Day 166 - 21st December 2010

The OB paper didnt have too many surprises since it was based on a case which we had read anyways. 4 questions 10 marks each. Though the prof. still asked us questions which expected us to know the exact theory from the textbook something which is definitely not required for a subject like OB, as long as someone knows what the right thing to do is how does it matter whether I know that my organization is pursuing competitive excellence or creative excellence :P Anyways more than the OB it was the CB preparation that everyone was dreading. Started studying CB in the afternoon itself, had nearly 500 slides to cover, relived the engineering days when certain 'irrelevant' topics were left in choice :D One of the chapters on personality had theories which were propounded by psychologists like Freud, Jung,Adler and Allport. Some pretty interesting stuff. But then after a point it reached saturation point what with cramming about motivation,personality,percerption,culture,learning and all that jazz! The frustration levels of the batch were quite evident on facebook and on micamail chat statuses. :D Maushi's status read - "The irony of forgetting everything you read about memory" The frustration levels in Palaash also were quite high, as is the case in such situations there was random screaming of expletives, whistle blowing, dancing et all. Today though it went one step ahead with the Coco of the subject- Bhandu being brought out of his room and an unsuccessful dunking attempt being made. By midnight my eyes started burning so decided to go to Chota for a chai, have been doing random tp since then, will just skim through CB once again before calling it a day. In all of this we seem to have forgotten that there is another paper tomorrow afternoon - IGD but then we have 2 hours between the papers so bahut time hai! ;-)

Day 165 - 20th December 2010

Today's QT paper was an absolute disaster. It was a 50 mark paper with 100% weightage :-S And to add to it there was a problem on simplex linear programming for 30 marks! Had practiced a decent number of sums yesterday and was relatively confident of solving the sum, but then while forming the equations there was one condition in the problem which I did not read and that changed the entire course of the solution. Could not solve the sum completely but attempted the theory questions, should hopefully get some marks there. Came out of the exam hall and realised the mistake I made and also realised that the paper wasn't good for majority of the batch. Micamail was flooded with people asking for a make up assignment since having a 100% weightage for such a paper is unfair. Anyways lets see what happens. Didn't study much of DC, in fact I slept off for a while, read a few of the slides half an hour before the exam. The DC paper was OK, pretty much on expected lines.

Had to submit the Imagining India essay as well today, managed to write 3045 words! :D In the evening we got a mail which had a case study for tomorrow's OB exam. Finally a real life case for the subject! It's a good thing that we dont have to mug up theory for such a subject, because it is of absolutely no use. Read the case in the night and kept watching videos on youtube of SRT's innings. Was a pretty light day in terms of preparing for the exam, but its going to be exactly the opposite tomorrow when we have to prepare for CB and IGD. It's going to be a mugfest!

Day 144 - 30th November 2010

Pretty long day today. After a full day of lectures had the Ahmedabad city meet for MICA aspirants as well. In AM we learnt about the building blocks structure while analysing a brand, its a tool that makes life simpler when people have to think about what they want their advertising to communicate. Had our last lecture of OB today, didn't see it coming. It was only when the prof. showed us the last slide did we realise that it was the last time she would be teaching us at MICA. In the RM lecture the prof. looked at me and said, "All these days I have been waiting for Siddharth to go off to sleep so that I can say Wake up Sid! But he has never given me a chance!" :P Hope that chance never comes :D

After class had to make arrangements for the Ahmedabad city meet. Few of us had to go to ISCON mall where a bus had been arranged to bring the aspirants to campus. Had a pretty decent turnout considering there it was a weekday afternoon and there was a rickshaw strike in the city. It reminded of the time when I was on the other side of the table ;-) Good fun interacting with them though. Since this was pretty successful there are more meets now planned.

Have the mother pious lady panel discussion tomorrow,so read a bit of the book but am feeling awefully sleepy right now. Will hit the sack early tonight and hope to wake up early tomorrow!

Day 137 - 23rd November 2010

Back to regular classes after nice break. Had a double AM lecture in the morning and as usual they were quite interesting. The lecture was all about marketing of mobile phones and how the consumers are segmented based on buying behaviour unlike other products where there are the standard segmentations. I could actually put myself in each of the buying behaviour zones based on my age or more importantly based on whether I was earning or not ;-) CB and OB were pretty OK with a lot of people in class being caught sleeping. Can't blame them, the weather has been so good over here that it feels like an insult to it if we sit for classes. Apparently even Bangalore is not as pleasant as it is over here right now!

In th afternoon had to make a press release for Interface after which there was a meeting regarding the city meets that we would be conducting. Got done with that by about 430, came back to the room and read a bit of AM for tomorrow's class. Slept for an hour or so in the evening before going to the gym.

It's PPO season now and today we got to know that Kaushik (guest writer from last week) got a PPO from L'Oreal! Congratulations Kaushik :-D To celebrate there was a party in Amaltas. From there went to Chota at around 3 for some chicken pakoda and nimbu paani. Got back to the room by 4, have a late start tomorrow,should hit the sack now.

Day 90 - 4th October 2010

First day of term II. Was relatively free in the morning since the registration and fees payment got done quite fast. Had only two lectures which started at 1130 in the morning - Organization Behaviour and Consumer Behaviour. CB seems to be a pretty interesting subject and the prof. is also quite knowledgeable. He has requested the class to sit with their nametags in front of the desk otherwise he would call them by names he would deem appropriate like Ram Bharose :-P Saw a bit of the India Aus test match after lunch but couldn't fight the urge to resist a siesta. Was woken up by a friend at around 530 as we had been called for Interface work. After that headed to play cricket, the ground looks prim and proper and is all set for the MICA cricket league (MCL) which should begin next week. Realised that my stamina level is quite low, need to work on it!

A few of us made plans to watch Robot at PVR in the evening. The plan got extended to having dinner as well. What initially started as a group of four ended becoming a group of 10 - guess thats the Rajnikant effect :-) As for the movie there's only one way to sum it up - on a Monday night for a 10 o'clock show in a city like Ahmedabad it was housefull! Some of the visual effects were brilliant and the lyrics for all songs were hilarious - they covered everything from Einstein to Asimov, protons and neutrons to Kilamanjaro and Mohenjo Daro !! Was good fun watching it in a packed theatre, the audience would start clapping at some of thr typical Rajni scenes and the movie even received a standing ovation at the end. Got back to campus by around 130, classes start from 9 tomorrow, back to the grind!!

Day 33 - 29th July 2010

So far this week, every day seems to be like the previous day. Get to class by 9, try not to sleep or if sleeping try not to get caught sleeping, keep looking at the clock to see how much time is left, try to pay attention, that lasts for a maximum of 10 minutes and then drift away in to some random thoughts only to be snapped out of it when the prof. starts asking questions to people at random. Having your name tag in front your seat is a huge disadvantage in this regard. That was the story of my PM and OB class in the morning. Luckily didn't get asked any questions, but need to say something in the OB class at least, the grades are also determined by class participation. CT in the afternoon was a continuation of yesterday's class about the evolution of media and different models used for the dissemination or sometimes even distortion of information. I also realised today that the 1-2 minute power naps that involuntarily take place are quite useful - they help me stay awake for the next 10-15 mins :D Today's movie screening was a German movie called funny games, an extremely violent movie with hardly any violence in it. Personally I didn't like the movie much, found it to be too negative.

Ever since classes have started in full swing I haven't been able to play tennis, partly because of the timings and the weather. Felt a little guilty about that today so decided to go for a jog in the evening. Was good fun, explored a couple of places outside campus and in the process found Harshad Mehta's brother's bungalow. After getting back decided to work on my CV. Even though its a one pager, its no easy task! Took more than 2 hours to come up with a career objective and Im still not happy with it. Have to submit it noon tomorrow, so still have some time to think about it. Right now will try and go to sleep so that the power naps in tomorrow's lectures are lesser in number :-)