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 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 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 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 278 - 28th July 2011

The CC class began at 1030 today which also meant waking up earlier than normal as compared to previous days. Today's class was the concluding session on the module of ideology. The Nazi case study was continued and we were shown how they took complete control of the media - print and radio, to propagate their ideologies. In the second part of the class we were shown a video of Hitler and how carefully it was made to ensure that maximum subliminal communication. After that we were shown a video closer to home in which speeches of leaders like Bal Thackeray were analyzed during the peak of the communal riots in 1993.

Post lunch was able to do something that has been eluding me for the past week - sleep! The joy of a siesta is unparalleled :P Slept for a good hour and a half since the movie screening was at 430. Today's movie was a mexican blockbuster -The Crime of Father Amaro. It took a dig at how the church has also been propagating its ideology. The thing about these screenings is that Prof. Mathew gives a good description about the theme and what to look out for in the movie, the subtleties that would otherwise be missed out. Hope I get the hang of movie appreciation before graduating from here!

Had some FIF1 work in the evening that kept me occupied for about an hour. Dinner in the mess was Gujju food, which always invites extreme reactions. I fall in the group that quite enjoys it, more so because it is a welcome change from the usual stuff.Post dinner started with the pre reads for the AFM class tomorrow, we have 2 cases and related theory to prepare on. Didn't realise when I dozed off, woke up at around midnight which also meant that I had missed practice for the Palaash dance. Continued with the pre reads which went on till 4, have been browsing the net since then, shall call it a day in a bit and just hope that I wake up in time for the 930 class tomorrow.

Day 277 - 27th July 2011

The CC class was supposed to start at 12 today but because of the concept note submissions for the dissertation it got postponed to 230. Utilised that time to run my topic through one of the faculty members whom I have given as one of my preferences as a mentor. Apart from that there was also some MCSA work that needed to be done in the administration and programme office.

In the CC class we discussed a Nazi case study as to how ideology was driven into the psyche of people. It was also brought to our notice that marketing concepts like pre-testing, segmentation and TG all have their roots in the Nazi concentration camps where these techniques were used on the Jews. There were also some disturbing visuals of the concentration camps that were shown. The whole idea behind all of this was to show if planned properly and executed meticulously, ideology can easily propagated through the masses and how its applications/repercussions in the marketing context.

The movie screened today was Rossentrasse - a movie based on the story of a Jewish girl living in the US tracing the roots of her mother in Germany during the Nazi regime. A very gripping story about what her mother went through in those days which explains why she became a devout Jew. Since classes started late, the movie screening got done at 9 in the night. After dinner, there was this discussion held on the Janlokpal bill by MICA alumni who is a now an adjunct faculty out here who also works with Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare on spreading awareness about the Janlokpal bill. A pretty informative session which gave rise to a very healthy discussion. That got done by 1 after which had to stay back in the audi to ensure that the committee interviews were running smoothly.

Got back to the room at around 2 and had to do some FIF1 work, we have a set of races coming up in Hyderabad next week, so the preparatory work is on for the same. It took about an hour to finish that off. It's been a long and tiring day, have a relatively relaxed schedule tomorrow, could catch up on some sleep then.

Day 276 -26th July 2011

Woke up at 1030 today and had to take care of some internship work before heading for the 12 o'clock class. Today's CC class was about IMC from a sociological perspective. We discussed about the proliferation of brands and advertisements, about how advertisers are getting frustrated and consumers are getting infuriated. The average time for ads in a half an hour show is now nine minutes, up from 2-3 minutes from the 1980s. Product placements were also discussed with the Walt Disney+Monsters Inc.+ Pepsi versus Time Warner+Harry Potter+Coke case study being discussed. The whole point being that the number of ads and marketing strategies when viewed from a sociological perspective gives one a lot to think about.

The class was followed by a movie screening, today's movie was a French movie - Three colours blue. Was quite zonked out during the movie. Realized that movie appreciation isnt that easy! This movie is a part of a trilogy with the other colours being red and white. They are based on the colours of the French flag with each colour standing for a set of values which are explored in each of these movies.

Post dinner had discussions on committee budgets for Alumni, SCAM and MICANVAS. That took around a couple of hours. After that had to work on the concept note for the dissertation topic that has to be submitted tomorrow. As of now have thought about naming rights for stadiums across the world and its scope in India as a topic. Got done with that at 430. Will tweak it a bit tomorrow before submitting it.

Day 275 - 25th July 2011

Had our first class of CC today. We were supposed to have this course last year but due to some logistic issues it couldn't take place. Today's session was an intro to the course and about Mergers & Acquisitions from a sociological perspective. The analysis was done over a period of more than 100 years. This lead to the discussion of the term 'mass culture' and the commodification of everything around us. In particular M&As in the media sphere were also discussed, how people like Rupert Murdoch control more than 30% of the media in Asia and in New Zealand tv, print, newspaper and radio is in the hands of just 2 people!

In the lunch break had to take a print out of the dissertation workshop assignment, most of us feel that we have done a pretty shabby job of the assignment because of the paucity of time, can't help it though. Post lunch had a film screening. Today's movie was a Brazilian movie Central Station (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140888/). An interesting movie on a young boy's journey to find his father.

In the evening had to work out committee budgets with each committee separately, its a tough balancing act to do and can be a very difficult job at times. Today was also the 5th day of the committee selection process, had to be in the audi for a bit for that. Got done relatively early today (read as 330), have another day of CC and a movie screening lined up for tomorrow as well.

Day 274 - 24th July 2011

Had 2 AFM lectures in the morning which I attended after 3 hours of sleep from last night. Today's lectures were on the merits and demerits of raising capital through equity and debt alongwith project appraisals. Once again realised the importance of having a good prof! We had two cases as pre reads and these were discussed in class. His approach to the cases seem to be simple and yet one is left wondering how they couldn't come up with the same idea! After class came back to the room and caught up on some sleep with a 2 hour siesta - which I think was the first proper one for the second year :-D In the evening started working a bit on the dissertation workshop assignment which is due for submission tomorrow. Its a group assignment, so we have divided the work amongst ourselves. The prof who has given this assignment doesn't believe in allowing students to form their own groups, he forms random groups and sends it across to the batch. We are supposed to pick a research paper and analyze the literature review, identify knowledge gaps and also come up with a concept note for the paper. Read the paper before dinner and started working on the assignment post dinner in the audi - today is the 4th day of the junior committee selection process. Will head back to the room in a bit, have a 12 o'clock start to lectures tomorrow so can afford to sleep in a little. We have culture and communication (CC) by Prof. Mathew followed by a movie screening in the afternoon.