Day 441 - 29th March 2012

MCSA work kept the first half of the day occupied. Had an MCSA 'power' lunch in the afternoon which was good fun. Had the last of the convocation rehearsals in the evening. The farewell culnite took place in the audi. There were some really good performances and very emotional videos that were played. The MCSA also did a surprise performance. We staged a fight in the auditorium which we went to sort out, as people started wondering what was happening, the three of us started dancing to All izz well :D A special mention also needs to be made about the Kachnar video made by Avinash Verma which was pure brilliance. This was followed by the farewell party. I was there for an hour before coming back to the room and sleeping (had been terribly sleep deprived for the past couple of days).Woke up at 7 and rejoined the party. There were just way too many people crying on the dance floor. Was expected though. The party got done by 830 in the morning. Called it a day after that!

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 435 - 23rd March 2012

A very routine day. The only highlight was the discussion of the Kachnar party that happened in the courtyard in the night. The date zeroed down on is 27th. Next week seems to be quite packed in terms of social commitments ;-)

Day 410 - 27th February 2012

Had a rest day today. Spent most of the day sleeping. Had to take care of some MCSA work in the afternoon. The film studies assignment was due tonight. Gave finishing touches to my assignment before submitting it in the evening. Dinner was at Natrani cafe with Sania. Got back to campus by 10 and had to start working on the International Marketing Assignment that has to be presented in class tomorrow. Our group is working on how India can be marketed as a medical tourism destination. Got done with it by 1 in the night. Went to Gulmohar after that for Atin's birthday treat. Was there for half an hour before coming back to Kachnar and 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 393 - 31st January 2012

Another day of no classes today, in fact I dont have any classes till the 11th of February. Played tennis with Anuja in the morning. Post breakfast shifted base to the library. Had to send out e-mailers requesting people to fill up my dissertation survey. Unlike most surveys this one cant be floated in the student community at MICA since they aren't in the target audience. Also started working on the first draft of the dissertation. Worked on the research methodology section today. Managed to have an hour long siesta before coming back to the library.

Kalkar and I decided to go out for dinner (dum aloo in the mess = EONI). We went to Masty and had a very surprisingly good food to bill ratio, considering the fact that we both have similar (large) appetites. There is this place we have discovered in Bopal which serves cold Paan which has become a huge hit. the shop's name is Umiya Pan Center but it has been rechristened 'Ooima' Pan Center :P It has become pretty much routine to stop there on our way back from any dinner outing. Topped it off with ice cream at Havmor. Got back to campus by 11 and came back to the library. Have finished the part on research methodology and mailed the first draft to my dissertation guide. Posting this one from the library, will go head back to Kachnar in a bit after the daily dose of videos/articles from facebook!

Day 390 - 28th January 2012

Winter isn't over as yet out here. Realised that in the morning when I went to play tennis with Anuja. Was shivering throughout the walk from Kachnar to the tennis court. Post breakfast shifted base to the library and continued work on the dissertation. Got the go ahead from my guide for the survey questionnaires. Took a while to find the right site to make the survey, the free versions available online have a lot of limitations. Have floated the questionnaires, will have to now start begging people to fill them :P Managed to finish reading The Elusive Fan today, the part I really liked about the book was the case study on successful sports brands. The US has come a long way in building a sporting culture so it was no surprise that all examples from there. Wrapped up work in the library by 8 in the night.

Kore gave his birthday treat today which was dinner at Honey9 followed by Agneepath at City Gold Bopal. I find the movie quite stupid, too much violence and the story was already known. Came back to campus by 2 and decided to watch the original version of the movie. Saw about half the movie till 4 in the morning before deciding to call 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 386 - 24th January 2012

Surprisingly woke up in time for breakfast at the mess. Played tennis post breakfast with Anuja. There was another MCL game today, this time between MP and Vineeth's team. It turned out to be a high scoring thriller with  MP's team chasing down 150 in the last over. One of the best matches I have seen in the MCL till date. Post lunch had a 2 hour long siesta. Finished watching Groundhog day in the evening. Have been wanting to formulate my dissertation questionnaire for the past couple of weeks, decided that it had to be done at any cost today. However post dinner procrastination took over. Saw some of the baddy matches couurtesy coxic smash then went to Chota with Kalkar and Buds. Came back to Kachnar and MCSA work took over.That went on for about an hour. The MCSA elections will be held in February, had to work out how to go about the entire process. Finally started working on the questionnaires at 1 a.m. Have completed them now and sent them to my guide. Also need to read up on some material for the literature review. Need to break the shackles from this lethargy that has set in and get cracking with the dissertation work!

Day 385 - 23rd January 2012

Played tennis in the morning with Anuja for about an hour. This term so far has felt like a holiday, have a strange feeling that its all going to be come back and bite me soon. Came back to Kachnar and did the weekly washing of clothes - its always a game of chance with one washing machine at the disposal of 32 people. You've got to pray that nobody has left their clothes in. Have been lucky the past two times. The second round of MCL games began today, umpired the second innings. Was a relatively one sided match. Had Indian Cinema class post lunch. The session was a case study on Bombay Talkies - how it gave rise to the film industry. Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani, the founders of Bombay Talkies were true pioneers in the film industry with the kind of steps they took. They were the ones who started the concept of summer internships. Ashok Kumar, Kamal Amrohi and Dev Anand were some of the products of Bombay Talkies. We were also shown a documentary on Wagah which took a dig at nationalism.

Today was also the deadline for the CIM group assignment submission. This was one group assignment in which people just could not free ride. Was sitting with my group in the library for most of the evening working on the assignment. Got done with it by midnight, just in time for Apu's birthday celebrations in Chinar. She had bought pizzas from Domino's (I had prior intimation and had skipped dinner in the mess for it :P). Was in Chinar till about 245, came back to the room continued the daily tradition

Day 369 -7th January 2012

Had the advanced excel training workshop today. The workshop on excel basics was done in the previous term. The session dealt with recording macros and the basics of coding in macros.The session got done by 4 in the evening after which I had to meet my dissertation guide. During the vacations I had conducted a couple of interviews based on which we discussed the findings and the way forward. So that just adds up to the long list of submissions/work. But that didn't mean that evening time was not used for procrastination :P. Dinner was at Honey9 with Sania, the first Shikari Chicken of the new year!
Got back to campus by 930 and did general tp. Watched some videos on youtube and terminated Buds on facebook, whenever people in Kachnar are bored he is our go to guy! Dont have any classes tomorrow but have assignment deadlines approaching with the first one due day after. Hope to start working on them from tomorrow at least! :P

Day 359 - 14th December 2011

Played tennis in the morning for about an hour. Didnt have classes in the morning but had a company presentation at 1030 which went on for a couple of hours. Post lunch, managed to squeeze in a disturbed siesta. In the course of 2 hours, was woken up at least 4 times for different reasons. Played cricket in the Kachnar courtyard in the evening, following which had planned to start working on the semiotics assignment which was originally die tomorrow. Got a mail that the deadline got postponed to 19th of the month which meant the evening was relatively free. In continuation of going out for dinner over the past couple of weeks, went to Mainland China for dinner. The soup and starters itself were quite filling, so skipped the main course and went to Chocolate Room for desserts, the dutch truffle shake was a nice way to end a sumptuous meal! Got back to campus and did general tp on the net. Will make the most of the weather and call it a day early again!  

Day 356 - 11th December 2011

Had a full day of classes after quite some time. Today's sessions on entertainment media dealt with mobile marketing and the different strategies involved while devising a mobile marketing campaign. Classes got done by 4. Played tennis for a good hour and a half in the evening. Kore, Kalkar and I made a plan to watch a movie in the evening at City Gold. We saw Dirty Picture - and it turned out to be really dirty, with no storyline, songs just being squeezed in for the heck of it and random twists in the story. Got back to campus by 11 and grabbed a bite at Chota before coming back to Kachnar. Will surf the net a bit before calling it a day.

Day 311 - 8th October 2011

Woke up at 1030 today (something which I havent been able to do for the past month) and headed to Chota for breakfast. People from PGP-2 have started coming to campus and hopefully by day after tomorrow almost everybody should be back. FIF1 work kept me busy in the morning. Had a meeting with the executive registrar in the afternoon which lasted for about half an hour. Slept off for an hour or so post lunch and had a pretty lazy evening. Played my first game of poker, which is quite popular in Kachnar. Traditionally I have been dyslexic when it comes to cards but at least I understood the rules of the game, hopefully with a little more practice I should be able to win more games :P Post dinner didn't have much to do, need to start working on the dissertation proposal which has to be submitted next week. But right now everyone seems to be in the mood of enjoying this feeling of joblesness that exists at the beginning of every term :P

Day 310 - 7th October 2011

Back to campus after being away for nearly a month! It feels really good to be back. Got back at around 830 in the morning, which is when most of Kachnar is fast asleep. Not too many people from PGP-2 are back on campus since regular classes start only on 10th. Spent the first half of the day meeting  my dissertation guide and completing other formalities with the administration. Had to also unpack and my room back in order. Tried to squeeze in a siesta but couldn't manage to sleep for too long. In the evening Kore, Rana, Sir and I went to Shailby hospital to meet Ishan who was admitted there since he had malaria. The good news is he has recovered well and should be discharged tomorrow. Dinner was at McDonalds en route to college.

Met the Junior MCSA in the night. PGP-1's classes have begun, so most of them are back on campus. Will call  it a day early, will take some time to get back to the MICAn sleep cycle :P

Day 298 - 24th August 2011

The sports marketing sessions started at 1045 today. Today’s sessions were mainly about consumer behavior in sports marketing wherein we studied the different types of fans. Did get a little too heavy in the middle, but the prof had warned us well in advance that the first half of the day was going to deal with theory. Post lunch we had the first guest lecturer for the subject – Joy Bhattacharya, Team Director of the Kolkata Knight Riders. It was a brilliant 2 hour session with the first half on the business model of the IPL and the second on brand KKR. Invariably the discussion had to veer towards Sourav Ganguly and his exclusion from the team in the last season, it was a tough decision to take, he did admit that but it was taken from a long term perspective. Though he did acknowledge the fact that Ganguly is West Bengal or should I say Paschim Bongo’s favourite son. “Tagore, Satyajit Ray and now Ganguly, us bongs don’t have too much of a choice when it comes to our heroes” :D The best part about the discussion was that he patiently answered all sorts of questions ranging from the Fake IPL player to match fixing in the IPL. In a reply to one of the questions of player fatigue and the debacle in England he brought to our notice that India’s rise to the number one position began in 2008 and culminated in 2011 and the IPL was present in that very period, so it would be unfair to pin all the blame on the league. The best line of the lecture though had to be his opening line “Let’s make a deal, you don’t ask me about Shah Rukh’s sexual preferences and I wont bore you” :D

Played cricket in the evening in the Kachnar courtyard. Its always fun to play with a hard tennis ball on tiles, its akin to playing on Perth :P Played for a good hour at least. Post that there was a session on handwriting analysis conducted in the audi by a batchmate, which was pretty interesting. Have 3 birthday celebrations lined up tonight. Posting this one before they begin!

Day 296 - 22nd August 2011

Had a rest day on account of Janmashtmi today. Spent the first half of the day in slumberland. Had the annual MICA Matki Phod Competition (MMPC). Hostels form teams and compete against each other in a dahi handi competition. Yours truly was in the base 'support' team of Kachnar ;-) We made it upto the semi finals courtesy our own Krishna oops I mean Nullu at the top of the human pyramid :-D Was good fun overall.

Dinner at the mess wasn't exactly a feast with the an attempt at Sabudana Khichdi gone horribly wrong. So Kalkar and I found an excuse to go to McDonalds for dinner. The one near ISCON mall is open till 1 in the night, the perfect place for a midnight snack! Got back to campus by 11 after which have been doing random tp. Regular classes start from tomorrow with the first set of Sports Marketing lectures. Have some good guest lecturers lined up so should be good fun! :-)

Day 295 - 21st August 2011

Didnt have any classes today still managed to wake up at 10 in the morning. Caught up with an alumnus at Chota over a cup of chai. The weather was amazing in the morning, not humid at all, spent almost an hour at Chota. Spent the afternoon working on a brief write up of the dissertation that had to be submitted to the dissertation guide. Moved to the library for a bit for that. Came back to the room and slept for a bit in the evening.

Tomorrow happens to be Sir's birthday, so Kalkar and I went to this place called Masty to pack food for the night. Since we had to wait for so long we decided to have a few starters ourselves out there ;-) Got back to campus by 1130 and a mailer was sent to PGP-2 inviting people for Sir's birthday which went like this -

It's HIS Birthday!

On this occasion of Nullujayanti which is a national holiday in South India (except Telangan of course), we invite you to Kachnar at the stroke of midnight for the following celebrations -

1200 - Shloka recitation

1215- Abhisekam

1230 - Prasadam (Donation passes available at all MiKore outlets)

1245 - Visarjan

Things went according to schedule with a havan also interspersed between Abhisekam and Prasadam ;-) The Visarjan finally culminated at the OAT! This was followed by a feast in Kalkar's room where the food bought from Masty was devoured by the residents of Kachnar south west. All of this went on till about 4 in the morning which when I started feeling sleepy. Have a rest day tomorrow on account of Janmashtmi after that a full week of classes followed by an AFM end term!

Day 289 - 14th August 2011

Today was the second day of the 3 day break, woke up at around 12 and had brunch at Chota. Spent most of the afternoon taking care of all the pending laundry. During the monsoons one needs to factor in two extra days for clothes to dry which needless to say is a huge pain! The entire exercise took about a couple of hours. The sun came out for a bit in the evening and we decided to make the most of it by playing cricket in the Kachnar courtyard. Playing with a wet tennis ball on a slippery surface is always a lot of fun.

Once the rain gods came back I went to the library to continue reading Pundits from Pakistan. This was the first time this term that I went to the library. Was there for about an hour before heading out to ISCON mall for a bit. It was one of those I-need-to-get-a-taste-of-civilisation-outside-MICA moods that took over in the evening. Spent a little time at crossword as well, earmarking future purchases :P Got back to campus by 9 and ended up chatting with Sir and Kore. We decided to watch Hot Shots 2, which fulfilled our desire to watch a nonsensical comedy. Stayed up until 3 before calling it a day. Although tomorrow is a holiday, need to get up early for the Independence day celebrations on campus.

Day 280 - 30th July 2011

• Last session on AFM - capital markets
• Lunch at Mainland China (bbuurrrrpp)
• Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - one time watch
• Palaash dance practice - we seem to be improving :P
• Birthday celebration in Kachnar - awesome chocolate cake from TGB
• FIF1 work
• Will read a bit of Pundits from Pakistan before calling it a day