Day 246 - 30th March 2011

Today was D day for India and Pakistan and all other things became secondary. We generally have the annual awards ceremony the evening before the convocation, however this time on account of the semi final, it was shifted to morning. The college must be given credit for giving out the cash prizes and recognizing meritorious students.

The match was screened in the audi which was packed for the first innings when India batted. Needless to say the atmosphere was electric but as Kaushik put it, people started analyzing all the ads(but this is MICA, cant help it!) People had their faces painted, the tri colour was flying in all its glory and the chants never died down. To top it all India won the game and proceeded to the finals at Mumbai. This is Sachin's dream come true, playing the finals of the cricket world cup at the Wankhede! Cant wait for 2nd April now.

After the euphoria of the victory died down, realised that I have to start packing! Did a majority of it within an hour or so. Had dinner at Chota. Extremely tired, sleeping at 3.

Day 245 - 29th March 2011

Palaash is quite empty now. A lot of people have been leaving over the past couple of days. Maushi and Rajat also left today. Realised today that I need to start packing! Have just kept on postponing it. Went to Bopal to get the bile back from servicing, incidentally it completed 6 years last week :-)

In the night there was impromptu plan made to go to barbeque nation for dinner. We really are living it up for our last couple of days here. Seniors will be leaving from the 1st onwards, many of them keep coming Palaash to relive the memories that are associated with this place. Wont be surprised if I do the same thing in a years time. Also realised today that IM and EB assignments are due on the 31st of this month, with the India Pakistan semi final lined up tomorrow (which will be screened in the audi) dont see anyone starting work until 30th late night :P

Day 244 - 28th March 2011

Had another meeting with the director and placecomm today. Went on for an hour or so. Had to give the bike for servicing in the afternoon, its only March and summer has already set in. Going out in the afternoon turned out to be a huge mistake, got roasted in the heat. On the way back picked up cartons for the stuff that was going to be left back on campus. Slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Had the Culnite followed by the farewell party for PGP2 in the night. The highlight of the culnite was when 2 PGP2 PGP1 couples, popularly known as PGP1.5 performed danced to a medley of songs on stage. That got the crowd going :). The party was good fun, went on till 9 in the morning. Quite a few of the seniors got emotional, dont blame them for it, they will definitely miss this place.

Day 243 - 27th March 2011

First day of the 4 days of 'vellapanti' on campus. The new MCSA took the outgoing MCSA out for lunch. Went to Kareems, it was really good fun. The conversation revolved around their experiences throughout the year and what we need to look forward to in the coming year. After that had a meeting with the director and Placecomm. That went on for another couple of hours. In the night, went out for dinner to Tryst - a lounge in a dry state :P. It was a friends birthday treat. Came back to campus by midnight. Too tired to do anything else, sleep should be easy to get tonight.

Day 242 - 26th March 2011

Last day of exams in PGP1. Since it was a case based paper, it required a lot of writing to be done. Nonetheless got done with it within an hour and a half and was finally relieved off the exam burden. Did general tp since after that. Went out for a movie - Eagle (extremely boring) in the evening. Got back to campus at around 11. Have a couple of birthday parties lined up tonight, posting this one before I leave for them. Cant believe a year has passed by!

Day 241 - 25th March 2011

Todays SCM paper was pretty decent, no major surprises. Caught up with some sleep in the afternoon. Once people got to know that tomorrow's CSMM paper is a case study it was as if the vacation mode had already set in. Have been doing general tp for most of the day and without even realising it, it is 3 in the morning! Will call it a day now, tomorrow is the last exam for the first year!

Day 240 - 24th March 2011

The day that I had been looking forward to for a long long time. The IMC paper was only for one hour, left for the stadium the moment I was done with it. The buildup for this game was quite huge, after all India was taking on the defending champions in a knockout game. And what a game it turned out to be. Got to see Ponting's century, brilliant fielding and death overs bowling from us, Sachin, Gambhir and Yuvraj's half centuries, India chasing down a good total and the crowd going delirious with joy at the end of it all. Of all the games I have seen at the stadium so far this has by far been the best. On the way back, the streets were packed with people on both sides waiting to greet the team bus and catch a glimpse of their heroes. Truly memorable scenes!

Got back to campus by around 1230 and skimmed through SCM for an hour or so. Couldnt stay awake but still couldn't get over the match that I had just witnessed. The ghosts of March 23rd 2003 have definitely been put to rest and it was also fitting that Ganguly was in the commentary box to see it :-)

Day 239 - 23rd March 2011

Today's paper was pretty decent. SM was only half an hour long with one subjective question and 20 objective questions. It felt more like an OB paper. DM was good though it wasnt as challenging as the prof has promised it to be, only straightforward theory was asked. In the afternoon had to go to the stadium to get some clearance for tomorrow's QF between India and Australia. Spent about an hour at the stadium and in the process got to see the entire Indian team including Sachin up close in the pavilion. They had arrived for practice just as we were about to leave. That makes it 3 encounters with God now, just hope that there are more lined up and those end with me being rendered speechless :P Got back to campus by around 5 in the evening and slept for an hour or so. Studied SCM which I have day after tomorrow (wont be able to study at all tomorrow). Spent sometime going through the IMC slides after that. Will call it a day in a bit. Have a looong day ahead tomorrow!

P.S The anticipation and anxiety levels for tomorrow's match are quite high. Its very difficult to imagine that end term exams are going on :P FB is flooded with videos of Sachin's blockbuster innings against the Aussies, hope to see one more tomorrow!

Day 238 - 22nd March 2011

Was woken up earlier than normal today as one of my batchmates wasn't keeping well. She had been throwing up since last night. Got her some fruits and medicines before going for the exam. The paper was pretty straightforward, standard theory questions. Slept for a while in the afternoon before making a trip to the hospital, her condition still hadn't improved. At the hospital she was given IV and blood tests were also done. Luckily everything turned out to be normal, must have been a reaction to outside food. Got back to campus by around 730. Started studying for tomorrow's paper after that. We have SDM tomorrow with half an hour for sales management and one and a half hours for distribution management. DM is pretty interesting but really no clue as to what to study for sales. Went through a few slides but I dont know how much of it really will be retained.

Day 237 - 21st March 2011

Today's RM paper was as promised - all objective type questions. But it felt a little weird that a subject which had a textbook the size of 2 Britannica Encyclopedias could have such a paper. Come to the think of it if it had been a subjective paper, it would have been far more troublesome.

Caught up on some sleep in the afternoon. Came to the library after lunch to start studying ME. How this paper will turn out to be is one big question mark. The handout given to us is only around 40 pages and the rest of the reference material is actually presentations made by students in class!

How this paper will pan out only time will tell. For now though its time to get back to the room and catch up on some more sleep!

Day 236 - 20th March 2011

Had another study leave today on account of Holi. I am not too fond of the festival and found 5 other like minded people on campus. We sneaked out of campus in the morning to avoid the impending Holi celebrations and also wanted to study for tomorrow's RM paper. However MCSA duties ensured that I would start studying only at 10 in the night. Had to take classmate to the hospital. The entire process took more than 4 hours. And hospitals can also turn out to be very depressing places. Anyways have tried to go through how many ever slides I could for tomorrow's paper. Have reached saturation point now, need some sleep!

Day 235 - 19th March 2011

Today's paper wasn't as bad as expected. It was a good mix of objectives and subjective questions. As promised by the prof. he thoroughly tested our understanding of the concepts. Have a holiday tomorrow so most of the evening was spent doing general tp at the baddy court. At around that time a plan was made to go to Kareem's for dinner. What started off as a group of 4 became a group of 17 by the time we reached the place for dinner. Good food, good company and when the bill came we got a pleasant surprise - MICAns get a 10% discount :-) Got back to campus by around midnight, did some more tp at the baddy court! Came to the library after that to work a bit on the SCM assignment. Will go back to the room in sometime.

Day 234 - 18th March 2011

Had a study leave today courtesy the impending exams. They begin tomorrow with MDA being the first paper. Its a little intriguing that a subject which is so heavy on concepts on quants has only a 1 hour paper. That made a lot of people guess about the probable paper pattern. But knowing the prof. Im sure there is a major surprise in store. Spent most of the day preparing for the paper. A ppt was given for only one topic, for the remaining we had to scour through the notes and books.

The highlight of the day though was receiving the offer letter for my summer internship. I will be interning with Force India Formula 1 team this summer! :-) Had my interview 3 weeks back in Bombay. Got an unofficial confirmation last week and today finally received the offer letter. One more reason now for wanting the exams to get over soon!!

Day 233 - 17th March 2011

Last day of classes in PGP1. Had a late start with classes starting only at 3 in the afternoon. MCSA work kept me busy before that. It was apt that the last class of the year was taken by probably one of the best profs on we have had so far. A no nonsense guy who is completely anti-pfaff. Some of his quotes worth mentioning - "You can give the right answer or wrong answer but dont answer a different question" and "Cases are not to be read as you have a leisurely cup of coffee, qualitative discussions dont help, give me answers in terms of numbers" Had a photo session in class at the end of the day.

Post dinner the MCSA met all the committees to get to know their expectations for next year. What was supposed to take 2 hours ended up taking 4 hours! Finally now in the library, hope to study a bit (which I should be doing considering the fact that exams are starting day after tomorrow) before calling it a day.

Day 232 - 16th March 2011

Decided to attend the morning session of DM with the other section. The idea was to slip in a siesta but when I plan things like this Murphy ensures that it never happens! Had some MCSA work that came up in the afternoon. After that had to work on the IMC group assignment. As is the case with every term there is a bunch of assignments that need to be submitted jut before the exams begin. Worked on the NVC and ME assignments as well. Have been in the library for a major part of the day (more for the AC than any other reason, summers are back!).

Just realised that tomorrow is our last class in PGP1, how time flies!

Day 231 - 15th March 2011

• Attend DM class
• Submit the CSMM assignment amidst chaos at the printing centre where a virus had affected the PCs
• Congratulate Maushi and Kaushik on making it to the finals of Tata Crucible
• Submit the IM assignment before the deadline(timestamp was going to be recorded)
• Study a bit of SCM
• Get back to the room by 4. Zzzzz

Day 230 - 14th March 2011

Had our first class on Distribution Management (DM) today. The course goes on for the whole of this week and we have 3 hours of classes every day on the subject. The prof. is excellent to say the least. He goes to the lowest possible level to explain every concept. He also makes us write helluva lot in class, which is actually good, it keeps a lot of people awake :P

Evening was spent working on assignments. Had a PlaceComm batch meet in the night. After that had to get back to assignment work. Have been in the library for the past couple of hours, will head back to the room now. After quite sometime have an early start tomorrow.

Day 229 - 13th March 2011

For some reason was feeling very drowsy throughout the day today. Had only two lectures of ME which were also the last two lectures of the subject. People made presentations on the economics f social media and the audio visual trade within the GATS framework. The prof. ended the course by proving that there is no such thing as media economics :P

Slept for almost 3 hours in the afternoon! Woke up and started working on the IM assignment. Had to an analysis of the internet marketing campaign of any brand of our choice. My analysis was on the IPL. Had to prepare a 2000 word report and a 10 slide ppt summarizing it. After that had to work on the CSMM group assignment, came to the library for that. Have been here for the past couple of hours. Its 430 now and I think I'll head back to the room. Luckily classes start at 1 o'clock for us tomorrow :-)

Day 228 - 12th March 2011

Most of today revolved around the India SA game. Worked on the IMC assignment side by side. Apart from that a very routine rest day, which is also the last rest day of the term. Have a hectic week ahead with assignment submissions and end term exams starting the week after that. MDA and RM are going to be the major troublemakers.

Day 227 - 11th March 2011

Had decided last night itself that I wouldnt be attending the AMAP workshop. Attended TAM and IRS and realised that such workshops are helpful only for those people who want to major in media management and have an interest in that field. Had our last lecture of EB today, the prof. parted with some sound advice.

Caught up on some more sleep in the afternoon. Now that the hostels are allocated the next big headache is room allocations for each hostel. Had the room allocation meeting for Kachnar after the SCAM elections which happened in the night. Yours truly will be on the first floor in room number 21 with Ishan Kaul as my neighbour. Since then have been working on the IMC assignment, interspersed with a trip to Chota for Parathas. Its almost 430 now but have a rest day tomorrow hope to wake up in time for the India SA game though ;-)

Day 227 - 10th March 2011

Got to get used to posting updates which are more about MCSA work than anything else out here. Had to make a trip to the doctor in the afternoon since one of my batchmates had an asthama attack, nothing to worry about though. It was a reaction to the fumigation that was being done in the hostels. Managed to slip in a siesta before the next item on the agenda had to be tackled - hostel allocation. Now the college authorities are very kind in that they allow people to form their own groups and even allow them to choose which hostel they want to live in during the second year. Needless to say there are a few hostels which are the hot favourites. The MCSA facilitated the discussion between the hostel representatives, since the negotiations failed, it had to come down to a draw of lots. At the end of the entire process I think majority of the people are happy with what they have got. One very important learning from MCSA is that it is impossible to keep everyone happy.

Saw a bit of inception in the night before getting some shuteye at around 330.

Day 226 - 9th March 2011

After a very long time had a day in which classes got over before lunch. Had EB,ME and RM. ME was about the financial aspect of media firms. Post lunch started watching inception, have been wanting to see it since quite a long time. Saw some part of it before dozing off for a while. Had some MCSA work that kept me busy through the evening.

Decided to go to the gym after a long time today. Just as I was coming out of the gym got to know that a couple of friends had met with an accident on their way back to college, had to go to the hospital for that. Luckily they are fine and nothing serious happened. Came back with them to campus by around 1030.

Have only 2 lectures tomorrow, the schedule for classes is quite light now, but have loads of assignments to submit and end terms coming up in another 8 days!

Day 225 - 8th March 2011

One of the best rest days of the term. Woke up at 2 in the afternoon! Had a little MCSA work in the afternoon. 10 of us went to see 7 Khoon Maaf in the evening followed by dinner at Honey9. The dinner table discussion mainly focused on gaseous expulsions :P Got back to campus at around 1130 and have been doing tp since then. Tomorrow onwards the hostel allocations begin, lets see how it goes!

Days 221 to 224 - 4th to 7th March 2011

Been off the blog courtesy Samar which happened over the weekend. Had the NZ Zim game on Friday which was relatively easier to cover as compared to the Aus Zim game. Match got over relatively early, was back on campus by 6 in the evening. Had the opening ceremony for Samar which was quite grand. We also now have a floodlit football field which is a sight to behold, alongwith it the tennis and basketball courts also have floodlights installed. The sports fest was good fun, some really good games in tennis, basketball and football. Eventually MICA Reds won the overall championship with some consistent performances across all sports. Guys in Palaash and Silveroak had to vacate their rooms for the contingents that were coming to campus.

Got back to HQ today morning, feels good to be back home! :P Had a full day of classes with RM and IMC today. In IMC we discussed a case on how Indian coffee was branded to boost export of the commodity. A really interesting real life case. In the evening had to work on the SCM assignment, got done with it pretty soon. Also had to start the process for hostel allocations for next year, hopefully it will be sorted within a week. Have the MICANVAS elections beginning in a little while, wanted to post this one before that since I dont know how much time it will take :P

P.S. Just got to know sometime back that tomorrows classes have been canceled, the joy of an unexpected holiday is unparalleled :D

Day 221 - 3rd March 2011

Was feeling extremely drowsy throughout the lectures today. However there were some interesting things that happened that kept me awake. In the CSMM class we had a Stanford alumnus to speak to us about marketing strategies in the digital era. He left us with some really good insights. ME was about the print industry in the country and had some major class participation.

The MCL final took place in the afternoon. It was between Phantoms and Lucky Strike. Unfortunately it turned out to be a pretty one sided affair with the strikes winning it quite easily in the end. They played some really good cricket and were helped by some poor fielding on our side. Anyways that brings this years MCL journey to an end for us. It was good fun while it lasted. Slept for a bit in the evening before we had to start working on the RM group assignment. Distributed work amongst ourselves and that got done by about midnight. After that had to go the audi for the Sankalp directors elections.

Have been clearing up my room for the past hour or so on account of Samar-the sports fest at MICA. All rooms in Palaash have to be vacated for the participants from other colleges. Have a long day tomorrow, there is a NZ Zim game in Ahmedabad and I need to be at the stadium by 830 since its a day game!

Day 220 - 2nd March 2011

Had a holiday today courtesy Mahashivratri. Needless to say. could take the liberty of waking up at 1230 :P Spent the afternoon trying to figure out the NVC assignment. We have to remove the text and logo of a particular brand and see what aspects of it communicate non verbally about it (shape,colour scheme,sounds etc.) In the evening had a practice session with some of the Phantoms. We have made it to the finals of the MCL which will be played tomorrow!

Went to the city with Maushi later in the evening. We got a very important insight about the eateries in Ahmedabad - its very difficult to find a place which serves non vegetarian food! Ended up settling for veg food, which was quite good eventually. Went to a place called Not Just Grill. Dont remember what cuisine it was but it involves the chef making the food in front of you. Tried Mongolian and Japanese cuisines. Came back to the campus at around 930, just in time to see the end of the England Ireland game. Ireland has this knack of pulling off an upset which invariably changes the course of the tournament. In the previous edition of the World Cup they defeated Pakistan and knocked them out of the World Cup. Whether or not this defeat will result in the same fate for England only time will tell. Its also very irritating to know that all good matches in Bangalore have happened after I moved out of the city :P Had the second round of showcase today. 5 plays in total ranging from a murder mystery to the Bhopal Gas tragedy and Maoism in Dantewada to the love story of Arjuna and Chitrangadha. All of them were really good plays. Got done with it at 145, will call it a day in a bit. Back to the routine from tomorrow.

Day 219 - 1st March 2011

Had 2 MDA lectures in the morning for which I managed to wake up with great difficulty. The lecture was pretty interesting though and it managed to hold my attention inspite of the fact that I was sleep deprived. Had a CSMM test in the afternoon, it was based on a case study which we were allowed to carry to class. The case was about LG's internationalization strategy. Evening was packed with MCSA work again. Also met a few of the people in the administration department whom we will be interacting with on a regular basis from now on. Sankalp staged thier first night of showcase, this will be used to select the directors for next year's play at Natrani. That went on till around 1230.Luckily tomorrow is a rest day so I can catch up on some sleep!

Day 218 - 28th February 2011

Another routine day of classes. The only interesting part of today though was the placecomm elections. Had a long night again thanks to that. Finally got done with it at 330 in the morning. MCSA work also kept me busy for most of the day.