26/10/2014

26/10/2014; 03:20:

The highlight of the 24th was the successful rescue-mission that we undertook. Our 3 basketballs that had landed into construction pits were gallantly rescued by 3 of our team members working in tandem. This activity was undertaken at around 5:30 p.m. and was successfully completed in about 20 minutes. We then treated ourselves to Keema parathas and ice-cream in the Food Court.

Volleyball practice followed soon after. And of course, our post-dinner exploits continued uninterrupted, on the basketball court. This was followed by writing late into the wee hours of the morning, while watching the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy.

25th saw the very first SAC body meeting for the new academic year. Core members of all the committees and clubs were present, in a meeting chaired by the SAC-Coordinator. Unfortunately however, the 2014 Batch is on vacation and the kids missed the very first meeting. The main agenda of the meeting was an introduction session, to ensure that every member of the SAC knows every other member. The meeting began at 9:00 p.m. and lasted around an hour or so.
Immediately after, the SAC EC- Executive Committee, met for the first time too. The SAC EC comprises of the SAC-Coordinator, the SAC-Treasurer and the coordinators of the 5 committees- namely the Sports, Media, Social, Academic and Infrastructure Committees. Matters discussed in this first meeting included a proposal to start a Laundromat service in the institute, the formation of new Self-Interest-Groups and the idea of conducting a Sports Fest in the last week of February.

We rushed off for Basketball practice as soon as the meeting was over. After practice, we ended up at our usual post-practice haunt- the Night Mess. Diwali sweets, courtesy one of the team members was a perfect close to the evening.

Now, IRIS- the PGP cultural-cum-management fest is just around the corner. E-mails containing details of the various events are being sent out, periodically and, life is interesting!

24/10/2014

24/10/2014; 06:50:


Okay, now I ought to fill in the days in between.
Most of this time was spent in piecing together the Media Comm. team which, yay, is now complete!

18th was the deadline for the 2013 Batch to send in their pre-process tasks. The pre-process task for the 2013 Batch was the same one that had been designed for the 2014 Batch. We read some of them as they came in and read all of the others during the day, on the 19th.
Classes done, all of 19th evening, from 6p.m., all the way till 2 a.m. was spent taking interviews, for we called in each of the candidates for a one-on-one interaction unlike all the other committees who’d prepared shortlists.

The elections- the final stage in the selection of the members was conducted on the morning of the 20th, while we were in class. Post-lunch, I sat around with the SAC-Coordinator, counting out the votes. The results were sent out, soon after! The night was as has become routine spent playing Basketball.

21st morning began with a Mathematical Modelling class. Sir somehow manages to make everything sound so very fascinating; it is a pleasure to listen to him!! There was then a session of ‘Principles of Management’. Sir is very nice! Every new topic begins with a song being played! And, the song is even relevant to the topic! Like, when he was to begin the topic on ‘Evolution of Management’, he played the song ‘Dheere Dheere’; this clearly brought out the difference between ‘evolution’ which is slow & gradual and a sudden, rapid ‘revolution’! Also, he incorporates different movie clips into his teaching!
We then played Volleyball in the evening! Our team is getting better; I’ve also managed to pick up a decent bit of Volleyball, so, life’s good. Basketball was played from 10:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.; there were a couple of guys who joined us, we started a match and went on playing until everyone was exhausted! This was followed by some ‘team-bonding’ time and cold-drinks at the night mess before everyone filed into their respective rooms, showered and crashed!

Okay, and, that’s that, pretty much! The campus is kind of deserted, with the 2014 Batch home on vacation, PGPII not yet back from their Himalayan Outbound Programme and a lot of PGPI & IPM-2013 & 2012 home for Diwali. Hoping to see the campus buzzing with life, soon!

24/10/2014

24/10/2014; 03:43:


And, Happy Diwali, everyone!!
The build-up to Diwali began a little before the 22nd, when we made plans for the 22nd! There was a three-day break lined up from the 22nd to the 24th; a lot of people made good use of this opportunity and spent Diwali at home.

After a meeting the previous night, I was woken up at mid-day to put out plan into action. We were to visit an Old Age Home in Indore, in order to share the joy of Diwali with the residents. A bus was scheduled to leave at 1:00 p.m. Usually, there are more seats in the bus than people willing to go, but, this time around, there was one bus and loads of people. The first instalment of people was sent on this bus- the guys who were to perform and everything- and a second bus was soon arranged for the rest of us. We reached Aastha Vradhaasram at around 2:30 p.m. All the creative ladies got to work on a rather beautiful rangoli. Some people immediately set off to interact with the senior citizens, sharing stories and life histories. Others, the performing & organizing teams went about, arranging their guitars, music system, sweets that were to be distributed and handing over the monetary contribution ( and a carom board!) that had been raised back home at IIM-Indore to the managing committee of the trust. I walked around, watching the set-up guys at work, admiring the handiwork of the rangoli ladies and smiling and greeting everyone I came across. My friend and I walked into the ladies’ residence, for the interaction team seemed to have missed that, smiling & gossiping. We then settled down to play carom with one very talkative uncle and his friend.

At around 3:30, a large troupe of enthusiastic senior citizens trooped into the main hall, where the performance guys were all ready and waiting. They began with singing a few rather emotional songs, followed that up with dances to a few trendy numbers, added another song and closed with a very well-received old number. Sweets were then distributed to everyone, while we sat around in groups, talking & sharing laughs. One uncle spent a considerable amount of time reciting shaayaris- the crowd around him kept growing! He brought his performance to a close with a ghazal!!
A few of our kids had gotten really sentimental, were missing long-gone grandparents and had begun to weep. Of course, all the love pouring in from the new ‘nanis’ and ‘dadis’ we’d found solved all that. In the middle of all this, the press made an appearance- and insisted on clicking photographs in the oddest of poses- an old lady playing the guitar and a group of them staring at the rangoli- all while the (well-dressed!) kids were made to stand around and watch!
Shruti had complained about the press coming in, even the day earlier! She felt like it made the whole effort seem like it was done only to draw publicity. And since that was not our aim, anything which projected it that way was a strict no. Of course, I had to explain that no press meant that my Media Comm. would be rendered redundant! And, well, since she hadn’t voiced her opinions loud enough, the press was welcome!
Blessings, smiles and reluctance later, we were on our way – some on their way straight back to campus and others, like me, on their way to roam around.
I ended up in the food court on the top-floor of Malhar Mall, eating Honey Chilli Potatoes from my usual shop. They now recognize me as the ‘honey-chilli-potato-lady’. Well, at least it saves me the effort of choosing and placing an order! I was then in More, shopping.

Back on campus, a stall selling diyas had been set-up outside the Pi Shop by the i-Help volunteers. The diyas had been painted by the kids that the i-Help volunteers teach. All proceeds from the sale are to go to Goonj, to the aid of the Jammu & Kashmir Flood victims. i-Helps’ earlier initiative- the Daan Utsav had managed to help raise almost 50,000 rupees for the same cause.

Once I was back on campus, write-ups and accompanying pictures were sent to a couple of newspapers who hadn’t turned up at the event. Our first press release since taking over the IPM Media Comm! We then played Volleyball, before turning our attention to Basketball practice. We only played for a short while, since a lot of the team members were out, celebrating Diwali with family. We decided to take a shortcut on our way back from the Basketball court to our hostel. Since construction is underway, we encountered a couple of pits. Now, none of our members were lost in transportation, but, 3 of our 5 Basketballs found their way to the bottom of 2 pits. Annoyed, snickering, surprised, we made a mental note to return in the morning to rescue them and went on our merry way.

We ended up outside the main mess, where 3 of our fellow IPM girls were at work, making a beautiful rangoli. We wandered into the night mess and ate a couple of paneer parathas. I then walked around the rangoli, feeding the now 4 ladies at work, since one of our team-mates had joined in!
Once back in the hostel, we spent some time, ‘chilling’.

I woke up late in the afternoon and it was Diwali! We then headed to the first event lined up as part of the Diwali celebration on campus- Diya painting at Mess 2. While everyone was hard at work, meticulously painting diyas in an array of colours and adding designs, I picked one up and painted it bright neon pink. And, it looked beautiful; it stood out alright.
I then made my way to the Pi shop where Rangoli making was in progress. I joined in, trying my hand at something I’d clearly not done any of, before. I was then hungry. We poked the food court at Mess 2, where we were informed that no food would be available till 7:30 p.m. We hung around, ate chicken curry and parrota and then walked up to our hostel where a few of my friends took it upon themselves to get me better dressed for the occasion than the T-shirt & shorts I was in. A new kurti, which was a recent birthday gift, was unearthed and new earrings off of a recent Kashmir trip emerged as well. Once the new look was approved, we made our way to the mandir, to join in the Diwali Pooja.
At around 9:00 p.m., arrangements were in full swing, on the football field. A music system and speakers were in place, blaring dance tracks! I spent half an hour, trying to get someone to join me, dancing, but, gave up, after an entirely failed enterprise. By 10:00 p.m., crackers were being burst, a bonfire was lit and sky-lanterns were floated.
A little gossiping and a lot of selfies later, Diwali night drew to a close.
And, it’s now light outside. Since we forgot to go looking for the Basketballs, courtesy Diwali, we shall be off now! Here’s hoping for success!

18/10/2014

17/10/2014; 03:37:

And, finally. The irony of the blog continues- when you’re free, there’s nothing to write about and when there’s loads of stuff to write about, there’s no time!
Let’s begin where I left off and work our way to today.
11th October- After pestering the SAC-C all night and all through the day, the votes had finally been counted, tallied and the final result prepared. The e-mail with the results made its way to the inboxes of all the IPM students at around 9 p.m. I was in the Mess, eating dinner, blissfully unaware, when a phone call from a 2014 kid alerted me to the good news. And then, my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. I got to thank everyone and admit that I actually did need to thank them, for it was the election result which got me the post of Coordinator of the Media & PR Committee.

The happy announcement was immediately followed by a mail requiring all the newly selected coordinators and members of the various committees to report for a meeting at 11 p.m., in the FPM Common Room. The meeting saw an inspirational speech being delivered by the SAC Coordinator, with the SAC-Treasurer in agreement. There were instructions given that stated that members from the two junior batches were to be selected at the earliest. The selection procedure to be followed was the same one by which all the members and coordinators of the 2012 batch had been selected. That, and a tentative calendar of activities for the year was to be prepared by each committee. The Media Committee was also assigned the extra task of preparing the content for the IPM Brochure. The Brochure is the one that will be used for Placement purposes. The design is to be the responsibility of the Creativity Club.

Soon after I was back in my room, I designed and sent out the pre-process tasks. Media Comm. was the first one to do so. Efficiency is good, most times. The task was kept rather simple; apart from an SOP & Résumé which are required parts, an article on any topic was to be written up along with a few ideas on how to propagate IPM in the industry. The task was kept short, since the 2014 Batch were to have their end-term exams from the 14th to the 18th of October. The selection for 2013 was to begin once they returned from their term break, on the 17th.

12th October- Well, by virtue of the 1 2o’ clock rule, all the work on the pre-process ought to be dated 12th, but, well. Most of 12th October, Sunday was spent attending lots of classes.
The course on Social Entrepreneurship began on the afternoon of 12th. The course seemed rather interesting; at least it is going to be very different from all the others; a refreshing change.
We went out for dinner, to Taas Lounge in TI Mall. Taas has good Chinese food but atrociously slow service. There was a previous instance when they just could not get our food prepared in time (for the last bus to campus is at 10 p.m.) , but, this time, we planned ahead and were there by 8 p.m.! As observed by my friend who is a regular, Taas is over-staffed outside the kitchen and under-staffed inside the kitchen. Her observation made a lot of sense to all of us. Anyway, the food was good.

18/10/2014; 04:03:

13th October- The day began with all the pre-processes being sent in by the deadline, which was 8:30 a.m. We then sat around, reading the pre-processes; not marking them yet, for we wanted the process to remain fair for everyone.
Post-lunch, there was a Social Entrepreneurship session, where one of the long standing members of ‘Caring Friends’- an organization that helps dedicated NGO’s fund their causes by being a perfect interface between the supply and demand- addressed our batch.
Then, a certain kid from the 2014 batch sent in a mail to the SAC-C, informing her that he had filled in the Nomination Form, to apply to the Media Comm. and the E-Cell, but, he had not received the pre-process as of then. I was asked to look into the matter, which was hard considering that the deadline was over and that all pre-processes had already been sent in. Since real conversations are a lot better than e-mails, I asked for & offered a phone number. The kid apparently forgot to submit the form; we sent him the pre-process promptly, after which he called up, explaining and more so to check what would become of his peer review. I offered to award him the average, which he refused. I then offered to scale his own scores, which he refused too. Another mail had to be sent, bothering all the other applicants to fill in an additional peer review.

My neighbour had been unwell for a while; she also very successfully passed on her cold to an already coughing me. The unwell neighbour wished to go out for dinner and we found ourselves at Chick’n’Serve, which as the name suggests prepares chicken in various forms- Barbequed, Grilled, Tandoori and in Shawarmas. We were back on the last bus from Indore city to the campus, just in time for a previously scheduled meeting. The agenda of the meeting was to reach a consensus on the mode of transportation that the contingent going to represent IIM-Indore at IIT-BHU’s fest, Spardha, was to use. Spardha is on the 31st of October, 1st & 2nd Of November. Banaras is over 24 hours of travel time away from Indore, which is our largest problem with attending the fest; though, all these trivial problems have been overcome and we are very much going! And, going to win!
I was escorted to my hostel by a junior who spent an hour elaborately explaining why the Media Committee was useless. I also spent the same hour scowling and arguing with him, convinced that the kid was just trying to act smart. We reached a rather unexpected, happy conclusion and all was good again.
Later, the Media Comm. Core Member from my batch and I sat holed up in the common room, marking the pre-process. This was successfully accomplished only by 4:15 a.m. Post this, a beautiful e-mail which was the Call for Interviews for the shortlisted candidates was drafted and sent out. I finally managed to go to bed only post 5:00 a.m.
14th October- The day began with two sessions of Social Entrepreneurship, where the founder of ‘Dilasa’- an NGO which has been working in the farmer-suicide affected district of Vidarbha in Maharashtra- came in to inspire the batch with his story.
This was followed by an array of classes. A new course on Principles of Management was to begin on the 15th, and a group assignment had been assigned to us, even before the first session! While some groups worked diligently on the presentation, our group quickly whipped up an acceptable assignment which featured random words and phrases interspersed with images on a few slides.

Post 11 p.m., we finally began our Basketball practice. We played for about 2 hours. By the end of it, everyone returned to their rooms, happy and content.
15th October- When the clock, uh, on my phone struck, uh, displayed 00:00, I called up my father to wish him a Happy Birthday.
After a very enjoyable first session of Principles of Management, where we were shown clips from MunnaBhai M.B.B.S and Rocket Singh, there was a meeting to be attended at 3:30 p.m.
The meeting entailed a discussion about an upcoming SAC Activity- one that we hope shall be the first one to be undertaken by the newly formed body. Plans include spending a day with children at a local orphanage, celebrating Diwali- all with song, dance, drama, a pooja , sports and a few crackers. Work has been divided as per the domain of each Club/Committee. Our Media Comm. gets to invite press to the event.
I rushed back after the meeting, to get the Interviews for the 2014 Batch started at 4:30 p.m.
The interviews went on till 7:30 p.m. after which we took a break. I spent the break at an Atharv success party thrown by the Director of the Institute for the core team of the fest. It was nice to interact with Director sir in an informal setting, with the party taking place in the garden adjoining his house. We talked about our take-away from the fest, the reaction of the faculty and guests and our learning for the next edition. We then spoke about HR Managers, the internet and sir’s time at IIT-Kanpur, where he was more actively involved in organizing SPIC-MACY concerts than studying. He also told us of how he happened to end up doing a Ph.D, after deciding that he wanted to do something different than get a job- his options being the family business & further studies. We’re glad that he picked the latter, for sir is a wonderful person to have as Director of IIM-Indore.
The dinner party was wrapped up by 10:00 p.m., post which there were interviews to be returned to. The second edition of the interviews began at 11:00 p.m., and ended around 2 a.m.
16th October- Early morning was spent on our usual i-Help trip. This time, I taught Class 8 girls the basics of percentage, as covered under their Mathematics syllabus.
Once I was back on campus, I was asked to join the SAC-C to meet some person who was visiting campus in order to gather information about the IPM Programme. After a rather formal meeting with the class-12 IPM aspirant, our SAC-C and her room-mate excused themselves while I offered to show him around campus. I was joined by a kid from the 2014 batch, who enthusiastically gave the new kid good advice about the course and the entrance test. We walked the kid around campus, feeling rather happy as he marvelled at the beautiful campus.
I then fell asleep for a million hours, waking up only close to 10:00 p.m. Our first volleyball practice followed, at 11:00 p.m. While the game is rather intriguing, it is being broken down into easier steps and I might just be able to learn how to play, hopefully. Since we are participating in the Women’s Volleyball as well as the Women’s Basketball events, we hope to have picked up most of the basics by then.

Late night was spent finishing up all pending work, including finishing creating the content for the IPM brochure- the one which shall be used for placement purposes.

17th October- We sent the scores of the short-listed as well as the other candidates to the SAC-C. There was an election held in the evening which was the final step in determining which kids of the 2014 batch make it to the positions of Core Members of various committees/clubs.
The results were sent out in a few hours. This was followed by speculation and celebration.
We spent an hour playing Volleyball and then another 2 and a half playing Basketball, all up till now i.e. 2:00 a.m.!

10/10/2014

10/10/2014; 23:35:

The term began well, with 2 Econometrics classes on the first day of the term i.e. 7th October. The Econometrics professor is always laughing and class is good. The evening of the first day was spent writing pre-process tasks for the various committees and talking all night, swapping vacation stories and home-made food. I returned from the land of Garba, Ahmedabad, with a carton full of khakra for everyone to enjoy.

The 2014 Batch has been having a Section A v/s Section B Sports event. Basketball was won by Section B, as was Volleyball. Section A took Football & Cricket. It’s come down to the Girls’ Throwball Event!

9th October saw interviews take place, as part of the selection process for the members/coordinators of the various clubs and committees. The interviews for most committees/clubs were taken by the coordinators (and in some cases the core members as well) of the corresponding PGP committee/club. The interview for the Media & PR Committee was very enjoyable; the PGP Media Comm Coordinator and his team-member were both rather sweet and were actually eager to listen to ideas that the candidates had to offer in response to their well-thought questions. Almost all applicants for the Dance Club are members of Vibes, the PGP Dance Club and hence the interviews were mostly informal, given that the coordinator is friends with all of them. The Creativity Club received only 2 applications for 2 positions, yet, the whole procedure is being conducted as is. The Finance Club interviewers were on top of their game, cross-checking all responses over the internet in real-time, as they deemed fit. The Entrepreneurship Cell surprisingly had only one female applicant, as did the Sports Committee. The guys doing the Sports Committee selection went all out, getting the applicants to make power-point presentations, prepare a plan for a full-fledged Sports fest and even conducting group discussions. Pragati- the PGP Social Comm. members seem very dedicated to their cause, meticulously reading all the pre-process tasks and conducting detailed interviews for each of the 12 applicants.
All interviews began late at night and went on till past-mid night. Satisfied, unhappy, triumphant applicants returned to their rooms to more chattering, sharing interview experiences and speculation.

The pre-process tasks (including a peer-review) as well as the interview carry a 35% weightage each, in the selection process. The last 30% is the votes, in an election where all three IPM Batches get to vote. The election was held this evening, i.e. the evening of 10th October, from 6:30 7:30 for the 2012 Batch and from 8:30-10:30 for the 2014 Batch. The scores of the pre-process & interview had been used to short-list 4 applicants for each committee, for the election. Each applicant was given a minute and a half & the opportunity to present his ideas to the batch. This was pretty unnecessary with our own batch, for everyone ought to know everyone by now, and well, perhaps everyone’s votes were already decided. Of course, with the 2014 Batch, this was rather necessary, for most of my batch-mates haven’t interacted much, with the batch as a whole. Mine of course is a different story. I got up to speak, and was greeted with loud applause and cheering. My ‘speech’ consisted only of me stating my name & ‘Media Committee’, smiling & receiving more applause & cheering. The new junior batch is actually full of very nice kids! (Even though they do not really like being thought of as ‘kids’!). The 2013 Batch is not on campus and an online form has been e-mailed to them, in order to allow them to exercise their right to have a say in the elections.
After the election, there was pizza to be had, for the girls’ hostel had gotten together and ordered in, for Dominos had a 50% discount running; a lot of restaurants in Indore are willing to take the effort to come deliver their wares, all the way to our hostels, in a campus that is 16 k.m. from Indore City centre, which is rather nice.

We’re now looking forward to learning the results of the election, to know who the new coordinators for 5 committees and 8 clubs will be! Once that is done, members, 2 each from each of the junior batches will be selected; the interest form has already been sent to the 2014 batch, for the selections need to be successfully completed before their end-terms begin on the 14th; they then get to go home, for 2 weeks, on the 18th. . The selection for the 2013 Batch will be held soon after they are back on campus after their term break, on the 15th.

06/10/2014

06/10/2014; 23:59:

And, it’s great to be back on campus! I reached at 7:30, this morning. 35 minutes later, I was sitting at the breakfast table with my batch-mates, sharing vacation stories. The 35 minutes were spent shifting my stuff back from the ‘Cloak Room’ to my room, unpacking and laying out a fresh bed.

An hour of gossip later, I made my way to the FPM Common Room where an i-Help meeting was to be in progress. So much effort is being put in, with the objective of raising funds towards Jammu & Kashmir Flood Relief. The meeting saw a menu being planned for the stalls to be set up in the evening. The menu included bhel, sandwiches, fresh lime soda and desserts. The menu was then beautifully written out on pink chart paper.
By the time the meeting was over, the laundry was definitely open. I collected my clothes- the ones I’d dropped there the day before I left for home and was glad to finally have my towels back. A hurried bath later, I was in the library, reading the latest copy of Reader’s Digest. If I had to pick a favourite magazine, this had to be it! Well, it’s pretty much the only one I read, so there’s not much competition there, really. I was grateful for my news friends in the rather enthusiastic 2014 Batch, for it was because of these guys that I began my new term with this visit to the library!

The stall was set up outside our very own Pi-Shop and began to do brisk business by about 5:00 p.m. There wasn’t much of a planned celebration for Eid, so, the i-Help stall was one way to join in the festivity while contributing to a good cause.

Post & during dinner gossip sessions pulled the day to a close. The various committee/club pre-processes is pretty much what everyone’s talking about, after sharing vacation stories!

And, the new term, term VIII (wow!) begins tomorrow morning at 10:15 a.m. The term registration was very efficiently carried out online, during the term break. A total of 30 credits were on offer, in the form of 7 4-credit courses and one 2-crdit course. 16 of these 30 credits are to be in compulsory courses namely Econometrics, Indian Politics, Principles of Management and Social Entrepreneurship. The electives include Mathematical Modelling, Introduction to Geography, Human Rights and Contemporary Social Issues. Looking forward to all these courses!

05/10/2014

05/10/2014; 20:37:

And this is another first. I'm on a train which is making it's way to Indore. No, not the train ride; this blogpost holds the honour of being the first one that's being composed in a train.

Recently, on the 4th of October, pre-processes to select the members/coordinators of various committees & clubs under the IPM SAC, were sent via e-mail. The hopefuls had previously signed up for a maximum of two clubs/committees, before we left for the term break. The process will first be carried out for the 2012 batch and then be extended to pick members from the two junior batches. The selection process for committee and club coordinators has been redesigned from this time forward. From being an open election, it is now a 3-step process- written pre-processes, followed by an interview and finally an election. Each club/committee shall have 2 members from each batch. From the senior-most batch, one of the two selected members shall be the coordinator.

One question which appears to be common across all committee pre-processes is one which deals with making the industry aware of the IPM programme. Being a new programme, it is necessary that the industry is made aware of its merits at the earliest. This was one of the aims we had in mind when organizing Atharv too. A resume that states your credible achievements and relevant positions of responsibility as well as a Statement of Purpose is required of all the candidates, across committees/clubs. A rather novel introduction as far as IPM SAC selections go is the Peer Review Form, where you are required to mark, on various parameters your competition i.e. all the other people who are applying for the same position that you are.

I-help volunteers ran stalls selling lemon soda, chocolate muffins and ice-cream sundaes, this evening. Plans are in place to expand the variety on offer, tomorrow, it being a festival and hence an institute holiday and all. All proceeds from the stalls shall find their way to the fund being collected in aid of those affected by the Jammu & Kashmir floods. An association with Goonj is already in place and they will ensure that all that is collected reaches those in need.

Looking forward to being back on campus amidst all the fun & chatter!

4/10/2014

4/10/2014; 19:57:

It’s been really, really long, fuelled partly by the vacations, and partly by my
feeling a little off the weather, being disconnected from everything.

I could either write about all the days that have been missed or just pretend that they were uneventful which would not be very untrue.

Little before we left campus, for our term break which began on the 21st of September, i-Help (as well as Pragati, the PGP Social Committee) received an e-mail from the Director, asking us to go ahead and plan a series of events for the week of 2nd to 8th October. The week is being observed as a National Joy of Giving week, ‘Daan Utsav’ and this year, all top B-schools of the country have taken it upon themselves to join the ranks of those who are striving to make a difference. Our Director Sir very obviously wanted IIM-Indore to participate whole-heartedly in this magnanimous endeavour.

It was unanimously agreed upon that the PGP Social Committee’s contribution would be limited to the Indore Marathon that was organized on the 2nd of October- this is an annual event and was not being specially conducted for the ‘Daan Utsav’.
Each year, the Indore Marathon, organized by IIM-Indore picks up a social cause that we believe needs to be addressed. This year, it was a run for the benefit of the Homeless. A week-long, city-wide donation drive was carried out and everything was handed over to the needy, by our IIM-Indore volunteers. The event itself began with our volunteers preparing the set-up at Dusshera Maidan, on the night of 1st October, a few hours before the race was to begin. Registration counters for those who wished to register on-the-spot opened shop at 5 a.m. The 11 k.m. Run-for-A-Cause was flagged off at 7 a.m. It began at Dusshera Maidan and the finish line was the IIM-Indore Campus.
There was another version of the Marathon, the 3 k.m. Dream Run which began at 9 a.m., on campus. This was soon followed by the Prize Distribution and loads of appreciation poured in, for a good cause unites like no other.

i-Help’s first event began as per plan. After about 2 weeks of planning, picking up an association with Goonj , getting 92.7. BIG FM on board and getting a series of permissions from the A.D.M and S.D.M of the district, it was amazing to see everything that had hitherto been only talked of and imagined actually happening. All of the work had been put in by the rather enthusiastic 2014 Batch. A Nukkad Natak was performed on the streets of Indore, right in the heart of Chappan, Indore’s Khau Gali, on the 2nd of October. A strong appeal, asking people to come forward and support those wrecked by the Jammu & Kashmir Floods had an overwhelming effect and people contributed generously.
The 3rd of October saw a replication of the Nukkad Natak, accompanied by song as well as dance performances in the New Auditorium, as a run-up to the Foundation Day Celebration which began at 3:00 p.m. The 18th Foundation Day was made more auspicious by the fact that it was on the same day as Dusshera- the day that celebrates the triumph of good over evil. As everyone, faculty, staff and students proceeded to enjoy the Foundation Day Dinner, they gave generously for the cause, dropping their contributions into a strategically placed donation box.

At 11 p.m., Raavan was scheduled to burn. This event too saw a rendition of the Nukkad Natak which was well appreciated by the student community.

In between all this, Dandiya Night was held on campus, on the 29th of September. Dancing began at 9 p.m. and stretched well into the wee hours of the morning. As always, the evening began with Garba and ended with everyone swaying to the latest Bollywood numbers.

I’m scheduled to return to campus, by the Indore-Gandhinagar express which leaves here at 7:45 p.m., on the evening of 5th. I’m rather looking forward to going back and catching up with everything!