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.