Day 171 - 12th January 2011

Had 2 lectures of BM today which were about brand personality and how brands like Nike and Adidas have competed over the past couple of decades. Pretty interesting, how they took different approaches to reach where they are now. EB was again filled with real life examples, especially about Ahmedabad based textile companies. At one point of time there were about 110 companies but now only one big name has survived and one of the prime reasons for that is it never adopted any unethical practices. The last lecture was MDA which covered the theory aspects of linear regression, tomorrow we have a practical session on the same concept, it'll make more sense then.

In the afternoon was again caught up with some ARC work. That went on till around 5 in the evening, so now that makes it 2 days in a row where I have been deprived of my much valued siesta :P In the evening had to start working on the OD assignment, this is something that needs to be looked into, we have 4 assignments from last term to be subjected this week! Apart from OD there is CR, CB and QT. Anyways it pays to have the same project group for most of the assignments, so we've split up the assignments amongst ourselves, parallel processing ;-) In the night extebned family went out with Rajat and Samyuktha for dinner to Ikobo sizzlers. I was quite surprised that I was able to eat a complete sizzler, maybe skipping snacks in the evening was one of the reasons. Got back to campus by 1030 for a placecomm meet, we were given our duties for next week. Continued working on the OD assignment after that, have produced nearly 2000 words before passing on the baton to the next person :P Shall call it a day now.

Day 145 - 1st December 2010

Woke up at 630 today, its for the second time ever since I have come to MICA that I have woken up so early! Had to prepare points for the panel discussion Mother Pious Lady. The author of the book, Santosh Desai who is also the CEO of Future Brands, came to campus to talk to us about it. Although the book is a collection of article on the Indian middle class, it also serves as an excellent book on consumer insight for a marketer. How he has brought out the nuances that are a part of our daily life which we subconsciously knew existed but never thought of is quite amazing. Initially the session started off as a panel discussion with people who had prepared on certain parts of the book spoke to him about how they reacted to the book. The session then turned into an open house with people asking questions on questions ranging from the changing Hindi Film Hero to gender to homosexuality to cricket! A pretty enriching session to say the least.

In the afternoon spent time with extended family , Maushi was leaving for Bombay later in the day, Mallu will also leave for the SP Jain sports fest tomorrow and yours truly will be leaving for IMT day after. Most of the evening was spent with family as well. For the past couple of weeks I've been searching for the school anthem of St.Vincents, my school in Pune but was not able to get hold of it. Today one of my friends shared it on facebook and I since then I must have heard it at least 20 times :-) Still gives me goosebumps!

Post dinner I went to see the rehearsal for the Sankalp play, since I will be missing the a performance at Natrani. I know it sounds repetitive but I just have to say it again - we have some supremely talented people out here :-) That went on till around 230 after which helped out the Alumni creative team in making some structures that the plan to put at places around campus during the Grand Alumni Meet. Went to Chota with Mallu at around 5. It was then that I realised that I have been awake for almost 24 hours, the moment I realised that tiredness set in :D So will crash after a 23 hour day ;-)

Day 139 - 25th November 2010

Had a pretty interesting communications research today. It dealt with participatory theatre and people were asked to enact a play. The play had two protagonists and people could take chances in playing those roles. They had to just walk up and tap the person playing the role at that time and they could continue from that point. It was hilarious at times, with some of the people getting in new twists to the story. Apart from that a pretty routine day.

The course on Imagining India requires us to read Mother Pious Lady a book on the changing middle class in India. Brilliantly written it is a collection of articles on the everyday aspects of growing up in India in the pre and post liberalisation India. Started reading it today and its quite addictive! That kept me busy till dinner time, mess food was quite boring today so extended family decided to go to honey9 for dinner. Tandoori chicken and butter chicken are always welcome :-)

Had an ARC meeting at around midnight. Identified a few issues that need to be tackled and also got some inputs from PlaceComm on the industry perception of MICA. That got done by around 3. Have nothing much to do now, have another full day of lectures tomorrow and the weather makes it all the more difficult to wake up in the morning!

Day 128 - 14th November 2010

Today's post is by Apu. After reading her post you may want her to take over the reins of MICAlal, and I am willing to take that risk ;-) (Ok before you continue reading you might just want to know that Sanbad -> Maushi , Maldlu -> Malyalee Marauder, Macha-> Yours Truly. )

So well, the day began with at least one thing done right – not missing breakfast, probably the best meal in the MICAn mess. Caught up with the Malayalee Marauder over breakfast table about his antics on the court the previous day;about the much-talked about attack on one of my team co-owners (oh yeah, for those of you who don’t know it yet; three of us, Kamla (yours truly), Bimla and Sakku own a cricket team in the MCL – MICA Cricket League – The Phantoms. “Only fire, no smoke”…yes, we proudly promote the No Smoking campaign as well)…Single class for a Sunday today..and oh boy, we couldn’t have wished for a better class…Last session for the course on Cost and Management Accounting by Prof Sridhar Chari (easily one of the best visiting faculty here)..He wrapped up with a special trademark slideshow on life and changing times & workplaces..He conveyed the fact (without sugarcoating it

whatsoever, mind you) that no MBA is indispensable and that it usually takes less than an hour to fire 20 management professionals across some 9 different international offices...Some of his statements were superb mantras for conduct in career and life..For ex, he enumerated paradoxes of the following ilk :

1) You must welcome change as a rule but not as your ruler

2) You must learn from past mistakes but not lean on your past successes

3) You must stick to your convictions but be ready to abandon your assumptions

4) You must act self-employed but be a team player

5) You must get money to chase you, but never let it catch you.

And it was only befitting that we stood up in ovation in respect and admiration for the man, as he ended his slideshow with what is usually a slide titled “Last Slide” with a slide saying “Chase your passion, not your pension”. Quite a moment that was. One of those few in which you submit to the sheer ingenuity and knowledge and experience of a man worth his salt and acknowledge his greatness for his simplicity at the same time.

Came back all energetic and bubbling with happy thoughts to design the “Alumni of the Day”

poster. We have The MICA Grand Alumni Ahmedabad meeting happening soon. Hence, we plan to introduce really successful MICAns to the students, so as to let everyone know that the two years here are going to be good foundation afterall :D..(in addition to the vacation we so lovingly talk about..)

Today’s alumnus was Mr Amol Gurwara, Head,Operations,EA Mobile..also one of the first to have married a senior MICAn ;-)…By the time we got done with putting the posters up in the campus, it was time for snacks..Played basketball after a really long time after that..felt awesome! Sport can be such a release…and often an under-estimated one, at that…

And then of course, the highlight of the day…So Macha and I decided we were falling prey to the once-in-a-while “blah” claustrophobic feeling in the campus -> hence the urgency to step out for dinner…Maldlu and Sanbad said they’d join us for dessert…We set out with lofty mouth-watering visions of Barbeque Nation, only to find a waiting time of 45 mins (*groan*stomach growl*groan*)..As if that wasn’t unfair (and a term I am forbidden to use here, since it isn’t sophisticated) enough, Upper Crust Café had a waiting time of 30 mins as well. Hence, we traveled across half the city only to end up in a tinier-than-ever Subway, having our regular favourites. My insights, reinforced again : Gujjus are a rather foodie lot, in addition to how filthy rich they are…And of course, a trip to the civilization all the way from MICA is as useless as a comb to Maldlu these days, if you don’t have non-veg food on the way.

Finally met up with these guys at TGB…So, one sizzling brownie later, we were in the mood for extended family pics :- )…Oh and also, found one of the strangest “Ladies” signever...almost

demeaning..Downright mean… (*See picture : -P*)

Maldlu didn’t let us have any good pics at all though, the photo-spoiler that he is..No worries,

Sanbad..soon..sometime soon..Came back to campus almost an hour past midnight..but the trip was worth it..Back in good spirits after good talk and good food, only for a highly vague and boring and pfaffy Services Marketing Assignment…Seven Eight Peas and what not…Met up with Bimla..she’s been busy with her drama<=>Sankalp<=>MICA Theatre practice..

Tried to work, but obviously could not..kept listening to music, randomly updating the MICA Alumni Page on facebook (That reminds me, I have to have to watch The Social Network…too many good reviews about it..)..made a chai trip to Chhota with Macha…looked at photographs (my staple diet) …random mélange of useless activites…

Finally re-re-saw a couple of episodes of “That 70s Show” and decided to re-(MI)-cal-(A)-l the day..

It’s a fine sky tonight..Orion in full nightly resplendence and the stars shining clear and bright..And the moon brought out the lazy hidden poet in me, I swear..It’s a perfect semi-circle with a reddish tinge..no no..no worries, I am not going to rhyme…I have rambled enough already..

Many thanks,Macha…for letting me write here…and thanks to time, for letting us enjoy the extended family outing (Many more to come, as Maldlu said.. :D )…thanks to, I guess, life…for introducing such brilliant people who make it such an interesting deal...more so, with each passing day..

Here’s mesa signing off with a message I received today afternoon from another one’s of God’s own masterpieces…He’s called Kid, as he tells me..

“I want to go back to the time when innocence was natural..

When getting high meant on a swing..

When drinking meant Rasna..

When Dad was the only hero..

When Dad’s shoulder was the highest place on Earth..

When Love was Mum’s hug..

When the only things that could hurt were bleeding knees..

And when Goodbyes only meant till tomorrow..

Life’s changed a lot…Isn’t it?!”

I couldn’t have said it any better,Kid…just couldnt’t have..

Happy Children’s Day!

Day 112 - 26th October 2010

Spent the entire day in MICANVAS concert ticket sales. Went with Mallu and Maushi to Gandhinagar, tried our luck at a couple of colleges - Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Communication and Technology and Deendayal Pandet Petroleum University. Both colleges have an amazing campus, also, Gandhinagar is brilliantly maintained. Got quite a few leads at both the colleges, need to follow up with them over the next couple of days. Bought new sandals from Woodland on the way back. Got back to campus by around 730 after which extended family decided to go out for dinner. Went to a place called Honey9 :-D apart from the name everything else about the place rocked! Awesome tandoori chicken at a really reasonable price. Had to rush back to campus for the events sub team meeting at 10, its now slowly sinking in that MICANVAS is not that far away. Spent the rest of the night packing and getting ready to move out of Palaash for the next 4 days. Feeling very very sleepy, will call it a day now, have another long day ahead tomorrow.

Day 105 - 19th October 2010

Back to grind of being awake for 21 hours at a stretch! Another full day of lectures, the Imagining India class was based on the reading material provided for Khalistan. There were some people who hadn't read it but confidently managed to pffaf their way through the discussion based on whatever prior knowledge they had. Im pretty sure the prof. could make that out. CB revolved all around the concept of joint families and their consumption patterns and also the changing family structures. After lectures had cricket practice in the evening, couldn't play on the ground as PGP2 had a practice match, so had to do with the area in front of SilverOak. Got done with practice at around 630. Tried to study a bit of CMA in the library but then 'extended family' decided to have an outing to CCD. Was good fun, haven't laughed this much for quite sometime :-) After CCD had Chana Bhatura for dinner at this place called Havmor, the Bhaturas were so huge that the four of us found it very difficult to finish two plates! Had to get back to campus in time for the Academic Review Committee (ARC) elections, Maushi and I were contesting alongwith 14 other people from the batch for 6 places. Each of us had to give a speech as to why we should be elected and then the floor was open for questions from the batch. I am generally pretty bad at pitching for myself, but still made an attempt. Voting was conducted immediately after the speeches were made, both Maushi and I made it :-) Tried to study again in the library after that but then got a call saying that people were working on the creatives for the Phantoms campaign, came up with a few ideas which were either spoofs of existing ads or extoled the values of not smoking :-D

Back in the room now working on an internet connection which reminds me of the dial up days, anyways will call it a day now. First match of the MCL tomorrow, hope the Phantoms do well :-)