Day 131 - 17th November 2010

Today's is the last post in the guest writer's week and is by a fellow 4M member. Rahul has made my job easy by introducing himself pretty well, so here goes -

And so, it’s my day today!! :) Well this is Rahul Shitut, Siddharth’s next door neighbour at Palaash, fellow mumbaikar and a his co member in 4M :P

Have been reading MiCa Lal’s blog since the first day and it’s interesting to read how he chronicles each day of his life at MICA with small incidents here and there.

Ok now lemme talk about my day. Today being a holiday got up aram se at 11 in the morning after a late night & had to rush to meet Anand and Abhijit for the shoot of their ad, which has come out pretty well, and you can check out yours truly in it (now that you know about it, watch it here:http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=467754157331&oid=144040988975093 and like it ;) Post that had to rush for a JPC meet which went one for quite some time. Once that got over went to the mess for a late lunch with Sam and Abhinav.

For a change the weather was kickass throughout the day and it was raining as well but I was too lazy to enjoy it and slept post lunch. Got up at around 6pm but was not feeling that great so just chilled for some time and went back to sleep. Got up in time for dinner expecting biryani as it was Bakri Id. Went in and saw something which looked like khichdi and it turned out to be chicken biryani. Post that met up with svablum, bhandu and nitin. Wanted to catch a late night show of Due Date but as the weather was brilliant decided against it and went for a drive. Went to the city, ate brun maska after ages and then drove on this superb stretch on the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway. To put it in Svablum’s words,” Aisa lag raha hai ki France mein agaye! ;)” Dunno where that came from!

Got back to the hostel at around 12.30. Saw a few episodes of “Californication”, the same one which yesterday’s guest writer also saw. And I agree with him on the fact that this series is friggin addictive!!!!

Well its almost 3 am now, have a couple of classes in the morning which I intend to attend. So signin of folks and MICALAL, I think you should be back now! ;)

Day 130 -16th November 2010

Today's post is from a senior who at one point time was my junior. Didn't get it? Let me explain - Kaushik was 2 years my junior at engineering college and got into MICA immediately after graduation, I on the other hand worked for nearly 3 years before coming here, so that makes him my senior. Anyways here's how the life of a pgp-2 student feels like -

Er.

I am honoured and privileged to be a part of this social media initiative. I feel that this is an efficient tool that reaches out to the right audience, and also believe that this media channel needs to be leveraged in order to drive saliency, awareness and engage the consumer. Paradigm shifts in media behaviour suggest that social media is the future for most brands.

Sorry, I have been working on a debate, a case study, and my dissertation – this has led to the thoughts in my brain being all messed up, resulting in the above. Speaking of dissertation, I fail to understand how my report on “Effect of country of origin on alcohol branding” is going to be of any relevance to the industry, academia, or other Latin-inspired words that our “global” professors and “dissertation committee” come up with. It is a mindless exercise comprising of half hearted research, zero relevance, and absolutely no industry potential. Oh well, that is true for most projects in any B-School J

Oh, I’m supposed to write about my day. When Siddharth asked me to write, I was quite clueless, considering I am awake all night and sleep (soundly) during the day, so I’m going to write about my night. I woke up around 3 (in the afternoon), only to realise that I had dropped a subject, and the last general elective was on. Oh wait, that doesn’t make sense, I’ll explain. See, I had taken a subject, it got dropped, and there was this subject called Sports Marketing that was supposed to commence. I realised that I HAD to take that subject if I had to complete my GE credits. Talking about sports marketing, it is probably the only area of marketing that I have no interest in. Make me sell/market anything – soap, biscuits, condoms, shampoo, lipstick, underwear, soap, laptops, soap (did I mention soap?), I’ll do it. But sports marketing? No no. Its probably because I don’t understand why people would run around a ball and waste their time, and then again, why some other people would bother spending money on it. Just doesn’t interest me (Micalal don’t edit this)

So I attended those sessions, and they were mostly about the IPL (surprise!). Post that, I did some MICANVAS work = running around with a box from my hostel to another. Damn, MICANVAS, that thing is addictive. I still have a hangover. I then (finally) met my dissertation guide – my only motivation for this is the word “alcohol” in the topic. This (as every discussion in MICA does) disintegrated into whether MICA is going down the drain or up the pyramid. After two hours of discussing whether “MICAn’s lack depth” and “Without CAT, these batches are just not up to the mark (or are they?)”, I got back to my room.

I thought I’ll work on my dissertation, but oh well, didn’t work. I ended up watching Californication. I am now officially addicted to this series. Its brilliant, and based in LA. Oh wait, there’s an insight – the only other series I’m addicted to is Entourage, also based in LA. Maybe I should look for a job there.

Anyway, post that, I worked on the DraftFCB+Ulka case study competition that seems to be the flavour of the week. Yes, its fest season, and every week, there is a new festival/competition that everyone seems to be participating.

Anyway, I have written quite a bit, and this isn’t exactly my forte, so I’ll sign off!

Day 129 - 15th November 2010

Today's post is by Zoya aka Joya Ssingh aka Fruit Loops. She has also been reading the blog quite regularly and in her own words 'has done a pretty decent job for today's post' :-) So here goes -

Wow. I’ve written a lot today.

Anyway. Today I am guest writer on MICAlal, and let me just start by telling all the readers how much it means to me to be a guest writer. It’s something I’ve dreamt about since I was a little kid. Thank you Micalal, you’ve fulfilled many dreams.

Speaking of dreams, ever since MICANVAS 2010 got over, and I’m not perpetually tired and my sleep cycle isn’t quite so amusing, I have found that I can’t quite sleep. Bummer. I almost look forward to my alarm going off in the morning... although I still hit snooze. So today, alarm went off at 8:15, slept till 8:30. Woke up, brushed, changed, etc... and then BREAKFAST! And there were Paranthas, which is my favourite morning meal (or at any other time during the day).

First class was CMA, as a previous post mentioned, never had a costing class been quite so emotional. This was followed by a class on Consumer Behaviour. I really love how everyone waits for my name in the roll call for this class. If you’re from PGP1 MICA you’ll know what I’m talking about. Come ask me if you still haven’t figured, I’m awake at all times except classes. Today’s lectures were shockingly boring. I do believe this is the third subject in which I have been forced to study needs, wants, values, learning, and all the other things that cause mass yawning. Following the first class on CB (conducted in the auditorium with all of us lolling about on colourful polka-dotted cushions... yes, really) we were pointed to SH2 for our second class on, you guessed it... CB! More stuff on animals getting conditioned, babies getting shock treatment, etc etc... hurray everybody.

If you had supplied your system with enough coffee during breakfast you would be one of the lucky ones still in the running to attend ‘Development Research’. As luck would have it, I was one of them. Unfortunately, the effect of the coffee started to wear off by the first 5 minutes and in the 30^thminutes I had the professor waving frantically in front of my glassy eyed expression trying to get me to answer ‘How will you conduct a group discussion?’. My concise answer of ‘By making groups.’ was met by laughter. Ah well... at least I entertained.

Lunch was bad. I forgot what it was. Slept badly in the afternoon and woke up in time to go to the doctor with my roomy ‘Geeko’ to get my medical certificate authenticated. It wasn’t in case you’re wondering... something to do with the fact that it wasn’t authentic. The weather was beautiful, so Geeko and I went off for a walk, but only after Thakur Chacha at the gate had instructed Geeko to look after ‘Chotu’, referring to me. Ha. We got back, safe and sound, and in time for tea and snacks, which was some unnamed substance. MICANVAS meeting at 7 in the evening... whee! We discussed post fest withdrawal symptoms, work and horror movies, in a dimly lit setting. Dinner happened at Chhota where our meals were mixed up. Geeko got my tastier mixed (it has Cheese) parantha without oil and I got her boring Gobi parantha with oil, a tragedy if I ever knew one.

Post-dinner was very productive... Geeko and I did some geeky work. Following which I made a triumphant return to Chhota to have what is known as... wait for it... the ‘Sex Toast’. Go figure... or actually don’t. Post the sandwich I’ve been writing like a maniac, and I’m still not letting up on this great opportunity because I have word vomit.

On a completely unrelated note, I will take this chance to inform you of AC Milan’s derby win yesterday. We are now top of the table. Rejoice! Yes, this is also the end of my post. Miss me, and beg MICALAL to call me back!

Day 128 - 14th November 2010

Today's post is by Apu. After reading her post you may want her to take over the reins of MICAlal, and I am willing to take that risk ;-) (Ok before you continue reading you might just want to know that Sanbad -> Maushi , Maldlu -> Malyalee Marauder, Macha-> Yours Truly. )

So well, the day began with at least one thing done right – not missing breakfast, probably the best meal in the MICAn mess. Caught up with the Malayalee Marauder over breakfast table about his antics on the court the previous day;about the much-talked about attack on one of my team co-owners (oh yeah, for those of you who don’t know it yet; three of us, Kamla (yours truly), Bimla and Sakku own a cricket team in the MCL – MICA Cricket League – The Phantoms. “Only fire, no smoke”…yes, we proudly promote the No Smoking campaign as well)…Single class for a Sunday today..and oh boy, we couldn’t have wished for a better class…Last session for the course on Cost and Management Accounting by Prof Sridhar Chari (easily one of the best visiting faculty here)..He wrapped up with a special trademark slideshow on life and changing times & workplaces..He conveyed the fact (without sugarcoating it

whatsoever, mind you) that no MBA is indispensable and that it usually takes less than an hour to fire 20 management professionals across some 9 different international offices...Some of his statements were superb mantras for conduct in career and life..For ex, he enumerated paradoxes of the following ilk :

1) You must welcome change as a rule but not as your ruler

2) You must learn from past mistakes but not lean on your past successes

3) You must stick to your convictions but be ready to abandon your assumptions

4) You must act self-employed but be a team player

5) You must get money to chase you, but never let it catch you.

And it was only befitting that we stood up in ovation in respect and admiration for the man, as he ended his slideshow with what is usually a slide titled “Last Slide” with a slide saying “Chase your passion, not your pension”. Quite a moment that was. One of those few in which you submit to the sheer ingenuity and knowledge and experience of a man worth his salt and acknowledge his greatness for his simplicity at the same time.

Came back all energetic and bubbling with happy thoughts to design the “Alumni of the Day”

poster. We have The MICA Grand Alumni Ahmedabad meeting happening soon. Hence, we plan to introduce really successful MICAns to the students, so as to let everyone know that the two years here are going to be good foundation afterall :D..(in addition to the vacation we so lovingly talk about..)

Today’s alumnus was Mr Amol Gurwara, Head,Operations,EA Mobile..also one of the first to have married a senior MICAn ;-)…By the time we got done with putting the posters up in the campus, it was time for snacks..Played basketball after a really long time after that..felt awesome! Sport can be such a release…and often an under-estimated one, at that…

And then of course, the highlight of the day…So Macha and I decided we were falling prey to the once-in-a-while “blah” claustrophobic feeling in the campus -> hence the urgency to step out for dinner…Maldlu and Sanbad said they’d join us for dessert…We set out with lofty mouth-watering visions of Barbeque Nation, only to find a waiting time of 45 mins (*groan*stomach growl*groan*)..As if that wasn’t unfair (and a term I am forbidden to use here, since it isn’t sophisticated) enough, Upper Crust Café had a waiting time of 30 mins as well. Hence, we traveled across half the city only to end up in a tinier-than-ever Subway, having our regular favourites. My insights, reinforced again : Gujjus are a rather foodie lot, in addition to how filthy rich they are…And of course, a trip to the civilization all the way from MICA is as useless as a comb to Maldlu these days, if you don’t have non-veg food on the way.

Finally met up with these guys at TGB…So, one sizzling brownie later, we were in the mood for extended family pics :- )…Oh and also, found one of the strangest “Ladies” signever...almost

demeaning..Downright mean… (*See picture : -P*)

Maldlu didn’t let us have any good pics at all though, the photo-spoiler that he is..No worries,

Sanbad..soon..sometime soon..Came back to campus almost an hour past midnight..but the trip was worth it..Back in good spirits after good talk and good food, only for a highly vague and boring and pfaffy Services Marketing Assignment…Seven Eight Peas and what not…Met up with Bimla..she’s been busy with her drama<=>Sankalp<=>MICA Theatre practice..

Tried to work, but obviously could not..kept listening to music, randomly updating the MICA Alumni Page on facebook (That reminds me, I have to have to watch The Social Network…too many good reviews about it..)..made a chai trip to Chhota with Macha…looked at photographs (my staple diet) …random mélange of useless activites…

Finally re-re-saw a couple of episodes of “That 70s Show” and decided to re-(MI)-cal-(A)-l the day..

It’s a fine sky tonight..Orion in full nightly resplendence and the stars shining clear and bright..And the moon brought out the lazy hidden poet in me, I swear..It’s a perfect semi-circle with a reddish tinge..no no..no worries, I am not going to rhyme…I have rambled enough already..

Many thanks,Macha…for letting me write here…and thanks to time, for letting us enjoy the extended family outing (Many more to come, as Maldlu said.. :D )…thanks to, I guess, life…for introducing such brilliant people who make it such an interesting deal...more so, with each passing day..

Here’s mesa signing off with a message I received today afternoon from another one’s of God’s own masterpieces…He’s called Kid, as he tells me..

“I want to go back to the time when innocence was natural..

When getting high meant on a swing..

When drinking meant Rasna..

When Dad was the only hero..

When Dad’s shoulder was the highest place on Earth..

When Love was Mum’s hug..

When the only things that could hurt were bleeding knees..

And when Goodbyes only meant till tomorrow..

Life’s changed a lot…Isn’t it?!”

I couldn’t have said it any better,Kid…just couldnt’t have..

Happy Children’s Day!

Day 127 - 13th November 2010

Today's is another 'hatke' post. Jayati Somani is the latest victim of Mallu's tactics on the basketball court and as luck would have it she is the guest writer for today :-D.Steve Waugh was the proponent of mental disintegration but Mallu is the beacon of physical disintegration, he doesn't sledge because he is a sledgehammer :D Jokes apart, in the poor guy's defence all the instances Jayati mentions below were unintentional, nonetheless they provide us one more reason to pull Mallu's leg who at the end of the day takes it like a sport :-)

Chronicles of a Marauder

We all know and have heard of the ‘Mallu’ on Siddharth’s blog before. Yes, he’s the dude with

no hair, a crazy hyena laugh (which has the ability to hound you till the end of time), has different notions about life (Well, yes he does belong to a different era) and what can I say? He’s a little different.

However, what people don’t know about him is that he is also known as the Malyali Marauder.And with good reason.Any girl in and around MICA campus who has felt a searing pain through any part of her body which has left her incapacitated for a minimum of 24 hours has definitely had some sort of a contact with the Marauder( let’s call him MM from now on, shall we?). He is the one to give girls black eyes, broken toes and dislocated jaws. It would be safe to say that many a girl has had a sleepless night because of MM(and not just because of his crazy loud laugh).

Speculation is rife about why or how it so happens that it is always MM who ends up punching any sort of female presence around him. Some say he was once slapped by an older sister and he sees her in every girl’s face. Some say he sees the face of an old flame. Some say he’s plain chauvinistic and wants to wipe out the entire XX chromosome population of the face of the earth. This insane mad doctor mission of obliterating women altogether is obviously accompanied by his repeated attempts to perfect the art of asexual reproduction after which he apparently plans to take over the world- state by state (Kerala comes first obviously!).

Grapevine also has it that he maintains an album of all his victims and crosses out their faces as and when his attack and eventual ambush is complete (evil smile intact while he’s doing so).

It won’t be very long before the police put out a reward on his capture.

Meanwhile- girls- Beware! Hunt him down before he does you.

Get him.

Dead or Alive.

Day 125 - 11th November 2010

Today's post is written by Era 'Geeko' Bali. So here goes -

Hola!

After a long holiday back home, it was hard to drag my ass to the classes but i mustered some courage and finally made it to SH1 that too at 8:50 itself:) I was not surprised to see the CMA teacher already waiting! We were supposed to have a quiz on CMA that day and as per the MICAN tradition..ummm..belief ..or may be culture no one had even read a word before the quiz. Nonetheless, the quiz started on time and was supposed to end exactly after 20 minutes. Believe me taking a quiz like that had never before been so much fun! We cheated in 'chain'. To tell you what that means, Cheryl, Satya, Aila, Chillar, Arvind, Ranaji and I sat in a row. So, Satya did question 1, rest copied, Cheryl the next and the rest copied, Aila the third, the rest copied, Arvind the next to that next, the rest copied..blah blah..oh yes the rest copied..Ranaji..umm..nevermind but we still copied!

I was glad that the next two classes were Falguni's..i dont know for some reason i feel like calling her Falguni Ma'am. She is just a brilliant teacher. She knows exactly when to pick on who. You cannot sleep in her classes. Oh and whats worth mentioning is her love for Ishaan and his reciprocation...'ALL THE BEST'! The AM lectures(though double that too in a row) were good fun..some of the ads that she showed were outstanding!

Quick Read!

Campus looks pretty as usual....Waiting for the winter rains..like desperately...Cant wait for the onset of winters....trying to get over the post MICANVAS lull..excited about doing lights for Natrani and yes looking forward to the play as well..dont want to attend more IGD classes like NO NO..ummmmm..what else..ummm..dont know but there is something missing..the campus has become very languid..may be Sankalp will fill the gap..or may be there is not much gossip or may be there isnt enough DCP in classes or may be its the weather change or may be i have no one to stalk on facebook or may be its the mundane mess food or may be i am just BORED!

Phew..lalalalalala...blah...ummmmm...okaaaaaaaaay...sunday..monday..tuesday...wednesday..thursday..friday..saturday..lalala...i think i am growing old..aah i guess its the company of the 25 year olds who i hang out with..wink wink..and honestly i dont mind getting old like that because that 'company' is my bestest buddy and the official blogger of this page, 'Micalal'!

Cheers

Era 'Maachis' Bali

Day 123 - 9th November 2010

This week is guest writers week on MICAlal, have asked a few of my friends who read this blog (shockingly,there are a few people who read it :-O) to contribute to this space. We start off with Maushi.

Hey there readers, this is Sania aka Maushi filling in for Kaka, who’s
been feeling quite lazy of late. (Hmmm…I wonder why :P)

So basically, today at MICA was like any other day (read pretty
eventful). The term’s tradition of interesting classes continued with
the IMM class. To demonstrate the computation of media reach,
frequency and the GRP of an ad, the professor came up with a very
interesting way. He gave us a list of about 10 magazines (media
vehicles in the management lingo). He named each magazine and asked
the students who read them, to raise their hands. Every time the
student raised a hand, he or she got an Éclair :D. And then he defined
all the terms in units of the éclairs distributed. So, not only did we
learn things easily, we left the class with chocolaty smiles :).

The next class was another very popular class called Advertising
Management. Who wouldn’t love classes where you spend a large chunk of
time watching brilliant pieces of advertising? But what actually makes
us look forward to the classes is the analysis that follows. The
professor facilitates a discussion within the class which generates
brilliant insights into what actually goes into the making of the
commercial. I, for one, always walk out with the sense of
damn-how-could-I-not-see-this-before every time. Then there was
another Organizational Dynamics class followed by an IMM quiz.

Another thing that we’re all looking forward to this term is The Grand
Ahmedabad Alumni meet of MICA. Post dinner, we had a batch meeting
with the alumni committee. A lot of ex-MICAns are expected to come and
stay on the campus for three days throughout the meet. Sounds like a
great chance to interact and learn with a lot of interesting people.
Can’t wait!

PS: I’ve always believed that good teachers like good cooks, are a
gift of God to mankind. And blessed are those occasions when you
encounter both in the same day. Today’s classes were followed by
munching on delicious chocolate cake prepared by Kaka’s Mom. Aunty, we
can’t thank you enough for the goodness :D

PPS: Kaka’s team (Phantom Sweet Cigarettes, which is owned by me
(Sakkhu) along with Apu (Bimla) and Kamla) has another match tomorrow.
It’s a do or die situation. Pray for us :)