Day 217 - 27th February 2011

One of the speakers from TEDx gave a talk to our class today as a part of the IMC course. He has a new product to be launched in the market soon and our group project is to come up with an IMC plan for the same. Its a really interesting product, you can find out more about his company here.

Had an IMC lecture after that which was on experiential marketing. Once again the prof. gave some really good examples that he had worked on to give us an idea how things really work in the industry. There was also an interesting discussion branded spaces (Niketown, Disneyland etc.)
Spent the rest of the afternoon watching the India England World Cup game. Was an absolute treat watching Sachin score a century. Before the world cup began he promised that he would be more aggressive, today he showed signs of what he meant. His innings was brilliantly paced, it took him sometime to get into his groove but once he was set we got to see some vintage Tendulkar strokes. My favourite was the cover drive of Collingwood for six, the shot had no follow through and still it traveled the distance. That was followed by 3 attacking slog sweeps between the mid on and midwicket area. After the foundation that he laid 350 looked like a par score, but some good bowling from the English bowlers ensured that we were wrapped up for less than that with a ball to spare and how crucial did that turn out to be! I caught up with the last 10 overs of the English chase. At that point of time it seemed that it was pretty much in the bag for them but then strange things happen in cricket, especially when the batting team decides to take the batting powerplay! Good bowling from Zaheer and the batsmen caving in under pressure brought the match alive and it went down to the last over. The end result was a tie which I felt was a fair result. Both teams deserved to win. Kudos to Andrew Strauss for the innings that he played, if ever there was a captain's knock we saw one today.

After the match started working on the EB group presentation for tomorrow (yes, we have our priorities in life sorted ;-) ) That went on for a couple of hours and was interspersed with the 5 a side football tournament in the Palaash courtyard. Each wing of both floors formed teams and played in a knockout format, was good fun to watch :-P Back to the routine of classes from tomorrow, need to get some sleep now!

Day 216 - 26th February 2011

Made up for all the lost sleep over the past 3-4 days. Woke up at 1230! Went to Bopal to get the bike cleaned, something that was long overdue. We also had TEDx happening on campus today, couldn't attend most of the talks though I did see Euphoria perform live in the audi, which was really good fun. After that Palash Sen came to Palaash for a Palash@Palaash performance, where we sang the Palaash song for him :D One of those days when you realise how lucky you are to be at a place like this. Post dinner some ARC work and Coco duties for the IMC course kept me busy, a rest day well spent.

Days 214 to 215 - 24th to 25th February 2011

Dont know how I managed to stay up for the classes on 24th, had hardly slept the previous night. But then in the IMC class we discussed a real life case where an agency where the prof. had worked at before had to come up with an IMC campaign for a cancer drug. A very unconventional case, after discussing the possible solutions amongst ourselves in class the prof. shared with us as to what was exactly done by the agency and it turned out to be a huge success. The biggest learning from the case was that in any marketing problem if there is a marketing problem that seems to be have no solution then the next possible step should be 'observational research' wherein you should spend time observing your TG and you are bound to find some really good insights in there. Had the CSMM group presentation in the evening after which I had to leave for Bombay for an internship interview.

Got back to campus on 25th night. Will know the result of the interview in the next 3-4 days. Right now I am extremely tired and need to catch up on some sleep! Tomorrow is a rest day for most of us courtesy TEDx.

Day 213 - 23rd February 2011

Have been feeling extremely tired for the past couple of days. Woke up with great difficulty in the morning to make it to the 915 class. IMC was pretty interesting, today's lecture was on Personal Marketing. Its surprising that 3 terms down we still hadn't been taught about the history of marketing and that was dealt with today. There was a chronological listing of all the inventions/discoveries from the late 1870's to the mid 1900's which shaped marketing. The second set of lectures was IM in which we discussed social media marketing and how ROI could be calculated for that medium.

Managed to get a 1 hour siesta after which had to start working on assignments - media economics, CSMM and then SDM. Got done with most of it and its almost 4 in the morning now, cant do anymore of it! Shall call it a day now and hope that I am able to wake up on time for tomorrows class :P

Days 210 to 212 - 20th to 22nd February 2011

Although I've been on campus, the past 3 days have pretty much been a blur and I cant help but club all of them into one post.

On the 20th spent half of the day at the stadium. Had to go to collect my accreditation and since I had made the trip to the stadium I decided to check out the stands and facilities available for the work to be done the next day. The pavilion at the ground has some really good pictures dating back to the 1940's. Met an IMG official who took me to the sponsors office from where I could send across the videos that I'd be taking. Was also lucky enough to see the Australian contingent, who had come that time to practice. I must say that I was never really too fond of Ricky Ponting but on seeing him in person, the realization dawned that he is one of the greatest batsmen of our time and I felt sorry for the guy for the way he in which he might exit Test cricket. Came back to campus and slept off for a bit, never realised that riding to the stadium could be so tiring. Had nothing much to do post dinner so saw The King's Speech - a nice movie, about how King George VI overcame his speech impediment to give speeches during World War 2 and united the country.

On the 21st had to go to the stadium at 10 in the morning. It helped going early since I could get in quickly and ensure that things were in place for the rest of the day. Got to learn a lot about events are run in India. At the end of the day no matter how much planning is done in advance one is at the mercy of the local authorities on match day. The cops at the ground love going on their power trips and there is really nothing one can do about it. It's sad all this happens for a world class event. Anyways got to meet some interesting people in the stands, there was a decent turnout considering it was an Australia Zimbabwe game. Met a few kids who had bunked school to watch the game (brought back old memories!), there were also people from Australia,Zimbabwe and South Africa who had come to watch the game. Good experience overall. Got done by around 10 in the night after which I had to get back to campus for the MCSA elections which were scheduled to happen at midnight. Now the process for the election goes like this - there are 3 posts President, General Secretary and Treasurer. A person can stand for multiple posts. First all the candidates for President will give their speech after which the batch votes for their choice. Until there is a clear majority for one person, there are multiple rounds of voting with the person having the least number of votes at the each of every round of voting being eliminated. I had applied for the post of President which was the first position for which speeches and elections took place. There were 6 candidates and once the first round of voting happened it was clear that the choice was between 3 of us. In the second round there was just a difference of 2 votes between Shail and me and unfortunately Shail had to be eliminated. The last round was between Apar and me. The thing about counting of votes is that once a person crossed the halfway mark the counting stops. When I crossed the halfway mark there were still 20-25 odd votes left to be counted. So now yours truly is the President of the MCSA! To know more about the MCSA, you can find out here. The elections for the other two posts took really long with a lot of drama taking place along the way. The elections finally got done at 530 in the morning! The other 2 members in the MCSA now are Apar - Gen Sec and Karan Jhamb - Treasurer.

Since I slept late and considering how tiring the previous day was, woke up only at 12 the next day, was able to make it for the 1 o'clock SCM class. The other 2 lectures were SDM and NVC. NVC was quite interesting, it dealt with how branding is done through sights and sounds. Came back and slept for a while in the evening. Met up with the present MCSA in the night and got some of our queries cleared. Got back to the room at around 130 in the night and tried to catch up on some more sleep!

Day 209 - 19th February 2011

Not a great day for the Phantoms in the MCL. Had a super 4 round game against Lucky Strike in which our batting collapsed , we were all out by for 42 while batting first. Now our fate depends on the result of the Reds v/s Navy Square Cut game. Had TAM workshop in the morning, which was pretty interesting.

Today was also the first match of the Cricket World Cup and most of us gathered at the community centre to see the India Bangladesh game. It's good fun watching the game with friends. You also know you are in a marketing and advertising school when there is a collective cringe on seeing an atrocious commercial on TV :D India's batting was a treat to watch with Sehwag and Kohli both scoring centuries. Didn't see the second innings, had to go to the city for some work. Spent the rest of the night doing general tp on the net. Have a rest day tomorrow, maybe thats why Im not getting sleep at 330 in the morning!

Day 208 - 18th February 2011

Slept at 530 in the morning and because of that couldn't wake up in time for the first lecture. Made in time for the second one which was SCM. It was a case discussion on how P&G integrated its supply chain with Gillette after the former bought out the latter. The exercise was carried out a global level and most of it was completed in around a year and a half. Caught up on some more sleep post lunch.

Its that time of the year where all the committees on campus will be dissolved and new ones will be chosen/elected. Today I sent in my EOI for MCSA. One person can stand for multiple posts and I will be standing for President and Treasurer. The elections will be held on the 21st.

In the evening went to watch Kaccha Limboo - a movie to which four of my family members have contributed. My brother (Srikanth) and cousin (Ronith) have acted and two other cousins (Rithika and Rashmi) have produced and choreographed respectively. So it was a out and out 'family' production :-P Its a decent watch, the director is the same person who directed Bheja Fry.

Got back to campus at around 11 after which had to work on the IPL article. One important learning so far -as the data collection continues we learn more and more about how in depth the analysis can be but should avoid falling into that trap. Makes life much less complicated :P

Day 207 - 17th February 2011

Once again had work deja vouz in the SCM class today when the topic being discussed was transportation management. Brought back fond memories :D

The highlight of the day though was dinner at honey9. I cant help but reiterate how high the food/bill ratio is over there, especially when u take light eaters along ;-) Came back to campus at around 11 and started working on the IPL article for WARC. Lots of data mining needs to be done! Had another birthday celebration in Palaash, was very sombre compared to last night's drama. :P

Day 206 - 16th February 2011

Today's highlight was the uparwalon v/s neechewalon exchange in Palaash. It had been a while since we exercised our lungs. :P What started as a birthday celebration turned into one of the most epic battles between the ground and first floor residents. Though it ended on kind of a sad note. Luckily no serious damage was caused.

Apart from that a pretty routine day in terms of lectures. Dinner in the mess was brilliant to say the least. By far the best chinese food they have ever made and to top it up, vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Post dinner have been sitting in the library collecting data for the IPL article for WARC. Was good fun, getting to explore excel a bit as well. Will continue the rest of the work tomorrow.

Day 205 - 15th February 2011

In today's SCM we studied forecasting, a term which I had a lot of times at work. Good to know now what it means :P After lunch decided to take a 10 min power nap before the RM lecture but it became a powerful 1 hour nap! Made it to the second lecture of RM only to see that the prof left the class half an hour early.

Worked on the BM assignment in the evening. Completed it by around 9 in the night. The book on Beckham helped quite a lot. Also did the pre read for tomorrow's CSMM tutorial which is on BMW Films, a really interesting case.After that ended up doing some tp in Kalkar's room. We all were watching the MTV Roadies audition and getting sadistic pleasure out of it. Before I knew it, it was 23o, so for a change deciding to sleep early!

Day 204 - 14th February 2010

Had our first set of sessions on Supply Chain Management (SCM) today. It's being taken by a Prof. from Spain. Was quite interesting, laid out the basics of the course and then gave a case study to discuss. Lectures got done 4 today after which I read a bit of the book on how the Brand David Beckham was built.

In the evening went to Bopal and the city with Maushi for some work. Had to go to the mobile shop to exchange my phone cover and though it was open today (unlike yesterday), they didn't have any new covers in stock! Looks like getting a cover for this phone is jinxed! Came back to campus by around 8, just in time for the Valentine's day festivities organised by Culcomm. They had arranged for some couple games in Palaash, not necessarily official couples, it could have been even friends and room mates. Even the people at the mess got into the mood with candlelight dinners and a special menu to go with it. Talk about a complete 360 degree Valentine's day campaign, no place better than a marketing school to do it ;-)

Post dinner came to the library to work on the BM assignment. The book on Beckham has been quite useful, it also helped me increase my knowledge about football (which is miniscule to say the least) Have completed some part of the assignment, posting this one from the library, will head back to the room now for some shut eye.

Day 203 - 13th February 2010

Rest days after a grueling week are always good. Woke up in time for lunch. After that headed to the library to work on the CSW final paper. That went on till about 530, it was interspersed with some youtube videos. In the evening had to go to the city, had bought a phone cover yesterday which I realised was faulty today. Rode half way across the city to get it exchanged only to see that the store was shut! Will go sometime during the week now. Started reading a book on Brand David Beckham which is also my topic for the upcoming BM assignment. It's a really nice read, almost halfway through with the book now.

Its strange how I've celebrated stuff which I never would have before coming to MICA. At midnight all the guys from Palaash went to the Parijat courtyard with a bouquet of roses and candles arranged in a heart shape, to celebrate Valentine's day :D The theme was Palaash loves Parijat :P Enthu people started singing all corny love songs with the guys in the courtyard and the girls on the first floor. Good fun it was. Have been doing random tp since then. Will listen to some music and then crash in a bit.

Day 202 - 12th February 2011

Quite a 'surprising' day! Had two surprise quizzes - one in MDA and the other in Media Economics. MDA was the first lecture of the day and started off with the quiz - 10 questions, 10 minutes, multiple choice +1 for the right answer and -0.5 for wrong answers. This was followed by a double lecture on Conjoint analysis and how it can be used to predict market share before a product is launched. Had a 1 hour break before the lecture on ME, I overslept only to be woken up by Geeko who called to tell that we had a surprise test in that subject as well. Had to rush to class for that. This the same prof. who took eco for us in the first term and the way he makes us study is legendary. He gave us 15 minutes to go through the material and then started the test. Half an hour to answer 4 subjective questions. Now that wasn't the only surprising part, after the test was over he asked us to grade ourselves and hand it over to the course co-ordinator, no questions would be asked :D I gave myself a B+, which was a honest grade I felt.

Went cycling to Bopal for a change in the evening. Since tomorrow is a rest day Rajat, Maushi, Cheryl and I went to Upper Crust for dinner. The sizzlers over there have some whacky names like Bruce Lee's choice and Chuck Norris recommends :P Stuffed ourselves to glory. As if that wasn't enough, stopped at Cad-b to pack dessert on the way back. Got back to campus at around 11. Had to discuss the IPL article for WARC with one of the FPM students. Have some research work lined up for the next week or so. Right now though I will go to sleep without keeping the alarm, a rarity as well as a luxury!

Day 201 - 11th February 2011

Long days have become cliched now. Managed to sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoon and maybe thats why Im able to stay up till 530 in the morning. Working with Kore, Maushi and Sir on the IRS assignment. Indian Readership Survey is this humongous database that consists of readership data and durable consumption patterns of people from across the country. Our group's projects is to develop a sales plan for Godrej Washing machines based on the washing machine ownership patterns in different parts of the country. Kore is known for working his magic with the numbers, we just use that draw insights and make the plan :-P One good thing is classes start at 11 tomorrow for us, so can clock in at least 4 hours of sleep ,that's half the normal amount of sleep I used to get before I came here and even that seems to be a luxury now!

Day 200 - 10th February 2011

Double century at MICA! Another super long extra tiring day. Posting this one from the library at 245 in the night. Just got done with the pre reads for tomorrow and worked a bit on the CSW assignment. Apart from that a normal day of 9 to 5 lectures. The amount of sleep I have clocked in for the past 3-4 days has been very less by my standards, I can feel the lack of sleep accumulating, just hope it doesn't boil over sometime soon :P Will go back to the room now and try getting some sleep, just hope I wake up on time for classes tomorrow!

Day 199 - 9th February 2011

Another looong day. This one is going to be like a presentation:P

• The ARC was able implement some changes for the better, couldn't have been possible without the co-operation and promptness of the Director and Dean
• Cheryl and I qualified for the finals of a B-plan competition which is going to be held in Chennai
• Barbeque chicken pizza and chocolate ice cream in the mess

Day 198 - 8th February 2011

These 9 to 5 days are really energy sapping. In the 4 lectures before lunch we had MDA, IMC, SDM and CSMM. The first one was all about number crunching, the second about how to make an IMC strategy and then implement it, the third one on different types of salesforce categorizations and the last one on Corporate Social Responsibility. Post lunch had RM which was about how a research is formulated and then the data is organized. Couldn't fight the impending stupor in the evening so ended up sleeping for about an hour. Went to the gym after that, didnt have the time to go to Bopal in the evening since the ARC and MCSA had a meeting with the director in the evening. The meeting was quite productive and hopefully some positive changes should be implemented soon.

Post dinner have been in the library going through the pre reads for tomorrow and also started working on the Culture studies assignment. Will wrap up now and try catching up on some sleep.

Day 197 - 7th February 2011

A long and hectic day today! Had a full day of classes from 9 to 5. Had our first lecture on Integrated Marketing Communications IMC which is being taken by an excellent professor and I am the course co-ordinator (CoCo) for the subject. The lecture was really interesting though some of the concepts may have been a little repetitive, the examples that were given especially in the Indian context were really good. Apart from that had MDA, EB and SDM before lunch. Post lunch had RM in the audi, had to devise a research proposal for a company that wanted to develop a game development center in the country. Some interesting aspects came out of it. Finally got done by around 540!

Inaugurated the new shoes and music player by going to Bopal for a run/jog. After coming back had to sort out all the assignments that needed to be done. Had dinner with the IMC prof. to discuss the course outline and structure of the assignments. Post dinner completed the CSMM pre read for tomorrows class which was followed by an ARC meeting. Got done with that and headed straight to the Micavaani studio to record for tomorrow's show. Finally got done with everything at around 2 and I am dead tired now. Have another full day of classes lined up tomorrow. Need to catch up on some sleep, over and out!

Day 196 -6th February 2011

Had a rest day today. Woke up at 123o, which was also because of the fact that I slept at 5 in the morning courtesy the party :P Spent the afternoon watching Marlboro Reds take on Lucky Strike, which the strikes comfortably won. Completed the MDA group assignment in the evening which had to be submitted by 8 in the night. Went to ISCON with Cheryl in the night, had to buy general stuff for the room, though the noteworthy purchases were new shoes and a mp3 player. This was followed by dinner at Subway, was famished by then, managed to finish off a sub and a salad :D Got back to campus by around 11. Have been doing general tp and started reading a book - Ambani and Sons which I bought a couple of months back. All in all a nice rest day, just what one needs before a 6 day 9 to 5 week of classes.

Day 196 - 5th February 2011

One of those days when you just love being a part of this place! Phantoms had our first game of the Super Fours round of the MCL in the morning which was against Navy Square Cut. We got off to a horrendous start and were 4/4 at one stage. However some sensible batting and a burst in the middle took to us to what we thought was a competitive total of 70. There is a new type of ball, a red one, which is not as heavy as the green one that is being used for this round, because of this its not as quick through the air or off the pitch as the green one. We realised this when Square Cut came out to bat. Some tight batting and brilliant bowling from our side ensured that they would be wrapped up for 37 in around 12 overs. What a game!

This was followed by the MICA day celebrations. Today was also the 20th anniversary of MICA. There was a cake cutting (which I missed because of the match) and a special lunch organized. After the lunch we had a cultural programme which saw active participation from the admin staff and faculty. Nice to see them let their hair down and have a good time. Students also put up a few performances. A few of us made an impromptu performance for SIR on the song SIR We love you :D Recorded the video and it turned out to be quite hilarious! Its become a huge viral at least amongst the MICAns on facebook. All in all a fun day.

But this is MICA and things aren't that simple. In the next hour or so we are scheduled to have a party, the legendary MICAn one. So its going to be a loooong night! Thats why I thought I'd post this now itself. ;-)

Day 195 - 4th February 2011

Woke up at 815 with great difficulty today. For a change didn't wake up 15 mins before the lecture :P Had 2 BM classes in the morning. Some pretty interesting concepts were discussed with some really good examples. The one I liked the most was the brand portfolio of Apple. NVC was about how music is used as a mode of communication. We heard two different versions of Imagine, one by John Lennon and another by perfect circle. Both had the exact same lyrics but diametrically opposite contexts just because of the kind of music that was used. There were many other applications of music discussed, sports advertising uses music extensively. We were shown a Chicago Bulls introduction video and how it is used to build up expectation among the crowd. A very interesting class, its a pity that we had only one session on music.

In the afternoon had CSMM tutorials which was based on a case. The entire discussion was pretty fruitful and an indication of a good case discussion is that it left you with more questions than answers ;-) Went to Bopal for a jog/walk in the evening, I cannot stress on how good the road has become! Post dinner (which was Parathas at Chota) Geeko and I worked on the MDA assignment which was based on SPSS. I'm not a huge fan of number crunching but this exercise was quite interesting. Have been in the library for the past 3 hours working on it. More or less done with it now, will try and sleep early tonight for a change ;-) Have a long night ahead tomorrow with what might probably be the last party in first year!

Day 194 - 3rd February 2011

Had a very weird time table today. After the morning 915 lecture had a class directly at 1 in the afternoon. In the break that we got tried to study a bit of NVC since we had a mid term at 3 in the afternoon. Went through a couple of slide decks. The test was OK, though I really dont understand why we have exams in subjects like these, research projects or assignments seem to be better options. Came back and slept because of which I missed the dissertation workshop, now I hadn't asked anyone but some noble souls had put a proxy for me and as my luck would have it, they checked for proxies at the end of the lecture. The only positive thing is that there are a lot of people on that list :D

In the evening had a presentation from TOI regarding a competition where we have to pitch to UNESCO for Ahmedabad to be granted heritage city status. Got to know some interesting things about the city in the process. After that had went to Bopal for a long overdue haircut. Got back to campus by around 9. Had to do read the case study for tomorrow's CSMM tutorial and take a print out of the article that needed an critique to be written for the media economics assignment. After that had to figure out how to work with SPSS for the MDA assignment. Have got some idea about the software, now need to solve the assignment problem, which I think I'll do tomorrow. Cant stay up any longer. Over and out!

Day 193 - 2nd February 2011

Slept for 10 hours last night!! :D Woke up at 9 in the morning, only to realise that the first class was at 1030, made the most of waking up early by having breakfast at the mess. Had only one lecture today, EB continued discussions on whether advertising is ethical or not. Post lunch had a CSMM tutorial, have another 9 tutorials lined up all of which will be case based. Since the tutorial got done by 6 couldn't go to Bopal so played a little basketball. 15 minutes of basketball can be pretty tiring!

Dinner in the mess was biryani - which ensured that not too many people would have had dinner at Chota :P After dinner had to work on this competition with Cheryl which required us to come with a b plan for an eco tourism project. The deadline was at midnight and we submitted the plan at around 1 in the night, hope they accept it. In the middle scripted content for Micavaani on India Pakistan world cup matches, which was really good fun! A 1000 word assignment takes days but a 700 word article took me 15 mins :D Have been doing random tp since then. Will try and catch some shut eye now, don't want to continue my trend of waking up late for the 915 class.

Day 192 - 1st February 2011

Had a full day of lectures today. IM was pretty interesting, today's discussion was about google analytics and how companies use search engine optimisation. Ended up missing the SDM lecture cos I never realised how time flew at Chota. Was having this discussion about how things are changing in college and whether its for better or worse. After that had our first lecture on contemporary strategic marketing management (CSMM) in the audi which was taken by the director. Discussed how the strategies of some global companies that worked and some that didn't/

In the afternoon we finally had the last game of the league stages of the MCL. Indian Kings took on Smokin Joes. If Indian Kings won then they would do Navy Sqaure Cut a huge favour and send them through to the next round with 2 points however if Smokin Joes won then they would go through to the next round. Unfortunately for the Joes, Aashish Dua chose this match to justify his tag as the most expensive player of the MCL. He scores an unbeaten 72 of 50 deliveries and took the Kings to a score of 119. Chasing at 6 an over from the beginning of the innings is never an easy task on this ground. The Joes were never really in the chase and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Eventually the Kings pulled off what could be termed as an upset victory.

After the match went to Bopal for a jog/run. Looks like 2 days of going to Bopal has taken its toll on me, after that had dinner and then never realised when I went off to sleep :P

Day 191 - 31st January 2011

Took the liberty of waking up at 1030 today, the joy of waking up leisurely :-) Had our first lecture on Internet Marketing, a pretty interesting subject with even more interesting evaluation criteria. True to the subject there is a website that has been created where articles will be uploaded and we can have discussions in forums. This will count as class participation. Apart from that we will have to present two research papers, one individual and one group which will require us to analyse a brand and an industry respectively. This subject is also being taught for the first time out here and is very relevant, hope it continues to be interesting. Had NVC post lunch which was about what nature communicates non verbally to us. It invited a lot of DCP which meant it was a belter of a pitch for the DCP cup and all the batsmen had a field day ;-)

In the evening went for a walk/jog up to Bopal and back after a break of 4 days. By the time I was back I feel the after effects of losing rhythm. Updated the DCP cup on facebook before going for dinner. Post dinner had to give an interview for a senior's dissertation project on the IPL. That went on for nearly an hour, but it was good fun though, some good questions. After that have been doing general tp browsing the net and scripting the next piece for Micavaani. Have been trying to make a conscious effort to sleep early these days but it just doesn't seem to be happening :-P