Day 444 - 1st April 2012

The penultimate day at MICA. Spent the first half of the day in arranging for the bike to be packed and sent to Bombay. A lot of people started leaving campus, saying multiple goodbyes wasn't an easy job. Had our last group lunch at Pizza Hut - Kalkar, Shibani, Sania, Kore, Dua, Apu and Buds were there. Got back to campus by 5 in the evening. Caught up on some sleep in the evening. Spent most of the night copying as many serials as possible from myzone. The last dinner in the mess happened to be biryani. With so many people leaving, the campus felt like one of those deserted towns we see in westerns. Spent some time at Chota in the night. Saw the convocation video online before calling it a day one last time.

Day 424 - 12th March 2012

Woke up relatively early today, had breakfast at Chota before getting down to housekeeping duties. Had to wash clothes and also get collect clothes from Paras Bhai. Pre lunch spent majority of the time reading articles off the net. 12th March happens to be the anniversary of a lot of important events - the bomb blasts in Bombay in 1993, the start of the Dandi March and also the day when South Africa chased down a world record total against Australia at Johannesburg. Got to know all of this through facebook! Post lunch had a meeting with one of the members of MICA's governing council who also happens to be an alumnus from the first batch. It was a very fruitful session where we shared some of our suggestions that we felt would help the institute in the long term.

Went for a jog in the evening to Bopal. Dinner was Chota with Buds and Kore on account of the not so inviting mess food. Post dinner got down to reading corner of a foreign field. Will call it a day in a bit, have the photo shoot for the batch and hostel pics tomorrow.

Day 419 - 7th March 2012

After yesterday's submission I expected to be a little free and had planned to catch up on all the books have to be read. However the first half of today was consumed by MCSA work. Had a meeting with the executive registrar and the associate director for some work related to the dissertation committee. The meeting for one almost two hours. Post lunch had to send out some mails for the senior committee selection process.

The finals of the MCL were played today and it was a PGP-2 v/s PGP-1 game, just like last year's final. It pretty much followed the same trend like last year's game where the PGP-1 team faced a batting collapse and put up an almost at par score. The PGP-2 team chased it but not without a few hiccups. There was even a prize distribution with all finalists winning medals and trophies for the man of the match, man of the tournament and winning captain. All of these were given by the MCSA :P

Went to the gym in the evening. Dinner in the mess was a pleasant surprise with soup, pizza and chocolate ice cream :). Post dinner had a meeting with all senior committees to figure out the dates for their selection process.  Got done with that by midnight after which there was a KT session for the new MCSA. Went for a midnight snack to Chota with Sania, Ishan, Baby Menon and Pallavi - tadka maggie in the chilly weather was heavenly! Got back to the room by 4. Tomorrow is holi, had escaped it last year but this time that wasn't an option :P

Day 398 - 15th February 2012

Had planned to wake up at 730 and play tennis, but I guess it will take some time before I cn get back to my earlier routine. Woke up at 1130! Had lots of work lined up for the day. Called up my dissertation guide and briefed her on the status of the research. Sent out the survey links to be filled. There was a huge lot of laundry to be given to Paras Bhai. Post lunch met up with the advertising research group for our presentation which is due tomorrow. Divided the work and decided to send our parts in by night. After that the MCSA had a meeting with the head of estate and the executive registrar. The meeting was regarding deciding on a roadmap for next year for students activities based on the learnings from this year. Got back to the room and started work on the advt research assignment. There was this article that had to be read which dealt with various types of advertising models. It was quite lengthy but came across some pretty useful stuff. Prepared my part of the presentation and sent it across by evening. Went to the gym in the evening (in an attempt to make up for missing out on tennis).

Dinner in the mess was quite sad. Guess it had to even out after the valentine's day special dinner yesterday which even included chocolate pudding! Got back to the room and surfed the net. Have been doing general tp. Class begins at 1215 tomorrow so I can afford to sleep in and that is a good thought to go to sleep with :P

Day 397 - 14th February 2012

Got back to campus at 3 in the morning after a 10 day break. Woke up at noon and had chai at Chota. It was an extremely lazy day, I hadn't even unpacked. Had to send out my dissertation surveys to be filled. Slept off int the afternoon again for a couple of hours. Finally stated my day at 7 in the evening! Caught up with Buds, Kore and Kalkar. Culcom had arranged some games today for valentine's day. The mess was decorated and everybody had a candlelight dinner :P The food was also good and mess comm took it a step further by crowd sourcing the menu. Post dinner, there was prom night in the Parjat courtyard. Got back to the room by midnight and have been working on the dissertation. Have less than 10 days to complete it and also have classes lined up!

Day 394 - 1st Februrary 2012

Woke up with great difficulty in the morning to play tennis. Post breakfast shifted base to the library. Its become a kind of routine now - tennis, breakfast, library, post lunch siesta, back to library, dinner, post dinner in Kachar North West. Today was no different. Also met my dissertation guide during the day to discuss the research methodology. She had suggested some modifications which I made and sent back for her approval. The discussion then veered towards placements, the direction in which the institute is headed. The debate is never ending and from a student's perspective there are many changes which we feel are necessary. Some of these changes will be recommended by the MCSA and we hope to see some action taken.

Spent most of the evening working on a presentation which I have to send to CD Mitra. The presentation is based on a case study I have prepared for my dissertation on Sahara Force India Speed Nights - the race screenings conducted at pubs across the country. It deals with how a non cricketing sport is promoted in India. Prepared the presentation and mailed it to the FIF1 marketing team for their approval before sending it across to CD Mitra, who plans to present it at sports marketing courses he will be conducting in other institutes. Post dinner Kore, Buds, Sania and I saw an episode of Roadies in Kalkar's room. This is something we used to last year as well, sit and have a good laugh at people's stupidity! Dinner at the mess wasn't that great which meant a midnight snack was on the cards at Chota. So chicken parathas it was, the parathas at Chota never seem to disappoint. Got back to the room by 130, read a bit of Ambani and Sons before calling it a day.

Day 393 - 31st January 2012

Another day of no classes today, in fact I dont have any classes till the 11th of February. Played tennis with Anuja in the morning. Post breakfast shifted base to the library. Had to send out e-mailers requesting people to fill up my dissertation survey. Unlike most surveys this one cant be floated in the student community at MICA since they aren't in the target audience. Also started working on the first draft of the dissertation. Worked on the research methodology section today. Managed to have an hour long siesta before coming back to the library.

Kalkar and I decided to go out for dinner (dum aloo in the mess = EONI). We went to Masty and had a very surprisingly good food to bill ratio, considering the fact that we both have similar (large) appetites. There is this place we have discovered in Bopal which serves cold Paan which has become a huge hit. the shop's name is Umiya Pan Center but it has been rechristened 'Ooima' Pan Center :P It has become pretty much routine to stop there on our way back from any dinner outing. Topped it off with ice cream at Havmor. Got back to campus by 11 and came back to the library. Have finished the part on research methodology and mailed the first draft to my dissertation guide. Posting this one from the library, will go head back to Kachnar in a bit after the daily dose of videos/articles from facebook!

Day 391 - 29th January 2012

Another rest day today. Woke up at noon and had brunch at Chota. Continued watching the original Agneepath, in fact everybody who has seen the Hrithik movie has come back and seen the Amitabh Bacchan version. Played tennis in the evening for a couple of hours. Got back to the room and finished watching Agneepath. Was also tracking the Djokovic Nadal Australian Open Final online. For the kind of match it was, there must have been way too many visitors at the website for it to function smoothly. So I had to watch the final moments of the game at the community center. Sunday dinners have always been good at the mess and today was no different. Got back to the room and spent sometime watching videos of old tennis matches on the net (yes, the Djoko Rafa match effect). Read a bit of Ambani and Sons before calling it a day.

Day 376 - 14th January 2012

Was woken up with some MCSA work in the morning. That took about a couple of hours. Went to Bopal for a haircut before lunch. Post lunch saw Die Hard 3. The first movie of the series seems to have a corrupted file, need to look for another version to complete watching the series. Worked a bit on the CCRM assignment (read as 1 page) before playing tennis in the evening. Dinner in the mess was Palak soup and Parathas. Post dinner came back to the room and started watching American History x, a movie about racism in America. Pretty thought provoking stuff. On that note decided to call it a day. Have to finish the CCRM assignment tomorrow and start transcribing the interview I had taken for the CIM group assignment.

Day 370 - 8th January 2012

Played tennis in the morning for about an hour. Post breakfast finally decided to start working on the  CIM Individual assignment that is due tomorrow. A research brief was given and we had to write guidelines for an FGD which was going to be conducted based on those objectives. Played cricket in the afternoon (yes there is a lot of free time!). In the evening saw a bit of Up In The Air which I have been seeing in parts over the past couple of days. Since today was a Sunday chicken was served during dinner in the mess. Post dinner came back to the room and saw Die Hard 2. Did a lot of things to keep me occupied today but at least I started work on the assignments! :P

Day 360 - 15th December 2011

Played tennis in the morning for an hour or so. Had the first half of the day free so saw the highlights of the 2001 India Australia Kolkata test match. Was reminded of it courtesy Rahul Dravid's talk at the Bradman Oration in Australia. It was a brilliant speech, his knowledge about the business of sport is a rich as his understanding of the game. Some of the anecdotes he shared must have been eye openers for the Aussie audiences. Managed to squeeze in a pre lunch siesta since there were BFSI classes after lunch. Today's sessions were on mutual funds and we also had 2 tests in between classes. Got done with classes by 7 in the evening. Dinner in the mess was Thai (which also included pasta :P) Post dinner decided to watch a movie, found Horrible Bosses on myzone, so decided to see that. Its a decent movie, worth a one time watch. The weather has been inducing a lot of sleep off late, will continue the trend and call it a day early!

Day 343 - 28th November 2011

Got back to campus by 2 in the morning and slept for a good 8 hours. Had a late start to the day with a CIM lecture post lunch. The lecture covered the various sampling techniques used in qualitative research and how it is different from sampling in quantitative research. Also had a session on various the current scenario of various types of industries as a build up to the placement week. The industries discussed were retail and IT. The session went on till 9 in the night. Dinner in the mess was south indian food, which meant there was a huge exodus of people to Chota. Decided to go out to a chinese place nearby called crazy noodles, a very 'hatke' restaurant which serves decent food. Got back to campus by 11 in the night. Placecomm had a batch meet at midnight regarding the placement week. Spent the next couple of hours discussing the placement scenario with quite a few people at aamchair. Before I could realise it was nearly 4 in the morning. Have an early morning start tomorrow, hope to wake up on time!

Day 332 - 16th November 2011

Had a late start to the day which meant it was one of the few days of the term when I could wake up at 1030. The course on Electronic Broadcast Media (EBM) started today. A visting faculty from mindshare came to take the course. She focused mainly on television and took us through the evolution of the television broadcast industry in India. Upcoming technologies and services like DTH and HD were also discussed with some interesting data about adopting these trends. Organization structures in a television broadcast company were also discussed. Towards the end of the class we were taken through two distinct marketing campaigns for the launch of 2 channels, one which succeeded and the other didn't. At the end of the day it all comes down to the cliche, content is king!

Had our first pre-placement talk of the season which was a video conference which went on for an hour. That was followed by a CIM class which picked up from yesterday's class on FGDs. Mess food was avoidable for the third consecutive day which again meant that Chota did brisk business. Spent the rest of the night taking care of some MCSA work and watching Futurama. Have a 930 class tomorrow, hope to wake up on time.

Day 331 - 15th November 2011

Had a pretty relaxed day today with only 2 classes to attended. So decided to make the most of the free time by getting the bike repaired, that was on the to do list for way too long. Went to Bopal for a haircut as well. The CIM lecture was supposed to take place at 12 which got pushed back to 2 in the afternoon. The session was about ethnographic research, it also dealt with the ethical issues that arise from ethnographic research. Had a class on B2B marketing after that which dealt with market entry strategies. Not too great a class, mos of what was discussed seemed pretty obvious. 

The mess food was quite sad tonight as well, but have been having too many meals at Chota so had to settle for dal chawal. Since the bike is in working condition now, went to Bopal for an ice cream post dinner. Came back by 1030 following which there was some MCSA work that had to be done. Will see a couple of episodes of Futurama before calling it a night!

Day 330 - 14th November 2011

Third straight day of 930 class in the morning. Had two sessions of ROMI which covered the brand equity and customer equity school of thought. ROMI is a hotly contested topic in the industry nowadays especially when it comes to justifying marketing spends. Sometimes it is even referred to as an investment but the justification for the same is done through various models with each one giving a radically different outcome. Nonetheless, at least there is some theory in place. After the session on ROMI we were supposed to have a session on CCRM which got cancelled which meant we were free for the rest of the day. Made the most of this free time by taking an hour long siesta. Played cricket in the evening for about an hour and a half. MCSA work kept me busy pre and post dinner. Dinner in the mess was quite sad which saw a huge exodus of people to Chota for dinner! Have been watching Futurama for the past hour or so, have a late start tomorrow. Looking forward to sleeping in!

Day 300 - 26th August 2011

Woke up at 11 in the morning, the AFM end term was 5 in the evening which gave me about 6 hours to go through the slides and whatever little notes I had made during the classes. It was an open book test, but one should also know where to look for an answer in the book! Practiced a few numericals with Sir and got a few doubts cleared from the commerce grads for whom this is a piece of cake.

The exam was pretty decent - a good mix of objectives, short answers and numericals. Again every paper in this field is compared with FA from term 1 which makes even a mediocre paper look like a very easy one. Post the paper,met up with a few juniors who wanted to know about internship opportunities in the sports marketing industry. Told them whatever I knew and shared my internship experience with them. Came back to the room and read a few articles on the net before heading to Chota for dinner (there was egg curry in the mess). Done have classes for the next 9 days but the FIF1 speed nights at MICA and IIM-A will keep me busy for the next couple of days at least. Started reading the book on sports marketing in India which I had bought sometime back before calling it a day.

Day 296 - 22nd August 2011

Had a rest day on account of Janmashtmi today. Spent the first half of the day in slumberland. Had the annual MICA Matki Phod Competition (MMPC). Hostels form teams and compete against each other in a dahi handi competition. Yours truly was in the base 'support' team of Kachnar ;-) We made it upto the semi finals courtesy our own Krishna oops I mean Nullu at the top of the human pyramid :-D Was good fun overall.

Dinner at the mess wasn't exactly a feast with the an attempt at Sabudana Khichdi gone horribly wrong. So Kalkar and I found an excuse to go to McDonalds for dinner. The one near ISCON mall is open till 1 in the night, the perfect place for a midnight snack! Got back to campus by 11 after which have been doing random tp. Regular classes start from tomorrow with the first set of Sports Marketing lectures. Have some good guest lecturers lined up so should be good fun! :-)

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 286 - 11th August 2011

Was feeling extremely lethargic today. Could be because of the hectic week that just went by coupled with the lack of sleep. Didnt attend any classes today, partly because of the aforementioned lethargy and partly because of the fact that there was pending MCSA work. All committee budgets that were sanctioned had to be submitted to the admin. That was followed by internship work that went on for a good couple of hours. With the national finals less than a month away, a lot of work is lined up!

Dinner in the mess was south indian cuisine, generally when that is the case that would be skipped for dinner at Chota, however decided to buck the trend and settle for dosa and vada sambar :P Post dinner had some more MCSA work which dealt with some of the committees which went on till about midnight. It has been pouring incessantly for the past couple of days, although I find the weather depressing the flip side is that at least the temperatures have dropped considerably, which means one can make the most of the joy of waking up late ;-)

Day 278 - 28th July 2011

The CC class began at 1030 today which also meant waking up earlier than normal as compared to previous days. Today's class was the concluding session on the module of ideology. The Nazi case study was continued and we were shown how they took complete control of the media - print and radio, to propagate their ideologies. In the second part of the class we were shown a video of Hitler and how carefully it was made to ensure that maximum subliminal communication. After that we were shown a video closer to home in which speeches of leaders like Bal Thackeray were analyzed during the peak of the communal riots in 1993.

Post lunch was able to do something that has been eluding me for the past week - sleep! The joy of a siesta is unparalleled :P Slept for a good hour and a half since the movie screening was at 430. Today's movie was a mexican blockbuster -The Crime of Father Amaro. It took a dig at how the church has also been propagating its ideology. The thing about these screenings is that Prof. Mathew gives a good description about the theme and what to look out for in the movie, the subtleties that would otherwise be missed out. Hope I get the hang of movie appreciation before graduating from here!

Had some FIF1 work in the evening that kept me occupied for about an hour. Dinner in the mess was Gujju food, which always invites extreme reactions. I fall in the group that quite enjoys it, more so because it is a welcome change from the usual stuff.Post dinner started with the pre reads for the AFM class tomorrow, we have 2 cases and related theory to prepare on. Didn't realise when I dozed off, woke up at around midnight which also meant that I had missed practice for the Palaash dance. Continued with the pre reads which went on till 4, have been browsing the net since then, shall call it a day in a bit and just hope that I wake up in time for the 930 class tomorrow.