Day 235 - 19th March 2011

Today's paper wasn't as bad as expected. It was a good mix of objectives and subjective questions. As promised by the prof. he thoroughly tested our understanding of the concepts. Have a holiday tomorrow so most of the evening was spent doing general tp at the baddy court. At around that time a plan was made to go to Kareem's for dinner. What started off as a group of 4 became a group of 17 by the time we reached the place for dinner. Good food, good company and when the bill came we got a pleasant surprise - MICAns get a 10% discount :-) Got back to campus by around midnight, did some more tp at the baddy court! Came to the library after that to work a bit on the SCM assignment. Will go back to the room in sometime.

Day 234 - 18th March 2011

Had a study leave today courtesy the impending exams. They begin tomorrow with MDA being the first paper. Its a little intriguing that a subject which is so heavy on concepts on quants has only a 1 hour paper. That made a lot of people guess about the probable paper pattern. But knowing the prof. Im sure there is a major surprise in store. Spent most of the day preparing for the paper. A ppt was given for only one topic, for the remaining we had to scour through the notes and books.

The highlight of the day though was receiving the offer letter for my summer internship. I will be interning with Force India Formula 1 team this summer! :-) Had my interview 3 weeks back in Bombay. Got an unofficial confirmation last week and today finally received the offer letter. One more reason now for wanting the exams to get over soon!!

Day 228 - 12th March 2011

Most of today revolved around the India SA game. Worked on the IMC assignment side by side. Apart from that a very routine rest day, which is also the last rest day of the term. Have a hectic week ahead with assignment submissions and end term exams starting the week after that. MDA and RM are going to be the major troublemakers.

Day 219 - 1st March 2011

Had 2 MDA lectures in the morning for which I managed to wake up with great difficulty. The lecture was pretty interesting though and it managed to hold my attention inspite of the fact that I was sleep deprived. Had a CSMM test in the afternoon, it was based on a case study which we were allowed to carry to class. The case was about LG's internationalization strategy. Evening was packed with MCSA work again. Also met a few of the people in the administration department whom we will be interacting with on a regular basis from now on. Sankalp staged thier first night of showcase, this will be used to select the directors for next year's play at Natrani. That went on till around 1230.Luckily tomorrow is a rest day so I can catch up on some sleep!

Day 202 - 12th February 2011

Quite a 'surprising' day! Had two surprise quizzes - one in MDA and the other in Media Economics. MDA was the first lecture of the day and started off with the quiz - 10 questions, 10 minutes, multiple choice +1 for the right answer and -0.5 for wrong answers. This was followed by a double lecture on Conjoint analysis and how it can be used to predict market share before a product is launched. Had a 1 hour break before the lecture on ME, I overslept only to be woken up by Geeko who called to tell that we had a surprise test in that subject as well. Had to rush to class for that. This the same prof. who took eco for us in the first term and the way he makes us study is legendary. He gave us 15 minutes to go through the material and then started the test. Half an hour to answer 4 subjective questions. Now that wasn't the only surprising part, after the test was over he asked us to grade ourselves and hand it over to the course co-ordinator, no questions would be asked :D I gave myself a B+, which was a honest grade I felt.

Went cycling to Bopal for a change in the evening. Since tomorrow is a rest day Rajat, Maushi, Cheryl and I went to Upper Crust for dinner. The sizzlers over there have some whacky names like Bruce Lee's choice and Chuck Norris recommends :P Stuffed ourselves to glory. As if that wasn't enough, stopped at Cad-b to pack dessert on the way back. Got back to campus at around 11. Had to discuss the IPL article for WARC with one of the FPM students. Have some research work lined up for the next week or so. Right now though I will go to sleep without keeping the alarm, a rarity as well as a luxury!

Day 198 - 8th February 2011

These 9 to 5 days are really energy sapping. In the 4 lectures before lunch we had MDA, IMC, SDM and CSMM. The first one was all about number crunching, the second about how to make an IMC strategy and then implement it, the third one on different types of salesforce categorizations and the last one on Corporate Social Responsibility. Post lunch had RM which was about how a research is formulated and then the data is organized. Couldn't fight the impending stupor in the evening so ended up sleeping for about an hour. Went to the gym after that, didnt have the time to go to Bopal in the evening since the ARC and MCSA had a meeting with the director in the evening. The meeting was quite productive and hopefully some positive changes should be implemented soon.

Post dinner have been in the library going through the pre reads for tomorrow and also started working on the Culture studies assignment. Will wrap up now and try catching up on some sleep.

Day 197 - 7th February 2011

A long and hectic day today! Had a full day of classes from 9 to 5. Had our first lecture on Integrated Marketing Communications IMC which is being taken by an excellent professor and I am the course co-ordinator (CoCo) for the subject. The lecture was really interesting though some of the concepts may have been a little repetitive, the examples that were given especially in the Indian context were really good. Apart from that had MDA, EB and SDM before lunch. Post lunch had RM in the audi, had to devise a research proposal for a company that wanted to develop a game development center in the country. Some interesting aspects came out of it. Finally got done by around 540!

Inaugurated the new shoes and music player by going to Bopal for a run/jog. After coming back had to sort out all the assignments that needed to be done. Had dinner with the IMC prof. to discuss the course outline and structure of the assignments. Post dinner completed the CSMM pre read for tomorrows class which was followed by an ARC meeting. Got done with that and headed straight to the Micavaani studio to record for tomorrow's show. Finally got done with everything at around 2 and I am dead tired now. Have another full day of classes lined up tomorrow. Need to catch up on some sleep, over and out!

Day 196 -6th February 2011

Had a rest day today. Woke up at 123o, which was also because of the fact that I slept at 5 in the morning courtesy the party :P Spent the afternoon watching Marlboro Reds take on Lucky Strike, which the strikes comfortably won. Completed the MDA group assignment in the evening which had to be submitted by 8 in the night. Went to ISCON with Cheryl in the night, had to buy general stuff for the room, though the noteworthy purchases were new shoes and a mp3 player. This was followed by dinner at Subway, was famished by then, managed to finish off a sub and a salad :D Got back to campus by around 11. Have been doing general tp and started reading a book - Ambani and Sons which I bought a couple of months back. All in all a nice rest day, just what one needs before a 6 day 9 to 5 week of classes.

Day 195 - 4th February 2011

Woke up at 815 with great difficulty today. For a change didn't wake up 15 mins before the lecture :P Had 2 BM classes in the morning. Some pretty interesting concepts were discussed with some really good examples. The one I liked the most was the brand portfolio of Apple. NVC was about how music is used as a mode of communication. We heard two different versions of Imagine, one by John Lennon and another by perfect circle. Both had the exact same lyrics but diametrically opposite contexts just because of the kind of music that was used. There were many other applications of music discussed, sports advertising uses music extensively. We were shown a Chicago Bulls introduction video and how it is used to build up expectation among the crowd. A very interesting class, its a pity that we had only one session on music.

In the afternoon had CSMM tutorials which was based on a case. The entire discussion was pretty fruitful and an indication of a good case discussion is that it left you with more questions than answers ;-) Went to Bopal for a jog/walk in the evening, I cannot stress on how good the road has become! Post dinner (which was Parathas at Chota) Geeko and I worked on the MDA assignment which was based on SPSS. I'm not a huge fan of number crunching but this exercise was quite interesting. Have been in the library for the past 3 hours working on it. More or less done with it now, will try and sleep early tonight for a change ;-) Have a long night ahead tomorrow with what might probably be the last party in first year!

Day 194 - 3rd February 2011

Had a very weird time table today. After the morning 915 lecture had a class directly at 1 in the afternoon. In the break that we got tried to study a bit of NVC since we had a mid term at 3 in the afternoon. Went through a couple of slide decks. The test was OK, though I really dont understand why we have exams in subjects like these, research projects or assignments seem to be better options. Came back and slept because of which I missed the dissertation workshop, now I hadn't asked anyone but some noble souls had put a proxy for me and as my luck would have it, they checked for proxies at the end of the lecture. The only positive thing is that there are a lot of people on that list :D

In the evening had a presentation from TOI regarding a competition where we have to pitch to UNESCO for Ahmedabad to be granted heritage city status. Got to know some interesting things about the city in the process. After that had went to Bopal for a long overdue haircut. Got back to campus by around 9. Had to do read the case study for tomorrow's CSMM tutorial and take a print out of the article that needed an critique to be written for the media economics assignment. After that had to figure out how to work with SPSS for the MDA assignment. Have got some idea about the software, now need to solve the assignment problem, which I think I'll do tomorrow. Cant stay up any longer. Over and out!

Day 172 - 13th January 2011

Today's MDA class was completely based on a software called SPSS which we use for Market Research. The prof. explained it really well and we pretty much got the hang of it. Now an assignment awaits to be done which will be on live customer data. Had our first class on Sales and Distribution Management (SDM), which was mostly about sales force management. College had arranged a special Sankranti lunch, Gujarati menu with Puri and Undiyo taking the cake (pun intended). In the afternoon started reading a book on how brand Arsenal (the English football team) was built. I am not into football so it'll be interesting to see whether this book keeps me engrossed. Had a little PlaceComm volunteering work in the evening which went on till around 630. Geeko and I went out for a walk/jog/run after that (all 3 in descending order of duration of time).

Continued reading the book in the night, and before I could realise it I had dozed off which meant I missed the Lohri celebrations CulComm had organized. Woke up at around 330 in the morning courtesy a Palaash party that was going on next door, in fact there were multiple parties going on, the essence of each party could be judged by the type of music being played ;-) It's 5 in the morning now and I am not feeling too sleepy, tomorrow is a holiday but we need to work on th CB assignment which requires a 10 minute video and a 4000 word assignment. Will need to find ways to keep myself occupied till I fall asleep again!

Day 171 - 12th January 2011

Had 2 lectures of BM today which were about brand personality and how brands like Nike and Adidas have competed over the past couple of decades. Pretty interesting, how they took different approaches to reach where they are now. EB was again filled with real life examples, especially about Ahmedabad based textile companies. At one point of time there were about 110 companies but now only one big name has survived and one of the prime reasons for that is it never adopted any unethical practices. The last lecture was MDA which covered the theory aspects of linear regression, tomorrow we have a practical session on the same concept, it'll make more sense then.

In the afternoon was again caught up with some ARC work. That went on till around 5 in the evening, so now that makes it 2 days in a row where I have been deprived of my much valued siesta :P In the evening had to start working on the OD assignment, this is something that needs to be looked into, we have 4 assignments from last term to be subjected this week! Apart from OD there is CR, CB and QT. Anyways it pays to have the same project group for most of the assignments, so we've split up the assignments amongst ourselves, parallel processing ;-) In the night extebned family went out with Rajat and Samyuktha for dinner to Ikobo sizzlers. I was quite surprised that I was able to eat a complete sizzler, maybe skipping snacks in the evening was one of the reasons. Got back to campus by 1030 for a placecomm meet, we were given our duties for next week. Continued working on the OD assignment after that, have produced nearly 2000 words before passing on the baton to the next person :P Shall call it a day now.

Day 170 - 11th January 2011

Had only 3 lectures today, two of them on Non Verbal Communication which was about reading body language and one on MDA which was on regression analysis. The MDA prof. has made it very clear that there are 6 techniques to be taught and every technique will take about 3 lectures, so if we are to miss his lectures we should bunk the lectures for an entire technique otherwise it will make no sense! Anyways got done with that and had some major ARC work lined up, we had to figure out what could be done regarding the culture and communication course. The faculty member who generally takes the course will not be able to conduct it this time around and we will be getting a Danish professor teaching us. We also had a long chat with the area head of Cultural studies and got to know a lot about this place wrt how it has always tried to be different from other management schools and how much importance has been given to the communication aspect. Got done with that by 430, because of the ARC work I missed out on playing a PGP1 v/s PGP2 cricket match in the afternoon. PGP2 won the match pretty easily.

Had to go to ISCON in the evening to buy earphones, I realised that I was pretty handicapped without them. In one of our marketing classes we learnt that in a retail store 60% of the purchases are unplanned and today I was the perfect case study for the same :P Was back on campus by 7. Went to the gym to make up for the guilt of not exercising for quite sometime now. Have been doing general tp since dinner, will call it a day in a while.

Day 169 - 10th January 2011

The last term of the first term begins, how time flies! 6 months back when I was coming to this place I did not know what to expect, and today when I came back to Palaash it felt like I was back home. It's also going to be my last 3 months in Palaash, and now I know why all the seniors and alumni have such a special bond with this place. Lots to look forward to in this term, placements for seniors, committee elections for our batch, new hostel allocations and of course the 2011 Cricket World Cup :D

Back to today, reached campus at around 745 in the morning. Was amongst the first few people to get back on campus. People slowly started trickling into campus before the first lecture. Had 2 lectures of Brand Management (BM) and one each in Ethics in Business (EB) and Mutivariate Data Analysis (MDA). All were taken by visiting faculty. The EB prof. is pretty experienced he is a Harvard MBA pass out and was one of the founding members of IIM-A alongwith Dr. Sarabhai. He was also on the panel that interviewed CK Prahlad! He had a lot of examples to share on ethics and it was really interesting hearing him out. BM is being taken by a relatively young prof. who is from the advertising industry, he had a very structured approach in today's class, hope he continues the same way for other classes as well. MDA is basically QT III , just had an overview of the subject and what to expect over the next 3 months.

After lectures and lunch went to the office to pay off the term fees. Came back to the room and slept for a while. In the evening Maushi and I went to Gulmohar Mall to buy a gift for Jayati who is turning 21 tomorrow. Also went to TGB to buy cakes, yes we always buy 2 cakes, one to smear on the face and the other to eat :D Got back to campus by around 830 and I started off setting my room in order. That took about an hour so. Coming to campus after such a long break means there a lot of goodies brought from home. Since afternoon have been feasting on Gajar Halwa, Sandesh, Chocolates and many other goodies. Am pretty stuffed now!!