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.

Day 191 - 31st January 2011

Took the liberty of waking up at 1030 today, the joy of waking up leisurely :-) Had our first lecture on Internet Marketing, a pretty interesting subject with even more interesting evaluation criteria. True to the subject there is a website that has been created where articles will be uploaded and we can have discussions in forums. This will count as class participation. Apart from that we will have to present two research papers, one individual and one group which will require us to analyse a brand and an industry respectively. This subject is also being taught for the first time out here and is very relevant, hope it continues to be interesting. Had NVC post lunch which was about what nature communicates non verbally to us. It invited a lot of DCP which meant it was a belter of a pitch for the DCP cup and all the batsmen had a field day ;-)

In the evening went for a walk/jog up to Bopal and back after a break of 4 days. By the time I was back I feel the after effects of losing rhythm. Updated the DCP cup on facebook before going for dinner. Post dinner had to give an interview for a senior's dissertation project on the IPL. That went on for nearly an hour, but it was good fun though, some good questions. After that have been doing general tp browsing the net and scripting the next piece for Micavaani. Have been trying to make a conscious effort to sleep early these days but it just doesn't seem to be happening :-P

Day 98 - 12th October 2010

The CB lectures get even more interesting by the day! A statement made by the prof. today was a brilliant example of consumer insight - "When a child idolizes Sachin Tendulkar, he doesn't play cricket for 14 hours, he drinks boost!" That was one of the many examples he gave in class and each one of them made so much sense! The other lectures were on SM and DC, both were ok. After lunch had to go meet the communication managers for MICA alongwith TI. Had planned to go to Bopal for some work after that but came back to the room and slept for a good 2 hours.

Went to Bopal in the evening to buy some junk food. Had to come back and design another sports marketing event for MICANVAS. Came up with an idea of branding of stadiums and came up with an event around that, have submitted it to the events team,lets see what happens. After that took part in an online business quiz conducted by IIM Rohtak, was a very well made quiz. This was followed by the MCL meeting where we had to elect four captains from PGP1, the election process was good fun, we even asked the candidates to give speeches :-P Now that the 4 captains have been elected they have to come up with team names and there will be an auction for players over the next couple of days. After that was done got down to the pre read for the Imagining India class. Had to read a piece written by Dr.Ambedkar on whether there is a case for the formation of Pakistan, pretty interesting stuff, should be an interesting discussion in class tomorrow.

Day 97 - 11th October 2010

Woke up today with aches in parts of the body which I never even knew existed! Was a struggle dragging myself to class. First day of the term where we had a full day of lectures. CMA was pretty interesting, the case study approach is an amazing way to teach a subject, of course it also depends on the faculty member teaching it. CB is also taught really well, since the prof. has a lot of industry experience he has some really good real life examples on consumer insight. Imagining India was all about the difference between nationalism and patriotism. We discussed the case of Pakistan, was a really interesting discussion, but it is also the class which has maximum DCP which can get quite entertaining ;-)

Most of the afternoon was spent designing a sports marketing event for MICANVAS and then pitching for sponsors. Got to learn a lot from the experience. The event has to be designed based on the sponsors in mind so had to come up with a couple of events and will have to design another event tomorrow. Had a batch meet which was to discuss the formation of an Academic Review Committee (ARC), elections will be held for that pretty soon, have sent in an EOI. That was followed by a TI meeting. Have a lot to do wrt interface as well this sem. After that got back to designing the sports marketing event. Before I could realise it was 430 in the morning, its only the beginning of the term and have already reached that phase where I am not sleeping before 4!

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Day 48 - 13th August 2010

Woke up at 930 today which meant I missed the first lecture, got to know later on that half the class was absent for it. Attended the remaining 3 lectures which out of which the PM lecture was pretty interesting. Any class that involves major DCP can never be boring ;-) After classes had to complete some formalities regarding the quiz at NITIE next week. One thing I liked was that apart from getting clearance from the admin we also need to inform the MCSA, this is something that I was not used to during my graduation, where the students were a part of any major decision making process.

It is a friend's birthday tomorrow (today actually since its already 3 in the morning), a few of us went to the city to buy him a gift. In the process I also ended up buying some clothes for myself. Had dinner at subway, which is one of my favourite fast food joints and also got some subs packed for people back in the hostel.Bought some ice cream and pudding on the way back for the birthday celebrations, kept them in the fridge at Chota.

Birthday celebrations in the hostel are a sight to behold. The birthday boy/girl is made to stand at the Palaash courtyard and is first dunked with cold water from the top floor. This is followed by the all time favourite birthday 'bumps', which only boys are subjected to. This is followed by some more dunking by the people who missed it the first time around followed by the cake cutting. The last thing done with the cake is to eat it, every other possible use is found and the
cake is smeared all over the birthday boy/girl's face. There are also certain people who, irrespective of whose birthday it is, are always dunked and it looks like its their birthday as well :-D

The highlight of the day though was the ice cream and pudding eating session a few of us had on the Asoka terrace followed by some extempore entertainment. Also had an excellent photo session and some of the pics have already found their way to facebook :-)

All in all a good day, need to get back to assignments and deadlines tomorrow, but right I have an appointment with my bed and pillow and I donot want to upset them ;-)

Day 44 - 9th August 2010

Another week begins. Had only 3 lectures today, thanks to that got done by 1230. The IMEI double lecture was interesting in bits and pieces - today's topic was the evolution of the print industry in India. The part which I found the most interesting was the innovative ways used by newspapers to circumvent the restrictions imposed during the Emergency. PM focused sales strategies today and the highlight of the class was the 15 minute discussion on the statement "A good salesman can sell a comb to a bald man" :-D some major DCP happened in class and it was hilarious, with some people even saying that he would be selling hope!

The weather improved considerably today, finally saw the sky after ages,but the joy was shortlived. I went to sleep in the afternoon at around 230 when it was bright and sunny outside, when I woke up a couple of hours later it was dark and gloomy and it had rained! But as the saying goes, for every dark cloud there is a silver lining(pun intended). Thanks to the incessant rains, couple of rooms on the first floor of Palaash are facing severe seepage problems. My room is one of them, so as a stopgap arrangement we've been moved to Asoka, the hostel for visiting faculty and international exchange program students :-) This hostel is like a 5-star hotel - swanky new rooms, attached (clean) bathrooms, intercom in every room and there are even paintings in each room to add to the aesthetic value :-D A refreshing change for 4-5 days though Im waiting to go back to Palaash.

The assignment deadlines have started nearing. Have submissions on the 13th,16th and 19th. Worked on the ID assignment which has to be submitted on 13th. Hope to start working on the others soon but for the time being will enjoy the temporary luxuries of Asoka.

Day 39 - 4th August 2010

One day closer to a rest day. I've noticed that the day which is bang in the middle of the week is the most difficult to get through. Although I got a good 6 hours of sleep, got out if bed with great difficulty. What made it difficult was the fact that we had a double lecture of MLE in the morning. Cant blame the faculty, there is nothing that can be done for such subjects. The afternoon lecture of ID required some pre-reading to be done, did a bit of that in the break between two lectures and the lecture ran mostly on DCP from almost everyone in the class. Those who didn't participate were asked by the prof. to speak up at the end of the lecture. The fun part was when people who didn't read the case contributed to the discussion :-D The last lecture of the day on PM was by far the best, the prof. currently taking the sessions specialises in advertising and is teaching us IMC. She is so good that I'm sure her lectures might be the main reason for people wanting to major in advertising.

Had another 2 hour long siesta today, could have been longer had it not been for the movie screening at 5 in the evening. Today's movie was from Brazil - Behind the Sun, it was based on honour killings during the early 1900's. Didn't find it as interesting as the other movies, but then again we have been asked not to compare any of the movies that are screened.

The inclement weather has ensured that no tennis was possible today and the way its been raining, I'm sure it won't be possible for another couple of days at least. Decided to study a bit after dinner, so headed to the library after quite a long time. Read a bit of PM, its a very interesting subject to read but preparing for it from an examination point of view is very difficult. The study session was generously interspersed with breaks for surfing the net,chai at Chota and a walk around campus. M still at the library as I post this one, will head back to the room in sometime.

P.S - Got a mail today that there is going to be fingerprint recognition for attendance pretty soon, unless we have someone of the calibre of Michael Scofield in the batch it is RIP Proxy!

Day 37 - 2nd August 2010

Had our first class on Social Sciences and Communication(SSC) today. Most of the ppt had only pictures and what we perceived from it (although some people thought that it was racial stereotyping). We are going to learn about anthropology,sociology and psychology in this subject, as geeky as this may sound, Im actually looking forward to it. The marketing lecture was taken by a really good prof, she had just one slide on Integrated Marketing Communications(IMC) but kept that kept us engrossed for more than an hour. At the end of the lecture Nike+ was discussed - a brilliant concept, but Im not sure how effective it will be in India. The other 2 lectures were on ID and MLE, the only source of entertainment was when people tried to 'shoot' down the DCP'ers.

All committee members had a meeting with the director in the afternoon. Just a formal introduction of the junior committee members and the senior committee had to talk about the plans that they had in mind for the coming year. TI has some major plans chalked out for this year, hope they materialise. Had an optional movie screening in the evening - an Iranian movie called Colours of Paradise, though I did manage to stay awake for the entire duration of the movie, I found the ending to be too open ended.

Post dinner had some TI work, have to come up with a concept/layout for a MICA blog. Came up with a few ideas for that, need to work on it tomorrow as well. After that had to work on the CS (Creative Strategy not Counter Strike) group assignment. That went on until around 130, have been doing absolute tp since then. Will head out to Chota now (0215 hours),not feeling too sleepy,sure to make up for it during classes tomorrow (a potent combination of eco. and accounts)