A company like Reliance for example, is never used to losing and how the sport has taught them to cope up with it. I could go on ranting more out here, but I am pretty sure blogspot has a word limit per post. Ended the day on that note, a truly memorable experience. The fact that there is an AFM end term tomorrow evening is yet to sink in, will deal with it tomorrow morning, dont want to ruin this high by calculating net present value and reading about the financial implications of M&As!

Day 298 - 24th August 2011

The sports marketing sessions started at 1045 today. Today’s sessions were mainly about consumer behavior in sports marketing wherein we studied the different types of fans. Did get a little too heavy in the middle, but the prof had warned us well in advance that the first half of the day was going to deal with theory. Post lunch we had the first guest lecturer for the subject – Joy Bhattacharya, Team Director of the Kolkata Knight Riders. It was a brilliant 2 hour session with the first half on the business model of the IPL and the second on brand KKR. Invariably the discussion had to veer towards Sourav Ganguly and his exclusion from the team in the last season, it was a tough decision to take, he did admit that but it was taken from a long term perspective. Though he did acknowledge the fact that Ganguly is West Bengal or should I say Paschim Bongo’s favourite son. “Tagore, Satyajit Ray and now Ganguly, us bongs don’t have too much of a choice when it comes to our heroes” :D The best part about the discussion was that he patiently answered all sorts of questions ranging from the Fake IPL player to match fixing in the IPL. In a reply to one of the questions of player fatigue and the debacle in England he brought to our notice that India’s rise to the number one position began in 2008 and culminated in 2011 and the IPL was present in that very period, so it would be unfair to pin all the blame on the league. The best line of the lecture though had to be his opening line “Let’s make a deal, you don’t ask me about Shah Rukh’s sexual preferences and I wont bore you” :D

Played cricket in the evening in the Kachnar courtyard. Its always fun to play with a hard tennis ball on tiles, its akin to playing on Perth :P Played for a good hour at least. Post that there was a session on handwriting analysis conducted in the audi by a batchmate, which was pretty interesting. Have 3 birthday celebrations lined up tonight. Posting this one before they begin!

Day 297 - 23rd August 2011

Back to a full day of classes after a long time! Had two SBM lectures in the morning. They were the last set of lectures for the course. We mainly discussed brand extensions and under what circumstances do they happen. A lot of examples were also given by the prof. and I have to admit I wasn’t aware of a majority of them! Had a 2 hour break after that during which I managed to get some clothes washed, the sun came out after a long time today, ideal time to get clothes dried :P

Had our first set of lectures on sports marketing today. The context was set by the course today by the prof, the same person who helped me out with my summer internship at FIF1. The topic of discussion mainly revolved around what makes sports marketing so different from marketing of other products. We also have some good visiting faculty lined up for the course which is something to look forward to. FIF1 work kept me busy post lectures. We will be conducting speed nights at MICA and IIM-A, had to set up the branding for that on campus and had to also go to IIM-A to hand over their branding, Rajat also came along to help with that. Came back to campus by 945, mess food didn’t look too inviting, so Chota it was! MQC had the India Quiz in the night, not a topic that I am too comfortable with, not that I am a champion quizzer :P Got done with that at by 130, too tired to do anything after that, will crash in a bit.

Day 296 - 22nd August 2011

Had a rest day on account of Janmashtmi today. Spent the first half of the day in slumberland. Had the annual MICA Matki Phod Competition (MMPC). Hostels form teams and compete against each other in a dahi handi competition. Yours truly was in the base 'support' team of Kachnar ;-) We made it upto the semi finals courtesy our own Krishna oops I mean Nullu at the top of the human pyramid :-D Was good fun overall.

Dinner at the mess wasn't exactly a feast with the an attempt at Sabudana Khichdi gone horribly wrong. So Kalkar and I found an excuse to go to McDonalds for dinner. The one near ISCON mall is open till 1 in the night, the perfect place for a midnight snack! Got back to campus by 11 after which have been doing random tp. Regular classes start from tomorrow with the first set of Sports Marketing lectures. Have some good guest lecturers lined up so should be good fun! :-)

Day 295 - 21st August 2011

Didnt have any classes today still managed to wake up at 10 in the morning. Caught up with an alumnus at Chota over a cup of chai. The weather was amazing in the morning, not humid at all, spent almost an hour at Chota. Spent the afternoon working on a brief write up of the dissertation that had to be submitted to the dissertation guide. Moved to the library for a bit for that. Came back to the room and slept for a bit in the evening.

Tomorrow happens to be Sir's birthday, so Kalkar and I went to this place called Masty to pack food for the night. Since we had to wait for so long we decided to have a few starters ourselves out there ;-) Got back to campus by 1130 and a mailer was sent to PGP-2 inviting people for Sir's birthday which went like this -

It's HIS Birthday!

On this occasion of Nullujayanti which is a national holiday in South India (except Telangan of course), we invite you to Kachnar at the stroke of midnight for the following celebrations -

1200 - Shloka recitation

1215- Abhisekam

1230 - Prasadam (Donation passes available at all MiKore outlets)

1245 - Visarjan

Things went according to schedule with a havan also interspersed between Abhisekam and Prasadam ;-) The Visarjan finally culminated at the OAT! This was followed by a feast in Kalkar's room where the food bought from Masty was devoured by the residents of Kachnar south west. All of this went on till about 4 in the morning which when I started feeling sleepy. Have a rest day tomorrow on account of Janmashtmi after that a full week of classes followed by an AFM end term!

Day 294 - 20th August 2011

Today was the last CC class which was scheduled to begin at 430. Had some MCSA work before that. The class was a case study on Madonna and her marketing strategies as she evolved. How she has managed to stay on top consistently for 25 years, how she seemed to conform with all possible norms yet managed to take a dig at everything that she thought was wrong. She produced 5 top 20 tracks over a period of 17 months, a similar feat was achieved by Barabara Streisand in 20 years! We also were shown some of her music videos, some of which were even banned by MTV. The way she evolved as an artist and more importantly as a marketer were quite evident in those videos. A good session overall and a nice one to have as the last one of this sem.

Today's movie was promised to be a fun, breezy one and it did live up to those expectations! An Italian movie - Ciao, Professore. It was about how an elementary teacher tries to reform a bunch of third graders in a South Italian town plagued with crime and violence. Again, a nice movie to be shown as the last one of this sem. Class got done by 11 in the night. Dinner was at Chota since there was South Indian food in the mess. Came back to the room and saw some more cricket videos. There is a facebook community formed by a few of us where only cricket videos are posted. Its turning out to be a treasure trove of videos from yesteryear. Today was dedicated to Mohammed Azharuddin, spent a good half an hour watching some of his best innings. That was a nice way to end the day!

Day 293 - 19th August 2011

Woke up at 12 today! This was because the CC class was supposed to start only at 430. Took care of some MCSA work until then. Today's class was a case study on Kashmir, the chronological order of events which has led to the current situation. Realised how history textbooks have been distorted to give us a different picture about the Kashmir issue. Class went on till dinner time after which there was a movie screening. Today's movie was The Magdalene Sisters, based on true stories of Irish nuns in the 70s. It took a dig at how religion is misinterpreted to commit atrocities the world over.

The movie got over at round 1130 in the night. Tonight was also the first night of the MICA Quizzing League - MQC. Made a last minute team with Manu. Today's was a brand quiz. We missed out on the cut off for the finals because we wrote one of our answers as Surf instead of Surf Excel :P Got back to the room after that and was watching some old cricket videos on the net. Will call it a day in a bit, have our last class of CC tomorrow.

Day 292 - 18th August 2011

Got back to campus at around 2 in the night. Had a rest day today but unlike other rest days couldn't sleep in since there was some FIF1 work to be done. Had to go to Nirma and IIM-A as well which kept me busy until afternoon. Met Sania for lunch in the city, went to Curries. This place is known for its North Indian food and it did live up to my expectations :P

The only way to do justice for such a lunch was by according it a 2 hour siesta, which I ensured happened :P Tonight was opening night for Sankalp, where the directors put up a play for everyone. The play was an adaptation of a Ruskin Bond story which went on for about half an hour. Post that had nothing much to do. Its been extremely hot and humid here today, dont know how Im going to be able to sleep, nonetheless will give it a shot :P

Day 291 - 16th August 2011

CC lectures started post lunch today. Utilised the time before that to finish off the guide registration formalities for the dissertation. Also had to make the necessary arrangements for leaving for Bombay. The CC lecture was on caste and how the caste system is still prevalent in Indian society. This is a very sensitive topic and there was a lot of discussion around this topic.

The class got done at around 6 post which I had to leave for the airport. Going to Bombay for a day on some FIF1 work. Will be back late tomorrow night. Until then, adios!

Day 290 - 15th August 2011

Independence day celebrations had to take place indoors today due to the rains. As has been the case for the past 18 years, school children from neighbouring villages are brought onto campus for the flag hoisting ceremony and served breakfast. Had a little MCSA work after that which kept Jhamb and me busy for half an hour. Post that we had a few performances from PGP-1 in the auditorium, good renditions of Vande Mataram. We also had an alumnus who is now an anchor with Star News visiting campus. The entire MICAn fraternity owes him big time since he is the guy who started Chota canteen :D Lunch in the mess was gujju cuisine served with Thums Up! Managed to squeeze in 2 siestas on either side of lunch before getting back to finishing off Pundits from Pakistan, overall a good read for a cricket fan or anybody who is intrigued by Pakistan.

Continuing with the cricket theme that has lasted this weekend, saw Fire in Babylon a documentary on the world beating West Indies side of the 70s and 80s. The movie just got done about half an hour back. Will call it a day in a bit, regular classes start from tomorrow again.

Day 289 - 14th August 2011

Today was the second day of the 3 day break, woke up at around 12 and had brunch at Chota. Spent most of the afternoon taking care of all the pending laundry. During the monsoons one needs to factor in two extra days for clothes to dry which needless to say is a huge pain! The entire exercise took about a couple of hours. The sun came out for a bit in the evening and we decided to make the most of it by playing cricket in the Kachnar courtyard. Playing with a wet tennis ball on a slippery surface is always a lot of fun.

Once the rain gods came back I went to the library to continue reading Pundits from Pakistan. This was the first time this term that I went to the library. Was there for about an hour before heading out to ISCON mall for a bit. It was one of those I-need-to-get-a-taste-of-civilisation-outside-MICA moods that took over in the evening. Spent a little time at crossword as well, earmarking future purchases :P Got back to campus by 9 and ended up chatting with Sir and Kore. We decided to watch Hot Shots 2, which fulfilled our desire to watch a nonsensical comedy. Stayed up until 3 before calling it a day. Although tomorrow is a holiday, need to get up early for the Independence day celebrations on campus.

Day 288 - 13th July 2011

Due to my internship travel, had to swap the 1 credit course on Basics of Account Planning to Luxury Branding, which meant I had a rest day today. Woke up at 12 and was just lazing round. Post lunch played cricket in front of silveroak for a good two and a half hours. Felt good to be playing after so long. PGP-1 has a long weekend on account of raksha bandhan and I day, so campus is relatively empty. Playing after such a long time took its toll on me, ended up sleeping for a couple of hours in the evening as well!

Spent the rest of the day reading Pundits from Pakistan - its a book written by a journalist who traveled with the Indian contingent in 2003-04 during their first full length tour tour of Pakistan in more than 20 years. Reliving those memories provided some succour for the wounds inflicted by the English team during the ongoing test series. Post dinner saw a couple of movies - Austin Powers and The Butterfly Effect, have a rest tomorrow as well, need to find more ways to kill time :D

Day 287 - 12th August 2011

Had decided to wake up at 830 and finish off some FIF1 work before class which was scheduled to start post lunch. The alarm did wake me up but a couple of snoozes later I realised that it was 12 o'clock! Did whatever work I could before squeezing in lunch and heading for the CC class.

Today's class was a case study on the Iraq war and how effectively PR and event management was used during the American invasion of Iraq. Some pretty damning revelations were made which most of us weren't aware of and made us look at the entire war in a totally different light. This was followed by looking at print ads that were used during war time, starting from World War 2 to America's invasion of Afghanistan.

Today's movie screening continued with the theme of war - Grave of the Fireflies. It was a tragic story of a boy and his younger sister trying to cope up with life in war ravaged Japan. Inspite of being an animation it was able to potray so many emotions, there were very few dry eyes in the auditorium by the end of the movie. Post dinner have been doing the FIF1 work that I had planned to do in the morning. Will take another half an hour or so before calling it a day!

Day 286 - 11th August 2011

Was feeling extremely lethargic today. Could be because of the hectic week that just went by coupled with the lack of sleep. Didnt attend any classes today, partly because of the aforementioned lethargy and partly because of the fact that there was pending MCSA work. All committee budgets that were sanctioned had to be submitted to the admin. That was followed by internship work that went on for a good couple of hours. With the national finals less than a month away, a lot of work is lined up!

Dinner in the mess was south indian cuisine, generally when that is the case that would be skipped for dinner at Chota, however decided to buck the trend and settle for dosa and vada sambar :P Post dinner had some more MCSA work which dealt with some of the committees which went on till about midnight. It has been pouring incessantly for the past couple of days, although I find the weather depressing the flip side is that at least the temperatures have dropped considerably, which means one can make the most of the joy of waking up late ;-)

Day 285 - 10th August 2011

Got back to campus at 2 in the morning today. Had a fruitful trip to Hyderabad and Goa. Just in case you are wondering, Goa was also an official trip :P Had gone to do a recce for the national finals which are planned to be held in September.

Luckily classes started at noon today. But that still did not make up for the lack of sleep accumulated over the past week. Somehow dragged myself through CC and a movie screening. Also had to take care of certain issues relating to my subjects and credits which I had missed out on due to the internship travel. Got that sorted out before the movie screening. Today's movie was Talk to Her, it was supposed to be a very good movie but unfortunately the lack of sleep and air conditioning in the audi conspired against me from watching it! Will try watching it again some other time.

Post the movie MCSA work took over. Had a meeting with TI regarding the junior committee selection process. That went on for about an hour. Post that Jhamb updated me on all the happenings of the past week. Wrapped up everything by 1 in the night and decided to start making up for the lack of sleep :P

Day 284 - 3rd August 2011

Had our first 2 sessions of SBM today. It mainly dealt with what is the difference between luxury and premium brands with a few examples. We also discussed how pharmaceuticals are branded and how that affects purchase behaviour. Some pretty interesting stuff. Class got done at 3 after which MCSA work took over. Had to meet the admin regarding space for MICARE, once that was sorted FIF1 work took over. I will be travelling to Hyderabad and Goa over the next 6 days. Hyderabad for the wild card round and Goa for a reccee for the national finals for my summer internship project. That took a couple of hours to finish. Had a little free time in the night so went to Havmor for dinner, although its pure veg. they serve really good food.

Had a pgp-2 batch meet in the night to discuss certain issues that needed to be sorted, after that was done there was an encore of the Parijat dance that was put up during the freshers' night. Post that did tp, didnt sleep since I had to leave for the airport at 4 in the morning. Will be off the blog until Im back on campus. Until then, adios!

Day 283 - 2nd August 2011

Had a rest day today, most of which went in the budget meeting for committees. The college assigns a lump sum for student activities. This amount needs to be distributed amongst all committees on campus in an equitable manner. The associate director, head of accounts and the MCSA sit with committees one by one. The committees pitch for funding based on the activities they have planned out for the year, negotiations happen across the table and the MCSA steps in where required. At the end of the negotiations an amount which is mutually agreed upon is frozen for the committee's activities for that year. Its a tough balancing act to carry out, but there is a tremendous amount of learning involved. The entire meeting took close to 4 hours with 15 committees presenting their budgets.

In the evening, had nothing much to do, the meeting was enough work for the day :P So much for having a rest day in the schedule! Have Strategic Brand Management (SBM) starting from tomorrow, hope it turns out to be a good course.

Day 282 - 1st August 2011

Today's MMB class was about a streamlined process through which media businesses can be formed/analysed. The prof. took a reverse approach towards it by starting with the last step in the process and then ending with the first step. We discussed how channels decide which shows to air at what time of the day - whether it is driven by competition or some other reasons. Post lunch was again group assignment time when we had to present to him about a media business in the framework that was taught earlier. Our group chose People magazine and like all other groups were grilled by the Prof. His logic is simple, there is much more to learn when people are put in such situations than reading a textbook. Today was also the last day of MMB, there were definitely some good takeaways from this course.

Went to Bopal in the evening with Geeko, her phone got damaged and had to be taken to a service center. Came back to campus by 8 and didnt even realise when I dozed off for an hour. Had some MCSA work with Apar and Jhamb which took about half an hour. Dinner was at Chota, have discovered that the butter chicken + paratha combination is a really good one when hunger pangs take over :P Back in the room now, have a rest day tomorrow, will read a bit of Pundits from Pakistan before calling it a day.

Day 281 - 31st July 2011

Today was the first day of Managing Media Businesses(MMB), a core concentration elective in the media management area. An alumnus of the college who runs his own media firm is conducting this course. The discussions initially revolved around the fact whether media is a product or a service and what is more important content or distribution. He gave us some more fundas about the media space before dividing us into groups who then had to pitch to him (a VC) about a new media business that we wanted to launch. Our group worked on an in car entertainment system for private taxis. He grilled us like a VC would and we realised how much thought and effort needs to go into making a business plan.

Class got done at 530 after which we had Palaash dance practice. The freshers culnite was supposed to begin at 10 in the night and we had one last chance to get the dance right :P Culnite was OK, I personally feel it got stretched a little. It went on for nearly 2 and a half hours and culminated in the Palaash dance. A special mention also needs to be made for the Parijat dance, they put up a fantabulous performance and the most commendable part was they maintained the element of surprise till the very end! Culnite was followed by the freshers party. Have a class tomorrow as well so cant stay up for too long.

Day 280 - 30th July 2011

• Last session on AFM - capital markets
• Lunch at Mainland China (bbuurrrrpp)
• Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - one time watch
• Palaash dance practice - we seem to be improving :P
• Birthday celebration in Kachnar - awesome chocolate cake from TGB
• FIF1 work
• Will read a bit of Pundits from Pakistan before calling it a day

Day 279 - 29th July 2011

The AFM sessions today dealt with 2 topics - budgeting and M&As. We had cases on both topics to be read before class. The case on budgets seemed a little difficult, although the company in question was making phenomenal growth its profit margin was quite low and the reasons for that had to be analysed. In M&As we were given a case on the HLL-TOMCO - the first merger to place post the liberalisation. Again a pretty interesting case with a lot of learning. Classes for the day were done by 12 after which had to take care of some MCSA work which took about an hour.

Could squeeze in a siesta today as well, a good hour and a half of it. Had some more MCSA work regarding certain electives for the fifth term which kept me busy in the evening. During the course of the day got to know about a book on cricket and sports marketing that was launched recentlly, used that as an excuse to venture out to Crossword. It started raining after I reached crossword so used that as an excuse to stop by at McDonalds next door and grab a bite while waiting for the rain to subside.

Got back to campus by 930. MICARE had its opening night tonight and they were distributing free coke float and souvenirs. After that we had to practice for the Palaash dance in the audi which was amazing fun. Also had a birthday celebration in Amaltas. Got back to the room by 2 and decided to start working towards clearing the backlog of books that I have to read. Started reading Pundits from Pakistan - a journalist's account of the Indian cricket team's tour of Pakistan in 2004. Read that for a bit before calling it a day.

Day 278 - 28th July 2011

The CC class began at 1030 today which also meant waking up earlier than normal as compared to previous days. Today's class was the concluding session on the module of ideology. The Nazi case study was continued and we were shown how they took complete control of the media - print and radio, to propagate their ideologies. In the second part of the class we were shown a video of Hitler and how carefully it was made to ensure that maximum subliminal communication. After that we were shown a video closer to home in which speeches of leaders like Bal Thackeray were analyzed during the peak of the communal riots in 1993.

Post lunch was able to do something that has been eluding me for the past week - sleep! The joy of a siesta is unparalleled :P Slept for a good hour and a half since the movie screening was at 430. Today's movie was a mexican blockbuster -The Crime of Father Amaro. It took a dig at how the church has also been propagating its ideology. The thing about these screenings is that Prof. Mathew gives a good description about the theme and what to look out for in the movie, the subtleties that would otherwise be missed out. Hope I get the hang of movie appreciation before graduating from here!

Had some FIF1 work in the evening that kept me occupied for about an hour. Dinner in the mess was Gujju food, which always invites extreme reactions. I fall in the group that quite enjoys it, more so because it is a welcome change from the usual stuff.Post dinner started with the pre reads for the AFM class tomorrow, we have 2 cases and related theory to prepare on. Didn't realise when I dozed off, woke up at around midnight which also meant that I had missed practice for the Palaash dance. Continued with the pre reads which went on till 4, have been browsing the net since then, shall call it a day in a bit and just hope that I wake up in time for the 930 class tomorrow.

Day 277 - 27th July 2011

The CC class was supposed to start at 12 today but because of the concept note submissions for the dissertation it got postponed to 230. Utilised that time to run my topic through one of the faculty members whom I have given as one of my preferences as a mentor. Apart from that there was also some MCSA work that needed to be done in the administration and programme office.

In the CC class we discussed a Nazi case study as to how ideology was driven into the psyche of people. It was also brought to our notice that marketing concepts like pre-testing, segmentation and TG all have their roots in the Nazi concentration camps where these techniques were used on the Jews. There were also some disturbing visuals of the concentration camps that were shown. The whole idea behind all of this was to show if planned properly and executed meticulously, ideology can easily propagated through the masses and how its applications/repercussions in the marketing context.

The movie screened today was Rossentrasse - a movie based on the story of a Jewish girl living in the US tracing the roots of her mother in Germany during the Nazi regime. A very gripping story about what her mother went through in those days which explains why she became a devout Jew. Since classes started late, the movie screening got done at 9 in the night. After dinner, there was this discussion held on the Janlokpal bill by MICA alumni who is a now an adjunct faculty out here who also works with Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare on spreading awareness about the Janlokpal bill. A pretty informative session which gave rise to a very healthy discussion. That got done by 1 after which had to stay back in the audi to ensure that the committee interviews were running smoothly.

Got back to the room at around 2 and had to do some FIF1 work, we have a set of races coming up in Hyderabad next week, so the preparatory work is on for the same. It took about an hour to finish that off. It's been a long and tiring day, have a relatively relaxed schedule tomorrow, could catch up on some sleep then.

Day 276 -26th July 2011

Woke up at 1030 today and had to take care of some internship work before heading for the 12 o'clock class. Today's CC class was about IMC from a sociological perspective. We discussed about the proliferation of brands and advertisements, about how advertisers are getting frustrated and consumers are getting infuriated. The average time for ads in a half an hour show is now nine minutes, up from 2-3 minutes from the 1980s. Product placements were also discussed with the Walt Disney+Monsters Inc.+ Pepsi versus Time Warner+Harry Potter+Coke case study being discussed. The whole point being that the number of ads and marketing strategies when viewed from a sociological perspective gives one a lot to think about.

The class was followed by a movie screening, today's movie was a French movie - Three colours blue. Was quite zonked out during the movie. Realized that movie appreciation isnt that easy! This movie is a part of a trilogy with the other colours being red and white. They are based on the colours of the French flag with each colour standing for a set of values which are explored in each of these movies.

Post dinner had discussions on committee budgets for Alumni, SCAM and MICANVAS. That took around a couple of hours. After that had to work on the concept note for the dissertation topic that has to be submitted tomorrow. As of now have thought about naming rights for stadiums across the world and its scope in India as a topic. Got done with that at 430. Will tweak it a bit tomorrow before submitting it.