Day 185 - 25th January 2011

The day before a rest day is always looked forward to with a lot of anticipation. So the fact that I slept for around 4 hours wasn't too much of a deterrent. The CS workshop today was on identity, nationalism and gender. The part that had all my attention was on how sports has been a unifier for nations and has re-emphasised the concept of imaginary boundaries. So now we all know what my response paper for this paper is going to be about ;-) In the afternoon Rajat, Maushi and I did the recording for 'Tamara Cricket' at the Micavaani studio. Rajat and Maushi did the recording in Hindi which I scripted and Maushi translated. Was good fun, the studio is really good some top class facilities. In the evening we had a workshop on the dissertation that we are supposed to work on in the second year. Don't know how I managed to stay awake during the workshop, felt like I was stuck in a time warp. As is always the case, after the lecture is over all the sleepiness was wiped off :P Decided to go for a walk/jog in the evening, the road to Bopal is being reconstructed, once it's done it would be a brilliant road to ride on as well.

Saw Dhobi Ghat in the night with Mallu, Maushi and Apu at PVR. It's a nice movie, very realisitic not your run of the mill masala flick. The part that I liked was it showed the parts of Bombay that aren't generally shown in movies. Got back to campus and it was the second night of the badminton tournament. Some enterprising people setup a cafe at the Parijat courtyard. They serve desserts, mocktails and hookah :D. It did some really good business on the first day. Have a holiday tomorrow courtesy Republic Day, no holiday after that for another 10 days. Need to make the most of it!

Day 167 - 22nd December 2010

Today's CB paper was quite decent, not heavily oriented towards theory. Most of the questions were application based and fun to answer. After CB spent around an hour or so going through the IGD slides, really didnt expect anything good to come out of the paper. Testing theory for such a subject is completely irrelevant, should be more of a case based approach.

We got our schedule for the next term today. The batch had some issues regarding the time table with Prof. Mathew not teaching us any subject and some other concerns as well. The ARC had to meet up for that to discuss our course of action. We decided to call a batch meet to discuss some of these issues, was a pretty good response,hope something good comes out of it. After the batch meet, Mallu had packed Shikari Tangdi Kabab from Honey9 , so Mallu, Maushi,Kalkar and Kore shared the meal at Chota followed by some random discussions on how engineers are and how engineering jokes will never really be understood by anybody else :D In the midst of all this had to study AM and also work on the OB make up group assignment which I missed in class as I was attending the sports marketing lectures with pgp2(still dont regret it, SRT's brand manager v/s excellence in organizations - which one would you choose? :P). The mood in the batch is already pretty relaxed since we had studied for the AM test earlier and moreover it is the last paper :D

During the course of the day, spoke to a few senior ARC members, got some pretty interesting points of view. Will need to take it forward once we are back next term. For now the only thing on my mind is getting done with tomorrow's paper :P

Day 128 - 14th November 2010

Today's post is by Apu. After reading her post you may want her to take over the reins of MICAlal, and I am willing to take that risk ;-) (Ok before you continue reading you might just want to know that Sanbad -> Maushi , Maldlu -> Malyalee Marauder, Macha-> Yours Truly. )

So well, the day began with at least one thing done right – not missing breakfast, probably the best meal in the MICAn mess. Caught up with the Malayalee Marauder over breakfast table about his antics on the court the previous day;about the much-talked about attack on one of my team co-owners (oh yeah, for those of you who don’t know it yet; three of us, Kamla (yours truly), Bimla and Sakku own a cricket team in the MCL – MICA Cricket League – The Phantoms. “Only fire, no smoke”…yes, we proudly promote the No Smoking campaign as well)…Single class for a Sunday today..and oh boy, we couldn’t have wished for a better class…Last session for the course on Cost and Management Accounting by Prof Sridhar Chari (easily one of the best visiting faculty here)..He wrapped up with a special trademark slideshow on life and changing times & workplaces..He conveyed the fact (without sugarcoating it

whatsoever, mind you) that no MBA is indispensable and that it usually takes less than an hour to fire 20 management professionals across some 9 different international offices...Some of his statements were superb mantras for conduct in career and life..For ex, he enumerated paradoxes of the following ilk :

1) You must welcome change as a rule but not as your ruler

2) You must learn from past mistakes but not lean on your past successes

3) You must stick to your convictions but be ready to abandon your assumptions

4) You must act self-employed but be a team player

5) You must get money to chase you, but never let it catch you.

And it was only befitting that we stood up in ovation in respect and admiration for the man, as he ended his slideshow with what is usually a slide titled “Last Slide” with a slide saying “Chase your passion, not your pension”. Quite a moment that was. One of those few in which you submit to the sheer ingenuity and knowledge and experience of a man worth his salt and acknowledge his greatness for his simplicity at the same time.

Came back all energetic and bubbling with happy thoughts to design the “Alumni of the Day”

poster. We have The MICA Grand Alumni Ahmedabad meeting happening soon. Hence, we plan to introduce really successful MICAns to the students, so as to let everyone know that the two years here are going to be good foundation afterall :D..(in addition to the vacation we so lovingly talk about..)

Today’s alumnus was Mr Amol Gurwara, Head,Operations,EA Mobile..also one of the first to have married a senior MICAn ;-)…By the time we got done with putting the posters up in the campus, it was time for snacks..Played basketball after a really long time after that..felt awesome! Sport can be such a release…and often an under-estimated one, at that…

And then of course, the highlight of the day…So Macha and I decided we were falling prey to the once-in-a-while “blah” claustrophobic feeling in the campus -> hence the urgency to step out for dinner…Maldlu and Sanbad said they’d join us for dessert…We set out with lofty mouth-watering visions of Barbeque Nation, only to find a waiting time of 45 mins (*groan*stomach growl*groan*)..As if that wasn’t unfair (and a term I am forbidden to use here, since it isn’t sophisticated) enough, Upper Crust Café had a waiting time of 30 mins as well. Hence, we traveled across half the city only to end up in a tinier-than-ever Subway, having our regular favourites. My insights, reinforced again : Gujjus are a rather foodie lot, in addition to how filthy rich they are…And of course, a trip to the civilization all the way from MICA is as useless as a comb to Maldlu these days, if you don’t have non-veg food on the way.

Finally met up with these guys at TGB…So, one sizzling brownie later, we were in the mood for extended family pics :- )…Oh and also, found one of the strangest “Ladies” signever...almost

demeaning..Downright mean… (*See picture : -P*)

Maldlu didn’t let us have any good pics at all though, the photo-spoiler that he is..No worries,

Sanbad..soon..sometime soon..Came back to campus almost an hour past midnight..but the trip was worth it..Back in good spirits after good talk and good food, only for a highly vague and boring and pfaffy Services Marketing Assignment…Seven Eight Peas and what not…Met up with Bimla..she’s been busy with her drama<=>Sankalp<=>MICA Theatre practice..

Tried to work, but obviously could not..kept listening to music, randomly updating the MICA Alumni Page on facebook (That reminds me, I have to have to watch The Social Network…too many good reviews about it..)..made a chai trip to Chhota with Macha…looked at photographs (my staple diet) …random mélange of useless activites…

Finally re-re-saw a couple of episodes of “That 70s Show” and decided to re-(MI)-cal-(A)-l the day..

It’s a fine sky tonight..Orion in full nightly resplendence and the stars shining clear and bright..And the moon brought out the lazy hidden poet in me, I swear..It’s a perfect semi-circle with a reddish tinge..no no..no worries, I am not going to rhyme…I have rambled enough already..

Many thanks,Macha…for letting me write here…and thanks to time, for letting us enjoy the extended family outing (Many more to come, as Maldlu said.. :D )…thanks to, I guess, life…for introducing such brilliant people who make it such an interesting deal...more so, with each passing day..

Here’s mesa signing off with a message I received today afternoon from another one’s of God’s own masterpieces…He’s called Kid, as he tells me..

“I want to go back to the time when innocence was natural..

When getting high meant on a swing..

When drinking meant Rasna..

When Dad was the only hero..

When Dad’s shoulder was the highest place on Earth..

When Love was Mum’s hug..

When the only things that could hurt were bleeding knees..

And when Goodbyes only meant till tomorrow..

Life’s changed a lot…Isn’t it?!”

I couldn’t have said it any better,Kid…just couldnt’t have..

Happy Children’s Day!

Day 127 - 13th November 2010

Today's is another 'hatke' post. Jayati Somani is the latest victim of Mallu's tactics on the basketball court and as luck would have it she is the guest writer for today :-D.Steve Waugh was the proponent of mental disintegration but Mallu is the beacon of physical disintegration, he doesn't sledge because he is a sledgehammer :D Jokes apart, in the poor guy's defence all the instances Jayati mentions below were unintentional, nonetheless they provide us one more reason to pull Mallu's leg who at the end of the day takes it like a sport :-)

Chronicles of a Marauder

We all know and have heard of the ‘Mallu’ on Siddharth’s blog before. Yes, he’s the dude with

no hair, a crazy hyena laugh (which has the ability to hound you till the end of time), has different notions about life (Well, yes he does belong to a different era) and what can I say? He’s a little different.

However, what people don’t know about him is that he is also known as the Malyali Marauder.And with good reason.Any girl in and around MICA campus who has felt a searing pain through any part of her body which has left her incapacitated for a minimum of 24 hours has definitely had some sort of a contact with the Marauder( let’s call him MM from now on, shall we?). He is the one to give girls black eyes, broken toes and dislocated jaws. It would be safe to say that many a girl has had a sleepless night because of MM(and not just because of his crazy loud laugh).

Speculation is rife about why or how it so happens that it is always MM who ends up punching any sort of female presence around him. Some say he was once slapped by an older sister and he sees her in every girl’s face. Some say he sees the face of an old flame. Some say he’s plain chauvinistic and wants to wipe out the entire XX chromosome population of the face of the earth. This insane mad doctor mission of obliterating women altogether is obviously accompanied by his repeated attempts to perfect the art of asexual reproduction after which he apparently plans to take over the world- state by state (Kerala comes first obviously!).

Grapevine also has it that he maintains an album of all his victims and crosses out their faces as and when his attack and eventual ambush is complete (evil smile intact while he’s doing so).

It won’t be very long before the police put out a reward on his capture.

Meanwhile- girls- Beware! Hunt him down before he does you.

Get him.

Dead or Alive.

Day 120 - 3rd November 2010

Campus has already started looking empty with people leaving for the Diwali break. The lectures had pretty mediocre attendance and it was difficult not to get caught sleeping for a few people :P. SM was all about the ticket pricing of tickets for the baseball team. Pricing is a pretty interesting topic and ought to be taught more in detail. The CB lecture was inundated with PJ's from the prof. He caught a guy sleeping and told him -"A lion cub is playing with a goat. What did the cub's mother tell him? - Dont play with your food :D and if you continue sleeping I will tell you some more jokes of a similar calibre :-P"

After lectures worked a bit on the DC assignment. Its a group assignment and the work has been distributed equally amongst all the group members so it makes life easier. Haven't been playing any sport for the past 2 weeks so had decided to play tennis today. Played for a good 2 hours, felt really good and I also realized how easy it is to lose touch from the game. Its been getting dark quite early nowadays so had to wrap up by 6. Maushi and I went to Bopal in the evening to buy some stuff got back in time for dinner at the mess which was butter chicken :-)

Palaash is relatively empty now, so was pretty much confined to my room post dinner. Was reading some articles on cricinfo when I chanced upon the scorecard of the first international match I had seen in a stadium. It was the India England test series way back in 1993 :-) I actually remember quite a few of the scores from this game and also feel privileged to have seen Kapil Dev live in action. Later in the night, Mallu Maushi and I met up to have golgappas(which we had packed in the evening) and to kickstart the diwali celebrations in MICA itself. Got back to the room at around 230, will do a little tp now before calling it a day.

Day 118 - 1st November 2010

Back to regular classes after a really hectic week. Had 4 lectures today and as usual CB stole the show. We were shown different ads and studied how the same product was sold in different regions of the country by working on cultural differences. Got done with lectures after which got to catch up with Geeko after quite sometime, she was pretty busy with MICANVAS for the past month and is now finally free. After that had to go to ISCON with Mallu, wanted to give the bike for servicing but decided to do it after the diwali vacations. Wanted to play tennis in the evening but couldn't find any company, so decided to sleep instead :P Woke up at around 630,just in time for snacks. At around 730 got to know that Palaash Corp was having a board meeting at Barbeque Nation to celebrate Kalkar's birthday, could not let the opportunity go by. Hogged like pigs, ensured that we did full paisa vasooli for the 500 bucks per person price tag :-) Got back to campus at around 11, had to read and solve the SM case. The Aila group met at Apu's room to discuss the case. Have some part of it worked out and divided the work. Have submissions coming up over the next 3 days, need to get cracking on those subjects as well! Got done at around 230,back to the room now. Have a late start so can sleep a little more tomorrow ;-)

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 103 - 17th October 2010

First actual rest day of the term,had been to Adalaj on the previous rest day so it doesn't count, could finally wake up at 12 :-D Had breakfast at Chota and planned to laze around through most of the day. Post lunch read some articles on cricinfo. Mallu,Apu and Muashi came over for some general tp and placement related discussions in the afternoon, it was good fun, we are now extended family ;-) Our discussion went on till 930 in the night, the only reason we split was since we had dandiya on campus. Dandiya was good fun, after trying my hand at Garba and Dandiya(I somehow managed to break two sticks,sorry CulComm!) I gave up and started doing what I know best, the visarjan dance. The DJ also complied by "Apdi Pode" and the likes ;-) Got done by around 1 in the night after which I got back to the room. Have a long week ahead 5 back to back days of full day lectures. Hope to wake up on time tomorrow!

During the course of the day it was brought to my notice that although I have been mentioning Maushi on this blog, she hasn't been formally introduced as yet. So here goes-

Sania Narulkar aka Maushi -

She is called Maushi because she is one of the first Maharashtrians I met on campus, it was during the MICANVAS interviews, when our interview slots were one after the other. In return I am called Kaka :P She is one of the most versatile people in our batch, after having graduated from the best architecture college in the country, she decided to chuck it and get into brand management. She is also one of the core members of 4M - MICA Maharashtra Mitra Mandal :D Her claim to fame was as the choreographer of the 'Babli' dance for our freshers. And yeah the easiest way to make quick money is to partner with her for a quiz :-D

Maushi - sorry for not having introduced you earlier, hope all the 'mhaska' above makes up for it ;-)

Day 99 - 13th October 2010

Today was the official launch of the cricket season at MICA, with a match between PGP1 and PGP2. What an anticlimax it turned out to be - we got thrashed! Were bowled out for 89 and PGP2 comfortably chased down the target. To their credit they fielded brilliantly, withh 3 stunning catches. Yours truly couldn't make too much of a contribution, scored only 10 runs. Anyways have 3 months of cricket to look forward to now.

Apart from that had only 3 lectures today, could attend only 2 as quite a few of us got locked out for reaching 5 minutes late for the DC lecture. Utilized the time to finish of some pending work. After the lectures, saw a bit of the India Aus match at Bangalore. Unbelievable series , who would have thought that India could have had a clean sweep against Australia. Slept for a while after that before heading to the play the match.

In the night Mallu, Maushi and I went to NID for their Garba festival. Wanted to see how garba is actually done in Gujju land. It was pretty ok. Cant help but quote Mallu "I've been to funerals with better music", thats Mallu for you at his optimistic best:-P

Day 94 - 8th October

Had only 2 lectures today. One of them was our first lecture on cost accounting. Now based on my experience in FA I wasn't exactly looking forward to this course, however the prof. is really good and I really liked his first lecture. He is an IIM-A alumni and his method of teaching is similar to their style of delivering courses. There are pre reads and cases that need to be done before the class and anybody in class can be questioned on them, so it has to be done! And to add to that he is a very very knowledgable guy with more nearly 40 years of corporate experience, so there is loads to learn from him.

Played cricket in the afternoon, after which I had to take the bike for servicing. But I did everything except that! The service centre was running over capacity so I couldn't leave the bike for servicing, Apu had also come along since she needed to buy some stuff from Bopal, so we decided to go to subway. At subway we called Mallu and Maushi and asked them to meet us at chocolate room. Chocolate room is similar to Mocha where you get milkshakes,pancakes, pizzas and many other things all made from chocolate. Was my first visit there, hogged on death by chocolate pancake and ferroro rocher milkshake. Such impromptu trips are always fun. During the ride through the city noticed a lot of pandals which were very well lit up, Navaratri is going to be fun in this place, looking forward to it!

Day 62 - 27th August 2010

Last day of Markops for this week. Things for our firm went from bad to worse, it was like Lehmann brothers and AIG put together. Just when we thought that our SPI could not go any lower, it reached 167!!! On discussing this with the faculty it turns out that we were focusing more on promoting our new products and had completely neglected improving our existing ones. That worked against it. There were a few positives out of this entire exercise though - got to learn a lot about analysing market research reports, which i found quite interesting, also got to learn a lot from our mistakes :-P Have another round of simulation to be submitted by sunday.

Had TI work to be done in the evening. Worked a bit on the blog and what content kind should be made available on it. Had to run it through the senior team in the night. They seemed to be pretty OK with it, will have another meeting tomorrow to see how to take it forward. Started preparing for tomorrow's QT test after that was done, apparently its an open book test (which is generally not a good sign). Nonetheless, went through some of the things taught in class.

In continuation of introducing my friends, today its the turn of -

Arvind Menon aka Mallu

This guy claims to be 27, though most of us think he has to be at least 34 ;-) He is a really good sport (at least until now), since he has the been the butt of quite a few of my jokes thanks to his receding hairline, without any complaints. His nickname is quite an irony because there is nothing mallu about him - no accent, no communist leanings, no affinity for the gulf etc. Still I guess this name will stick for the next couple of years. Met him also on the first day, while Bulla and I were analyzing Mithunda's Gunda, he kept himself out of the conversation because he doesn't indulge in such 'peabrained/brain dead' movies. Though Im yet to figure out what are the kind of movies that he really likes :-P

Mallu - have you hired that lawyer already?? ;-)