Days 317 - 322 - 1st to 6th November 2011

Back to campus after a two week stint for FIF1. Had the opportunity to go to Silverstone and the Indian GP as well. Feels a little strange to get back to classes as a full time student now. Had the 10th edition of MICANVAS from 3rd to 5th. Managed to get the FIF1 show car for the event. There were two concerts - Avial on 4th and Salim Sulaiman on 5th. Most of the time was spent either at the food court or guarding the car! Had a rest day on 6th which was spent in sending the car back to Bombay and taking stock of the subjects coming up over the next couple of weeks. 

Day 276 -26th July 2011

Woke up at 1030 today and had to take care of some internship work before heading for the 12 o'clock class. Today's CC class was about IMC from a sociological perspective. We discussed about the proliferation of brands and advertisements, about how advertisers are getting frustrated and consumers are getting infuriated. The average time for ads in a half an hour show is now nine minutes, up from 2-3 minutes from the 1980s. Product placements were also discussed with the Walt Disney+Monsters Inc.+ Pepsi versus Time Warner+Harry Potter+Coke case study being discussed. The whole point being that the number of ads and marketing strategies when viewed from a sociological perspective gives one a lot to think about.

The class was followed by a movie screening, today's movie was a French movie - Three colours blue. Was quite zonked out during the movie. Realized that movie appreciation isnt that easy! This movie is a part of a trilogy with the other colours being red and white. They are based on the colours of the French flag with each colour standing for a set of values which are explored in each of these movies.

Post dinner had discussions on committee budgets for Alumni, SCAM and MICANVAS. That took around a couple of hours. After that had to work on the concept note for the dissertation topic that has to be submitted tomorrow. As of now have thought about naming rights for stadiums across the world and its scope in India as a topic. Got done with that at 430. Will tweak it a bit tomorrow before submitting it.

Days 221 to 224 - 4th to 7th March 2011

Been off the blog courtesy Samar which happened over the weekend. Had the NZ Zim game on Friday which was relatively easier to cover as compared to the Aus Zim game. Match got over relatively early, was back on campus by 6 in the evening. Had the opening ceremony for Samar which was quite grand. We also now have a floodlit football field which is a sight to behold, alongwith it the tennis and basketball courts also have floodlights installed. The sports fest was good fun, some really good games in tennis, basketball and football. Eventually MICA Reds won the overall championship with some consistent performances across all sports. Guys in Palaash and Silveroak had to vacate their rooms for the contingents that were coming to campus.

Got back to HQ today morning, feels good to be back home! :P Had a full day of classes with RM and IMC today. In IMC we discussed a case on how Indian coffee was branded to boost export of the commodity. A really interesting real life case. In the evening had to work on the SCM assignment, got done with it pretty soon. Also had to start the process for hostel allocations for next year, hopefully it will be sorted within a week. Have the MICANVAS elections beginning in a little while, wanted to post this one before that since I dont know how much time it will take :P

P.S. Just got to know sometime back that tomorrows classes have been canceled, the joy of an unexpected holiday is unparalleled :D

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 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

Days 113 to 117- 27th to 31st October

As was expected, could not update the blog during MICANVAS. Had to move in with the seniors on the 27th. It is not an easy task at all! Had to move our mattresses as well. The rest of the day was spent in decorating campus for MICANVAS. There was an opening ceremony at midnight at the OAT, me and a few other guys were in charge of the firecrackers for the opening ceremony. So we were the official inauguration team ;-) Had to light them from the terrace of the admin block which is just behind the OAT. The next three days were pure fun, never realized how time flew. The brief for the fest was clear - formal events during the day and informal events during the night. I was in the events sub team for Half Time, the sports marketing event. The informal events were a lot of fun. The all night quiz at the OAT and karaoke night were my favourites. Guys from Palaash sang Sutta at the OAT at 2 in the morning :-P Must have slept for a grand total of 10 hours for the 3 days during the fest. After the all night quiz I crashed at the audi at 430 in the morning. With the AC on it was the most comfortable place to sleep on campus :D There were also a lot of goodies and freebies on offer. I won a USB travel kit for a slogan contest and also a couple of MICANVAS and Aircel T-shirts, there were also coffee mugs from Happily Unmarried. The grand finale was Kailash Kher's concert on the 20th. Guys from PGP1 and PGP2 were in charge of security. I had to man the entrance for MICAns and the VIP box, so didn't miss much of the concert. The concert was good fun, he did his usual numbers, though it was a little short. The concert was followed by the MICANVAS party, but most of us were too tired so didn't dance much :P. Nonetheless stayed up till about 530 in the morning, found that HQ was empty so slept in my own room after 4 days. Never thought I would miss HQ and Palaash so much! Woke up at around 2 in the afternoon, moved my stuff back into the room had lunch at Chota and slept again ! Finally woke up at 9 in the night because there was Biryani in the mess for dinner ;-) Watched a bit of Once upon a time in Mumbai, one of the questions in the quiz was based on Haji Mastan, on whom the movie is based. At midnight there was a birthday celebration in Palaash, but instead of the standard dunking the mattresses that were lying around were put to use. The birthday boy was sandwiched between 5-10 mattresses and everybody fulfilled their childhood fantasies of practicing full fledged WWF moves :-D Also had the re-opening of MICARE, the student run retail unit on campus. Got back to the room after that, read the case for tomorrow's SM class. Dont know what its going to feel like to be in class after the week that just passed!

Day 112 - 26th October 2010

Spent the entire day in MICANVAS concert ticket sales. Went with Mallu and Maushi to Gandhinagar, tried our luck at a couple of colleges - Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Communication and Technology and Deendayal Pandet Petroleum University. Both colleges have an amazing campus, also, Gandhinagar is brilliantly maintained. Got quite a few leads at both the colleges, need to follow up with them over the next couple of days. Bought new sandals from Woodland on the way back. Got back to campus by around 730 after which extended family decided to go out for dinner. Went to a place called Honey9 :-D apart from the name everything else about the place rocked! Awesome tandoori chicken at a really reasonable price. Had to rush back to campus for the events sub team meeting at 10, its now slowly sinking in that MICANVAS is not that far away. Spent the rest of the night packing and getting ready to move out of Palaash for the next 4 days. Feeling very very sleepy, will call it a day now, have another long day ahead tomorrow.

Day 111 - 25th October 2010

Had a 10 o'clock today so could afford to wake up a little late. The DC lecture had a major argument between a bunch of students and the prof. on whether divorce was a development issue or not. The prof. felt that it was an issue but majority of the class felt that the causes of divorce were development issues. It ended with no consensus whatsoever. IGD was all about power,influence and politics about the workplace. Got to some interesting facts about the way the Japanese and Europeans work. Was feeling extremely sleepy by the end of the lecture. Slept for a almost 3 hours in the afternoon. Woke up so that I could see a bit of the MCL game between Smokin Joes and Navy Square Cut, but the match was already over by then. Smokin Joes won by 92 runs.

Went to Bopal in the evening for a haircut. The road to Bopal is such a pleasure to ride on unlike how it was during the monsoon. There was a nice chill in the air as well. Tried to read up a bit about Ayodhya for tomorrow's Imagining India class. MICANVAS is 2 days away and things are now moving in full swing. Had a security meet in the night, this was for the concert on the 30th. A detailed security plan was shown to us. All the guys from PGP1 will be volunteering for security. We will also be moving in to senior hostels for the next 5 days. Have to pack for that as well. Will be going for another round of general sales tomorrow, not sure whether I will be able to update until MICANVAS is over, will try though!

Day 110 - 24th October 2010

Today inadvertently became a rest day. Had only one lecture - QT, which I missed because I overslept. Ended up waking up at 12 in the afternoon, proper sunday wala feeling :-) Tried to understand the concepts that I missed in the QT class, its a lot of excel related work, I never realized that excel is such a powerful tool! Spent the rest of the day doing general tp. Went to Bopal for ice cream after dinner. Had to get back in time for a MICANVAS batch meet. Back in the room now, will go to sleep. The size of this post is indirectly proportional to how sleepy I am feeling right now :P

Day 109 - 23rd October 2010

Last day of a marathon week. Today it was the QT prof's turn to provide the quote of the day - " You see learning linear programming is like trying to kill a tiger. If the bullet hits the tiger in the first go,he is dead. If it doesn't you're dead." CMA was also pretty interesting, had to build a balanced scorecard for MICA. The kind of discussions we have in the CMA class feel like a proper b school classroom discussion where a lot of ideas are exchanged and you actually get to learn a lot from your classmates. Had a 3 hour long siesta, this is not turning out to be a good idea! Need to come out of it. It takes at least 2-3 hours to come back to normal after a siesta. Had to collect a new LAN cable from the IT dept in the evening. Tried studying a bit of QT after that at the library, simplex isnt that simple,its very tedious! Dinner at the mess tonight was global cuisine - mexican corn salad for starters, lung fung soup, pizzas, russian salad and ice cream :D After dinner took my i-pod and went to the Asoka terrace, there was a nice chill in the air today. Was there for about an hour , came back to the room and was seeing some of the entries for the re-imagining India contest for MICANVAS, some really good ones in there. After sometime went back to the Asoka terrace with extended family and snacked on some chivda. The conversation went on till the wee hours of the morning! Fortunately have only one lecture tomorrow and am pretty free for the rest of the day.

Day 108 -22nd October 2010

After sleeping for around 2 hours I surprisingly didn't feel sleepy in the lectures(am I getting used to this schedule??) CB was as entertaining as ever, quote of the day - "In-laws are those people who make you feel like outlaws!" :-P. Its funny no matter how dry a subject is if the prof. is good it seems to becomes so much more interesting, the reverse applies for a good subject and a not so good prof as well. Couldn't sleep in the afternoon because a company had come for a pre placement talk. But could leave early thankfully thanks to the fact that extended family volunteered for ticket sales for the Kailash Kher concert next week at MICANVAS. We had to try our luck at CG road. Selling tickets to strangers is definitely not easy! Maushi and Apu did all the talking, Mallu and I were just silent bystanders, ensuring nothing untoward happens :P Learnt a new range of excuses from 'I'm not in town that day' to 'I dont know who Kailash Kher is':D Apart from sales it also turned out a be foodie expidition, started with Pav Bhaji and Masala Pav at honest(yes there is a chain of fast food joints called honest!), followed by Vada Pav Amdavadi style near Vastrapur lake. The Amdavadi rendition is served with dollops of butter,toasted on a tawa and is served sweet chutney. Went to the Vastrapur lake after that, the surrounding area reminded me of a lot places in Bangalore, was missing the place for some strange reason! The grand finale was salads,pasta and pizza at Papa John's, always wanted to go that place in Bangalore but never got a chance to do so. Was pretty decent, a refreshing change from Dominos and Pizza Hut. The ride back to campus was in Azhar Bhai's rick, with the playlist ranging from Oasis to Bobby McFerrin. We decided to get off and walk the last kilometre back to campus. On a full moon night the road from Bopal coming to campus is a sight to behold! Couldn't get sleep so stayed up for a while reading some articles on cricinfo until 4. I wonder for how long will I be able to survive on such less sleep :P

Day 106 - 20th October 2010

Not the best of days on campus. Phantoms lost the first game of the MCL, was a low scoring thriller. The detailed match report can be found here. Losing is a bad feeling, but we still have a chance to qualify for the next round.Somehow managed to stay awake through four lectures during the day.The match held was immediately after lectures got over. It was too humid today, must have lost at least 2 litres of water just by sweating :P After the match had a MICANVAS events sub team meet, just to brief us on what to expect on D day. Post dinner had the first junior ARC meeting. It was a fruitful discussion and each of us has taken up certain action items. Came to the library after that to do the CMA pre-read for tomorrow's class. Am half asleep as I type this one, hence such a short post, will go back to the room now and call it a day.

Day 101 - 15th October 2010

Woke up at 630 for the first time out here - not to study but to play cricket :-) Had a practice match against the Marlboro Reds which we won with an over to spare. Had almost forgotten what it feels like to play a cricket match early in the morning with dew all over the place. Was good fun though, winning is always a good feeling even when it is a practice match. Lectures began only at 1130 today so had most of the morning free, used the free time to finish off some pending work.

Had our first QT lecture of the term, its the same prof. from the first term who did an excellent job. However today for some reason he was pretty strict with the class today, some people believe this is the after effect of correcting our QT I papers, which could be true. He even sent a stinker to the entire batch after class and marked the admin in Cc.

Apart from that Oorja - our annual cultural fest kicked off today. Had a puppet show on campus today. Have some more events planned for tomorrow and day after as well. Slept for 3 hours in the afternoon and didn't really feel like doing anything in the evening, so started reading the book about what sport teaches us about life. Its been pretty interesting so far. Had a MICANVAS batch meet at midnight regarding volunteers for the events. After that a few of us stayed back to stamp the concert tickets, 1000 of them had to be done. That took about an hour. Back in the room now, nothing much to do, may just go to Chota before calling it a day.

Day 98 - 12th October 2010

The CB lectures get even more interesting by the day! A statement made by the prof. today was a brilliant example of consumer insight - "When a child idolizes Sachin Tendulkar, he doesn't play cricket for 14 hours, he drinks boost!" That was one of the many examples he gave in class and each one of them made so much sense! The other lectures were on SM and DC, both were ok. After lunch had to go meet the communication managers for MICA alongwith TI. Had planned to go to Bopal for some work after that but came back to the room and slept for a good 2 hours.

Went to Bopal in the evening to buy some junk food. Had to come back and design another sports marketing event for MICANVAS. Came up with an idea of branding of stadiums and came up with an event around that, have submitted it to the events team,lets see what happens. After that took part in an online business quiz conducted by IIM Rohtak, was a very well made quiz. This was followed by the MCL meeting where we had to elect four captains from PGP1, the election process was good fun, we even asked the candidates to give speeches :-P Now that the 4 captains have been elected they have to come up with team names and there will be an auction for players over the next couple of days. After that was done got down to the pre read for the Imagining India class. Had to read a piece written by Dr.Ambedkar on whether there is a case for the formation of Pakistan, pretty interesting stuff, should be an interesting discussion in class tomorrow.

Day 97 - 11th October 2010

Woke up today with aches in parts of the body which I never even knew existed! Was a struggle dragging myself to class. First day of the term where we had a full day of lectures. CMA was pretty interesting, the case study approach is an amazing way to teach a subject, of course it also depends on the faculty member teaching it. CB is also taught really well, since the prof. has a lot of industry experience he has some really good real life examples on consumer insight. Imagining India was all about the difference between nationalism and patriotism. We discussed the case of Pakistan, was a really interesting discussion, but it is also the class which has maximum DCP which can get quite entertaining ;-)

Most of the afternoon was spent designing a sports marketing event for MICANVAS and then pitching for sponsors. Got to learn a lot from the experience. The event has to be designed based on the sponsors in mind so had to come up with a couple of events and will have to design another event tomorrow. Had a batch meet which was to discuss the formation of an Academic Review Committee (ARC), elections will be held for that pretty soon, have sent in an EOI. That was followed by a TI meeting. Have a lot to do wrt interface as well this sem. After that got back to designing the sports marketing event. Before I could realise it was 430 in the morning, its only the beginning of the term and have already reached that phase where I am not sleeping before 4!

!

Day 93 - 7th October 2010

This is the busiest of all three terms when it comes to extra curricular activities- we have the MICA Cricket League(MCL), MICANVAS, Sankalp and the grand alumni meet in that order. MCL practice has been happening for the past couple of days, there will be 4 teams formed from PGP1 and there will be 8 teams in all, 3 more teams from PGP2 and one which will be a combination of the other courses. MICANVAS is the annual fest, which is supposed to be 3 of the best days on campus. The grand finale is Adrenalin, the music concert, this year Kailash Kher will be performing. Had a batch meet with the MICANVAS senior team today, we were told what to expect for the next 20 days i.e until the fest begins. Palaash and Parijat will have to be vacated for the participants. We will have to move in with our room baaps for those 3 days, but then again nobody sleeps during MICANVAS :-P.

Apart from the extra curricular activities we also have some pretty interesting subjects this term with good faculty as well. One such subject is Imagining India, the reading material has some pretty interesting articles, the course will consist of panel discussions on the articles given in the book. The panelists will be a group of students who would have prepared their views based on the reading material, its a very interesting way of learning a subject.

Apart from that a pretty routine day, have gotten back to the routine of clocking in less than 4 hours of sleep by doing absolutely nothing :-D

Day 23 - 19th July 2010

10.30 a.m. - Wake up to get placement data verified.
11.30 a.m.- Come back and hit the sack again.
1 p.m. - Lunch
1.30 p.m. - Siesta
4p.m - Pushed myself out of bed, though would have loved to continue sleeping!

In the evening decided to go for a haircut. This place is so cheap! What used to cost me 100 bucks in Bangalore costs 30 bucks out here(and he threw in a free head massage), talk about value for money :-D. During the course of the day also got to know that I didn't make the cut for MICANVAS. Guess I screwed up my second round interview/assignment,cant help it now. Other committee selections have also started, don't think I'll be applying for any of them now. Would definitely volunteer for events though.

Lectures again from tomorrow, just saw the time table - got a pretty rigorous week ahead!

Day 21 - 17th July 2010

I just realized that most of my posts have had something or the other to do with sleep, or rather the lack of it. For a change today morning I woke up after sleeping for 10 hours! Guess all the accumulated loss of sleep came back to hit me. Could afford to sleep for so long as we had our first lecture at 1130. Have been having an overload of Quantitative Techniques over the past couple of days. We even had tutorial in the afternoon which turned out to be an open book exam! :-D

We have our CulNite tomorrow where PGP1 puts up a show for PGP2. I am taking part in a group dance on this song,where my visarjan dance skills can be put to good use. Had a 2 hour long practice session for that. Hope it comes off well tomorrow. During the course of the day also got to know that I had another MICANVAS interview at 145 in the night. The interview lasted for about half an hour and I was given 2 more assignments to do with a 5 a.m deadline. Came to the library to work on it.

It's 4 o'clock now and I have just mailed them the assignment. Guess the law of averages has ensured that I my average amount of sleep for the past week remains below 4 :-P Might go to Chota's to grab a bite before calling it a day.

Day 19 - 15th July 2010

Second night out in the past 5 days! Its 6 in the morning as I post this one. Had my MICANVAS interview at 245 in the morning following which I was given an assignment which had to be submitted before 9 a.m. Headed to the library after my interview to work on the assignment, it was quite an interesting one, regarding how I would go about selling different kinds of events to corporates for sponsorship. Had to research a bit on that before I could actually come up with a plan. Im not very sure how my interview went, it didn't last for too long, will know whether thats a good or bad thing pretty soon.

Apart from that had a workshop on creative strategy during the day. We learnt a bit about how ads work on and use human emotions to get their message across. This was a day long workshop and we will be having a similar one next week.

Need to head back to the hostel now and get at least an hour's sleep. Have lectures from 9 to 4 out of which 3 hours will be in Quantitative techniques! Dont know how Im going to keep myself awake for the whole day.