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!!

Day 143 - 29th November 2010

Had a late start today so could take the liberty of waking up at 915. In the CR lecture when the prof. what to know that it was a classmate's birthday he immediately sent somebody to buy chocolates for the entire class! Very nice gesture on his part :-) The AM prof. wasn't keeping too well so she decided to take a surprise test and a class presentation. In the test we were expected to write about what we understood about agency structures nowadays based on the session taken by the VP of Ogilvy. The class had earlier been divided into 6 groups and one of the pre reads was based on 6 different consumer behaviour theories. Each group had to present on a theory. This method of learning I've realised is really effective, definitely better than cramming last minute before an end term examination. Had our first lecture on Research Methodologies (RM) today. It is going to be split into parts, one this term and the other will be done next term.

In the afternoon had an interface meeting. We have the Ahmedabad city meet coming up tomorrow so had a briefing on what all needed to be done. The meeting went on for more than an hour. By the time I got back to the room, I was dead tired. Didn't even realise when I dozed off. Woke up at around 7. Worked a bit on the IMT competition before heading out for dinner with Apu,Mallu and Maushi. Went to Millenium, a dhaba on SG road famous for its tandoori chicken. This was followed by desserts at TGB, fell in love with the chocolate barbeque out there.

Got back to campus by around midnight and had to pick up where we left off on the IMT competition. Came up with a different concept for the presentation so started afresh, this alongwith the fact that we all are novices at prezi made things a little difficult but after 3 hours of effort we finally got the hang of using Prezi! The satisfaction of having struggled and achieved something reminds me of my days at work where days were spent on resolving an issue but in the end when it did get resolved the accompanying sense of satisfaction made it feel like it was well worth it :-) It's 415 now but am not feeling sleepy at all nonetheless shall try and hit the sack now, have a long day ahead tomorrow with a full day of lectures and the Ahmedabad city meet.

Day 58 - 23rd August 2010

There are days when you unexpectedly find yourself to be too free, today was one of those days. One of our lectures got canceled thanks to which we were free by 1130, as it is there was a TGIF feeling to the day because tomorrow is a rest day, it just got better because of getting free early. Since it was Onam, 13 of us went to a Mallu mess for lunch. I am not a big fan of south indian food, but once in a while its nice to hog on rice,sambar,curry etc. Also eating off a banana leaf and with your hands is fun ;-) After lunch a few of us went to the coffee shop at TGB for dessert, had chocolate barbeque which was too good to be true, 25 bucks for three chocolate balls served on a straw like skewer! :D Thats the good part about Gujarat, but the flip side is that the also place claims to be vegetarian sushi shop! The Japs would faint if they ever went to that place.

Got back to campus by 530 and tried to make up for the hogging by spending some time at the tennis court. Was very very humid and the colour of my shirt went from dark blue to darker blue. But nonetheless felt good to play tennis again. Post dinner time was spent generally chit chatting and listening to some good music with a few friends. The day ended (or the next day began) by playing cricket with absolutely no lights at the silveroak courtyard at 3 in the morning/night.