Day 445 - 2nd April 2012

Woke up relatively early today. Had breakfast at Chota before taking care of some last minute packing. The painful goodbyes continued through the morning. Donated a lot of my stuff to the housekeeping staff and Chota.
Made a trip to the main building and administration block for one last round of goodbyes with the staff. It still hasn't hit me that the MICA journey will come to an end in another half an hour. I am pretty sure that sinking feeling will hit me when I least expect it. It is only fitting that the trip to the airport will be made in Azhar Bhai's rickshaw. Its been an amazing two years out here, this place has exceeded all the expectations that I came with.  Will have my last meal in the mess as a student of the institute before leaving.

Adios!

Day 444 - 1st April 2012

The penultimate day at MICA. Spent the first half of the day in arranging for the bike to be packed and sent to Bombay. A lot of people started leaving campus, saying multiple goodbyes wasn't an easy job. Had our last group lunch at Pizza Hut - Kalkar, Shibani, Sania, Kore, Dua, Apu and Buds were there. Got back to campus by 5 in the evening. Caught up on some sleep in the evening. Spent most of the night copying as many serials as possible from myzone. The last dinner in the mess happened to be biryani. With so many people leaving, the campus felt like one of those deserted towns we see in westerns. Spent some time at Chota in the night. Saw the convocation video online before calling it a day one last time.

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 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 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 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 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 407 - 24th February 2012

Samar started today. I had registered for tennis and cricket both of which didnt go too well :P Lost the men's singles and doubles. Lost a very close match in cricket as well. Spent a major part of the day at the tennis court or at the cricket field. Was dead tired by the end of the day. Had dinner at Chota which was a chicken fest - aneesh paratha, frankie, chicken chilly and manvi rice! Came back to the room and finished watching Johnny English. Getting sleep tonight shouldn't be too difficult!

Day 405 - 22nd February 2012

Had 2 sessions of International Marketing in the morning. The prof. discussed various marketing strategies one can consider before entering a foreign market. He has given us an assignment which requires us to devise a launch plan for an Indian product in a foreign market. After class met my dissertation guide and got the final approval. Got the dissertation printed and got her signature on the final submission form. Spent the rest of the afternoon caught up with some MCSA work, had to meet the chairman of the disseration committee and the executive registrar. Had some work in the program office as well. Came back to the room and squeezed in a 2 hour siesta. Didnt have company to play tennis in the evening so had to make do with going to the gym. Spent most of the night reading the Winning Way. Finished it by midnight. Most of the learnings in there may seem like common sense but some of the examples from the world of sport are pretty interesting and insightful.

Went to Chota for a Chai in the afternoon. Its amazing how there is always someone out there whom you can strike up a conversation with that can go on for hours! Got a back to the room by 3 in the morning. Surfed the net a bit before calling it a day.

Day 401 - 18th February 2012

Had two hours of international marketing in the morning. The prof. is a visiting faculty from the industry. He was heading Mahindra's tractor business in the US before returning to India a few years back. The session dealt with how we need to understand different cultures while dealing with international counterparts/clients. Classes got done by 130. Post lunch comtinued working on the dissertation. Had to complete the part on data analysis and interpretations of the results.

Played tennis in the evening for about an hour after which I went to the gym (yes, sixth term does give you a lot time). Had to go to Bopal in the evening to pick up some stuff for the room. Converted into a dinner trip to Subway with Sania. Got back to campus by 10, spent some time surfing the net before getting back to working on the dissertation. Went to Chota at around 3 in the morning for some chai and ended up chatting with people for almost 2 hours! Got back to Kachnar at 5 in the morning, dont see myself attending tomorrow's classes.

Day 399 - 16th February 2012

Today was an unusually long and tiring day and reminded me of first year when we used have classes for the entire day :P Woke up at 11 and had brunch at Chota (Misal Pav). Had advertising research class from 12 to 8. Just before the class started we got to know that the presentations have to be presented tomorrow! The course as such is quite interesting. The first 2-3 hours dealt with topics that we had already learnt before but the visiting faculty for this course works in a market research agency so she was giving us the agency perspective for all the theory we had learnt in MR, got to learn some pretty interesting stuff. The part on ad testing brought in the concept of efficiency (media plan) and effectiveness (content) of an advertisement. She gave us various examples along the way as to how agencies actually do pre testing for ad effectiveness. Was sitting for a long stretch of lectures after quite some time and by the end of it was completely sapped out!

Went to the gym for some time pre dinner. Post dinner sat with Kore to take his inputs on how to proceed for the data analysis part for my dissertation. What I had thought of initally may not necessarily work out, so worked out an alternate plan. Will present it to my guide tomorrow and take her point of view, hope she approves it! Generally at this time of the year almost everyone from pgp-2 will be sending out surveys to be filled or conducting interviews/ focus group discussions on campus for their dissertations. Have come across some really interesting research tools this time around being used by my batchmates. One guy is conducting a poker championship to study hoe people react under stress :D Dua is doing his dissertation on facial coding and its marketing implications. I was a guinea pig for his research with Kore trying to sell me a phone and my facial expressions being recorded. After the first sales pitch Kore was told what my expressions meant and he was asked to make a pitch once again, this time modifying it spontaneously based on my facial expressions.

Had planned to finish a certain part of the dissertation report but I just realised that it is too much to finish for today, plus saturation is settting in. Also a lot  depends on what my guide says tomorrow! On that note, will call it a day and hopefully wake up in time for class tomorrow which is at 830!

Day 397 - 14th February 2012

Got back to campus at 3 in the morning after a 10 day break. Woke up at noon and had chai at Chota. It was an extremely lazy day, I hadn't even unpacked. Had to send out my dissertation surveys to be filled. Slept off int the afternoon again for a couple of hours. Finally stated my day at 7 in the evening! Caught up with Buds, Kore and Kalkar. Culcom had arranged some games today for valentine's day. The mess was decorated and everybody had a candlelight dinner :P The food was also good and mess comm took it a step further by crowd sourcing the menu. Post dinner, there was prom night in the Parjat courtyard. Got back to the room by midnight and have been working on the dissertation. Have less than 10 days to complete it and also have classes lined up!

Day 394 - 1st Februrary 2012

Woke up with great difficulty in the morning to play tennis. Post breakfast shifted base to the library. Its become a kind of routine now - tennis, breakfast, library, post lunch siesta, back to library, dinner, post dinner in Kachar North West. Today was no different. Also met my dissertation guide during the day to discuss the research methodology. She had suggested some modifications which I made and sent back for her approval. The discussion then veered towards placements, the direction in which the institute is headed. The debate is never ending and from a student's perspective there are many changes which we feel are necessary. Some of these changes will be recommended by the MCSA and we hope to see some action taken.

Spent most of the evening working on a presentation which I have to send to CD Mitra. The presentation is based on a case study I have prepared for my dissertation on Sahara Force India Speed Nights - the race screenings conducted at pubs across the country. It deals with how a non cricketing sport is promoted in India. Prepared the presentation and mailed it to the FIF1 marketing team for their approval before sending it across to CD Mitra, who plans to present it at sports marketing courses he will be conducting in other institutes. Post dinner Kore, Buds, Sania and I saw an episode of Roadies in Kalkar's room. This is something we used to last year as well, sit and have a good laugh at people's stupidity! Dinner at the mess wasn't that great which meant a midnight snack was on the cards at Chota. So chicken parathas it was, the parathas at Chota never seem to disappoint. Got back to the room by 130, read a bit of Ambani and Sons before calling it a day.

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 391 - 29th January 2012

Another rest day today. Woke up at noon and had brunch at Chota. Continued watching the original Agneepath, in fact everybody who has seen the Hrithik movie has come back and seen the Amitabh Bacchan version. Played tennis in the evening for a couple of hours. Got back to the room and finished watching Agneepath. Was also tracking the Djokovic Nadal Australian Open Final online. For the kind of match it was, there must have been way too many visitors at the website for it to function smoothly. So I had to watch the final moments of the game at the community center. Sunday dinners have always been good at the mess and today was no different. Got back to the room and spent sometime watching videos of old tennis matches on the net (yes, the Djoko Rafa match effect). Read a bit of Ambani and Sons before calling it a day.

Day 387 - 25th January 2012

Breakfast was at Chota. Decided to spend some time in the library and read up a bit for the dissertation. Some MCSA work came up pre and post lunch which meant we had to miss the first hour of Indian Cinema. Made it in time for the second half which was a case study of Manoj Kumar's Shaheed. The movie is based on the life of Bhagat Singh, however the facts were conveniently tweaked to conform with popular belief at that point of time. It was an in depth analysis of the movie and went on for more than an hour. There was a movie screening with Satyjit Ray's Charulata - a critically acclaimed movie and Satyajit Ray's favourite creation. It is based on a novel by Rabindranath Tagore. Got done with the screening by 9. It is Kore's birthday tomorrow so there were the usual birthday celebrtions in Kachnar. Boys arent as kind as girls and inspite of the cild weather Kore was dunked with cold water. Food was packed from Honey9 for the ocassion and we all pounced on it like hungry wolves :P On that note, with a satisfied tummy, will call it a day.

Day 382 - 20th January 2012

Managed to wake up in the morning to play tennis, guess trying out the new racquet was incentive enough. Spent the hour before lunch surfing the net. Post lunch had a two hour long siesta. Spent most of the evening in Kalkar's room. He is not feeling to well, so Kore, Buds, Sania and I were spending some time with him. Didnt really feel like having dinner in the mess. As if on cue Apu called asking if I was game for dinner outside. Decided to give my pending dinner treat to Sania and her for the rural project and report. We went to Tomato's for dinner, had heard a lot about it and it lived up to expectations. It is like an American diner from the 60's with a very interesting menu card. Got back to campus by 1130. Caught uo with the Prof. Mitra, the prof. who helped me out with my internship and also takes the sports marketing course out here. Spent more than an hour at Chota discussing placements, the sports marketing scenario in India and many other things. By the time I got back to the room it was past 3 a.m. Slept off after I e-mailed him one of the cases I had written for my dissertation, it could be used for one of the presentations he makes at other b-schools.

Day 381 - 19th January 2012

Had a 'rest day' of sorts from playing tennis. Woke up at noon at had brunch at Chota. Had to go to Bopal in the afternoon to get my old tennis racquet fixed and also bought a new racquet. Got back to campus by 4. We had planned the MCSA photoshoot in the evening at the OAT. The junior and senior MCSA havent had any photos clicked together, so we thought we might as well do it properly in the OAT :P This was followed by dinner at Barbeque Nation. Spent a good 2 hours out there which speaks volumes about the food that was eaten! Got back to campus by midnight, just in time for Pallavi and Satya's birthday party in Chinar. Ishan, Baby Menon and Sania had spent a major part of the day decorating the courtyard with drapes and lighting. The end result was quite good. Was the party till around 3 in the morning. Hope to play tennis tomorrow morning and inaugurate the new raxcquet.

Day 373 - 11th January 2012

Woke up at 11 today. Since it is Jayati's birthday, there was barbeque party at Chinar last night, with some awesome kebabs being made! Had breakfast in Chota. Spent a major part of the day taking care of some MCSA work. Had meetings with the director and some faculty members. Had IC class in the evening. The session dealt with the origins of Indian Cinema. Got to know that the conept of summer internships actually originated in the film industry. Also got to know many interesting facts about how cinema halls started in Bombay and the kind of marketing schemes used in those days to entice people to watch movies. Dadasaheb Phalke and India's first motion picture Raja Harishchandra werw discussed in detail. The amount of time he spent researching and learning how to use the camera coupled with the struggle that he had to go through to complete the film was truly astounding. For the female lead role, even prostitutes refused to act, so eventually he had to cast a man in the role who had to dress up as a woman! As is the case in many movies, here  is wife had to keep her jewelery as security for him to get money to make the movie. The final movie was a blockbuster with bullock carts being used to carry the coins received through ticket collection.

In the evening had made plans to work on the rural report but then a plan was made to have dinner at Ikobo. Around 15 of us went to have sizzlers in the freezing weather :P Was good fun though. Got back to campus by midnight. Surfed the net for a bit before calling it a day. Guess, the rural report will have to start tomorrow!