Day 396 - 3rd February 2012

The routine of getting up early for the past week didn't help when I wanted to sleep in and wake up post noon. Spent the first half of the day wrapping up some MCSA work. Played tennis in the afternoon for a long time - almost 3 hours! Was good fun considering I won't be able to play for the next 10 days. Went to Bopal for a haircut after the game. As is the case so many times I am unable to to judge how short the hair is cut since I am dont wear my specs. Was subject to a super crew cut today. Got back to campus by 8. Dinner was at Millenium  where I discovered a new dish today - Shikari Kebab. Had to come back and pack for the impending trip - will be away for 10 days courtesy two weddings in the family. The winter party was held in the Palaash courtyard today. Stayed up till 4 in the morning by when it was time to leave for the airport.

Will be back after 10 days, see you on the other side!

Day 281 - 31st July 2011

Today was the first day of Managing Media Businesses(MMB), a core concentration elective in the media management area. An alumnus of the college who runs his own media firm is conducting this course. The discussions initially revolved around the fact whether media is a product or a service and what is more important content or distribution. He gave us some more fundas about the media space before dividing us into groups who then had to pitch to him (a VC) about a new media business that we wanted to launch. Our group worked on an in car entertainment system for private taxis. He grilled us like a VC would and we realised how much thought and effort needs to go into making a business plan.

Class got done at 530 after which we had Palaash dance practice. The freshers culnite was supposed to begin at 10 in the night and we had one last chance to get the dance right :P Culnite was OK, I personally feel it got stretched a little. It went on for nearly 2 and a half hours and culminated in the Palaash dance. A special mention also needs to be made for the Parijat dance, they put up a fantabulous performance and the most commendable part was they maintained the element of surprise till the very end! Culnite was followed by the freshers party. Have a class tomorrow as well so cant stay up for too long.

Day 280 - 30th July 2011

• Last session on AFM - capital markets
• Lunch at Mainland China (bbuurrrrpp)
• Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - one time watch
• Palaash dance practice - we seem to be improving :P
• Birthday celebration in Kachnar - awesome chocolate cake from TGB
• FIF1 work
• Will read a bit of Pundits from Pakistan before calling it a day

Day 279 - 29th July 2011

The AFM sessions today dealt with 2 topics - budgeting and M&As. We had cases on both topics to be read before class. The case on budgets seemed a little difficult, although the company in question was making phenomenal growth its profit margin was quite low and the reasons for that had to be analysed. In M&As we were given a case on the HLL-TOMCO - the first merger to place post the liberalisation. Again a pretty interesting case with a lot of learning. Classes for the day were done by 12 after which had to take care of some MCSA work which took about an hour.

Could squeeze in a siesta today as well, a good hour and a half of it. Had some more MCSA work regarding certain electives for the fifth term which kept me busy in the evening. During the course of the day got to know about a book on cricket and sports marketing that was launched recentlly, used that as an excuse to venture out to Crossword. It started raining after I reached crossword so used that as an excuse to stop by at McDonalds next door and grab a bite while waiting for the rain to subside.

Got back to campus by 930. MICARE had its opening night tonight and they were distributing free coke float and souvenirs. After that we had to practice for the Palaash dance in the audi which was amazing fun. Also had a birthday celebration in Amaltas. Got back to the room by 2 and decided to start working towards clearing the backlog of books that I have to read. Started reading Pundits from Pakistan - a journalist's account of the Indian cricket team's tour of Pakistan in 2004. Read that for a bit before calling it a day.

Day 221 - 3rd March 2011

Was feeling extremely drowsy throughout the lectures today. However there were some interesting things that happened that kept me awake. In the CSMM class we had a Stanford alumnus to speak to us about marketing strategies in the digital era. He left us with some really good insights. ME was about the print industry in the country and had some major class participation.

The MCL final took place in the afternoon. It was between Phantoms and Lucky Strike. Unfortunately it turned out to be a pretty one sided affair with the strikes winning it quite easily in the end. They played some really good cricket and were helped by some poor fielding on our side. Anyways that brings this years MCL journey to an end for us. It was good fun while it lasted. Slept for a bit in the evening before we had to start working on the RM group assignment. Distributed work amongst ourselves and that got done by about midnight. After that had to go the audi for the Sankalp directors elections.

Have been clearing up my room for the past hour or so on account of Samar-the sports fest at MICA. All rooms in Palaash have to be vacated for the participants from other colleges. Have a long day tomorrow, there is a NZ Zim game in Ahmedabad and I need to be at the stadium by 830 since its a day game!

Day 217 - 27th February 2011

One of the speakers from TEDx gave a talk to our class today as a part of the IMC course. He has a new product to be launched in the market soon and our group project is to come up with an IMC plan for the same. Its a really interesting product, you can find out more about his company here.

Had an IMC lecture after that which was on experiential marketing. Once again the prof. gave some really good examples that he had worked on to give us an idea how things really work in the industry. There was also an interesting discussion branded spaces (Niketown, Disneyland etc.)
Spent the rest of the afternoon watching the India England World Cup game. Was an absolute treat watching Sachin score a century. Before the world cup began he promised that he would be more aggressive, today he showed signs of what he meant. His innings was brilliantly paced, it took him sometime to get into his groove but once he was set we got to see some vintage Tendulkar strokes. My favourite was the cover drive of Collingwood for six, the shot had no follow through and still it traveled the distance. That was followed by 3 attacking slog sweeps between the mid on and midwicket area. After the foundation that he laid 350 looked like a par score, but some good bowling from the English bowlers ensured that we were wrapped up for less than that with a ball to spare and how crucial did that turn out to be! I caught up with the last 10 overs of the English chase. At that point of time it seemed that it was pretty much in the bag for them but then strange things happen in cricket, especially when the batting team decides to take the batting powerplay! Good bowling from Zaheer and the batsmen caving in under pressure brought the match alive and it went down to the last over. The end result was a tie which I felt was a fair result. Both teams deserved to win. Kudos to Andrew Strauss for the innings that he played, if ever there was a captain's knock we saw one today.

After the match started working on the EB group presentation for tomorrow (yes, we have our priorities in life sorted ;-) ) That went on for a couple of hours and was interspersed with the 5 a side football tournament in the Palaash courtyard. Each wing of both floors formed teams and played in a knockout format, was good fun to watch :-P Back to the routine of classes from tomorrow, need to get some sleep now!

Day 216 - 26th February 2011

Made up for all the lost sleep over the past 3-4 days. Woke up at 1230! Went to Bopal to get the bike cleaned, something that was long overdue. We also had TEDx happening on campus today, couldn't attend most of the talks though I did see Euphoria perform live in the audi, which was really good fun. After that Palash Sen came to Palaash for a Palash@Palaash performance, where we sang the Palaash song for him :D One of those days when you realise how lucky you are to be at a place like this. Post dinner some ARC work and Coco duties for the IMC course kept me busy, a rest day well spent.

Day 207 - 17th February 2011

Once again had work deja vouz in the SCM class today when the topic being discussed was transportation management. Brought back fond memories :D

The highlight of the day though was dinner at honey9. I cant help but reiterate how high the food/bill ratio is over there, especially when u take light eaters along ;-) Came back to campus at around 11 and started working on the IPL article for WARC. Lots of data mining needs to be done! Had another birthday celebration in Palaash, was very sombre compared to last night's drama. :P

Day 206 - 16th February 2011

Today's highlight was the uparwalon v/s neechewalon exchange in Palaash. It had been a while since we exercised our lungs. :P What started as a birthday celebration turned into one of the most epic battles between the ground and first floor residents. Though it ended on kind of a sad note. Luckily no serious damage was caused.

Apart from that a pretty routine day in terms of lectures. Dinner in the mess was brilliant to say the least. By far the best chinese food they have ever made and to top it up, vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Post dinner have been sitting in the library collecting data for the IPL article for WARC. Was good fun, getting to explore excel a bit as well. Will continue the rest of the work tomorrow.

Day 204 - 14th February 2010

Had our first set of sessions on Supply Chain Management (SCM) today. It's being taken by a Prof. from Spain. Was quite interesting, laid out the basics of the course and then gave a case study to discuss. Lectures got done 4 today after which I read a bit of the book on how the Brand David Beckham was built.

In the evening went to Bopal and the city with Maushi for some work. Had to go to the mobile shop to exchange my phone cover and though it was open today (unlike yesterday), they didn't have any new covers in stock! Looks like getting a cover for this phone is jinxed! Came back to campus by around 8, just in time for the Valentine's day festivities organised by Culcomm. They had arranged for some couple games in Palaash, not necessarily official couples, it could have been even friends and room mates. Even the people at the mess got into the mood with candlelight dinners and a special menu to go with it. Talk about a complete 360 degree Valentine's day campaign, no place better than a marketing school to do it ;-)

Post dinner came to the library to work on the BM assignment. The book on Beckham has been quite useful, it also helped me increase my knowledge about football (which is miniscule to say the least) Have completed some part of the assignment, posting this one from the library, will head back to the room now for some shut eye.

Day 203 - 13th February 2010

Rest days after a grueling week are always good. Woke up in time for lunch. After that headed to the library to work on the CSW final paper. That went on till about 530, it was interspersed with some youtube videos. In the evening had to go to the city, had bought a phone cover yesterday which I realised was faulty today. Rode half way across the city to get it exchanged only to see that the store was shut! Will go sometime during the week now. Started reading a book on Brand David Beckham which is also my topic for the upcoming BM assignment. It's a really nice read, almost halfway through with the book now.

Its strange how I've celebrated stuff which I never would have before coming to MICA. At midnight all the guys from Palaash went to the Parijat courtyard with a bouquet of roses and candles arranged in a heart shape, to celebrate Valentine's day :D The theme was Palaash loves Parijat :P Enthu people started singing all corny love songs with the guys in the courtyard and the girls on the first floor. Good fun it was. Have been doing random tp since then. Will listen to some music and then crash in a bit.

Day 168 - 23rd December 2010

AM paper was pretty OK. The instructions at the beginning of the paper would have put anyone at ease. Here's what they were -

1.Examples and Explanations should be like - "No confusion, Great Combination."

2. 30 sec/20sec/10 sec are ad timings,keep your answers also likewise - short and crisp!

3. Do not "write for charity" - focus only on your pen and paper :)

At the end of every page of the answer sheet there was a 'Thank you :)' - talk about driving home a point ;)

Paper was for only one and a half hours, so it got done pretty fast. The scenes after this paper weren't as ecstatic as the ones in the first term. Though we did do something symbolic in Palaash which cannot be shared on this blog ;-) I had an Interface meeting with the people who would be conducting the Micampaign city meets in Delhi,Chennai,Hyderabad and Pune. Post that extended family decided to go out for lunch. Now in 2 states, the book by Chetan Bhagat we had read about this place called Topaz where they go to eat Tandoori Chicken and roomali roti, so we decided to go there for lunch. On reaching the place we realised that the place is a 'pure veg.' restaurant :-(. Guess 2 states was more fictional than we had imagined! Anyways the food wasn't that bad either. From there we went to Cad-B for desserts. Had to rush back to campus since I had to pack and leave for the airport. Have a 15 day break but also have assignments to be done in the holidays and need to go to Sawantwadi for one of them. Anyways looking forward to catch up on some sleep and hog on homefood.

Here's wishing you a merry christmas and a happy new year! See you on the other side.

Day 161 - 16th December 2010

Study leave today and it reminded me of my study leave days during engineering. Most of the day was spent in the room studying. Have SM and CR tomorrow, SM is a one hour MCQ paper with 20% weightage overall and by around 9 in the night someone had managed to get a slide deck from the publishers of the text book. Its amazing how resourceful and efficient people become during exams ;-) Also managed to finish the Imagining India assignment today, will go through it once again tomorrow or day after before submitting it. Also had to submit an AM assignment in which we had to play the role of an account planner and write a creative brief for Bru instant coffee.

The highlight of the day though had nothing to do with MICA. At around 1130 in the night got a call from an ex-colleague, there were some major issues at work which needed to be resolved soon. Yours truly managed to give remote support from here and the work got done :D Was surprised to see how much I still remembered! Sports marketing nahi to SAP hi sahi ;-) Had a birthday celebration in Palaash at midnight. Birthdays during the exams aren't the best thing that can happen to a person plus one of the birthday boys is a founding member of PJComm, the unofficial committee which takes the trouble of sending one PJ a day to the entire batch. So you can imagine the amount of frustration that was vented out. :D

Day 121 - 4th November 2010

Last day before the diwali break and campus already has a deserted look. Had only 2 lectures in the morning, a lot of people left in the afternoon. My flight was in the evening so had some time to kill. Slept for an hour or so in the afternoon, Palaash seemed to be pretty empty by the time I had to leave. A very very laid back day. Have a 3 day break for diwali now, a nice little vacation home never hurt anybody ;-)

Day 119 - 2nd November 2010

One of the most lethargic days since college has begun. Felt drowsy throughout the day. Somehow managed to sit through all lectures(was in half a mind to bunk a half way through the day). A friend from Bombay,Priya had come to campus for some Art of Living work. She is a MICA alumnus and was getting all nostalgic about the campus and her various hangouts. Made me wonder how it would be for us when we come back to this place after 3-4 years.

MCL started off again today after a break due to MICANVAS. A really really close match between India Kings (PGP1) and Lucky Strikes (PGP2), strikes ended up winning by 1 run. Its an unbelievable trend that games follow, where the team batting second chasing a total of around 90 just collapses when everything seems to be going their way. The strikes have some innovative ways of getting under the skin of the opposition, when they were in a tough spot they used the spectator sledging to create an Inzamam like scenario where one of their players ran into the spectators with a stump in his hand :D Talk about it being the gentleman's game ;-) Anyways these things stay on the field only.

In the night we had an impromptu unplugged session at Palaash, was amazing fun. People from as far as Silver Oak could hear us and came to see what the tamasha was all about :-) After that had to get down to assignment submissions. Had to work out some pricing strategies for a baseball team,pretty interesting stuff. Went to Chota for Paratha and Burji at around 2 in the night, the weather is brilliant in the night, a nice chill in the air. Need to get my sweater when I go back home in a couple of days :-)

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 69 - 3rd September 2010

The IMEI presentation went off pretty well today. The prof. was quite impressed with our work and our understanding of the topic. Whenever we are done with an assignment/presentation/submission there is a sense of relief, the kind that you generally feel after the last exam in school or college. Today was one such day as well. After the presentation a few of us went to Mirch Masala for lunch. Had heard a lot about the place, turned out to be pretty decent, one of the few places in Ahmedabad that actually serves non-veg food. Had a really heavy lunch which needed to be given due respect (read as siesta).

Wrote a movie review in the evening and did some general tp as well. Watched some cricket videos on youtube after a really long time, found this one - Sachin walking in to bat at the Wankhede, something that will always give me goosebumps :-) PlaceComm had called for another batch meet in the night, same agenda as last night where seniors share their summer internship experiences. That got done by around 1 after which I headed to the library to work on the MICAMINDS project, the deadline has been extended till tomorrow midnight. That took a couple of hours to do. Need to give some finishing touches tomorrow. Will head back to Palaash now, have two lectures in the audi tomorrow, hope I dont doze off there ;-)

Day 67 - 1st September 2010

Another day, another surprise test! This time it was the turn of SSC. Another very weird test -4 questions, 5 minutes, MCQ's and 5 mins! This subject so far has dealt with sociology and anthropology, not something that I have been able to grasp too fast, so the outcome of the test will be quite obvious ;-) Now just need to hope and pray that there are others like me as well.

Slept for a good two and a half hours in the afternoon. Decided to get some serious work done in the evening, so headed to the library to work on some of the movie reviews. Unfortunately that was all that I could do. One thing after another started coming up and before I knew it, it was midnight! It was a friend's birthday in Palaash, so the usual celebrations happened. A new tradition was started today, anybody who turns 21 in Palaash will also enter into holy matrimony with Shakuntala :D The cake that was cut was supremely delicious to say the least, with layers and layers of chocolate. Since tomorrow is a rest day, spent the rest of the night doing tp with a few friends before calling it a day at 430 a.m :P

Day 59 - 24th August 2010

After a long time had a rest day with no submissions on the next day. Most of the day was spent outside campus. A friend of mine returning from Pune, went to the airport(drove his car) to pick him up. Driving in a new city is a good experience, Ahmedabad comes very close to Pune when it comes to traffic discipline. Throughout the drive I was reminded of Russell Peter's joke about traffic lights in India - they are optional :-D In the evening went to city on my bike to pick up a birthday cake for a friend. Since the bike has come every outing has ended with me coming back drenched! Today was the worst of those experiences, it started pouring when we were riding on the highway, there was no place where we could stop and wait for the rains to subside. Had no choice but to keep riding, everything and I mean everything got drenched :-D Hostel birthday celebrations never cease to be fun. Today's highlight was the guys from Palaash refusing to enter Parijat because of some incidents that took place last week ;-) We even sang happy birthday from the badi court, it was only when the cake was brought out did the resistance cave in.
The cake cutting was followed by a dancing session in the Parijat courtyard and then some tp at a friend's room.

Rest day's get over too fast! I thought I could make up for some lost sleep today but I guess I have just accumulated more sleep to catch up on.

Day 50 - 15th August 2010

Happy Independence Day and Happy half century for MICAlal ;-) Cant seem to remember the last time I celebrated I-day. In spite of it being a rest day I woke up at 8 for the function organised by CulComm. They had invited around 300 school children from the neighbouring areas on campus for the flag hoisting ceremony. The function got done by around 11 after which had to send a writeup for TI. During the course of the afternoon got to know that our mini vacation at Asoka had been brought to an end and we had to move back to Palaash. I had actually started missing life at Palaash and Im quite happy to be back. The only thing I'll miss about Asoka is the attached bathroom ;-) Moved back after lunch which took about half an hour.

Tried working on the PM assignment which was like fighting a losing battle against the impending stupor. Ended up sleeping for an hour or so, would have been longer had I not been woken up by phone calls from friends calling me to the football field to cheer MICA in a match against NIRMA. The match was good fun, we ended up beating them 5-1, our poor goalkeeper got so frustrated because after the first goal he had absolutely no work to do :-P Started working earnestly on the assignment after the match. Spent a couple of hours on researching about the different service offerings of airlines in the India UK sector, which was the second part of the assignment (for the first part pls. refer to day 49)

LitComm had organised a quiz in the night at the audi. A friend and I decided to go for the quiz at 1010 p.m while the deadline was at 1015 p.m. My luck with quizzes, when it comes to clearing the first round, has been quite good over the past week. Turns out that I had a brilliant partner and all I had to do was offer moral support :-) My only contribution was two answers in the elimination round, for the remaining questions all I did was agree with what she said. We made it to the top 5 and ended up finishing in joint third place. Unfortunately only the top 2 teams get cash prizes. Nonetheless that was much more than I would have bargained for, and I have promised my partner a treat at Chota for her stellar performance and letting me tag along :-D

After the quiz tried to give the finishing touches to my assignment, Im getting this feeling that its not too long and I could have done a better job. Anyways will know if Im right when the grades are announced.

To commemorate 50 days at MICA I would like to post this song , I have been listening to it on loop for the past 3 hours. Until tomorrow, adios!