19/05/2014

19/05/2014 ; 12:2:

There was a 'Positive Psychology' end term this morning; it just ended, an hour ago. The paper was fairly interesting albeit lengthy.

There's a report to be prepared for our 'Learning by Experience' course. We paid a visit to Jamli village , Indore district, all in the hope that we will learn something about research techniques.

22:26 :

The mess prepared 'Karara Bhindi' for dinner, today. I heard somebody remark that they were disappointed that the holidays are due to start so soon. And, no, it wasn't because of the friends or the 'happening' factor. This person was disappointed because they really enjoyed said 'Karara Bhindi' and wanted to relish it a few ( or a lot ) more times and the time away from campus would not facilitate that.

I've never seen so much appreciation for the mess food before. The mess food, in stark contrast to what we've heard about other college messes is pretty tasty. People actually consciously avoid going out to eat on the days the mess prepares 'Chhole-Bhature & Gulab Jamun'.

The hourly shuttle bus service from the Institute to various points in Indore city ( culminating at Mangal City Mall, Vijay Nagar ) is very convenient. Students enjoy getting on the bus to set out on both planned & unplanned adventures. One thing to note is that all trips include a visit to a good food place !

There's so much behind the scenes work that goes into any successful event be it big or small and , most often the spectators don't notice. Perfect !

17/05/2014

17/05/2014 ; 18:04 :

It's raining! Rain is great. Rain is even better when it's in the middle of May! Apart from being a respite from the May-heat, it makes everything look beautiful & smell beautiful too .

18/05/2014 ; 03:11:

We decided to take advantage of the good weather & go out for a good meal. Also, we had Crossword Vouchers to redeem courtesy the Crossword competition organised by our Literary Committee aka Literar-I. While my friends chose to buy books like the normal human beings that they are, I just had to buy a combo-set of Tarot cards + Book ! I don't really know why, but, I've been meaning to learn to read Tarot cards for a long time now. I remember, at the Crossword back home, I'd stare longingly at the same combo-Tarot pack but eventually drop the idea of purchasing it for fear of my mother judging me. Anyhow, since our initial plan of buying board games was foiled , for the sole Crossword in Indore is this tiny space inside Shoppers' Stop which obviously doesn't carry board games, I very happily agreed on finally treating myself to the combo-Tarot pack. I intend learning how to read them, in the 3-week break that commences sometime soon.


We won the Inter-Batch Girls' Throwball Tournament! It was to be a best of 3 matches, but, since we won the first two matches, the need for a third did not arise.

It's surprising how much Indori people like Poha, but that's a separate idea. Remind me to write about it sometime, though!

16/05/2014

16/05/2014 ; 13:14 :

And, the dreaded end-term exams began today, with Geology being the first. I plan on taking a glorious nap, now. My hostel room is really cute. Student Residence 13, Room No. 201. It's the absolute best place on campus. A perfectly-sized window that lets me look out at the stair-case (perpetually bubbling with activity!) & the faculty block! 5 stone shelves for storing all the books that I'll never have. A tall built-into-the-wall cupboard for all my food. (It's supposed to house clothes, but, that's another story). A single bed with a pink mattress , currently covered with an 'Angry Birds' bed-sheet. A stone-slab by the door, to stash my soap, shampoo, tooth-paste et all. Two fold-down wooden boards that are good for my laptop/ books to sleep on. Maroon curtains and a giant Vodafone umbrella (they kind they use to cover stalls) complete my happy place.

The whole idea of method-acting is so fascinating. You actually pick & imbibe, not just copy every aspect of the character you wish to portray. It's like you don't just play the part, you Be the part.

15/05/2014

15/05/2014 ; 16:45 :

On 5th May, 2014 I both returned & issued a book from the library for the first time since I've been here. I remember, in the weeks preceding my departure from home, I'd very ambitiously informed my parents that I'd 'make a house' in the library & read all the books they had, over the five years I was to spend here. So much for that.

Someone lent me a book to read, on the evening of 4th May while informing me that said book had to be returned to the library on or before 05/05/2014. Challenge accepted. Now, reading the book in one night was the lesser challenge. Figuring out the process of returning a book to the library was the harder. I interrogated multiple people on the 'how's' , 'what's' & 'where's' before daring to venture close to the library. I had decided that I was under no circumstances going to look like the clueless kid lost in the grocery store. I confidently opened the heavy wooden double doors that guard the precious intellectual resource of the years that we have access to so easily, today. I stepped up to the first entry point and declared that I had a book to return. Getting through customs was easier! The details of the book were very meticulously noted down in a long register. I tried to look all calm & composed, like this behaviour was routine to me. Then, I remembered the instructions and walked up to the 'Help Desk'. A couple of young ladies stood there, issuing fat, scary-looking books on Econometrics. I smiled. I waited patiently. The important-looking man behind the desk finished up with the ladies before asking me what I needed. I just pushed the book toward him and said ' Sir, return' . 'Return'. And, he just slid the book under that vast abyss of a table. It was done! I'd successfully returned a book!
Now, I was feeling really brave. I ascended one flight of stairs, turned right and walked straight up to the 'English Fiction' section. Now, while the library has a lot of books, the English Fiction collection is understandably limited; management students should be reading more Economics & less Danielle Steele. I looked around, awed, unable to understand how people 'selected A book'. I finally agreed on 2 books. I tried picking one, but, I agreed that two was an acceptable number. I strolled back down to the 'Help Desk'. I pushed the books forward, more confidently, this time . 'Sir, Issue'. I told him my roll number and let him look through the pile of library cards he had. He spent a good few minutes before he checked the 'master list' . I then politely told him that I did not have a library card. He checked my name in the master list, realised that I was at the end of my second year here and proceeded to invite company to share humour with, at my expense. 'Oh, you spent 2 years without seeing the face of the library, you might as well have spent 2 more' (sic) . I shrugged & smiled as best as I could muster. I was instructed to wait for 10 minutes. And, then, at the end of those 10 minutes, I was handed a small squarish-piece of blue paper. My library card. My very own library card. To issue books against. To love, to cherish, to keep mine, for the next 3 years! I smiled. I was instructed to get my books 'registered' in the register at the entrance. 'Hmm, do I look like a newbie? ' But,well, I was too thrilled to care. I walked out, books in hand , smile on my face & my card safe in the abyss that is the library table!

14/05/2014

14/05/2014 ; 16:26 :


As part of the Performing Arts Silo of the course, we had an option to pick one of Dance or Drama&Theatre, this term. Since we've already had 2 Dance courses earlier, a significant majority of the batch decided to try their hand at drama. Now, as the course and the term comes to an end, it's time to reflect.
I was really surprised to realise that a lot of people in the batch can act, and act really well at that too! Despite the fact that most of us haven't had any formal exposure to drama, people do seem to have an inherent understanding of theatre. Plus, versatility ( at least where acting is concerned) was a delight to see - the same person would be a young girl in one play and an angry lawyer in the next! A knack for both presenting & appreciating comedy also exists.
Personally, I felt like there was a lot to learn. Elementary theatre rules like stage presence, the division of the stage into 9 parts, voice production/modulation , the mood of the play, the use of props were learnt. This is one course that I'm sure much of the batch would be glad to have a 'Part-II ' of!

There's a holiday today, for Buddh Poornima and a holiday tomorrow for it's Thursday. A lot of the juniors have packed their bags and left for various destinations, last night, with plans to return only on Friday. The junior batch as a whole is really enthusiastic. All events, talks, happenings on campus generally see a lot of participation from the juniors. I'm ambitiously assuming that we too were like that in the first year.

There's about a fortnight to go before the end of our second year. Currently, we're all excited about the new year ( & new courses) awaiting us when we get back. We're all ( especially the junior batch) currently more excited about the new juniors that we'll encounter, in August, soon!

So, the stage is divided into 9 parts -- 3 parts from front to back - Front, Middle & Back ; 3 parts from left to right - Left, Centre & Right -- which makes the 9 parts as Front-Left, Front-Centre, Front-Right, Middle-Left, Middle-Centre, Middle-Right, Back-Left, Back-Centre& Back-Right.
Well, I should've just made a matrix!

12/05/2014

12/05/2014 ; 15:15 :

Last night, at around 11 p.m , the lights went out. Now, power cuts here aren't very often & power is typically restored within a couple of minutes. Power was out for well over an hour, last night. It was Daksha's birthday. We got cake & firecrackers! The impromptu darkness made the whole escapade even more enjoyable, especially the firecrackers. While we do have a hostel-in time( 11 p.m.) , the darkness was good reason to subvert this. All of us gathered in the central lawn that lies in between the girls' and boys' hostels . Playing football, gossiping , lighting mosquito-repellant coils , laughing and cutting cakes. (Well, it was just the one, but, still. )

13/05/2014 , 12:54 :

I got up yesterday morning, left my room, toothbrush in hand. I was greeted by Harika who promptly informed me that she'd been up late, reading my blog. I was slightly confused. I wasn't sure if she meant this blog or my other one. I didn't really remember sharing either with too many people. So , I asked. Apparently , Ojasvi went ahead and posted a link to my blog ( with attached appreciatory comments) on a FaceBook group , namely 'IIM-I IPM Helpline' that well, is a good source of interaction between IPM aspirants and the IPM Community. The course being new, everyone is pretty unclear about a lot of things about this place. Kudos, Varun! ( He's the admin of said group). Was I surprised ?! I was elated! Appreciation is good. Unexpected appreciation is even better!

We were reading about Psychometric Testing in the Positive Psychology Course, yesterday. Then, I remembered. Sometime in September of last year, the authorities here had deemed it wise to conduct Psychometric Testing for all the students. It was a pretty different experience-- writing stories on random pictures - We now know ( courtesy aforementioned course on Positive Psychology) that since negative emotions/thoughts are hard for people to express directly, projections are used instead. Like in the famous Rorschach Ink Blot Test where one is shown an ink blot and asked to plot a story, it is really one's own feelings that are expressed when writing about an abstract 'theme'. As part of the Psychometric Testing, we also had a Group Discussion on the best way to solve a given problem, followed by personal interviews. What still eludes me is why the results were never shared with us. But, well.

It's now proven by scientific research that people who have higher levels of Happiness/Satisfaction/Well-Being are likely to live longer , be more healthy , have higher incomes and be in long-term relationships.

11/05/2014

11/05/2014 ; 16:06 :

The course on Indo-Anglian Literature is almost at a close. I was pretty excited to get a different perspective on literature, since the last 4 literature courses had been taken by the same faculty. I remember , by class 11, I'd definitely started complaining about the fashion in which English Literature was taught. The text would be read out & explained line-by-line. I just thought that we'd had enough of that in primary school and well, we were grown up! And, then , I was definitely excited about the first Literature course in college. We'd finally be critiquing texts , delving into their implications & backgrounds. But, well, we were still faced with the line-by-line explanation.

This changed with the very enjoyablecourse on Indo-Anglian Literature. We tried & learnt to close-read a text. There's so much more to appreciation of literature than we realise.


Our basketball team went out for dinner, yesterday, to celebrate our win at the IBL. It was long overdue for Gargi had been unwell. A grand celebration that definitely merited hitting the buffet dinner at Sayaji.

A Girls' Throwball Tournament is to begin tomorrow. Sports Comm is definitely working overtime!

09/05/2014

09/05/2014 ; 17:48:

We paid Sayaji that visit we'd been planning. The food was indeed good - and so much variety, as promised. Sayaji is, by common agreement, the best hotel of Indore, though, of course our opinion is more likely based on their restaurants - Square , Kebabsville , Mediterra & Chopsticks.


We went to Chick-n Serve on Wednesday. And, we're planning Dominos, right now and a repeat to yesterday's Sayaji, tomorrow. Wow, that's a lot of eating out for one week!

There has been this constant back-&-forth, with regard to the end term timetable. Since we have electives to pick from, everyone has their own preference for the timetable - & no two people seem to want the same thing.
Raghav Kinra is pretty hell bent on going home a day before everyone else. In order for this to happen, either two of the German, Botany & Chemistry end-terms must happen on the last day. I think he's a little crazy, but, who am I to judge?

Tughlaq, in 1327 decided, for reasons best concealed by history , that he would move his capital city from Delhi to Daulatabad! History is indeed influenced by ideological bias, as I've recently learnt.


In definitely happy news, our very own campus e-magazine 'Chiraag' has agreed to accept my submission for this time's issue.( subject to space constraint, for my 'submission' is a 2200-word piece of prose- not the most suitable 'e-mag' material ) The theme for this time's issue is 'The Supernatural'. Looking forward !

06/05/2014

06/05/2014 ; 02:52 :

The intervening night of 5th & 6th May. I like intervening nights. It rained this(uh, last) afternoon/evening. Getting soaked in the rain is one of the joys that one never grows out of.

19:56 :

07/05/2014 ; 00:08 :

I'd just entered the time & was about to delve into a story when Rishi caught me. I was in the Fest Meeting, then and Rishi who was speaking was obviously not impressed on seeing me glued to my phone. Anyway, 2 sub-heads have been elected from each vertical. So, today a meeting was called, to have the entire core team meet together for the first time.

Sports Comm is in action mode. The guys' Street Football League aka SFL took off this evening. It was fun to watch ; football has fewer rules than basketball & street football has even fewer!

Sayaji hotel, Indore is running a food festival till the 11th ; there are 170 dishes on offer, or so I hear. Anyway, we shall pay them a visit soon.

It rained a little bit, 2-3 times today. Great respite from the heat! The Google weather predictor available on my phone is actually accurate. It did predict the rain, both days!


Psychologists have this list of 24 positive character traits & 6 virtues, with each virtue having the character traits as components. Say, the virtue 'Humanity' encompasses kindness, love & social intelligence.

04/05/2014

04/05/2014 ; 14:53
The IIM Indore campus is set on a hill , a hill called 'Prabandh Shikhar ' . The campus is in three 'levels' which are at three different heights around the hill. The Sports Complex , Mess-3 and Student Hostels are all situated on Level-3 i.e. the lower most level. More Student Hostels , Mess-1 , Mess-2 & everything happening is on Level-2. Level-1 has the Academic Block , the Learning Centre and the Old Auditorium. I shall try to procure a top-view map from the Estate Department. Or, I'll just draw a map and describe the entire campus in detail.

The entire hilly terrain makes cycling around campus fun. There's this steep uphill slope , you're working real hard , ascending and you feel like you just cannot move any further and then, you're downhill again, with the breeze blowing through your hair. It gives a sense of exhilaration, freedom even.


Last evening was the final of the Boys' Basketball League - 2013 Batch ( aka juniors) v/s 2011 Batch ( aka seniors) . Up until the end of the third quarter, the game was pretty close; the score difference at the beginning of the fourth quarter was only 4 points. I didn't understand whether it was the juniors who gave up or the seniors who had a sudden gush of adrenaline, but, the final score was 85-46 in favour of the seniors. Anyhow, it was an interesting watch. Plus, I got to keep score.

23:23 :

The time amuses me. Since small things make me happy,I am almost always smiling. I'm amused by the time at least once a day, 00:00 . The ambulance was just here, to ferry Gargi to the Medical Centre. Gargi has this penchant for falling ill, more specifically for having bouts of vomiting. Food just doesn't seem to suit her. By now, all the MedCentre staff, ambulance driver included know her by name. She got some tablets and khichdi, I hope she feels better in the morning.

In other news, a student body meeting was called , this evening, in order to elect the Sub-Heads of the different verticals responsible for the fest - Sponsorships, PR & Marketing, Events, Logistics, Creative , Event Coverage, Hospitality & Informals.
Everyone is really enthusiastic, it is nice to see .

Metafiction is like fiction beyond fiction, yeah, that. A story classified as 'metafiction' is a story that is about writing a story.

30/04/2014.

30/04/2014 , 14:22 :

And, the Girls' Basketball League finally came to a close, last evening. The final match was going good, when it was suddenly interrupted by the power suddenly going out , right after half-time. It was only a couple of minutes, but, it was fun. Well, at least I thought so. We won ! 25-15. Sports Comm. has promised us a trophy !

Our batch boys' won the IPL- Boys' Cricket, just two days back, so, nice follow up to that!

1/05/2014 , 11:19 :

Yesterday, Prof. Pawan Budhwar, Professor, Aston University, United Kingdom was on campus, to give us a talk on 'Challenges of Managing in an International Context' . A topic that seems very relevant in today's world where boundaries are expanding and borders are fading. Understanding different cultures, understanding the different mind-sets that these cultures lead people to have, learning how to integrate and beginning to not only appreciate the differences, but to also use them to be even better.

We're pretty close to finalizing the website developer for our fest i.e. Atharv , so , that's good.
Sanjana & me were just having a discussion about the fruit-seller on campus. We understand that he enjoys a monopoly on campus and all but, he sells his fruits way too expensive sometimes. Whenever he does get good fruits, he'll charge them at almost 50% more than the market rate. And, then, no one buys them, they go bad & the price falls again. Anyway, he's brought coconuts for the summer, so, that's good.

02/04/2014; 13:33

Indo-Anglian Literature mid term was this morning. Arun Kolatlar writes nice poetry. Jejuri is very different, very enjoyable & very thought- provoking.

2012 batch boys must win today's match to remain in the league.

Okay, afternoon naps are great, I shall go catch one.

Quite a few English words have Indian origin - shampoos & bungalows - finding their way from Indian languages to Portuguese and to English from there.