Day 402 - 19th February 2012

Woke up at noon today. Spent a major part of the day formatting the dissertation report. Realized that the indexing functionality in MS Word is not that easy to comprehend :P Played tennis in the evening with Anuja for an hour and a half. Samar is less than a week away, my tennis game isnt at the level I would have liked it to be, but it has improved compared to what it was earlier. Went to the gym after that.

The MCSA elections were scheduled in the night. It went of quite smoothly and got done within 3 hours. Got back to the room by 330. A lot of people have been asking me how it feels now that a new MCSA has been elected. I actually havent even thought about it! Its been work/life as usual :-) On that note will call it a day!

Day 393 - 31st January 2012

Another day of no classes today, in fact I dont have any classes till the 11th of February. Played tennis with Anuja in the morning. Post breakfast shifted base to the library. Had to send out e-mailers requesting people to fill up my dissertation survey. Unlike most surveys this one cant be floated in the student community at MICA since they aren't in the target audience. Also started working on the first draft of the dissertation. Worked on the research methodology section today. Managed to have an hour long siesta before coming back to the library.

Kalkar and I decided to go out for dinner (dum aloo in the mess = EONI). We went to Masty and had a very surprisingly good food to bill ratio, considering the fact that we both have similar (large) appetites. There is this place we have discovered in Bopal which serves cold Paan which has become a huge hit. the shop's name is Umiya Pan Center but it has been rechristened 'Ooima' Pan Center :P It has become pretty much routine to stop there on our way back from any dinner outing. Topped it off with ice cream at Havmor. Got back to campus by 11 and came back to the library. Have finished the part on research methodology and mailed the first draft to my dissertation guide. Posting this one from the library, will go head back to Kachnar in a bit after the daily dose of videos/articles from facebook!

Day 392 - 30th January 2012

Was supposed to play tennis in the morning with Anuja but just couldn't get myself to get out of bed. Finally woke up at noon. The new extension of the mess was inaugurated today, its an open air area. Quite nice for the winters but the summer afternoons will be like a boiler room over there. Post lunch had a meeting with the Associate Director regarding the committee selections that will be coming up soon. That was followed by Indian Cinema class. Today's class covered a range of movies from the 1930s. Two of them that stuck were Achut Kanya and Sant Tukaram. The former was a love story between a Brahmin boy and a Dalit girl and the latter was about the Maharashtrian Saint Tukaram. Both took a dig at the caste system. Achut Kanya also had the distinction of having the first female music director. We were also shown songs from both movies. Spent the evening trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the day :P Went to the library but committed the mistake of watching the trailer of Moneyball, it was so tempting that I had to come back to the room and watch it. The movie was there on my comp for quite sometime but I wanted to read the book before watching the movie. Watching the movie made me realise that if I wanted to understand the book I would have to first familiarise myself with the rules of baseball. The movie was interspersed with a midnight snack at Chota (dinner in the mess wasn't that great). On that note it was a good way to end the day!

Day 390 - 28th January 2012

Winter isn't over as yet out here. Realised that in the morning when I went to play tennis with Anuja. Was shivering throughout the walk from Kachnar to the tennis court. Post breakfast shifted base to the library and continued work on the dissertation. Got the go ahead from my guide for the survey questionnaires. Took a while to find the right site to make the survey, the free versions available online have a lot of limitations. Have floated the questionnaires, will have to now start begging people to fill them :P Managed to finish reading The Elusive Fan today, the part I really liked about the book was the case study on successful sports brands. The US has come a long way in building a sporting culture so it was no surprise that all examples from there. Wrapped up work in the library by 8 in the night.

Kore gave his birthday treat today which was dinner at Honey9 followed by Agneepath at City Gold Bopal. I find the movie quite stupid, too much violence and the story was already known. Came back to campus by 2 and decided to watch the original version of the movie. Saw about half the movie till 4 in the morning before deciding to call it a day.

Day 386 - 24th January 2012

Surprisingly woke up in time for breakfast at the mess. Played tennis post breakfast with Anuja. There was another MCL game today, this time between MP and Vineeth's team. It turned out to be a high scoring thriller with  MP's team chasing down 150 in the last over. One of the best matches I have seen in the MCL till date. Post lunch had a 2 hour long siesta. Finished watching Groundhog day in the evening. Have been wanting to formulate my dissertation questionnaire for the past couple of weeks, decided that it had to be done at any cost today. However post dinner procrastination took over. Saw some of the baddy matches couurtesy coxic smash then went to Chota with Kalkar and Buds. Came back to Kachnar and MCSA work took over.That went on for about an hour. The MCSA elections will be held in February, had to work out how to go about the entire process. Finally started working on the questionnaires at 1 a.m. Have completed them now and sent them to my guide. Also need to read up on some material for the literature review. Need to break the shackles from this lethargy that has set in and get cracking with the dissertation work!

Day 385 - 23rd January 2012

Played tennis in the morning with Anuja for about an hour. This term so far has felt like a holiday, have a strange feeling that its all going to be come back and bite me soon. Came back to Kachnar and did the weekly washing of clothes - its always a game of chance with one washing machine at the disposal of 32 people. You've got to pray that nobody has left their clothes in. Have been lucky the past two times. The second round of MCL games began today, umpired the second innings. Was a relatively one sided match. Had Indian Cinema class post lunch. The session was a case study on Bombay Talkies - how it gave rise to the film industry. Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani, the founders of Bombay Talkies were true pioneers in the film industry with the kind of steps they took. They were the ones who started the concept of summer internships. Ashok Kumar, Kamal Amrohi and Dev Anand were some of the products of Bombay Talkies. We were also shown a documentary on Wagah which took a dig at nationalism.

Today was also the deadline for the CIM group assignment submission. This was one group assignment in which people just could not free ride. Was sitting with my group in the library for most of the evening working on the assignment. Got done with it by midnight, just in time for Apu's birthday celebrations in Chinar. She had bought pizzas from Domino's (I had prior intimation and had skipped dinner in the mess for it :P). Was in Chinar till about 245, came back to the room continued the daily tradition

Day 383 - 21st January 2012

Played tennis in the morning with Anuja for about an hour. Didn't have any classes today on account of TEDx happening on campus. They had some decent speakers which included the President of the Mumbai Dabbawalla association. His passion and enthusiasm when it came to delivering his talk was truly admirable. Another speaker whom I found interesting was this person who was out to professionalize the cycle rickshaw industry which is highly disorganized. Didn't attend any of the post lunch sessions. Went to Bopal to collect my tennis racquet which I had given for gutting. Came back and slept for a couple of hours. In the evening caught up with Prof. Mitra and Ganesh (a junior) where we were discussing the possibility of starting a sports marketing club in MICA. Post dinner started watching Groundhog Day. There are plans being made to go the little Rann of Kutch tomorrow, should be fun if it materialises.

Day 380 - 18th January 2012

Played tennis in the morning with Anuja for a good hour and a half. Couldn't squeeze in a siesta today as MCSA work kept me busy throughout the afternoon. We had to work out the timelines for the submission of the dissertation for which we had meetings with the executive registrar and the dissertation committee. Couldn't sit through the Indian Cinema class as some MCSA work came up. Ended up sleeping for about an hour before dinner. Post dinner didnt have much to do, continued the daily tradition of reading articles/watching videos shared on facebook.

Day 371 - 9th January 2011

Played tennis in the morning for an hour with Anuja. Both of us have been practicing with the aim of being in decent enough form during our sports fest, hope that happens :P Post breakfast had to go to Bopal to give the bike for servicing (which has been long overdue) Picked some snacks on the way back. Before lunch worked a bit on the FMCG branding assignment which is due tomorrow. It is a case study on the toothpaste industry in India and there are a questions based on HUL's brands in the markets that need to be answered. Havent been in the best of form when it comes to batting, haven't lasted at the crease for more than over in the past two outings! Had to leave the match early since today was the first day of classes for Indian Cinema. The session was quite lively with a lot of DCP from unexpected quarters! It dealt with the evolution/decay of Indian Cinema, whichever way one would want to look at it. How capitalist ideologies have taken over the film industry and also the political inclinations/ideologies of all superstars were discussed. To end the class we were shown songs from the 1950s to 1990s and how things have changed in Bollywood. My favourite though was Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai from Anari. The idea behind seeing this songs was not for entertainment but to analyse them from the point of view of modernity. Didnt have a movie screening today though. Have been feeling extremely sleepy post dinner, will call it a day soon.