Day 444 - 1st April 2012

The penultimate day at MICA. Spent the first half of the day in arranging for the bike to be packed and sent to Bombay. A lot of people started leaving campus, saying multiple goodbyes wasn't an easy job. Had our last group lunch at Pizza Hut - Kalkar, Shibani, Sania, Kore, Dua, Apu and Buds were there. Got back to campus by 5 in the evening. Caught up on some sleep in the evening. Spent most of the night copying as many serials as possible from myzone. The last dinner in the mess happened to be biryani. With so many people leaving, the campus felt like one of those deserted towns we see in westerns. Spent some time at Chota in the night. Saw the convocation video online before calling it a day one last time.

Day 437 - 25th March 2012

Woke up a little earlier than usual today since Jhamb and I had to take care of some MCSA work. Spent the first half of the day working on presentation that has to be made on the 30th of March. Went for a jog in the evening. Post dinner there was a batch meet wherein we took feedback from the batch for the presentation that was being prepared. Got done by midnight after which did some tp with Buds, Kore and Sania in Kalkar's room. Tomorrow onwards my last week at MICA begins, will take some time for that to sink in. 

Day 428 - 16th March 2012

Woke up in time for breakfast at the mess. Had some MCSA work to care of in the first half of the day. Post lunch had planned to take a siesta but before going to sleep checked the score of the match between India and Bangladesh. Sachin was batting on 41 and somehow it felt that today was going to be the day when he would score his 100th 100. Decided to sacrifice the siesta and headed to the community center to watch the game. As Sachin inched towards the landmark figure more and more people started pouring into the community center. Finally when the moment came, the community center erupted! I also realised that it was probably the last time when I would be seeing a match at the community center with everyone. There are some very fond memories of cricket matches seen at the community center - India's test series victory in Sri Lanka, the cliffhanger against Australia at Mohali where Laxman and Ishant Sharma put on one of the best 9th wicket partnerships, close Mumbai Indians games in the Champions league and some fantastic WC2011 games.

Went for a jog in the evening. Played cricket in front of Silveroak as a tribute to Sachin's record :P Made plans to go out for dinner in night to further celebrate the record. Sania, Kalkar, Kore, Apu, Shibani, Dua and I went to Tomato's for Jashn-e-Sachin :D The food was excellent (as usual). Got back to campus by midnight. Can go to sleep with a feeling of contentment tonight :-)

Day 427 - 15th March 2012

Woke up by 10 in the morning and had breakfast at Chota. Most of day was taken up by MCSA work. Had to meet the associate director and executive registrar. Continued reading Corner of a Foreign Field. Also had the Kachnar hostel pic for the yearbook. Post lunch Mathew sir screened a French movie in the audi, couldn't sit for the entire movie as some MCSA work came up again. Finished reading the book in the evening. Went to see Kahaani at City Gold in the night with Sania, Kore, Kalkar and Shibani. It is quite a decent movie, keeps you enthralled for the entire two hours. Came back to campus by 1 in he night. Have to keep finding ways to keep myself occupied over the next 2 weeks!

Day 416 - 4th March 2012

Woke up earlier than usual today but still wasn't good enough for breakfast in the mess :P Spent the first half of the day taking of care long overdue washing of socks and shoes. Had a 3 hour siesta, woke up by 530 in the evening. Went to the gym after that. Tried my hand at badminton again today, now I am not sure if I will be able to play tennis :P Post dinner Buds, Kalkar, Ishan, Sania and I went to SH-5 to see a documentary on anarchy during the Spanish revolution. It was pretty interesting, George Orwell's 1984 was inspired by that part  of Spanish history. The movie got done by 2. Back in the hostel now. Tomorrow onwards need to start ticking off items from the Ahmedabad bucket list.

Day 397 - 14th February 2012

Got back to campus at 3 in the morning after a 10 day break. Woke up at noon and had chai at Chota. It was an extremely lazy day, I hadn't even unpacked. Had to send out my dissertation surveys to be filled. Slept off int the afternoon again for a couple of hours. Finally stated my day at 7 in the evening! Caught up with Buds, Kore and Kalkar. Culcom had arranged some games today for valentine's day. The mess was decorated and everybody had a candlelight dinner :P The food was also good and mess comm took it a step further by crowd sourcing the menu. Post dinner, there was prom night in the Parjat courtyard. Got back to the room by midnight and have been working on the dissertation. Have less than 10 days to complete it and also have classes lined up!

Day 394 - 1st Februrary 2012

Woke up with great difficulty in the morning to play tennis. Post breakfast shifted base to the library. Its become a kind of routine now - tennis, breakfast, library, post lunch siesta, back to library, dinner, post dinner in Kachar North West. Today was no different. Also met my dissertation guide during the day to discuss the research methodology. She had suggested some modifications which I made and sent back for her approval. The discussion then veered towards placements, the direction in which the institute is headed. The debate is never ending and from a student's perspective there are many changes which we feel are necessary. Some of these changes will be recommended by the MCSA and we hope to see some action taken.

Spent most of the evening working on a presentation which I have to send to CD Mitra. The presentation is based on a case study I have prepared for my dissertation on Sahara Force India Speed Nights - the race screenings conducted at pubs across the country. It deals with how a non cricketing sport is promoted in India. Prepared the presentation and mailed it to the FIF1 marketing team for their approval before sending it across to CD Mitra, who plans to present it at sports marketing courses he will be conducting in other institutes. Post dinner Kore, Buds, Sania and I saw an episode of Roadies in Kalkar's room. This is something we used to last year as well, sit and have a good laugh at people's stupidity! Dinner at the mess wasn't that great which meant a midnight snack was on the cards at Chota. So chicken parathas it was, the parathas at Chota never seem to disappoint. Got back to the room by 130, read a bit of Ambani and Sons before calling it a day.

Day 388 - 26th January 2012

Didn't have any classes today on account of Republic Day. As is the norm, Republic Day celebrations were held on campus by inviting schoolchildren from the nearby villages. Had a meeting with the Executive Registrar which went on for almost an hour. Had a nice 2 hour long siesta. Have started reading Kotler's book on sports marketing called The Elusive Fan (under the pretence of doing literature review for my dissertation). Spent most of the evening reading the book. Dinner was at KFC with Kalkar. This is the first KFC that has opened up in Ahmedabad and it was my first visit to the place. It did take some effort to reach the place though since the bike ran out of petrol along the way. It was worth all the effort though. Got back to campus by 11. Continued reading and along the way saw some videos on youtube. Will read for a bit before calling it a day. Have no classes till the 30th, hopefully can get some work started on the dissertation!

Day 377 - 15th January 2012

Woke up at 11 which meant I slept for 10 hours! After breakfast at Chota, started working on the CCRM assignment. Used some research papers for reference. The subject is quite interesting with a lot of case studies on crisis management. Lunch was at the upper crust stall courtesy the sankalp fest. Played tennis with Tathu for a good hour and a half in the evening. Did general tp until dinner watching videos on youtube. Dinner was at the chinese stall set up for Sankalp's fest. Went to Chota after that with Sania and Kalkar. The grand finale of Sankalp's fest was a series of short plays called 'Classic Milds' by a theatre group called Akvarious. For the first time in MICA I have seen comedy being pulled off on stage, their sense of timing was brilliant and there wasnt a soul in the audi who wasnt laughing. Came back to the room by midnight and have realised that there are too many videos posted on facebook that are extremely interesting and worth a watch. Want to take a break from sitting in front of the laptop now and read a bit (for a change) before calling it a day.

Day 365 - 20th December 2011

Last day of classes for the term. Had 3 CIM sessions in the morning. Could sit for only 2 of them since there was some MCSA work that had to be taken care of. There was a meeting with the director followed by a meeting with some of the faculty members regarding assignment submissions that are lined up. With placement week being held earlier this year, all assignment deadlines have been pushed into the term break and some of them into the next year! Needed to get those sorted out before leaving.

There is an end term tomorrow for EBM. The slides for the subject were circulated in the afternoon. After a siesta, decided to go through the slides but ended up watching some videos of old cricket matches on youtube instead. For every 3 videos I saw, would take a break and read 15 slides :P That went on for a couple of hours. Also had to start packing for tomorrow. In the night ended up doing a lot of tp with Kalkar and Buds. They have their econometrics paper tomorrow and under the guise of taking a break we headed to chota for a midnight buffet - parathas, pakodas and chicken chilly! All hoped of coming back to the room and studying were crushed after the heavy meal. The exam is at 10 tomorrow morning and will be for an hour, lets see how soon people start walking out!

Day 361 - 16th December 2011

Played tennis in the morning with Kalkar. Didn't have any classes in the morning but there was a company presentation to attend which went on for a couple of hours. Caught up on some sleep post lunch, well it was a lot of sleep actually, slept for a good 3 hours and was woken up because the CIM class got advanced by an hour from 530 to 430. The class dealt with an analysis of the FGD that was conducted a couple of weeks back. Class got done by 8 in the night. Dinner was with Sania, Kalkar, Kore, Apu, Buds, Dua and Shibani at Masti. It was Sania's treat for receiving her offer letter. As is always the case, the food lived up to our expectations and nobody went back with an empty stomach. Got back and hitting the sack now, I think I am heading for a cold and cough, which is quite prevalent on campus right now.

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.

Days 347 to 355 - 2nd to 10th December 2011

During our seniors placement week last year I always used to wonder how our placement week would be. There are somethings that never change - the anxiety while a shortlist is being announced, the disappointment of  not being able to clear a GD after being shortlisted and the greater disappointment of not clearing an interview after clearing the GD. Placement week takes its physically and more importantly emotionally on all people involved. Sitting through endless company presentations from as early as 7 in the morning to as late as midnight. Giving interviews at 4 in the morning and the anxiety of waiting for the result. There were just way too many things that were common between last year and this year, which leads to me guess that its pretty much the same story every year. There are some fundamental changed that I think need to be brought about in the whole concept of placement weeks across B-schools. Will share my thoughts on that later though.

Coming to the placement week - apart from the hectic schedule it was an emotional roller coaster for a lot of people. There were a lot of good jobs on offer. Kore made to an analytics firm, Kalkar got into a gaming company, SIR will be working with a pre IPO startup firm, Sania had a PPO from a leading telecom company and yours truly made it to the leading spirits company in the world which is associated with a lot of sporting events and teams through both sponsorship and ownership. It was the only company I applied for and I consider myself extremely lucky for getting through - for starters they didn't conduct GDs which was something I was dreading. They shortlisted candidates and were conducting interviews for everyone, though the interview was a rapid fire round of questions. My interview started with my internship, moved onto my career goals and some suggestions for the company in their existing marketing strategy. Got to know in sometime that they had made me a spot offer, which was a huge relief! Got my offer letter the same evening.

All in all, it was a roller coaster ride and I'm glad that now its over. Regular classes start from tomorrow!

Day 346 - 1st December 2011

CIM lectures began at 12 today. The prof. did a mock FGD with students being panelists and the role of the moderator kept switching between the prof and another student. The purpose of the FGD was to bring out the differences perceived between motorcycles and scooters. The major learning was how to moderate a FGD by using subtle techniques to get emotional answers rather than probing questions which could panelists back into a shell. Post lunch had some MCSA work which kept me busy for a couple of hours. Had a meeting with the director regarding assignment submission deadlines over the next couple of weeks. Went to ISCON in the evening to collect my trousers which I had given for alteration. Most of the shops in the city were closed but luckily the stores in ISCON were open. With placement week starting from tomorrow, the sale of formals must have seen quite a spike! Got back to campus by 6 and got down to getting some clothes washed (yes placement week makes you more efficient w.r.t housekeeping responsibilities!). Dinner was at Honey9 with Sania, Kore, Kalkar, SIR (who has now been rebranded to Buds) and Ishan. Had some pretty interesting dinner conversations over Shikari chicken and Thums Up! Got back by 11 and decided to call it a day early.

With placement week starting from tomorrow, will now be able to post only once its done (as has always been the norm). I will be following the same approach that I took for the summers, though there might be a company which I might just apply to during the week. Until then, adios!

Day 338 - 22nd November 2011

Had a 930 ROMI class in the morning but decided to sleep in and go for the second lecture. As has always been the case my luck in choosing classes to bunk has always backfired. Got to know that a graded assignment was being taken in class. Ishan (my neighbour) and I rushed to class to submit the assignment. After the class got over, we had a pre placement talk in the audi. Was free post lunch which meant another 3 hour siesta! Had a film screening in the evening. We were shown The Passion of Joan of Arc a silent movie which was made nearly 100 years ago in France. After the movie screening got back to reading Sacred Hoops. Finished reading the book by midnight. Harsha Bhogle had referred to this book when he had come to SAP, a good read on leadership and people management. Went to Chota for a midnight snack with Kalkar and ended up spending a good 45 minutes out there. Have a late start tomorrow with classes beginning only at 2 in the afternoon, cant wait to wake up late! :P

Day 328 - 12th November 2011

Had our first session on behaviour architecture (BA) today. The course is introduces the concept of neural marketing and how consumer behaviour can be influenced by marketers. Today's session was more about how the human brain functions. How much of our conscious and unconscious mind is used in making decisions was illustrated through a Sachin Tendulkar interview in which he explains even he doesnt know how he reacts and plays an incoming leather ball at 150 kmph. A good session overall.

Post lunch Kore, Kalkar, Apar and I went to the old city to meet a vendor for sweatshirts. The nights are becoming cooler now and sweatshirts will be required soon. Got back to campus by 5. Played a little cricket in the evening. Post dinner have been reading articles on the net about the prevailing airline crisis. Have also started watching Futurama. Will watch a couple of episodes before calling it a day. 

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!

Days 263 & 264 - 13th and 14th July 2011

Pulled off my first all nighter of the second year! 13th was a rest day to woke up at noon (in hindsight it turned out to be a good thing since I didn't know what was lying in store for me :P). MCSA work consumed most of the day. Started off by meeting the chairperson of the dissertation committee to finalise the timelines of the dissertation submissions. Post that had to meet the associate director and registrar to have the first round of discussions regarding the committee budgets. Also had to discuss the status of the internship report that had to be submitted, finally came to a mutual agreement that no report had to be submitted! :D In the evening had to sit with Apar and Jhamb to discuss the way forward wrt to the Junior MCSA elections which were to be held in the night. This year we tried something new by going online for elections, saves a lot of paper and time as well! The Junior MCSA elections started a t 1030 in the night. Candidates had to make a speech followed by Q&A from their batch. This was followed by elections from where the top 3 girls and guys would proceed for interviews which were to be conducted by the MCSA. We had to interview 13 people after the elections. The interviews started at 230 and went on till 8 in the morning! At the end of it we've found a Junior MCSA that we are very happy with and from whom we expect a lot. Also have to say that the junior batch also seems to have a lot of talented people, a heartening sign for MICA :-)

Had the first day of the crafting dissertation workshop on the 14th which started at 930 in the morning - which effectively meant no sleep at all on the 13th! Managed to pay attention for the first hour and a half after which the lack of sleep started taking its toll on me. Pushed myself to stay awake in class until the post lunch session. At around 330 excused myself from the class and came back to my room. Slept until 7 in the evening. Had JPC speeches and elections in the night, the online voting system was tried there as well. It worked quite well for both elections, due credited to be given to our chief election commissioner - SIR alongwith with Kore and Kore for devising a foolproof system. After a long time had dinner at Chota since the mess food was quite boring. JPC speeches went on till about 230 after which I came back to the room and crashed!

Day 261- 11th July 2011

Had our last day of markstrat today. After leading the pack for one period we slipped to second place by the middle of the day. During the day the MCSA also had a meeting with the dissertation committee regarding the schedule of submissions for our dissertations. That took about an hour or so. We have been making plans of going to Honey9 for dinner for the past couple of nights, tonight that finally materialised. Kore,Kalkar, Rana, Sir and yours truly went have our first shikari chicken of the season. With no girls present we thought the food to bill ratio would be low, however to our the bill amount was pretty much the same! Got back to campus at around 11 after which we had a batch meet with PGP1. Had a placecomm meet after that to discuss the selection process for the junior committees. Have a rest day tomorrow, hopefully can wake up post 1030!

Day 252 - 2nd July 2011

A lot of people have started coming back to campus now. Its a good feeling to see familiar faces. Most of today was spent catching up with batchmates and exchanging internship stories. Continued my consistency of not having dinner at the mess by going to barbeque nation. Maushi had to treat Kalkar and me for winning crucible. Also continued the tradition of coming back from Barbeque Nation with stuffed bellies. Last few days of freedom on campus before classes begin, so everyone seems to be making the most of it.