Day 436 - 24th March 2012

Today's highlight was the movie screening by Prof. Mathew. He screened two movies - Bicycle Thieves and Beijing Bicycle back to back. Both were based on the same story but were made almost 60 years apart. The way the director's worked with the story was noteworthy. The former was an Italian movie and the latter was a Chinese movie. After the movie screenings, had some MCSA work to take care of which took about an hour. Read a bit in the night before calling it a day. 

Day 434 - 22nd March 2012

Woke up at around noon today. Three days spent on the cricket field have made me feel pain in parts of my body that I never even knew existed :P Spent an hour in getting the no dues certificate cleared. Sat for the movie screening in the evening which was a french historical. Dinner was with Geeko at Subway. Got back to campus by 1030. Had some MCSA work after that which went on till midnight. The realization has also dawned that it is going to be less than a week now before the course comes to an end. Nostalgia is setting in!

Day 387 - 25th January 2012

Breakfast was at Chota. Decided to spend some time in the library and read up a bit for the dissertation. Some MCSA work came up pre and post lunch which meant we had to miss the first hour of Indian Cinema. Made it in time for the second half which was a case study of Manoj Kumar's Shaheed. The movie is based on the life of Bhagat Singh, however the facts were conveniently tweaked to conform with popular belief at that point of time. It was an in depth analysis of the movie and went on for more than an hour. There was a movie screening with Satyjit Ray's Charulata - a critically acclaimed movie and Satyajit Ray's favourite creation. It is based on a novel by Rabindranath Tagore. Got done with the screening by 9. It is Kore's birthday tomorrow so there were the usual birthday celebrtions in Kachnar. Boys arent as kind as girls and inspite of the cild weather Kore was dunked with cold water. Food was packed from Honey9 for the ocassion and we all pounced on it like hungry wolves :P On that note, with a satisfied tummy, will call it a day.

Day 372 - 10th January 2012

Looks like all the tiredness of playing two sports a day finally caught up with me. Woke up at 12 today! After having chai at Chota got down to completing the FMCG assignment. Had to skip lunch as there was a lecture by a visiting faculty from John Hopkins university on Online Credibility. Managed to grab a bite in the break between that class and IC. Today's session was a case study of Lagaan and how it propogated the caste system, disability and gender inequality. Case in point was Kachra, an untouchable who was taken in the team not because of his ability but his disability! The way he was potrayed throughout the movie was also questioned. The session also analysed the brahminical ideology that was evident throughtout the movie. Although one may not agree with all that was discussed in class it was certainly a different way of looking at things that had never been thought of before. Post snacks there was a movie screening. Since the discussion in class was about caste, the movie shown was Bimal Roy's Sujata. Its about how an upper class post graduate brahmin falls in love with an illiterate uneducated untouchable. The movie screening got done by 1030. Came back to the room after that and continued working on the FMCG assignment. Its Jayati's birthday tomorrow, cake cutting etc begin in less than 5 mins. Hope people are not savage enough to dunk her in this weather! :P

Day 294 - 20th August 2011

Today was the last CC class which was scheduled to begin at 430. Had some MCSA work before that. The class was a case study on Madonna and her marketing strategies as she evolved. How she has managed to stay on top consistently for 25 years, how she seemed to conform with all possible norms yet managed to take a dig at everything that she thought was wrong. She produced 5 top 20 tracks over a period of 17 months, a similar feat was achieved by Barabara Streisand in 20 years! We also were shown some of her music videos, some of which were even banned by MTV. The way she evolved as an artist and more importantly as a marketer were quite evident in those videos. A good session overall and a nice one to have as the last one of this sem.

Today's movie was promised to be a fun, breezy one and it did live up to those expectations! An Italian movie - Ciao, Professore. It was about how an elementary teacher tries to reform a bunch of third graders in a South Italian town plagued with crime and violence. Again, a nice movie to be shown as the last one of this sem. Class got done by 11 in the night. Dinner was at Chota since there was South Indian food in the mess. Came back to the room and saw some more cricket videos. There is a facebook community formed by a few of us where only cricket videos are posted. Its turning out to be a treasure trove of videos from yesteryear. Today was dedicated to Mohammed Azharuddin, spent a good half an hour watching some of his best innings. That was a nice way to end the day!

Day 293 - 19th August 2011

Woke up at 12 today! This was because the CC class was supposed to start only at 430. Took care of some MCSA work until then. Today's class was a case study on Kashmir, the chronological order of events which has led to the current situation. Realised how history textbooks have been distorted to give us a different picture about the Kashmir issue. Class went on till dinner time after which there was a movie screening. Today's movie was The Magdalene Sisters, based on true stories of Irish nuns in the 70s. It took a dig at how religion is misinterpreted to commit atrocities the world over.

The movie got over at round 1130 in the night. Tonight was also the first night of the MICA Quizzing League - MQC. Made a last minute team with Manu. Today's was a brand quiz. We missed out on the cut off for the finals because we wrote one of our answers as Surf instead of Surf Excel :P Got back to the room after that and was watching some old cricket videos on the net. Will call it a day in a bit, have our last class of CC tomorrow.

Day 287 - 12th August 2011

Had decided to wake up at 830 and finish off some FIF1 work before class which was scheduled to start post lunch. The alarm did wake me up but a couple of snoozes later I realised that it was 12 o'clock! Did whatever work I could before squeezing in lunch and heading for the CC class.

Today's class was a case study on the Iraq war and how effectively PR and event management was used during the American invasion of Iraq. Some pretty damning revelations were made which most of us weren't aware of and made us look at the entire war in a totally different light. This was followed by looking at print ads that were used during war time, starting from World War 2 to America's invasion of Afghanistan.

Today's movie screening continued with the theme of war - Grave of the Fireflies. It was a tragic story of a boy and his younger sister trying to cope up with life in war ravaged Japan. Inspite of being an animation it was able to potray so many emotions, there were very few dry eyes in the auditorium by the end of the movie. Post dinner have been doing the FIF1 work that I had planned to do in the morning. Will take another half an hour or so before calling it a day!

Day 285 - 10th August 2011

Got back to campus at 2 in the morning today. Had a fruitful trip to Hyderabad and Goa. Just in case you are wondering, Goa was also an official trip :P Had gone to do a recce for the national finals which are planned to be held in September.

Luckily classes started at noon today. But that still did not make up for the lack of sleep accumulated over the past week. Somehow dragged myself through CC and a movie screening. Also had to take care of certain issues relating to my subjects and credits which I had missed out on due to the internship travel. Got that sorted out before the movie screening. Today's movie was Talk to Her, it was supposed to be a very good movie but unfortunately the lack of sleep and air conditioning in the audi conspired against me from watching it! Will try watching it again some other time.

Post the movie MCSA work took over. Had a meeting with TI regarding the junior committee selection process. That went on for about an hour. Post that Jhamb updated me on all the happenings of the past week. Wrapped up everything by 1 in the night and decided to start making up for the lack of sleep :P

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.

Day 277 - 27th July 2011

The CC class was supposed to start at 12 today but because of the concept note submissions for the dissertation it got postponed to 230. Utilised that time to run my topic through one of the faculty members whom I have given as one of my preferences as a mentor. Apart from that there was also some MCSA work that needed to be done in the administration and programme office.

In the CC class we discussed a Nazi case study as to how ideology was driven into the psyche of people. It was also brought to our notice that marketing concepts like pre-testing, segmentation and TG all have their roots in the Nazi concentration camps where these techniques were used on the Jews. There were also some disturbing visuals of the concentration camps that were shown. The whole idea behind all of this was to show if planned properly and executed meticulously, ideology can easily propagated through the masses and how its applications/repercussions in the marketing context.

The movie screened today was Rossentrasse - a movie based on the story of a Jewish girl living in the US tracing the roots of her mother in Germany during the Nazi regime. A very gripping story about what her mother went through in those days which explains why she became a devout Jew. Since classes started late, the movie screening got done at 9 in the night. After dinner, there was this discussion held on the Janlokpal bill by MICA alumni who is a now an adjunct faculty out here who also works with Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare on spreading awareness about the Janlokpal bill. A pretty informative session which gave rise to a very healthy discussion. That got done by 1 after which had to stay back in the audi to ensure that the committee interviews were running smoothly.

Got back to the room at around 2 and had to do some FIF1 work, we have a set of races coming up in Hyderabad next week, so the preparatory work is on for the same. It took about an hour to finish that off. It's been a long and tiring day, have a relatively relaxed schedule tomorrow, could catch up on some sleep then.

Day 276 -26th July 2011

Woke up at 1030 today and had to take care of some internship work before heading for the 12 o'clock class. Today's CC class was about IMC from a sociological perspective. We discussed about the proliferation of brands and advertisements, about how advertisers are getting frustrated and consumers are getting infuriated. The average time for ads in a half an hour show is now nine minutes, up from 2-3 minutes from the 1980s. Product placements were also discussed with the Walt Disney+Monsters Inc.+ Pepsi versus Time Warner+Harry Potter+Coke case study being discussed. The whole point being that the number of ads and marketing strategies when viewed from a sociological perspective gives one a lot to think about.

The class was followed by a movie screening, today's movie was a French movie - Three colours blue. Was quite zonked out during the movie. Realized that movie appreciation isnt that easy! This movie is a part of a trilogy with the other colours being red and white. They are based on the colours of the French flag with each colour standing for a set of values which are explored in each of these movies.

Post dinner had discussions on committee budgets for Alumni, SCAM and MICANVAS. That took around a couple of hours. After that had to work on the concept note for the dissertation topic that has to be submitted tomorrow. As of now have thought about naming rights for stadiums across the world and its scope in India as a topic. Got done with that at 430. Will tweak it a bit tomorrow before submitting it.

Day 275 - 25th July 2011

Had our first class of CC today. We were supposed to have this course last year but due to some logistic issues it couldn't take place. Today's session was an intro to the course and about Mergers & Acquisitions from a sociological perspective. The analysis was done over a period of more than 100 years. This lead to the discussion of the term 'mass culture' and the commodification of everything around us. In particular M&As in the media sphere were also discussed, how people like Rupert Murdoch control more than 30% of the media in Asia and in New Zealand tv, print, newspaper and radio is in the hands of just 2 people!

In the lunch break had to take a print out of the dissertation workshop assignment, most of us feel that we have done a pretty shabby job of the assignment because of the paucity of time, can't help it though. Post lunch had a film screening. Today's movie was a Brazilian movie Central Station (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140888/). An interesting movie on a young boy's journey to find his father.

In the evening had to work out committee budgets with each committee separately, its a tough balancing act to do and can be a very difficult job at times. Today was also the 5th day of the committee selection process, had to be in the audi for a bit for that. Got done relatively early today (read as 330), have another day of CC and a movie screening lined up for tomorrow as well.

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!

Day 38 - 3rd August 2010

Hurricane Katrina has seems to have paid a visit to Shela and might just apply for permanent residency. On days like this I know what would have been the inspiration for The Beatles to have penned "Here Comes the Sun". Eco and FA were not as soporific as I had anticipated,since people have devised ways of keeping themselves and others awake during lectures. The latest trend is to write the nickname of the person on the flip side of the name tag and put that in front of his/her desk. Another new fad is clicking pictures of people sleeping and tagging them on facebook, one guy even has an entire album dedicated for this. Had a session on writing research papers in the afternoon which was for about one and a half hours. After last week's schedule it felt like bliss to be done by 1 in the afternoon. Finally could manage a nice comfortable siesta!

Played a little tennis in the evening before Katrina decided to pay a visit again. Had to get back in time for the movie screening at 7. Today's movie was a french movie called a love to hide. It was based on how homosexuals were treated by the Nazi regime and how the outlook towards homosexuality is still skewed. One thing that I have realised courtesy CT is that I have a lot of things to read up about! How and when that will happen is something that I am yet to figure out.
Post dinner continued a bit of the CS group assignment which got done by around 1230, the planning stage is down now need to get down to implementing it,which hopefully will start tomorrow.

Day 37 - 2nd August 2010

Had our first class on Social Sciences and Communication(SSC) today. Most of the ppt had only pictures and what we perceived from it (although some people thought that it was racial stereotyping). We are going to learn about anthropology,sociology and psychology in this subject, as geeky as this may sound, Im actually looking forward to it. The marketing lecture was taken by a really good prof, she had just one slide on Integrated Marketing Communications(IMC) but kept that kept us engrossed for more than an hour. At the end of the lecture Nike+ was discussed - a brilliant concept, but Im not sure how effective it will be in India. The other 2 lectures were on ID and MLE, the only source of entertainment was when people tried to 'shoot' down the DCP'ers.

All committee members had a meeting with the director in the afternoon. Just a formal introduction of the junior committee members and the senior committee had to talk about the plans that they had in mind for the coming year. TI has some major plans chalked out for this year, hope they materialise. Had an optional movie screening in the evening - an Iranian movie called Colours of Paradise, though I did manage to stay awake for the entire duration of the movie, I found the ending to be too open ended.

Post dinner had some TI work, have to come up with a concept/layout for a MICA blog. Came up with a few ideas for that, need to work on it tomorrow as well. After that had to work on the CS (Creative Strategy not Counter Strike) group assignment. That went on until around 130, have been doing absolute tp since then. Will head out to Chota now (0215 hours),not feeling too sleepy,sure to make up for it during classes tomorrow (a potent combination of eco. and accounts)

Day 35 - 31st July 2010

In spite of sleeping for less that four hours I was feeling so energized in the morning, the only reason being today was the last day of a long and winding week. Had only one lecture in the morning on eco. No test today as well, though the prof. did walk in with answer sheets,he loves playing with our emotions ;-) Had an hour long break before the next session so did tp at Chota. We had our last class on CT today, the prof. seemed to be in a good mood today and was cracking a lot of jokes. He managed to keep the 2 hour session pretty lively. Today's class continued a bit on how Hollywood is used to influence the mood of a nation with some more examples and then moved on to a bit of media studies. The movie screened today was an English movie called the music box. It seemed to have been made at a time when the US was riding high on anti-communist sentiments. Yours truly slept off for sometime, and apparently was snoring as well :-S. In spite of that I still managed understand the plot and got the story at the end.

In the evening went to Gulmohar Mall to buy a tennis racquet. Have always wanted to buy a Wilson, got an amazing deal on one today. Bought a some clothes as well. I realised that I like to shop alone, it gets done very fast. Got back to campus by around 930. Since tomorrow is a rest day there is a friday night mood that has consumed most of PGP1. Had our first Team Interface meeting today, met the senior committee at midnight at Chota. Just a general meeting briefing us on our responsibilities. Nobody,including me, is in the mood to sleep and hence this post is being typed at 415 a.m. Guess my day will start in the afternoon today as well :-)

Day 33 - 29th July 2010

So far this week, every day seems to be like the previous day. Get to class by 9, try not to sleep or if sleeping try not to get caught sleeping, keep looking at the clock to see how much time is left, try to pay attention, that lasts for a maximum of 10 minutes and then drift away in to some random thoughts only to be snapped out of it when the prof. starts asking questions to people at random. Having your name tag in front your seat is a huge disadvantage in this regard. That was the story of my PM and OB class in the morning. Luckily didn't get asked any questions, but need to say something in the OB class at least, the grades are also determined by class participation. CT in the afternoon was a continuation of yesterday's class about the evolution of media and different models used for the dissemination or sometimes even distortion of information. I also realised today that the 1-2 minute power naps that involuntarily take place are quite useful - they help me stay awake for the next 10-15 mins :D Today's movie screening was a German movie called funny games, an extremely violent movie with hardly any violence in it. Personally I didn't like the movie much, found it to be too negative.

Ever since classes have started in full swing I haven't been able to play tennis, partly because of the timings and the weather. Felt a little guilty about that today so decided to go for a jog in the evening. Was good fun, explored a couple of places outside campus and in the process found Harshad Mehta's brother's bungalow. After getting back decided to work on my CV. Even though its a one pager, its no easy task! Took more than 2 hours to come up with a career objective and Im still not happy with it. Have to submit it noon tomorrow, so still have some time to think about it. Right now will try and go to sleep so that the power naps in tomorrow's lectures are lesser in number :-)

Day 25 - 21st July 2010

Another 9 to 5 day. The marketing lecture in the morning was quite empty,I was under the impression that quite a few people would be catching up on sleep but it turns out that they were late for the class and weren't allowed to enter! Need to be careful from now on. In the afternoon as a part of communication theory a french movie - An affair of love was screened. I'm no expert but I liked the way it was presented with the two protagonists talking to an interviewer and giving their interpretation of the same events. This was followed by a session on gender and how the patriarchal nature of society has taken shape over the ages. Every class of CT a misconception is cleared, today we got to know about how women is Islam aren't as suppressed as we think they are. There are a lot of provisions in the Quran to ensure that women have a good amount of rights if not equal to men.

Had plans to play tennis in the evening, but it rained in the evening,so could only go for a walk around campus. Had a couple of assignments that had to done for tomorrow so worked on that a bit. I have changed my mind about committees and have applied to Team Interface - the media and PR wing of MICA. They also gave us an assignment which needs to be submitted by six tomorrow evening. We also have a group assignment that needs to be done for tomorrow's session on creative strategy, worked on that after dinner, coming up with a campaign for adult education. After that we headed to Chota's for nimbu paani.

Back to my room now. Listening to MIA's paper planes as I type this,not feeling sleepy but will force myself to sleep now, otherwise will end up sleeping in class tomorrow.

P.S. Couple of my friends have cleared 3 rounds of the alumni junior committee selection process and are now waiting for the final results. Fingers crossed, hope they make it.