Day 441 - 29th March 2012

MCSA work kept the first half of the day occupied. Had an MCSA 'power' lunch in the afternoon which was good fun. Had the last of the convocation rehearsals in the evening. The farewell culnite took place in the audi. There were some really good performances and very emotional videos that were played. The MCSA also did a surprise performance. We staged a fight in the auditorium which we went to sort out, as people started wondering what was happening, the three of us started dancing to All izz well :D A special mention also needs to be made about the Kachnar video made by Avinash Verma which was pure brilliance. This was followed by the farewell party. I was there for an hour before coming back to the room and sleeping (had been terribly sleep deprived for the past couple of days).Woke up at 7 and rejoined the party. There were just way too many people crying on the dance floor. Was expected though. The party got done by 830 in the morning. Called it a day after that!

Day 440 - 28th March 2012

The last week at MICA is taking everyone down memory lane. LitComm got the year books today. Reading testimonials is one big ego massage and it also reminds of things that you may have conveniently forgotten. It was good fun reading some testimonials. It is also a little embarrassing when someone writes a testimonial for you but haven't reciprocated :P 

Tomorrow is the farewell culnite followed by the farewell party, seems only like last night when we were at our seniors' farewell party.

Day 439 - 27th March 2012

Woke up at 2 in the afternoon. Summer has set in - it was horribly hot throughout the day. Skipped lunch at the mess and had a late lunch from Chota. Had convocation rehearsal in the evening which went on for an hour. Dinner was at Chokhi Dhani - courtesy our dissertation guide who wanted to take all of us out for dinner. It was good fun. Got back to campus by 11 in the night. Had the Kachnar party after that. The party will go on into the wee hours of the morning but I am calling it a day early, am too old to pull off back to back nigh outs :P

Day 438 - 26th March 2012

Today marked the beginning of the last week at MICA. Woke up at 11 and had some MCSA work to take care of. 12 of us were giving a joint birthday party in the night which meant that most of the afternoon went in preparing for that. Swati, Manu and I went to ISCON to pick up cold drinks and snacks for the party. Got back to campus by 5 in the evening. SCAM had organized an arm wrestling championship which provided ample entertainment in the mess during dinner. Post dinner the party preparations took over again. The party was good fun with the dancing going on till 730 in the morning :P Its been a while since an all nighter has been pulled off after being on the dance floor for so long ;-)

Day 437 - 25th March 2012

Woke up a little earlier than usual today since Jhamb and I had to take care of some MCSA work. Spent the first half of the day working on presentation that has to be made on the 30th of March. Went for a jog in the evening. Post dinner there was a batch meet wherein we took feedback from the batch for the presentation that was being prepared. Got done by midnight after which did some tp with Buds, Kore and Sania in Kalkar's room. Tomorrow onwards my last week at MICA begins, will take some time for that to sink in. 

Day 436 - 24th March 2012

Today's highlight was the movie screening by Prof. Mathew. He screened two movies - Bicycle Thieves and Beijing Bicycle back to back. Both were based on the same story but were made almost 60 years apart. The way the director's worked with the story was noteworthy. The former was an Italian movie and the latter was a Chinese movie. After the movie screenings, had some MCSA work to take care of which took about an hour. Read a bit in the night before calling it a day. 

Day 435 - 23rd March 2012

A very routine day. The only highlight was the discussion of the Kachnar party that happened in the courtyard in the night. The date zeroed down on is 27th. Next week seems to be quite packed in terms of social commitments ;-)

Day 434 - 22nd March 2012

Woke up at around noon today. Three days spent on the cricket field have made me feel pain in parts of my body that I never even knew existed :P Spent an hour in getting the no dues certificate cleared. Sat for the movie screening in the evening which was a french historical. Dinner was with Geeko at Subway. Got back to campus by 1030. Had some MCSA work after that which went on till midnight. The realization has also dawned that it is going to be less than a week now before the course comes to an end. Nostalgia is setting in!

Days 431 to 433 - 19th to 21st March 2012

Clubbing the 3 days together on account of the 'test' match that took place out here. It was a 3 day affair with a maximum of 60 overs being bowled in a day and each team also could bat for a maximum of 60 overs per innings. Our team lost the toss and we ended up fielding for the entire first day! Dropped catches didn't make our life easy and we finally got the opposition out for 228 in 58 overs! Yes, 58 overs on the cricket field! Luckily we didn't have to bat on the same day. Before day 2 the pitch was watered, but the sun God decided to play a part by not appearing at the beginning of the day which meant we went out to bat on a wet pitch! And what a day it turned out to be. At one stage we were 2 for 4 and finally managed to reach 66  before becoming all out in the 33rd over. That gave the opposition a lead of 162 but it also meant that we got to bowl 25 overs at them on a minefield. Made the most of it by reducing them to 49 for 8 by the end of day's play. It was a typical 4th day test match pitch where one could not predict how the ball would behave after bouncing :P

The pitch eased out on the last day and we were set a target of 214 in 60 overs. The chase was going on well and we brought the equation down to 79 required of 18 overs with 5 wickets in hand which was akin to a T20 match. However a batting collapse followed which meant we ended losing by 60 odd runs. It was a good match nonetheless. Felt good to play a test match before leaving MICA. Now need to find other ways of keeping myself busy for the next 9-10 days :P

Day 430 - 18th March 2012

Woke up at 2 in the afternoon. Skipped lunch in the mess and had lunch at Chota. Went for a walk in the evening upto Gulmohar Greens. Got back  by 7 in the evening and saw India chasing its highest ODI score against Pakistan. It was a pretty one sided match towards the end. Came back to the room and read a bit. Dozed off as I was reading. Woke up at around 2. There is a 'test' match planned tomorrow which will go on for 3 days. Should be fun.

Day 429 - 17th March 2012

A pretty routine day today. Started reading No Angel - Bernie Ecclestone's biography. Sujay's birthday party was held in Chinar which went on till the wee hours of the morning. Spent an hour or so at aamchair before calling it a day at 6 in the morning.

Day 428 - 16th March 2012

Woke up in time for breakfast at the mess. Had some MCSA work to care of in the first half of the day. Post lunch had planned to take a siesta but before going to sleep checked the score of the match between India and Bangladesh. Sachin was batting on 41 and somehow it felt that today was going to be the day when he would score his 100th 100. Decided to sacrifice the siesta and headed to the community center to watch the game. As Sachin inched towards the landmark figure more and more people started pouring into the community center. Finally when the moment came, the community center erupted! I also realised that it was probably the last time when I would be seeing a match at the community center with everyone. There are some very fond memories of cricket matches seen at the community center - India's test series victory in Sri Lanka, the cliffhanger against Australia at Mohali where Laxman and Ishant Sharma put on one of the best 9th wicket partnerships, close Mumbai Indians games in the Champions league and some fantastic WC2011 games.

Went for a jog in the evening. Played cricket in front of Silveroak as a tribute to Sachin's record :P Made plans to go out for dinner in night to further celebrate the record. Sania, Kalkar, Kore, Apu, Shibani, Dua and I went to Tomato's for Jashn-e-Sachin :D The food was excellent (as usual). Got back to campus by midnight. Can go to sleep with a feeling of contentment tonight :-)

Day 427 - 15th March 2012

Woke up by 10 in the morning and had breakfast at Chota. Most of day was taken up by MCSA work. Had to meet the associate director and executive registrar. Continued reading Corner of a Foreign Field. Also had the Kachnar hostel pic for the yearbook. Post lunch Mathew sir screened a French movie in the audi, couldn't sit for the entire movie as some MCSA work came up again. Finished reading the book in the evening. Went to see Kahaani at City Gold in the night with Sania, Kore, Kalkar and Shibani. It is quite a decent movie, keeps you enthralled for the entire two hours. Came back to campus by 1 in he night. Have to keep finding ways to keep myself occupied over the next 2 weeks!

Day 426 - 14th March 2012

• Woke up by noon
• Downloaded research papers
• Went for a jog in the evening
• Packed dinner from Subway
• Slept off early

Day 425 - 13th March 2012

Woke up in time for breakfast today. The craze to download research papers from the library resources was reignited today, continued to get material on sports marketing and alcohol marketing. We also had the batch picture at the OAT for the yearbook. It was good fun with the photo being taken again and again as more and more latecomers arrived :D Had to go to Gulmohar Greens after that to book a room for Amma Appa for the convocation. Got the bike cleaned on the way back. Had an hour long siesta before going for a jog in the evening. Took a different route today which is slightly long as compared to the Bopal route but equally scenic, if not more.

In the evening had to prepare a bit for the first session of the Sports Marketing Club @ MICA. This is an initiative started by Ganesh and me wherein we want to build a knowledge centre for sports marketing in India. There are some short term and long term plans that we have in mind and I really hope things materialise. We had our first meeting today which also had a Skype session with Kunal (my boss from FIF1) on the business of motorsport in India. After the session caught up with CD Mitra at Chota. This was the last time I was meeting him at MICA, though I hope there will be able to meet a lot in the future as well. Got back to the room by around 2, continued downloading research papers for around half an hour before calling it a day.

Day 424 - 12th March 2012

Woke up relatively early today, had breakfast at Chota before getting down to housekeeping duties. Had to wash clothes and also get collect clothes from Paras Bhai. Pre lunch spent majority of the time reading articles off the net. 12th March happens to be the anniversary of a lot of important events - the bomb blasts in Bombay in 1993, the start of the Dandi March and also the day when South Africa chased down a world record total against Australia at Johannesburg. Got to know all of this through facebook! Post lunch had a meeting with one of the members of MICA's governing council who also happens to be an alumnus from the first batch. It was a very fruitful session where we shared some of our suggestions that we felt would help the institute in the long term.

Went for a jog in the evening to Bopal. Dinner was Chota with Buds and Kore on account of the not so inviting mess food. Post dinner got down to reading corner of a foreign field. Will call it a day in a bit, have the photo shoot for the batch and hostel pics tomorrow.

Day 423 - 11th March 2012

Today's blog post is dedicated to one of the unsung heroes of Indian cricket. Being a cricket fan I was appalled that I had never heard his name until recently when a Prof. Mathew mentioned his name in the Indian Cinema class. The name Palwankar Baloo does not feature in too many Indian cricket history magazines/journals. Consistent with public perception, I was always under the impression that 'Colonel' C.K. Nayudu was the first star of Indian cricket. However long before Nayudu played, there was a Dalit sweeper from Poona Club who had captured the imagination of the nation with his mesmerising slow left arm bowling. Palwankar Baloo used to roll the pitch at Poona Club and make the necessary line markings for the crease. Some the English players asked him to bowl at them in the nets and they soon realised that he had some serious talent. As would be the case for most of his cricketing career, Baloo did not get too much of an opportunity to play in conservative Poona. He then made the decision to move with his family to Bombay - the home of Indian cricket. Even over here his selection to the Hindu Gymkhana team was met with stiff resistance, however his cricketing talent overrode his caste in this case and he went on to become one of the highest wicket takers in the Quadrangular tournament in Bombay. Baloo also raised his three brothers - Shivram, Vitthal and Ganpat to become cricketers. Of them Vitthal was the most successful, he was one of the most prolific batsmen for the Hindu Gymkhana.

Baloo's struggle did not end after he was chosen for the team. He was overlooked for the captaincy because of his caste. He was never allowed to enter the pavillion, lunch and tea were served to him in separate vessels. In spite of this he continued to play cricket and take wickets. He toured England in the early 1900's and still remains the only Indian bowler to take more than 100 wickets in a tour of England. There were many instances when he was dropped from the team by high handed 'Brahmin' selectors and was brought back due to the public outrage at him not being included. Baloo however would have felt a sense of accomplishment when his younger brother - Vitthal was asked to captain the Hindu Gymkhana team. An untouchable leading a team of royalty and upper castes was unthinkable in those days!

I have been reading Corner of A Foreign Field for the past three days and this story has stuck with me. As a cricket fan I feel it is my duty to acknowledge the Palwankar brothers' contribution to the game in India. Biased historians have not given them their due. It took Ramachandra Guha's book which was released in 2002 to bring to our notice the brothers who have to be treated at par with the Waughs, Flowers, Chappels and Mohammeds of the world!

Day 422 - 10th March 2012

Another routine day. The highlight was the last MLS of the year and the speaker was Geet Sethi. He had a very informal talk with us - no fancy presentation, it was very evident that he was speaking from the heart. He spoke to us about the importance of concentration and how it can be developed. He also spoke about how when it came to achieving greatness, the kind of sacrifices one had to make along the way. Many examples were given along the way from his sport and other sports as well about how sportspeople followed certain regimes and learnt from their mistakes. The best part of the day though was after the lecture when he came to the community center to show us some of his trick shots. Another one of those days when you can consider yourself really lucky to be a part of this institute - a world champion snooker champion is playing at the snooker table in your community center! He played some really astounding shots, but then you couldn't expect lesser from a world champion.

Spent the rest of the day reading corner of a foreign field. It has some really interesting facts, but will share them in another post.

Day 421 - 9th March 2012

Woke up earlier than usual - 1030 a.m. :P Spent pre lunch occupied with some MCSA work. Had to meet the associate director and chairman of the dissertation committee. Post lunch went to Gulmohar Greens to find out about the room tariff out there, have to book a room for Amma Appa when they come here for the convocation. Went to Reliance Mart from there to pick up some stuff for the room. Got back to campus by 4 and continued reading corner of a foreign field. I really like Guha's style of writing - free flowing and easy to understand. Had tried to read a  book on the same topic by Boria Majumdar 5 years back, but just could not get myself to read it after a certain point of time - it felt like I was reading a M.A History textbook!

Went upto Bopal for a jog in the evening. Got back and got to know that some of our grades were displayed. My grades are pretty OK - a mixture of As and Bs, have taken a beating in two media subjects with two Cs. The agenda for today's dinner was Bhaji Pav (yes in Ahmedabad it is said the other way around) at Mahakali in Bopal. All their Bhaji Pav had the option of being made in Oil, Butter or Cheese :P The food was really good and that is one more place off the bucket list.

Didn't have much to do in the night. Continued reading before calling it a day.

Day 420 - 8th March 2012

Unlike last year, stayed back on campus for Holi. The festivities began by around 11. Every year a tanker is called and a particular patch of land is made into slurry where people are dragged into as an initiation to Holi. This year was no different, the tradition of guys' shirts being ripped off also was adhered to strictly. Some poor souls committed the crime of walking out in jeans, a t-shirt and sports shoes and they were summarily punished. There was also a couple of guys who after getting their shirts ripped off wore another shirt and came back. Those shirts weren't spared either!

Slept in the afternoon for a good couple of hours. Went to the gym in the evening. Dinner was another place that was on the Ahmeabad bucket list - Souq. It serves mediterranean,  moroccan and lebanese food. Had shawarma rolls out there which was quite good. That was followed by dessert at the chocolate room, tried the rocky road chocolate pizza which was out of this world! Was left wondering why I never tried it earlier. Got back to campus by midnight. Continued reading Corner of A Foreign Field before calling it a day.

Day 419 - 7th March 2012

After yesterday's submission I expected to be a little free and had planned to catch up on all the books have to be read. However the first half of today was consumed by MCSA work. Had a meeting with the executive registrar and the associate director for some work related to the dissertation committee. The meeting for one almost two hours. Post lunch had to send out some mails for the senior committee selection process.

The finals of the MCL were played today and it was a PGP-2 v/s PGP-1 game, just like last year's final. It pretty much followed the same trend like last year's game where the PGP-1 team faced a batting collapse and put up an almost at par score. The PGP-2 team chased it but not without a few hiccups. There was even a prize distribution with all finalists winning medals and trophies for the man of the match, man of the tournament and winning captain. All of these were given by the MCSA :P

Went to the gym in the evening. Dinner in the mess was a pleasant surprise with soup, pizza and chocolate ice cream :). Post dinner had a meeting with all senior committees to figure out the dates for their selection process.  Got done with that by midnight after which there was a KT session for the new MCSA. Went for a midnight snack to Chota with Sania, Ishan, Baby Menon and Pallavi - tadka maggie in the chilly weather was heavenly! Got back to the room by 4. Tomorrow is holi, had escaped it last year but this time that wasn't an option :P

Day 418 - 6th March 2012

Woke up past noon today (again). Post lunch started working on what was (hopefully) my last assignment at MICA. Had to submit the Indian Cinema assignment by EoD today. We had to write about our learnings from the course and also send a pictorial representation of a topic that was taught in the course. My biggest learning from the course was the case study on Lagaan - about how it dealt with the caste system and at some levels was an insult to our intelligence. For pictorial representation I took up the topic of how women are potrayed in Sooraj Barjatya films. Some of the movie posters actually made me cringe! So I am guessing there is some learning at least that I am taking away from the course ;-)

Went for a jog upto the highway in the evening. Realised that jogging on the treadmill and on the road are two totally different things! There was an MLS in the evening, the COO of Idea Cellular was the speaker. It was a very nice talk on how things around us are changing. He used humour very well throughout his talk - his opening line was "Please use your phones during the talk, everytime I hear a phone ring I can also hear our coffers filling up, so if you get a call during the talk please answer it" :P

Sankalp had organized Showcase in the night, this is the platform for aspiring pgp-1 directors to put up their plays after which the directors for next year's Natrani production are chosen. There were 5 plays out of which I personally liked 2 of them. One dealt with 3 prisoners who were on the death roll and the relationships that were nurtured between them in the days leading up to their hanging. The second one used the concept of absurdity to take a dig at concepts like mass murder by capitalist powers and the justice system in place.

Got back to the room by 230, worked out some of the things that needed to be done for the senior committee selection process before calling it a day.

Day 417 - 5th March 2012

Have to find ways to kill time in March. Everyday so far has been following pretty much the same routine - wake up at noon, read articles off the net through the afternoon, go to the gym in the evening, play tennis/badminton if possible. Decided to go out for dinner -went to Kbobs. Had heard a lot about it and it lived up to expectations, with some awesome kebabs. That's one more item off the bucket list.

Had a meeting with all committees in the night for the senior committee selection process. Had a batch meet with pgp-1 after that to clarify doubts regarding work in the senior committees and also take their feedback on the way senior committees functioned during the year gone by. Got done with it by 2 in the night. Came back to the room, spent the customary hour on facebook before calling it a day.

Day 416 - 4th March 2012

Woke up earlier than usual today but still wasn't good enough for breakfast in the mess :P Spent the first half of the day taking of care long overdue washing of socks and shoes. Had a 3 hour siesta, woke up by 530 in the evening. Went to the gym after that. Tried my hand at badminton again today, now I am not sure if I will be able to play tennis :P Post dinner Buds, Kalkar, Ishan, Sania and I went to SH-5 to see a documentary on anarchy during the Spanish revolution. It was pretty interesting, George Orwell's 1984 was inspired by that part  of Spanish history. The movie got done by 2. Back in the hostel now. Tomorrow onwards need to start ticking off items from the Ahmedabad bucket list.

Day 415 - 3rd March 2012

Very lazy day today. There was an MCL match in the afternoon which kept me occupied till the evening. Had a little MCSA work in the night regarding the senior committee selections. Had to send out the committee ranking form. After that had nothing much to do. Played badminton in the night, and was surprisingly able to play a rally of more than 2 shots above eye level :P Got back to the room by 4 and called it a day.

Day 414 - 2nd March 2012

Woke up at noon today. Went to Bopal for a haircut, picked up some stuff for the room on the way back. Need to start planning how to spend a month out here with no classes! Had a meeting with all committees in the  afternoon regarding the committee selection process. We had suggested the idea of offering PPOs to candidates to whom they are keen on retaining. Also had to discuss the process in which committees would be slotted for interviews to be conducted. Spent a good hour and a half discussing the process with Buds and Sania. Went to the city in the evening to pick up a friend of mine who has come down from Lucknow. Had dinner at Honey9 after which we came back to campus. Showed him around the campus in the night before calling it a day.

Day 413 - 1st March 2012

Woke up at noon. Had to go to the city for some work in the afternoon. Used it as an excuse to have lunch at Chawla's - a punjabi food place at Vastrapur. Pretty decent food. Since its my last month out here, have made an Ahmedabad bucket list - a list of places to go to in the city before March 31st. So Chawla's is now off the list ;-) Got back to campus by 4. Had a little MCSA work to care of in the evening. Went to the gym for sometime before dinner. Post dinner started work on the international marketing assignment. There was a case study of KFC 's strategy in China that had to be analyzed. Got done with that by midnight. Placecomm elections will begin in sometime. It seems only like yesterday that we had our placecomm elections :-) Will attend the elections before calling it a day.

Day 412 - 29th February 2012

No classes today. Didn't realise how time flew throughout the day. Went to the gym in the evening (come March, the gym will be overflowing with people from pgp-2). Got down to writing testimonials for the yearbook in the night. Have to admit that I have been very lazy - have written very less for very people. I prefer  telling people in person how much I am going to miss them :P Surfed the net before calling it a day.

Day 411 - 28th February 2011

Had our International Marketing group presentation in the morning today. It went off well, the prof gave us a few pointers which we could have worked on. Afternoon to evening was completely occupied with MCSA work. Had a meeting with the director and executive registrar. Then had a meeting some of the faculty members regarding the dissertation submissions. Played tennis in the evening for a bit. That was followed by the inter hostel tug of war competition. Spent half an hour at the gym before an all committee meeting for the selection of the senior committees. There was a post dissertation submission party organized in the night and the theme was Absolut Fantasy, where people had to come dressed up as their fantasies. Yours truly went as an F1 race driver since the Force India shirt, cap and helmet were easily available. Other people also got into the thick of things with people coming as Rauf Lala (from Agneepath), Langda Tyagi, Don Corleone, A nurse, Wolverine, Men in Black, ManU man (just to name a few). Was awesome fun. Had a good time with my batchmates after a really long time. Was a nice way to kick start the relatively free month of March.