Day 268 - 18th July 2011

Had kept the alarm for 830 but ended up waking up at 1030 (which is still better than 245). Started working on the markstrat assignment when at around noon we got news that the deadline had been extended by a day! Still finished off the part on the internship before lunch. Had to meet the marketing area head today to discuss our concerns regarding the total credits available to us and the selection of courses for this year. They will be forwarded to the associate director who should get back to us by tomorrow. Went to Bopal in the evening for a haircut. During the day, the heat became oppressive to say the least! However it poured in the evening which brought down temperatures considerably. Have been working on the markstrat assignment since dinner, had to go to Kore to get some more doubts cleared. Have been watching ads/music videos on youtube for every set of 100 words completed :P Finally got done with the report at 3. Have to give it some finishing touches, which can be done tomorrow as well. The deadline for the submission is 6 in the evening.Will call it a day now and hope that I can actually get a rest day one of these days! :P

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 261- 11th July 2011

Had our last day of markstrat today. After leading the pack for one period we slipped to second place by the middle of the day. During the day the MCSA also had a meeting with the dissertation committee regarding the schedule of submissions for our dissertations. That took about an hour or so. We have been making plans of going to Honey9 for dinner for the past couple of nights, tonight that finally materialised. Kore,Kalkar, Rana, Sir and yours truly went have our first shikari chicken of the season. With no girls present we thought the food to bill ratio would be low, however to our the bill amount was pretty much the same! Got back to campus at around 11 after which we had a batch meet with PGP1. Had a placecomm meet after that to discuss the selection process for the junior committees. Have a rest day tomorrow, hopefully can wake up post 1030!

Day 260 - 10th July 2011

Sleeping for less than 4 hours for the past 3 days finally took its toll. Woke up only at 1130 today which meant that I was late for the first session of markstrat, however with Kore in our team there's not much to worry about ;-) We were market leaders for one period in the afternoon but then slipped to second position by the end of the day. A point worth mentioning though was the fact that we launched a project called SIR1 which exceeded all our expectations and consistently went out of stock. Sir's legacy thus continues at MICA! Had made plans to go to Honey9 for dinner but persistent rains ensured that we stayed back on campus. We didn't get a raw deal though since there was biryani in the mess :-P

Have our last day of markstrat tomorrow, the impending rest days after that should be incentive enough for me to wake up on time!

Day 259 - 9th July 2011

Started off with the actual round of markstrat today. Now we have Kore in our team, who is a genius when it comes to analysing loads of data and making decisions based on that. So we are pretty lucky in that regard. He has been explaining the decisions to all of us, and needless to say there is also a certain amount of free riding involved ;-) Our team has consistently been in second place today (after 2 periods). In the evening had some MCSA work which as usual went on till the night. It poured today as well which ensured that the temperatures dropped further, sleeping now seems to be a more comfortable proposition. For a change will call it a day early today by sleeping at midninght. Two more days of markstrat followed by 2 rest days!

Day 258 - 8th July 2011

First day of markstrat today and also back to the schedule of classes at 930 in the morning. Markstrat is a simulated environment where 5 teams compete against each other. Each team has 2 brands and there are 5 sets of decisions that need to be made for each period which represents a year in the markstrat world. Today was reserved as a day for trials so that we could get acquainted with the software and the interface. Had to make decisions for 2 years until evening. Got done by around 6 in the evening. Went to Bopal in the evening to pay off the mobile bill. Got back to campus and had to start preparing for the special interest group presentations for PGP-1. The presentations went on till about 430 in the morning and yes I have to wake up in time for markstrat tomorrow!

Day 257 - 7th July 2011

Had our second session on the subjects offered in the second year. Today's session was taken by the area heads of marketing,advertising and market research. Each of these areas have pretty interesting subjects on offer. We have a couple of weeks to decide on which core subjects and electives to choose. The good news is sports marketing is a 2 credit course with 20 sessions - 10 sessions more than last year. Managed to clock in a two and a half hour siesta in the afternoon. Played a little tennis in the evening before the rain gods decided to be kind to us. Continued the tradition of the rain dance in the badminton court. Thankfully now the temperatures have dropped to humanly tolerable levels,but the flip side is the number of insects that will now be found all around campus! Post dinner MCSA work kept me busy. Have markstrat from tomorrow, just hope it turns out to be better than markops!