Day 443 - 31st March 2012

Today was the big day. Spent the first half of the day packing. It seems incredible but MCSA work continued to keep us busy for the first half of the day. We all had to gather in the auditorium by 430 before the batch photograph would be clicked on the cricket field. The convocation ceremony went off quite well - doing the rehearsals actually made sense ;-) The chief guest was Mr. Arun Poorie, Editor in Chief of the India Today Group. He spoke really well. He shared with us his experiences and learnings from a career in media that spans more than 3 decades. The ceremony was followed by dinner in the Nescafe Plaza.

Had our last batch meet in the audi at 1130. Thanked TI for arranging for a webcast of the convocation. Placecomm was given a standing ovation for the brilliant job that they did this year. This was followed by a pillow fight :P Football was played under floodlights one last time. This is the beginning of the end.

Day 333 - 17th November 2011

Had only two lectures today starting at 930. After keeping an alarm for 830 and snoozing it once, I ended up waking up at 940! It meant I missed the first lecture of ROMI. Made it on time for the second lecture which covered brand valuation. Was free for the rest of the day once class was done. Had bought a book in June on the IPL which was about the Modi Tharoor saga and all the behind the scene happenings that transpired during IPL3 which led to both their downfalls. Written by a journalist who experienced the entire episode first hand, it felt like reading a fast paced novel. As is the case with most books that I like, finished this one in one sitting.

Post dinner Sankalp had organized Khula Aasma with 4 plays staged in the audi. That went on till 1 in the night. Have another early morning start tomorrow, cant afford to wake up late again!

Day 302 - 28th August 2011

Had the FIF1 Speed Nights screening at MICA and IIM-A today. I was handling MICA while Rajat and Manu were at IIM. Spent the morning putting up one last set of posters around campus and tent cards on all tables in the mess. Was supposed to go to IIM to check out the branding but couldnt do that since the people from the event management agency missed their flight from Bombay in the morning and were taking a later flight. Because of that had to stay back in MICA to ensure that the branding was done on time.

In every event that I have been a part of nothing has ever gone smoothly or according to plan no matter how much you prepare in advance. The races are screened on Star Sports and the previous day we had checked the TV connection in the audi, Star Sports was tuned and everything was working fine. With the screening scheduled to begin at 5 we decided to check the connection at 230 only to realise that Star Sports wasnt available! The cable guy had very conveniently decided to remove all ESPN Star channels on this very day! Sir, Tarang and Apar came in to help and see what could be done. Various options were worked out - the community centre had a Tata Sky connection on which Star Sports was coming, we could pull a cable from there (about 150 metres in length) to the audi and screen it in the audi. Another option was to connect a laptop to the TV at the community center and using VPN share the screen with another laptop which would be connected to the projector in the audi! In the meanwhile we also called the cable guy from Shela village to check what he could do. As all of this transpired, it started pouring and I got a call from IIM saying that the dish connection was not able to receive any transmission because of the weather. At the same time there was a power failure at the cable guy's place as well, which meant there was no transmission at MICA! All the activations and build up and imagine no TV transmission!! Those couple of hours were quite crazy. Things started to brighten up - both literally and figuratively at around 445, with 15 minutes left for the race to start. The cable guy figured out a way to get Star Sports at MICA and the weather Gods were kind enough not to interfere with the dish TV transmission. The screenings at both places were pretty decent, though the fact that there were exams scheduled tomorrow at both places meant the turnout didnt exactly live up to what I had expected. Overall though it was a decent response compared to what was done earlier. After that eventful evening, it was time to start getting ready to leave for Bombay. Have to leave campus at 6 in the morning. Will be back on Friday, until then adios!

Day 299 - 25th August 2011

Today was again one of those days when I considered myself extremely lucky to be a part of this institute. Had 3 sessions on sports marketing in the morning, the topic discussed was sponsorship - what drives it and what are the kind of options available for potential sponsors. There was also a case study that was discussed in class which dealt with ethical issues when it came to the sponsorship of a sports tournament. But that wasn't exactly the high point of the day. As a part of the sports marketing course one of the guest lecturers who agreed to come on campus was Sundar Raman, CEO of the IPL! The prof had anticipated that a lot of people would be interested in hearing him speak so this was positioned as an MLS so that everyone had an opportunity to attend it. I had spoken to the prof the previous day and asked him if it would be ok if I went to receive Mr. Raman at the airport and he had no problems with it. It was a great opportunity to interact with him during the drive from the airport to campus. Picked his brains on the business of sport, he wanted to know more about the course and he even suggested names of people from the industry who could come as guest faculty. Once we reached campus, he said that he hadn't had his lunch, so we decided to head to Chota. If a year back somebody told me that I would be discussing cricket with the CEO of the IPL over Aloo Parathas at Chota, I would have taken offence for playing with my emotions! The topics of discussion ranged from whether he really expected bid values for the 9th and 10th franchises to exceed those of the first 8 put together to how the IPL has changed the experience for fans who for once can actually watch a game comfortably in a stadium. He also went on to speak about how they put up the 2009 edition in 15 days in South Africa, they couldnt have done it without the all out support of the local authorities. In his words, "On 24th March when it was decided that the IPL wouldn't happen in India, I boarded flight to South Africa with one pair of jeans and a t-shirt and then I returned to India after 3 months!" He's not just about the business, the amazing part is how he remembers the result of every game that has been played in the IPL so far with the key performers in those games.

The MLS was scheduled at 630 in the evening and the audi was packed by 615, something that is unheard at this place! His talk was about the evolution of the IPL and the various marketing activities undertaken by them. He showed ads from each of the seasons and what they tried to communicate every season. The obvious question about the IPL having a negative effect on players while playing for India was also asked to which he drew a comparison between English football, the EPL and other leagues. There are 383 matches played between August and May every year and on an average every player runs close to about 15 km every game, nobody complains bout fatigue out there was his reply! He gave a couple of cricketing insights which were truly amazing through which he tried to explain why the IPL has actually improved the way players approach the game. The first one was from the final of the 2010 edition of the IPL, MI were cruising against CSK when there was a sudden batting collapse. Everybody expected Sachin to send in Pollard to finish it off, but for some strange reason he was pushed down the order. This was actually a battle of who blinked first going on between Sachin and Dhoni. Both of them knew that Pollard wouldn't be able to play Muralitharan who at that point of time still had 2 overs left, Sachin wanted to play out Murali and let Pollard loose on the fast bowlers and Dhoni kept holding him back. Eventually Pollard came to bat in the 17th over, with 50 odd runs to be scored in 18 deliveries, people thought that it was bad captaincy on the part of Tendulkar to have sent him in so late, but very few people know about the mind games being played between the captains on the field. Pollard went on to smash 20 odd runs of one over of Bollinger who until then was unplayable and then there seemed to be a match on our hands. In the next over when Albie Morkel came on to bowl, Dhoni had a brief discussion with him following which Morkel decided to bowl from around the wicket with Mathew Hayden standing literally in line withe stumps inside the circle at a fine long on position if ever there was a fielding position like that. The very next ball Pollard hit the ball straight to Hayden and MI's dream of an IPL were brought to an abrupt end. They had realised that when Pollard hits, he hits it dead straight. Such strategies were never used before and it was an exhilarating experience to watch such tactical prowess on display. It truly went on to show that captains and bowlers have cracked the format. The second instance was from the final of 2011 cricket world cup. People think Dhoni just decided to promote himself ahead of Yuvraj in a moment of inspiration and for no particular reason. However there was a very sound reason behind this move -at that point of time India were 130 odd for 3 around the 25 over mark and Muralitharan had 5 overs left. Dhoni and Murali have played a lot of cricket together for CSK and whenever Yuvraj came out to bat Murali would tell Dhoni to give him the ball, all he needed were 5 deliveries to get Yuvraj out. Dhoni knew that and had Yuvraj gotten out early that would have put extra pressure on the rest of the batsmen. Dhoni promoted himself up the order to play out Murali, so that by the time Yuvraj came out to bat he had to face only the quick bowlers, bread and butter for him. The rest of his talk left the audience spell bound and before we knew it, two and a half hours had passed by!

Post the MLS, dinner was in the mess during which a couple of committees on campus wanted to interact with him. Post dinner went to Chota for a cuppa of Chai where the cricket related discussions continued, this time it was about how the franchises dealt with the ownership of teams. A company like Reliance for example, is never used to losing and how the sport has taught them to cope up with it. I could go on ranting more out here, but I am pretty sure blogspot has a word limit per post. Ended the day on that note, a truly memorable experience. The fact that there is an AFM end term tomorrow evening is yet to sink in, will deal with it tomorrow morning, dont want to ruin this high by calculating net present value and reading about the financial implications of M&As!

Day 290 - 15th August 2011

Independence day celebrations had to take place indoors today due to the rains. As has been the case for the past 18 years, school children from neighbouring villages are brought onto campus for the flag hoisting ceremony and served breakfast. Had a little MCSA work after that which kept Jhamb and me busy for half an hour. Post that we had a few performances from PGP-1 in the auditorium, good renditions of Vande Mataram. We also had an alumnus who is now an anchor with Star News visiting campus. The entire MICAn fraternity owes him big time since he is the guy who started Chota canteen :D Lunch in the mess was gujju cuisine served with Thums Up! Managed to squeeze in 2 siestas on either side of lunch before getting back to finishing off Pundits from Pakistan, overall a good read for a cricket fan or anybody who is intrigued by Pakistan.

Continuing with the cricket theme that has lasted this weekend, saw Fire in Babylon a documentary on the world beating West Indies side of the 70s and 80s. The movie just got done about half an hour back. Will call it a day in a bit, regular classes start from tomorrow again.

Day 273 - 23rd July 2011

Had only 2 lectures today which began at 2 in the afternoon, so could take the liberty of waking up at 1 in the afternoon. Surprisingly could understand most of what was being discussed in class. Net Present Value, Future Value, Annuity etc. seemed to have made some sense. The AFM prof. also has this practice of asking people questions at random. Yours truly was asked a question from the case,which I could fortunately answer, phew! The class got extended because of which the case could not discussed. After class played cricket in the evening in front of silver oak, was good fun. There are some good players in PGP1 this year which is a good thing for the MCL.

Today was one of those days where a trip off campus became absolutely necessary. Went to honey9 for dinner for the customary shikari chicken, was well worth the trip! Came back to campus by 10 and have been in the audi since then. Did the AFM pre reads for tomorrow. Slotting for the committee interviews for today have been pretty smooth today as well. Have been having long discussions with SIR about placements and placecomm in general and his experiences in the JPC. Went to Chota for a midnight snack. Its 5 in the morning now, will head back to the room and catch up on some sleep. Have class starting at 930 tomorrow and also have a dissertation assignment due by day after tomorrow. Things are slowly returning to how they were in the first year :P

Day 271 - 21st July 2011

Woke up at 1 today, which also happened to be the last of our rest days. Had the placecomm budget meeting with the management at 3 which went on for about an hour. Turned out to be a pretty fruitful meeting. In the evening had a batch meet with pgp-1 to explain the junior committee selection process to them and the reason behind taking their rankings for the committees they had applied to. The process for committee selections started in the night. Five committee interviews started in parallel today and tomorrow eight committee interviews will be running parallely. Post dinner was in the audi where most of the pgp-1 candidates had gathered from where they would be sent for their respective interviews. As our luck would have it, the internet stopped working everywhere on campus! Because of this all communication to committees was sent on handwritten paper. While in the audi also managed to squeeze in the pre read for tomorrow's Advanced Financial Management (AFM) course. This is one of the core courses this term and I only hope that is better than FA from last year. Was in the audi till around 5 in the morning by when most of the work for the day was done. Just hope that I am able to wake up on time for AFM tomorrow!

Day 269 - 19th July 2011

Spent the first half of the day giving finishing touches to the markstrat assignment. We also had all the committee presentations for pgp-1 in the night for which preparatory work had to be done. Over the past couple of days there were a lot of issues and concerns regarding the system for credits in the second year. The MCSA and ARC had discussions with faculty members over the past 2 days and today some of those issues got resolved. We have a bouquet system for courses in the second year where we can choose which subjects we want to pick in both the core and elective area. Apart from that we also have certain compulsory courses from the general management and communication studies area. Have until 5 p.m. day after tomorrow to select the subjects for this year. In the evening had to go through the committee budgets with Apar and Jhamb which took about an hour or so. Also had some FIF1 work which needed to be done.

The committee presentations happened in the audi from 1030 onwards. Each committee had to make a pitch to pgp-1 as to why they should apply for their junior committee. Some of the presentations were really good, the challenge being to hold the attention of 164 people for 5 hours. SCAM went a step further with the committee members presenting in sports gear and also entering to music from jo jeeta wohi sikander :D The presentations went on till 315 in the morning. PGP-1 now needs to decide which committees they have to apply to. MCSA work kept me up until 530 in the morning, last couple of 'rest' days ahead before classes begin.

Day 267 - 17th July 2011

Woke up at 230 in the afternoon today! Have to do something about waking up slightly early on rest days. A lot of people from campus went to see Harry Potter today. After being here for more than a year we have gotten to know that there is an IMAX in Ahmedabad! All the HP fans headed out there to see the latest movie, yours truly doesnt fall in that category so I stayed back on campus and played a little cricket in front of silveroak. It was good fun, brought back memories of the MCL. The MTV shoot also happened on campus today. In the evening there were special performances lined up in the audi - a musical, stand up comedy and a play. Divyanshu, PGP17's very own stand up comic, stole the show with by far his performance till date! He deserved the standing ovation that he got at the end of it. Also realised that apart from our batch, the junior batch is also a very talented bunch. Since the MTV shoot got done at 9, which happens to be rush hour in terms of mess traffic decided to have dinner at Chota for the second night in a row. Post dinner, had a meeting with all the committees to discuss the process for the junior committee selections for this year. That went till about 2. That was followed by a markstrat team meeting, we have our first submission of pgp-2 tomorrow. Need to submit a 1800 word report out of which 1000 words should relate our internship experience to the markstrat world and the remaining 800 words should analyse the decisions we made in any one areas over the 8 markstrat years. Kore explained most of what was done and we divided the work amongst ourselves. Tried starting work on the report but then that familiar battle against sleep began. Sleep -1 me - 0 .

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 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.

Days 113 to 117- 27th to 31st October

As was expected, could not update the blog during MICANVAS. Had to move in with the seniors on the 27th. It is not an easy task at all! Had to move our mattresses as well. The rest of the day was spent in decorating campus for MICANVAS. There was an opening ceremony at midnight at the OAT, me and a few other guys were in charge of the firecrackers for the opening ceremony. So we were the official inauguration team ;-) Had to light them from the terrace of the admin block which is just behind the OAT. The next three days were pure fun, never realized how time flew. The brief for the fest was clear - formal events during the day and informal events during the night. I was in the events sub team for Half Time, the sports marketing event. The informal events were a lot of fun. The all night quiz at the OAT and karaoke night were my favourites. Guys from Palaash sang Sutta at the OAT at 2 in the morning :-P Must have slept for a grand total of 10 hours for the 3 days during the fest. After the all night quiz I crashed at the audi at 430 in the morning. With the AC on it was the most comfortable place to sleep on campus :D There were also a lot of goodies and freebies on offer. I won a USB travel kit for a slogan contest and also a couple of MICANVAS and Aircel T-shirts, there were also coffee mugs from Happily Unmarried. The grand finale was Kailash Kher's concert on the 20th. Guys from PGP1 and PGP2 were in charge of security. I had to man the entrance for MICAns and the VIP box, so didn't miss much of the concert. The concert was good fun, he did his usual numbers, though it was a little short. The concert was followed by the MICANVAS party, but most of us were too tired so didn't dance much :P. Nonetheless stayed up till about 530 in the morning, found that HQ was empty so slept in my own room after 4 days. Never thought I would miss HQ and Palaash so much! Woke up at around 2 in the afternoon, moved my stuff back into the room had lunch at Chota and slept again ! Finally woke up at 9 in the night because there was Biryani in the mess for dinner ;-) Watched a bit of Once upon a time in Mumbai, one of the questions in the quiz was based on Haji Mastan, on whom the movie is based. At midnight there was a birthday celebration in Palaash, but instead of the standard dunking the mattresses that were lying around were put to use. The birthday boy was sandwiched between 5-10 mattresses and everybody fulfilled their childhood fantasies of practicing full fledged WWF moves :-D Also had the re-opening of MICARE, the student run retail unit on campus. Got back to the room after that, read the case for tomorrow's SM class. Dont know what its going to feel like to be in class after the week that just passed!

Day 102 - 16th October 2010

The QT prof. seemed to have come back to normal today, he was his usual patient self. Now that is a good sign :-) Got done with lectures by 1130 so decided to go to Fabindia to buy a couple of kurtas, since Oorja will be happening on campus. Now as is generally the trend I couldn't come back to campus after buying just kurtas, had lunch at Uncle Sam's pizza, unlimited salad,pasta and pizza buffet for 150 bucks:-) Got back to campus at around 230 and did justice to the meal by sleeping for an hour. Played cricket for sometime in the evening, MCL will be beginning on the 20th, there are a lot of players whose base value was very low at the auction, but all of a sudden have started playing so well that they ought to have been priced higher. This substantiates my theory that in India everybody is a cricketer :-D For the first time out here I read a book for a good 2 hours, the one on what sport tells us about life, some really good insights in that one.

Had the Oorja competitions at the audi in the night. There were fashion shows, MICA's got talent, jugalbandi's,group dances and poem recitals. The fashion shows had some nice themes - evvolution of the underworld and 7 cardinal sins. My favourite group dance was the one on 'Munni Badnaam', those are the kind of songs for which you can dance even without preparing and still pull it off :-) The highlight of the show had to be when the MC for the evening imitated some of the seniors in front of them, that was just too hilarious! During the course of the competition we also got to know that MICA defeated IIM-A in a lot of sports at their sports fest. Such moments are ones to cherish- the entire audi celebrating in unison, as they really foster the spirit of belonging to this college. That got done by around midnight, will call it a day early today and plus tomorrow is a rest day, so shall sleep for at least 10 hours ;-)

Day 49 - 14th August 2010

One of the few days when lectures started at 10. Used the opportunity to sleep till 930. Had 3 lectures of IMEI which were conducted by an alumnus who is working with network18. Since it was in the audi it took some effort to stay awake, which I barely managed to do. After lectures were done I went to the library to start work on the PM individual assignments. One of
the tasks is to analyse company websites from a competitive intelligence point of view. So I decided to do an analysis of two IPL teams - RCB and MI.Although I am huge MI fan, I must say that the RCB marketing team has done a brilliant job to stay connected with their fans. The analysis took longer than expected and I was able to do only one out of the two tasks in the assignment.

Since it was a friend's birthday he and I went to Pizza hut to pack pizzas packed. We didn't expect the sudden downpour that greeted us when we reached there thanks to which we got drenched to the bone, luckily the pizzas didn't get wet. Azhar Bhai's rickshaw was the only solace for an otherwise avoidable outing. Came back to a friend's room where about seven of us
hogged on pizzas and garlic bread. I generally prefer dominos to pizza hut but the pizzas today were quite good.

Wanted to go back to the library to continue working on the assignment and conveniently forgot about the fact that it closes at midnight on saturday. So went to Chota for a while before coming back to the room and crashing for the day.

Day 41 - 6th August 2010

TGIF! Had a reasonably relaxed day today. Started with our first session on the Media and Entertainment industry. It was a joint lecture in the audi - there is something that I haven't mentioned about the audi, it isn't a conventional one, there in an ascending flight of stairs on which pillows are kept, so basically one has to sit on the floor. Because of the CS assignment submission and a birthday celebration last night, quite a few people in the batch didn't get their daily quota of sleep. An air-conditioned audi with comfortable pillows and place to stretch was a boon for quite a few people. They took the liberty of actually lying down on the topmost row,which was empty, and were caught only at the end of the lecture. At least they got two hours of undisturbed sleep :-P

There was a one and a half hour break today, during which I saw the India SL test match. It feels like ages since I have seen cricket, and watching the match today was therapeutic :-) After lectures our group gave some finishing touches to the CS assignment, the deadline for which was 5 p.m. Managed to submit it by 430, no last minute adventures, though Im quite sure there are quite a few of them in the offing. It felt like exams are over and vacations have begun after submitting the assignment. Slept for a while in the evening before we had our last movie screening of the term. Today's movie was an Iranian movie, two women. This movie made me realise that the image of Iran ingrained in all our minds and the ground realities are quite different.

Did absolute tp post dinner. Walks around campus, badminton, tt, nimbu paani at Chota and the like ensured that time flew. Decided to come back to my room by 130. Listening to U2 as I type this one. Will go to sleep hoping and praying that India manage to pull off a miracle against SL tomorrow!