Day 443 - 31st March 2012

Today was the big day. Spent the first half of the day packing. It seems incredible but MCSA work continued to keep us busy for the first half of the day. We all had to gather in the auditorium by 430 before the batch photograph would be clicked on the cricket field. The convocation ceremony went off quite well - doing the rehearsals actually made sense ;-) The chief guest was Mr. Arun Poorie, Editor in Chief of the India Today Group. He spoke really well. He shared with us his experiences and learnings from a career in media that spans more than 3 decades. The ceremony was followed by dinner in the Nescafe Plaza.

Had our last batch meet in the audi at 1130. Thanked TI for arranging for a webcast of the convocation. Placecomm was given a standing ovation for the brilliant job that they did this year. This was followed by a pillow fight :P Football was played under floodlights one last time. This is the beginning of the end.

Day 442 - 30th March 2012

Woke up by 12 o'clock and had to spend most of the afternoon waking up people for the prize distribution ceremony. The awards ceremony is an annual fixture that is held the day before the convocation and awards are given to students for outstanding academic performance. Yours truly won an award for the best all round performance. Also had to give a speech in my capacity as the President of the MCSA.This award has been instated in the memory of a MICA alumnus who left for his heavenly abode. His batchmates have contributed to this award for the past two years. The award was given by the adviser to the Prime Minister. Post the ceremony the MCSA had a meeting with the Governing Council of the institute wherein we presented our feedback to them based on our experience at MICA. We were given a half an hour slot but the meeting ended up getting extended for almost two hours. Its been extremely hot out here and was completely dehydrated by the end of the meeting. Hadn't eaten anything since morning as well. Just before heading to the mess for dinner Shibani said that she would be getting pizzas for us as her birthday treat. Dinner at the mess was duly skipped ;-) Ordered a cheese burst pizza for myself and finished it in no time on the Asoka terrace :P The heavy dinner coupled with sleep deprivation over the past couple of days meant that getting sleep in the night will not be difficult!

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 438 - 26th March 2012

Today marked the beginning of the last week at MICA. Woke up at 11 and had some MCSA work to take care of. 12 of us were giving a joint birthday party in the night which meant that most of the afternoon went in preparing for that. Swati, Manu and I went to ISCON to pick up cold drinks and snacks for the party. Got back to campus by 5 in the evening. SCAM had organized an arm wrestling championship which provided ample entertainment in the mess during dinner. Post dinner the party preparations took over again. The party was good fun with the dancing going on till 730 in the morning :P Its been a while since an all nighter has been pulled off after being on the dance floor for so long ;-)

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 436 - 24th March 2012

Today's highlight was the movie screening by Prof. Mathew. He screened two movies - Bicycle Thieves and Beijing Bicycle back to back. Both were based on the same story but were made almost 60 years apart. The way the director's worked with the story was noteworthy. The former was an Italian movie and the latter was a Chinese movie. After the movie screenings, had some MCSA work to take care of which took about an hour. Read a bit in the night before calling it a day. 

Day 434 - 22nd March 2012

Woke up at around noon today. Three days spent on the cricket field have made me feel pain in parts of my body that I never even knew existed :P Spent an hour in getting the no dues certificate cleared. Sat for the movie screening in the evening which was a french historical. Dinner was with Geeko at Subway. Got back to campus by 1030. Had some MCSA work after that which went on till midnight. The realization has also dawned that it is going to be less than a week now before the course comes to an end. Nostalgia is setting 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 424 - 12th March 2012

Woke up relatively early today, had breakfast at Chota before getting down to housekeeping duties. Had to wash clothes and also get collect clothes from Paras Bhai. Pre lunch spent majority of the time reading articles off the net. 12th March happens to be the anniversary of a lot of important events - the bomb blasts in Bombay in 1993, the start of the Dandi March and also the day when South Africa chased down a world record total against Australia at Johannesburg. Got to know all of this through facebook! Post lunch had a meeting with one of the members of MICA's governing council who also happens to be an alumnus from the first batch. It was a very fruitful session where we shared some of our suggestions that we felt would help the institute in the long term.

Went for a jog in the evening to Bopal. Dinner was Chota with Buds and Kore on account of the not so inviting mess food. Post dinner got down to reading corner of a foreign field. Will call it a day in a bit, have the photo shoot for the batch and hostel pics tomorrow.

Day 421 - 9th March 2012

Woke up earlier than usual - 1030 a.m. :P Spent pre lunch occupied with some MCSA work. Had to meet the associate director and chairman of the dissertation committee. Post lunch went to Gulmohar Greens to find out about the room tariff out there, have to book a room for Amma Appa when they come here for the convocation. Went to Reliance Mart from there to pick up some stuff for the room. Got back to campus by 4 and continued reading corner of a foreign field. I really like Guha's style of writing - free flowing and easy to understand. Had tried to read a  book on the same topic by Boria Majumdar 5 years back, but just could not get myself to read it after a certain point of time - it felt like I was reading a M.A History textbook!

Went upto Bopal for a jog in the evening. Got back and got to know that some of our grades were displayed. My grades are pretty OK - a mixture of As and Bs, have taken a beating in two media subjects with two Cs. The agenda for today's dinner was Bhaji Pav (yes in Ahmedabad it is said the other way around) at Mahakali in Bopal. All their Bhaji Pav had the option of being made in Oil, Butter or Cheese :P The food was really good and that is one more place off the bucket list.

Didn't have much to do in the night. Continued reading before calling it a day.

Day 419 - 7th March 2012

After yesterday's submission I expected to be a little free and had planned to catch up on all the books have to be read. However the first half of today was consumed by MCSA work. Had a meeting with the executive registrar and the associate director for some work related to the dissertation committee. The meeting for one almost two hours. Post lunch had to send out some mails for the senior committee selection process.

The finals of the MCL were played today and it was a PGP-2 v/s PGP-1 game, just like last year's final. It pretty much followed the same trend like last year's game where the PGP-1 team faced a batting collapse and put up an almost at par score. The PGP-2 team chased it but not without a few hiccups. There was even a prize distribution with all finalists winning medals and trophies for the man of the match, man of the tournament and winning captain. All of these were given by the MCSA :P

Went to the gym in the evening. Dinner in the mess was a pleasant surprise with soup, pizza and chocolate ice cream :). Post dinner had a meeting with all senior committees to figure out the dates for their selection process.  Got done with that by midnight after which there was a KT session for the new MCSA. Went for a midnight snack to Chota with Sania, Ishan, Baby Menon and Pallavi - tadka maggie in the chilly weather was heavenly! Got back to the room by 4. Tomorrow is holi, had escaped it last year but this time that wasn't an option :P

Day 415 - 3rd March 2012

Very lazy day today. There was an MCL match in the afternoon which kept me occupied till the evening. Had a little MCSA work in the night regarding the senior committee selections. Had to send out the committee ranking form. After that had nothing much to do. Played badminton in the night, and was surprisingly able to play a rally of more than 2 shots above eye level :P Got back to the room by 4 and called it a day.

Day 414 - 2nd March 2012

Woke up at noon today. Went to Bopal for a haircut, picked up some stuff for the room on the way back. Need to start planning how to spend a month out here with no classes! Had a meeting with all committees in the  afternoon regarding the committee selection process. We had suggested the idea of offering PPOs to candidates to whom they are keen on retaining. Also had to discuss the process in which committees would be slotted for interviews to be conducted. Spent a good hour and a half discussing the process with Buds and Sania. Went to the city in the evening to pick up a friend of mine who has come down from Lucknow. Had dinner at Honey9 after which we came back to campus. Showed him around the campus in the night before calling it a day.

Day 413 - 1st March 2012

Woke up at noon. Had to go to the city for some work in the afternoon. Used it as an excuse to have lunch at Chawla's - a punjabi food place at Vastrapur. Pretty decent food. Since its my last month out here, have made an Ahmedabad bucket list - a list of places to go to in the city before March 31st. So Chawla's is now off the list ;-) Got back to campus by 4. Had a little MCSA work to care of in the evening. Went to the gym for sometime before dinner. Post dinner started work on the international marketing assignment. There was a case study of KFC 's strategy in China that had to be analyzed. Got done with that by midnight. Placecomm elections will begin in sometime. It seems only like yesterday that we had our placecomm elections :-) Will attend the elections before calling it a day.

Day 411 - 28th February 2011

Had our International Marketing group presentation in the morning today. It went off well, the prof gave us a few pointers which we could have worked on. Afternoon to evening was completely occupied with MCSA work. Had a meeting with the director and executive registrar. Then had a meeting some of the faculty members regarding the dissertation submissions. Played tennis in the evening for a bit. That was followed by the inter hostel tug of war competition. Spent half an hour at the gym before an all committee meeting for the selection of the senior committees. There was a post dissertation submission party organized in the night and the theme was Absolut Fantasy, where people had to come dressed up as their fantasies. Yours truly went as an F1 race driver since the Force India shirt, cap and helmet were easily available. Other people also got into the thick of things with people coming as Rauf Lala (from Agneepath), Langda Tyagi, Don Corleone, A nurse, Wolverine, Men in Black, ManU man (just to name a few). Was awesome fun. Had a good time with my batchmates after a really long time. Was a nice way to kick start the relatively free month of March.

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 405 - 22nd February 2012

Had 2 sessions of International Marketing in the morning. The prof. discussed various marketing strategies one can consider before entering a foreign market. He has given us an assignment which requires us to devise a launch plan for an Indian product in a foreign market. After class met my dissertation guide and got the final approval. Got the dissertation printed and got her signature on the final submission form. Spent the rest of the afternoon caught up with some MCSA work, had to meet the chairman of the disseration committee and the executive registrar. Had some work in the program office as well. Came back to the room and squeezed in a 2 hour siesta. Didnt have company to play tennis in the evening so had to make do with going to the gym. Spent most of the night reading the Winning Way. Finished it by midnight. Most of the learnings in there may seem like common sense but some of the examples from the world of sport are pretty interesting and insightful.

Went to Chota for a Chai in the afternoon. Its amazing how there is always someone out there whom you can strike up a conversation with that can go on for hours! Got a back to the room by 3 in the morning. Surfed the net a bit before calling it a day.

Day 404 - 21st February 2012

Had 3 sessions on International Marketing in the morning. The prof. was a visiting faculty from the industry. He had 20 odd years of experience in the 'adult beverages' industry as he like to call it. He explained the different factors that we needed to keep in mind while devising international marketing strategies. He shared his experiences while launching Fosters in India. The alcobev industry in India requires innovative marketing strategies for a brand to succeed in India and he took us through his work. After a 25 year stint in the industry he is now an entrepreneur, he has started a chain of beer cafe's, a relatively new concept in India which seemed pretty interesting.

Post lunch there was a company presentation to attend. Had some MCSA work after that, we have to slowly start handing over work to the newly elected MCSA. Introduced them to the senior management and some of the people in the administration. Met my dissertation guide to get some final changes made to my dissertation. Overall she has approved it, need to make one modification after which I can submit it.

Played tennis for about an hour and went to the gym after that. Post dinner made the final few changes to the dissertation report. Continued reading the Winning Way and called it a day early, have a class at 930 tomorrow morning. Hope to wake up in time for it!

Day 402 - 19th February 2012

Woke up at noon today. Spent a major part of the day formatting the dissertation report. Realized that the indexing functionality in MS Word is not that easy to comprehend :P Played tennis in the evening with Anuja for an hour and a half. Samar is less than a week away, my tennis game isnt at the level I would have liked it to be, but it has improved compared to what it was earlier. Went to the gym after that.

The MCSA elections were scheduled in the night. It went of quite smoothly and got done within 3 hours. Got back to the room by 330. A lot of people have been asking me how it feels now that a new MCSA has been elected. I actually havent even thought about it! Its been work/life as usual :-) On that note will call it a day!