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.