Day 94 - 8th October

Had only 2 lectures today. One of them was our first lecture on cost accounting. Now based on my experience in FA I wasn't exactly looking forward to this course, however the prof. is really good and I really liked his first lecture. He is an IIM-A alumni and his method of teaching is similar to their style of delivering courses. There are pre reads and cases that need to be done before the class and anybody in class can be questioned on them, so it has to be done! And to add to that he is a very very knowledgable guy with more nearly 40 years of corporate experience, so there is loads to learn from him.

Played cricket in the afternoon, after which I had to take the bike for servicing. But I did everything except that! The service centre was running over capacity so I couldn't leave the bike for servicing, Apu had also come along since she needed to buy some stuff from Bopal, so we decided to go to subway. At subway we called Mallu and Maushi and asked them to meet us at chocolate room. Chocolate room is similar to Mocha where you get milkshakes,pancakes, pizzas and many other things all made from chocolate. Was my first visit there, hogged on death by chocolate pancake and ferroro rocher milkshake. Such impromptu trips are always fun. During the ride through the city noticed a lot of pandals which were very well lit up, Navaratri is going to be fun in this place, looking forward to it!

Days 75 to 89 - 11th to 25th September

Was on a break from updating this blog was forced for the first 10 days and voluntary for the next 5 days. We had our summer placement week from the second week of September and as a policy we weren't allowed to disclose details of any of the companies that visited campus. Thats why I couldn't post anything on the blog. Apu,Geeko,Fruit Loops and CR all got placed in firms of their choice and I am really happy for them. The only company I sat for was the one which had a sports marketing vertical but they did not have any openings in that department. I chose not to sit for any other company, will try off campus as well. The week was followed by term end examinations. Now in engineering i was used to a 3 week study leave for 5 subjects with at least a day's gap between two papers. Now imagine my plight when I have 8 subjects to study in 4 days - two papers per day! And that too some of the subjects were being studies for the first time. The paper that was really bad for me was FA, my engineering graphics paper (which I did not clear on the first attempt) seemed better than FA, so you can imagine how bad it must have been. Anyways can't do much about it now. But the highlight of the exams was the last paper - PoM, a 1 hour 50 questions MCQ paper which was completed in 2o minutes flat :D And most of the batch was out within 40 minutes. Left for Bombay on the same night, the reservation chart of the coach we were in looked like the roll call for our batch, at least 30 people were on the same train. Feels good to be back home, have been averaging 3-4 hours of sleep for the past week, so the agenda for the next week is pretty clear. ;-)

It's been a pretty eventful first term at MICA, met a lot of interesting people and looking forward to the next 5 terms. Apparently the second term is one of the best terms wrt extra curricular activities, looking forward to it. Will start posting again once I am back on campus on the 4th of October. Until then, Adios!

Day 70 - 4th September 2010

And so it begins, the initial two months here were too good to be true. Today we got a taste of things to come over the next 3 weeks. The first bomb to be dropped on us was by the eco prof. who gave us a 30 page handout on pricing and asked us to come to class tomorrow with a handwritten assignment explaining each topic in our own words and also stating examples from the Indian context. Apart from that we also have a pre read for tomorrow's class. This is his way of shaking us up and ensuring that we study now at least, though I know for a fact that quite a few people who have been taking his subject seriously by going through the pre-reads before the classes. The second bomb to be dropped was by the FA prof, who announced a mid term on the 11th, one may think that there is still some time, but here is the list of things to be done over the next week
5th - eco assignment submission
6th - markops presentation
7th - rest day with companies coming for pre placement talks
8th - ID diary submission
9th- nothing (as of now)
10th - SSC end term!!
11th - FA mid term/ Prinicples of Management Assignment submission
The CT movie reviews also need to be submitted this week, plus there might be a surprise eco test as well.

Got down to writing the eco assignment in the evening. Never written so much in the past 3 years! Had to take a break to complete the MICAMINDS project proposal as well which had a 11:59p.m deadline. Working with the principle of just in time (JIT), we submitted the assignment at 11:57 p.m :-P Then had to get back to the eco assignment. Got done with it and have to start the pre-read now, hope it doesn't put me to sleep..

Day 65 - 30th August 2010

It's funny how one can lose track of what day of the week it is. Didn't feel like a monday today, could be because of the fact that yesterday didn't exactly feel like sunday! The 8 continuous days of marathaon lectures without any rest day is nearing its end. Had two double lectures of QT and SSC today. Both were pretty ok, not too good not too bad. After a long time lectures finished before lunch. For a change had lunch at Chota instead of the mess, the parathas out there are brilliant to say the least, especially the cheese paratha! It definitely was a very satisfying lunch. The only way to do justice to it was by according it a siesta. Went to the city in the evening to shop for formals. For the first time since I have got my bike here, I managed to get back to campus without getting drenched. The weather is here is so unpredictable, it was bright and sunny in the afternoon and evening, but in the night dark clouds emerge from nowhere and ensure that I dont feel like Im missing out on a Bombay monsoon. Since exams and assignment deadlines are nearing, I decided to come to the library to write some of the movie reviews that are required to be submitted for CT. Had to read about the movies first to remember the plot and then write my views about them. It definitely wasn't easy as it sounded, it took 3 hours to write the reviews for 3 movies and now I have 10 more to go. After that had to work a bit on the MICAMINDS project regarding the feasibility of a dedicated sports marketing institute in India. All this was interspersed with chai and tadka Maggi at chota. Had plans to study a bit of accounting but its already 5 in the morning! Hopefully the accounting plans shall materialise soon.

Enough about me, today's spotlight as a part of the friend of the day is on

Era Bali aka Geeko

One half of 1,Parijat, met her during one of the ice breaking sessions during orientation week. Her nickname arises from the fact that in all of her marksheets there is not a single subject where her marks begin with a digit lesser than 9! She has this uncanny knack of making it look like she is not paying attention in class and then all of a sudden asks a question to the prof. which is rarely out of context! Im yet to figure out how does she manage to do that. One of the fascinating things in a B-school is that you get to interact with people of various age groups, and she is a perfect example of how I can make myself feel old - the year in which I graduated and started working was the year in which she appeared for her 12th boards :-D

Geeko - hope you remember our deal - our friends from the other side of the border stay at HQ ;-)

Days 54,55,56,57 - 19th to 22nd August 2010

Back after a 4 day hiatus! Had been to Bombay for the finals ENQuizitive at NITIE. Had the marketing plan presentation on 19th which I felt was pretty ok. Compared to the other groups our ppt had minimum content, just bullet points which we elaborated on.

I don't think I mentioned about my backpack getting flicked earlier in the week. Had gone to the city to buy a helmet when it got flicked. During the presentation I got a call from Citibank asking me if I had lost my debit card because someone had called and reported to have found my card. That's when I remembered that I had kept all my expired cards in the bag along with my PAN card. I took the number of the person and it turns out that wallet containing all the cards was dumped in a post box and had found its way to a post office in the city. The person who had called was the post master of that place. Having the bike turned out to be advantageous, could go to the place in the afternoon and collect the cards. It was really nice of the gentleman to have called the bank and informed about the lost cards - there are definitely some nice people in this world! :-) Had to leave for bombay on 19th night. Slept through pretty much the entire train journey. Reached home at around 7 the next morning, its always a good feeling to go back home. Had to leave for the venue by 830 and I was reminded about why I didn't want to study/work in bombay - the travel! Took me one and a half hours for journey that would otherwise half an hour to forty minutes. The quiz was at Peninsula Grand, a pretty swanky place. I still haven't gotten out of the SAP mentality when it comes to dress codes for formal events. I went in jeans and a t-shirt and was shocked to see everybody else over there formally dressed :D Luckily my quiz partner brought along an extra set of formals. The morning session was on a case study competition which was followed by the quiz. Now the quiz was an enviro-business quiz, which is not exactly my area of expertise (not that I have many). But then there are days when luck is on your side, we did reasonably well, ended up coming third. Now when you go with the aim of not finishing last, coming third is as good as winning :D. It had a very unique marking scheme where either you score a lot or very less (read negative), the last two teams actually had negative scores, we were spared that ignominy ;-) The only sad part was that the cash prizes were only for the first 2 places. Nonetheless we left with our heads held high. :-P

Spent that evening and the whole of next day at home meeting up with friends and relatives and playing on the Wii. Was supposed to leave on 21st evening but thanks to the traffic (again) missed my flight and all the other flights that night were full. The only other option was taking a morning flight on the 22nd. So got to spend another night at home but contrary to the previous night could sleep only for a couple of hours because of the fact that I had to wake up at 3! Slept a bit on the flight and managed to stay awake through 2 hours of eco and an hour of accounting. It actually feels good to be back on campus :-)

Day 52 - 17th August 2010

Had a late start to the day today with lectures beginning at 10, I stretched it by waking up at 11! Made for the second lecture which was on social sciences and communication. But that was just the beginning of my day. After lunch we had a FA tutorial arranged for us since most of then non commerce guys are pretty lost in that subject! This was followed by a talk on the event management industry by the CEO of Percept. He is one of the most inspiring people I have met till date. Becoming a CEO of a 400 crore company at the age of 35 is no small feat! He spoke at length about sports marketing, wedding planning, movies, brand content, events and many more things. The best part about this interaction was the fact that he told us about the mistakes he has committed and how we should learn from it and avoid it, this is something that not many speakers are comfortable with. He may have come across as arrogant to some people, but I feel he has earned it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope he comes to campus again.

In the evening went to see Peepli Live at PVR. Its a pretty decent movie, worth watching once, although the whole part about the media hyping up trivial stories is slightly exaggerated. Got back to campus in time for the mock GD's arranged by PlaceComm for the summers. I was advised to work on the tone of my voice because it was felt that I came across as too authoritative. Another thing the seniors pointed out was that the GD was too cordial and it definitely is not going to be like that during the actual GD.

We have been given a break tomorrow to prepare for our marketing group assignment, which is to come up with a marketing plan for a new product. But as is always the case, whether we get a one day break or a one week break we always work on the just in time principle ;-)

Day 38 - 3rd August 2010

Hurricane Katrina has seems to have paid a visit to Shela and might just apply for permanent residency. On days like this I know what would have been the inspiration for The Beatles to have penned "Here Comes the Sun". Eco and FA were not as soporific as I had anticipated,since people have devised ways of keeping themselves and others awake during lectures. The latest trend is to write the nickname of the person on the flip side of the name tag and put that in front of his/her desk. Another new fad is clicking pictures of people sleeping and tagging them on facebook, one guy even has an entire album dedicated for this. Had a session on writing research papers in the afternoon which was for about one and a half hours. After last week's schedule it felt like bliss to be done by 1 in the afternoon. Finally could manage a nice comfortable siesta!

Played a little tennis in the evening before Katrina decided to pay a visit again. Had to get back in time for the movie screening at 7. Today's movie was a french movie called a love to hide. It was based on how homosexuals were treated by the Nazi regime and how the outlook towards homosexuality is still skewed. One thing that I have realised courtesy CT is that I have a lot of things to read up about! How and when that will happen is something that I am yet to figure out.
Post dinner continued a bit of the CS group assignment which got done by around 1230, the planning stage is down now need to get down to implementing it,which hopefully will start tomorrow.