Day 246 - 30th March 2011

Today was D day for India and Pakistan and all other things became secondary. We generally have the annual awards ceremony the evening before the convocation, however this time on account of the semi final, it was shifted to morning. The college must be given credit for giving out the cash prizes and recognizing meritorious students.

The match was screened in the audi which was packed for the first innings when India batted. Needless to say the atmosphere was electric but as Kaushik put it, people started analyzing all the ads(but this is MICA, cant help it!) People had their faces painted, the tri colour was flying in all its glory and the chants never died down. To top it all India won the game and proceeded to the finals at Mumbai. This is Sachin's dream come true, playing the finals of the cricket world cup at the Wankhede! Cant wait for 2nd April now.

After the euphoria of the victory died down, realised that I have to start packing! Did a majority of it within an hour or so. Had dinner at Chota. Extremely tired, sleeping at 3.

Day 245 - 29th March 2011

Palaash is quite empty now. A lot of people have been leaving over the past couple of days. Maushi and Rajat also left today. Realised today that I need to start packing! Have just kept on postponing it. Went to Bopal to get the bile back from servicing, incidentally it completed 6 years last week :-)

In the night there was impromptu plan made to go to barbeque nation for dinner. We really are living it up for our last couple of days here. Seniors will be leaving from the 1st onwards, many of them keep coming Palaash to relive the memories that are associated with this place. Wont be surprised if I do the same thing in a years time. Also realised today that IM and EB assignments are due on the 31st of this month, with the India Pakistan semi final lined up tomorrow (which will be screened in the audi) dont see anyone starting work until 30th late night :P

Day 240 - 24th March 2011

The day that I had been looking forward to for a long long time. The IMC paper was only for one hour, left for the stadium the moment I was done with it. The buildup for this game was quite huge, after all India was taking on the defending champions in a knockout game. And what a game it turned out to be. Got to see Ponting's century, brilliant fielding and death overs bowling from us, Sachin, Gambhir and Yuvraj's half centuries, India chasing down a good total and the crowd going delirious with joy at the end of it all. Of all the games I have seen at the stadium so far this has by far been the best. On the way back, the streets were packed with people on both sides waiting to greet the team bus and catch a glimpse of their heroes. Truly memorable scenes!

Got back to campus by around 1230 and skimmed through SCM for an hour or so. Couldnt stay awake but still couldn't get over the match that I had just witnessed. The ghosts of March 23rd 2003 have definitely been put to rest and it was also fitting that Ganguly was in the commentary box to see it :-)

Day 239 - 23rd March 2011

Today's paper was pretty decent. SM was only half an hour long with one subjective question and 20 objective questions. It felt more like an OB paper. DM was good though it wasnt as challenging as the prof has promised it to be, only straightforward theory was asked. In the afternoon had to go to the stadium to get some clearance for tomorrow's QF between India and Australia. Spent about an hour at the stadium and in the process got to see the entire Indian team including Sachin up close in the pavilion. They had arrived for practice just as we were about to leave. That makes it 3 encounters with God now, just hope that there are more lined up and those end with me being rendered speechless :P Got back to campus by around 5 in the evening and slept for an hour or so. Studied SCM which I have day after tomorrow (wont be able to study at all tomorrow). Spent sometime going through the IMC slides after that. Will call it a day in a bit. Have a looong day ahead tomorrow!

P.S The anticipation and anxiety levels for tomorrow's match are quite high. Its very difficult to imagine that end term exams are going on :P FB is flooded with videos of Sachin's blockbuster innings against the Aussies, hope to see one more tomorrow!

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 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 220 - 2nd March 2011

Had a holiday today courtesy Mahashivratri. Needless to say. could take the liberty of waking up at 1230 :P Spent the afternoon trying to figure out the NVC assignment. We have to remove the text and logo of a particular brand and see what aspects of it communicate non verbally about it (shape,colour scheme,sounds etc.) In the evening had a practice session with some of the Phantoms. We have made it to the finals of the MCL which will be played tomorrow!

Went to the city with Maushi later in the evening. We got a very important insight about the eateries in Ahmedabad - its very difficult to find a place which serves non vegetarian food! Ended up settling for veg food, which was quite good eventually. Went to a place called Not Just Grill. Dont remember what cuisine it was but it involves the chef making the food in front of you. Tried Mongolian and Japanese cuisines. Came back to the campus at around 930, just in time to see the end of the England Ireland game. Ireland has this knack of pulling off an upset which invariably changes the course of the tournament. In the previous edition of the World Cup they defeated Pakistan and knocked them out of the World Cup. Whether or not this defeat will result in the same fate for England only time will tell. Its also very irritating to know that all good matches in Bangalore have happened after I moved out of the city :P Had the second round of showcase today. 5 plays in total ranging from a murder mystery to the Bhopal Gas tragedy and Maoism in Dantewada to the love story of Arjuna and Chitrangadha. All of them were really good plays. Got done with it at 145, will call it a day in a bit. Back to the routine from tomorrow.

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 209 - 19th February 2011

Not a great day for the Phantoms in the MCL. Had a super 4 round game against Lucky Strike in which our batting collapsed , we were all out by for 42 while batting first. Now our fate depends on the result of the Reds v/s Navy Square Cut game. Had TAM workshop in the morning, which was pretty interesting.

Today was also the first match of the Cricket World Cup and most of us gathered at the community centre to see the India Bangladesh game. It's good fun watching the game with friends. You also know you are in a marketing and advertising school when there is a collective cringe on seeing an atrocious commercial on TV :D India's batting was a treat to watch with Sehwag and Kohli both scoring centuries. Didn't see the second innings, had to go to the city for some work. Spent the rest of the night doing general tp on the net. Have a rest day tomorrow, maybe thats why Im not getting sleep at 330 in the morning!