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 336 - 20th November 2011

Had our make or break MCL game in the morning, which we ended up losing by 14 runs. So that marks the end of the MCL for the Chatur Chachas. Had a full day of classes line up after that. BA continued with behavioural sciences and how the brain functions and its application in retail marketing. It was also the last session of the course. Caught up on some sleep in the lunch break between BA and the course on FMCG branding. Had missed the first half of the FMCG branding course since I was travelling on FIF1 work. The course was conducted by a brand manager from HUL who took us through the brand management framework used by them. The thing I liked about the course was that apart from showing what worked in the market, he also took us through campaigns that bombed in the market. Learning from mistakes is a highly effective method. Got done with classes by 6 post which was doing general tp and reading some stuff off the net. Have a lot of books in the pipeline which I want to read, should start sometime soon. MCSA work took over after dinner, which incidentally was quite good today with Hot and Sour soup being the highlight. Saw a couple of episodes of Futurama before calling it a day.