16/09/2014

15/09/2014; 19:49:

With the day-wise fest reports, I’ve definitely missed out & missed writing about the other small things, which are important and truly worth re-living.
Although my views on this idea of re-living memories and the like … well, let’s not go there now.

Well, after the IR end-term on the 10th, a long nap was called for. And, while my attendance in the last 6 terms has been more or less impeccable, it’s been pretty messed up, this time around, what with Atharv & all. All post-lunch sessions (in my defence, it was just the one lecture) were thus passed over, for a long nap.
The junior batch had a movie screening as part of their course on ‘Business, Government & Society’, in the evening at 6:30. The course is being taken by the Director and must be rather awesome. For once, we do envy the juniors. Our senior batch, too, had a course which was taken by the then-Director. Looks like they decided to skip us, for reasons yet unknown.
We’d sent out a form, to the 2014 batch, to allow all those interested to sign up for i-Help. Almost 50 responses were received; adding all these students would take the total strength of i-Help to over a 100 members. Each applicant was then required to send in both an SOP (as an individual task) and a PowerPoint presentation on a given NGO (as a group task). I got to read each SOP (and see the ppt’s) and, more than anything else, the variety and enthusiasm was rewarding! I made it a point to reply to each one, individually, for feedback (and acknowledgment) on writing of any sort is just a given.
So, this task-process done, a meeting of all the eager juniors was called at 9:30, on the 10th of September. A more detailed idea of i-Help along with volunteer experiences was shared with the new members. A few of them also put their two cents in, talking about their expectations and excitement. A highly detailed Excel Sheet, which had a minute-wise plan for the 11th, along with the names of volunteers assigned to specific tasks was flashed on screen. The sheet itself looked like too much work to have been made possible; but, it did make the actual execution a piece of cake. It’s surprising how well things can be managed, when everyone’s working for a cause they believe in or simply something that they are interested in.

16/09/2014; 03:40:

Come the morning of 11th, the 6 persons who had the task of getting on buses from campus, alighting at the children’s school, filing them into buses and getting them to campus safely, left campus at 7:15 a.m., perfectly as per plan. The children of class 7 & 8 were to be brought to visit the IIM-I campus, as a special treat. Class 6 had to be left out of the plan for they were too many in number & a little too naughty to be handled. My batch being left out of all the fun things in school suddenly made infinite amounts of sense. Once there, the children were split into 4 groups and filed into 4 waiting buses, after their morning rendition of ‘Vande Matram’. It was such a sweeping flood of memories; I’d sing the national song too, every morning, in school! The ride to campus was short, about 15 minutes or so. Our bus took a different route from the one in front of us, with the driver promising that we’d reach earlier. We enthusiastically participated in the race; unfortunately, we were met with disappointment. Once on campus, at around 8:40, there were about 15 of our i-Help volunteers, waiting to meet the kids and get started! The kids were briefly shown around the Academic Block and then filed into two classrooms for a short interaction with some IIM-I faculty. A while later, sports equipment was arranged for and the kids frolicked, playing different games, running across the lawns and generally hanging out with our volunteers.

During this time, another set of volunteers were at the other school, picking up kids of classes 3, 4 & 5. By 10:30, they were all on campus and were taken straight to the auditorium. The other kids too were directed to the Audi and ‘Chak de India’ was screened! Lunch was served, as soon as the movie was over. The kids who’d come in the morning were bid farewell as they filed into waiting buses and the new kids were given the Acad Block tour and then directed to the faculty-interaction session. Sports & games later, they too were on their way back, tired but happy. The whole show was managed actually without any glitches and I still think it is a wonder. Well, miracle or the meticulous planning which actually managed to scare me with its elaborateness.
So, 11th was a day well spent, with the kids and the successful execution of such a large plan and all.
The latter half of the day was spent visiting Jail Road, in Indore city. Indore has these clearly demarcated markets for everything- there’s Khajuri Bazaar for Books/Stationery, Kothari Market for clothes, Dawai Bazaar for medicines; there’s even a whole separate market for motorcycle seat covers! Jail road is the electronics, more the electronics repair road. My phone’s been acting up and needed to be check; Jail Road was easier to find than the LG Service Centre, for the website gave an address but no phone number. Of course, my trip was futile, except that I did manage to find out that since one part of the screen (read the home/back/recent apps buttons at the bottom) is not working, the whole touch-screen needs to be changed. And since the display and touch are integrated, basically everything needs to be replaced. Deciding to just visit an LG Service Centre, perhaps the next day (since they close at 5), I wandered off the Kothari Market, looking for clothes- I needed a saree, blouse & petticoat, the works, for the upcoming Drama End term. Of course, Kothari Market deals mainly in unstitched fabric and my trip was pointless. A Chinese dinner later, I was back on campus, promising to make a more successful trip in the near future.

And, the near future was very near. On the afternoon of the 12th, I set out again, this time armed with the location of the correct market- the other clothes market; there was this whole lane of saree shops and this other lane of blouse/petticoat shops. A little decision-making later, I had everything I needed to look pretty for the Drama End term. Accompanying me was my neighbour’s friend from Hyderabad! And, we tried a lot of the street food and even visited the old palace which lies in the centre of Rajwada(market!). For the first time since I’ve been here, I felt like Indore was my city; I felt proud, showing it off, showing our guest around! We then headed to the Service centre, for I’d learnt that it close at 6:30, not the 5 as I’d thought. We did find it, only, it was closed. Cursing my luck and deciding that my phone shall get repaired only at home, with all this happening, we set out to find interesting dinner. Our quest led us to Chick-n-Serve, which as the name suggests is a chicken lover’s paradise!
I managed to be back just in time to catch the second round of the Vibes Audition for the 2014 batch. Vibes is the dance club here; the first round of auditions- the prepared performance one- was just over and the second was in progress- this round was an impromptu one. Music was played; you had a minute to listen to the song and then the floor was all yours! It’s a rather daunting prospect to someone who cannot dance… well, not on stage at least.

Most of the 13th of September, which missed being a Friday the 13th by just a day, was spent sleeping. I slept, woke up, attended one history lecture, and fell asleep again, only to wake up at 8:30 in the evening. Night was spent worrying about the ITE (Introduction to Engineering) project due the next day. An EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) was to be made, using IC’s, Bread Boards, Mirco Controllers, LED’s, Counters and the like. Also, evening saw the last round of the Vibes Audition, which was the choreography round- a set choreography was taught and needed to be best replicated.

On the morning of 14th, ITE projects were presented. One group in particular seemed to be very interested in cross-questioning the other teams. Of course, everyone had their revenge when said team came to present their project. Our team had managed to conjure up a decent model as well as a C++ programme, overnight! Post-lunch were the last two classes of the term- History classes which were well spent, watching a rather intriguing or as someone put it ‘absorbing’ movie titled ‘To end all Wars’. It revolved around the lives of a contingent of Scottish soldiers, taken prisoner by the Japanese, during the Second World War and placed in a PoW camp, in Thailand where they constructed a 432 k.m. long rail-road. The movie begins with their capture, deals with their life and struggles and ends with their liberation which came with the end of the war.
15th was the day of the Drama End-term!

04:35:

The Drama End term was rather nice. It was nice to see everyone in costume and in action, on stage. Some batch-mates were so good with their acting, that, we did indeed, if only for a few moments, forget that they were our batch-mates and saw them as only the characters that they were portraying. The play ended in celebration and a photo-session.
My learning for the day was the fact that I can both almost drape and also walk around in a saree. Also, I apparently look good in one too! I now plan to ditch all my ‘we shall get skirt-suits stitched when we’re in the MBA batch’ plans for a couple of elegant sarees- Indian formals have their charm, and, the saree is truly a miraculous article of clothing.
Evening was spent trying to decide which of two sports fests ought to be attended- there’s Varchas at IIT-Jodhpur and Spardha at IIT-BHU and they’re both on the exact same dates! Also, there’s Waves, BITS-Goa’s Cultural fest on the very same dates! Plans to attend Antaragini at IIT-Kanpur and Rendezvous at IIT-Delhi are in the pipeline too! Unfortunately, mainly due to lack of a complete team owing to the junior batch’s exams, our plans of winning at IIT-Kanpur’s Sport Fest, Udgosh, had to be shelved.
Night ended with the nomination form for the coordinator/membership of various clubs and committees being floated. Each person can nominate themselves for two posts, but, can hold only one. That, and there’s the Research Methodology end-term paper in a few hours now. Studying or at least an attempt at the activity might be a wise decision to undertake.
And, now, with the annoying mosquito biting my left elbow might be a good time to end this mammoth post!