28/11/2014

28/11/2014; 13:59:

It’s been two busy days. There was one class on the morning of the 26th. We then went out for lunch, to celebrate a batch-mate’s birthday. Lunch was very enjoyable. I waited around after lunch to meet a friend who was visiting.

I was back on campus, just in time to make the 9 p.m. meeting. A meet had been arranged by the social committee, for our batch to interact with the seniors and hear about their social internship experiences. About a dozen seniors turned up to share their varied experiences- they had interned at NGO’s, CSR-wings, CSR Consultancies and taken up individual project under different foundations. More than anything else, it made us aware of the options on offer.

Right after the meeting ended, there were interviews to be conducted, 10:30 p.m. onwards, to select associate members for the Media Committee. A 5-member panel sat, taking interviews, for 5 hours. A successful night was wrapped up at around 3:30 a.m.

I was up in 2 hours, at 6 a.m., for there was a visit to Aasthagram, Khargone as part of the project being undertaken by the Social Committee. We reached Khargone at around 10 a.m. Post- breakfast, we split up into our assigned teams and set off. One team was to work on Financial Literacy- enlightening class 11 students about the working of a Bank, fixed deposits, NEFT’s and ATM’s. Another was to work with the students in Aasthagram, engaging them in games of Chess & Carrom. A third – the team composed of the senior members of the Social Committee was to sit and chalk out detailed plans for a working long-term model. And, lastly the Media Team was to be everywhere they pleased! Aasthagram Trust houses about 80 hostel students on campus, has 30 day scholars and also supports other schools in the area through different programs, like the one our team conducted on Financial Literacy. On campus, their school follows a policy of inclusive education, where differently-abled students study in the same class as all other students. I sat with a group of about 9 girls, telling them how chess worked. It took me a while to realise that 5 of them were deaf & mute- the kids had perfect coordination- the ones who could hear had been signing everything that I was saying, as I was saying it! It was perfect- I did not even notice the gap; only an obvious signing when one of the girls was making a wrong move made me aware of the happening.
By 6:00 p.m., everyone was tired but happy! And, we’ve all made plans to go back as soon as our schedules permit. I’ve taken up a project to conduct workshops for the local youth on job applications, CV’ and interviews. This shall keep me occupied, during the December break. Of course, all plans to visit home or elsewhere had to be cancelled. We left Khargone a little after 7 and were back just in time for a bath before the SAC-EC meeting at 11 p.m.

The SAC-EC meeting was called, to work on the IPM Constitution. It’s like the Drafting Assembly. Most of the Constitution has been put together by the SAC-C, using the PGP Constitution as reference. We’re just working on changes and clarifications before it is made open to all to propose changes/ seek clarification. The meeting ended with us having read through about half the document. Another meeting is in store.

Today evening will see AMPLIFID – the music event that has been put together by the Music Club, AMPLIF-I! The evening promises an array of competitions, an open-mic session, an open-Jamming session and Karaoke! And, the prizes for winning the various events – theme-based singing, musician face-off and jingle-making- are all in the form of free food from the Smokin’ Joes and Buddy Café stalls that have been roped in for the event. Looking forward!

25/11/2014

25/11/2014; 23:38:

And, after the week which went by in a blur, we had a nice relaxed weekend. After a few classes on Saturday, we sat around twiddling our thumbs. The weather was nice and we set out on a walk, walked out of Gate 2, past Rau Railway Crossing and ended up at S-47’s new ‘Hill View’ Restaurant. They had a Punjabi food festival going on and we enjoyed some good food. They’d served us lassi in giant kulhads. We left for campus with two earthen kulhads in our hands and plans to use them, for milk, the next morning!

Once back on campus, there were interviews for Chiraag’s Art and Graphics departments in progress. I sketched all three members of the panel as well as the interview room as part of my assigned task. The interviews for the editorial board were held earlier in the week.

Later, at 11 p.m., the IPM Cricket League final began. It was a nail-biting finish, with Rishi Rowdies needing two runs off the last ball, to successfully chase the 76-run target that Akshay Aces had set. The bat struck the ball, it didn’t go too far; one mis-field and some furious running later, all of the Rishi Rowdies were on the field, pulling up wickets and dancing. A trophy, cash prizes, celebratory drinks and shutterbugs were soon everywhere.
I walked back to my hostel, staring up at the sky. We traced out Orion in the night sky and walked towards the North Star. It was then that we heard wailing. There had been a litter of abandoned puppies on campus, that I’d remembered spotting a few days ago. Heading towards the source of the noise, we spotted one puppy, whimpering. Working on instinct, I called up the self-proclaimed animal activist of our batch, who confirmed that he’d gathered up the puppies, fed them and put them in the cardboard box, earlier in the day. I then only asked how many puppies there were. Peeking into the box to see all three, who were understandably freezing, we acted quickly, transporting the box indoors and arranging milk. Wrapping them in a warm jacket, we stayed up most of the night. A veterinarian was nice enough to come in the next morning and take a look at the tiny things. Two animal-lover batch-mates carted the puppies to a shelter, in the evening.

Most of Sunday morning was spent sleeping. There were two post-lunch classes after which we got ourselves on the bus and headed out to eat. We ate at a new Mexican place in town- Meximus- the interior was red, simple and replete with sombreros and pictures of chillies. And, the food was rather good! Sunday evening saw a cook-off at JAM, organized by the E-Cell. Pancakes, pasta, French toast, sandwiches and more were whipped up by enthusiastic participants. The results of the cook-off are awaited. We’d meant to participate and prepare but we conveniently forgot to fill in the ‘ingredients required’ form.

The Social Entrepreneurship classes saw very meaningful guest speakers come in; both organizations are working in rural areas in Amravati and the North-East, providing medical aid and training.
On Monday evening, a workshop by the Krishnamurthy Foundation was held. The topic of discussion was ‘Mundane Issues’. The workshop however was unlike its name and was enlightening.

25th November was the birthday of one of our Media Comm. team members. We decided to call a ‘meeting’ and surprise him with cake.
The plan was beautifully executed and the cake was good. Media Comm. floated a mail, like most other committees, to get new associate members on board. Interviews for the same shall be held tomorrow. We’ve also planned a rather exciting journalist face-off! It shall happen in 3 stages and the final round will be held on the 10th of December.
After the meeting, we wandered off to go see the new hostels which are nearly completed. They look rather different from all the existing hostels which are square in shape, with an open central area and rooms on four sides. The new hostels are rectangular, and much longer than they are wide. There is a single long corridor, in the centre, with rooms on both sides. All doors open into the central corridor. The common washrooms appear to be on both ends of the building. The hostels are currently being furnished and shall be operational tentatively by January.

Night was spent trying to spot stars in the hazy sky. One of these days, I’m going to catch someone who has a good idea of all the constellations up there and have a whole star-gazing night.

22/11/2014

22/11/2014 ; 02:04:

The week just went by in a blur, with the mid-terms and the cricket matches.

15th evening was the last day of IRiS. Coke Studio had been contacted and Agnee – the band- set the stage on fire, true to their name.

A kid from the 2014 batch decided to record a video of the raita in the mess, since its consistency did not live up to his standard. He then mailed the video to the Infrastructure Committee and his whole batch, complete with hashtags including #raitamainpaaniyapaanimeinraita and #boondikaraita.

On the evening of the 16th, the MM professor was nice enough to hold a doubt-clearing session, on the eve of the mid-term.
17th was the Mathematical Modelling mid-term. 18th was the Human Rights mid-term and 19th was the Geography mid-term.

Right before the Human Rights mid-term began, there was a bunch of wailing puppies, near the classroom; no one could quite understand why they were wailing, though it seemed obvious that they were hungry. By the time the mid-term was over, a bunch of the classroom attendants had organized milk and warmth for the puppies, much to everyone’s satisfaction.

The IPM Cricket League is in full swing. We’re just back from watching the semi-finals! The final is set to be Rishi Rowdies v/s Akshay Aces – both teams from the 2012 Batch!

On the 17th, we were greeted with the happy news that 3 of our batch-mates had done the institute proud by winning a National B-Plan competition that was held in Mumbai, with their plan for Roof It- roofing solutions.

The week also saw a couple of newspapers/magazines including the Business Standard and India Today writing about the IPM Programme as an innovation in education. Each of us was really proud to see our course receive such positive coverage.

On the 18th, we received an e-mail from the Literary Club, regarding the revival of the hugely popular ‘Writer’s Den’ event from last year. It’s essentially a creative writing competition, with a 500-word limit on the entries and a new theme each week. The topic for the first week is themed on Harry Potter & reads ‘I AM THE WAND THAT CHOSE TOM RIDDLE’.

Mirage- the Creative Club held its first event for the year – BrandMaster – Logo/Advertising Quiz. It was a rather quick, 10-minute quiz and was fairly interesting. We’re looking forward to solving a second edition, soon!

The second half of the batch went on the trip to SPS, in Dewas. It was hotter and their trip was a lot more tiring than the first group’s!

The Media Committee is doing a good job of sending out a weekly newsfeed for the benefit of the IPM Community- the newsfeed ought to help the IPM kids keep track of what is going on the world around them!

A SAC EC meeting was held on the night of the 20th at 11 p.m. The proposed Gaming SIG (Self Interest Group) has been given a go-ahead and the idea of a data sever which houses all academic material relevant to the IPM course is being actively looked into. The Social Committee plans to pick up a rather extensive project in Khargone district, working with an NGO called Aasthagram that has been working in the area for over 25 years now.

In other news, the IGNOU Hall Tickets are out and a couple of exams have been rescheduled from the original plan, courtesy the State Elections in Bihar.

Also, JAM-Juices & More- has announced plans to hold a Cook Off, sometime soon. The prospect of innovative food looks rather promising.

15/11/2014

14/11/2014; 12:18:

11th & 12th November went by in a blur, with the Indian Politics & the Econometrics Mid-Terms.

IRiS- the PGP management-cum-cultural fest, began on the 13th. It’s a three day fest that will culminate in a performance by Agnee, presented by IRiS in association with Coke Studio.

Yesterday was also the field trip for the course on Social Entrepreneurship. We left campus at 6:30 in the morning, after we sat around waiting for over half an hour for everyone to turn up. We were to visit SPS- Samaj Pragati Sahyog, Dewas. We reached their Bagli Office at 9:05 a.m. where we were greeted with a warm breakfast of puri-sabji.
We were then on our way to Kevatipani, which I estimated to be about 10 k.m. The drive through the hills was refreshing. We were soon at the nearest site where watershed management had been implemented. A mud dam had been constructed by the village people, along with a large pond to harvest rain water, since the area has always been drought-prone. We then attended a lecture by Mr. Mihir Shah, the head of SPS, at their campus in Neemkheda. We made a stop at their Women’s Empowerment Cell and the BMC - Bulk Milk Cooler- site, both of which have contributed significantly to providing employment in the area, before starting our return journey.

15/11/2014 ; 03:00:

Meanwhile, thanks to IRiS , the campus is buzzing with activity. A stage has been set up in the Central Lawn, the one in the centre of the Acad Block and all events are being held there! 13th evening saw the Group Dance event while 14th evening saw the Fashion Show and the other Dance events.
The Management & Quizzing events have been going on, through the day, in various classrooms. Afternoon saw a Guinness World Record attempt at making the world’s largest soap mosaic, in association with HUL, in support of their ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ campaign which aims to create awareness on the issue of children’s health. Paintball & Gaming events have been going on, through the day as well.

Chiraag- the IPM e-magazine recently opened applications for new members in their various departments- Art, Photography, Editorial, Management and Graphics. I decided to try my hand at things other than writing & management and put in my name for the Art & the Photography departments. The pre-process for the Art department includes creating a sketch/painting on the theme ‘Elegance & Spice’ and interpreting a given work of art. The pre-process for the Photography department entails capturing a picture that fits one of the themes- Patriotism/ Another Brick in the Wall / Supernatural. The Editorial guys have an article to write and another to proof-read. The Management – Executive Team- had a written test; I assume that other rounds will follow. The Graphics guys had a logo to design and a story to illustrate. The Tech guys have an interview to give.

I sat, completing the pre-process, a little before the 12 a.m. deadline, a few hours ago, after which we were off to see the day’s cricket matches, for the IPM Cricket League is in full swing!

10/11/2014

10/11/2014; 17:02:

The weekend i.e. 8th & 9th of November was rather interesting! The IPM Cricket League began on Saturday. A bidding process was held in the Old Auditorium, at 10:45 p.m., on the night of 7th November. Seven teams have been made, three from the 2012 Batch, two from the 2013 Batch and two from the 2014 Batch. The names of the teams are most amusing- each is named after the captain- ‘Utkarsh United’, ‘Lalit Lions’ , ‘Dhananjay Dragons’ , ‘Rishi Rowdies’, ‘Akshay Aces’, ‘Sehera Serpents’ and ‘Saurav Sharks’! The first two matches were played on Saturday night with a large audience cheering!

Iris – the PGP cultural-cum-management fest begins on 13th! Excitement in the air is palpable. There are e-mails announcing new events being sent every day! Paintball, a Salsa Workshop, Finance & Marketing Events, the Fashion event and the pro-night which is all set to feature Coke Studio!

The weekend also saw the PGP batch host ‘Footprints’ – the annual alumni meet! Lunches, meeting with the faculty, a DJ party an performances by Vibes- the dance club & Harmon-I – the Music club ensured a fun weekend for all the alumni.

The IPM Finance Cell began the third edition of their ‘StockHunt’ event. The event is fairly simple - a fact sheet is sent at 11:30 p.m., the sheet contains clues about a particular listed firm. The first three people to correctly identify the firm are in to win! It is a week-long event with daily as well as an overall prize.

All these activities have been interspersed with a few classes. There’s a mid-term, tomorrow and another one , the day after.

07/11/2014

04/11/2014; 16:08:

And, there are a couple of pending things to write about- our experience at Spardha, the fun at BITS-Goa and the on-campus happenings in the last few days.

Let’s begin at home i.e. at IIM-Indore. Our term 7 Grades greeted us on the evening of 30th October, much to our terrible delight. 31st of October saw the launch of a Seed fund competition on campus – the event is an initiative of certain IIM-Indore alumni along with Hiranandani Group and promises up to 25 lakh seed funding to well-thought start-up ideas. The music club is all set to organize a Guitar Workshop for all the interested participants, starting somewhere in early December. They’ve also put a Guitar Bulk deal up on offer.
31st October also saw the celebration of Sardar Patel’s 139th Birth Anniversary as Rashtriya Ekta Divas, as part of which, there was an oath-taking ceremony in the afternoon and a movie-screening along with drama & music performances in the evening.
Planning for a Children’s Day event has begun, courtesy i-Help. The tentative plan includes fun events for the students of IIM-Indore’s adopted schools, both on our campus and in their classrooms!
The Sports Committee circulated the third edition of SportsPulse- the monthly Sports Newsletter on the 2nd of November. This edition encompasses the details of the Asian Games, EPL 2014 and the Women’s Volleyball World Championship 2014.
3rd of November saw a guest lecture by Miss Debolina Dutta, Head of Human Resource, VF Corporation, organization courtesy our E-Cell.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, we reached Banaras station at around 11 a.m., on the 30th of October. We were then whisked away to the IIT-BHU campus in a couple of SUV’s. We were on campus close to lunch-time. The BHU campus is beautiful; it’s no wonder it is talked about! We strolled around, discovering campus. A replica of the famous Kashi Vishwanath Mandir has been built on campus by Maviyaji, the founder. The campus is actually like a city in itself, buzzing with tourists even!
We sat around, watching a couple of matches that had started; the boys won a Badminton match. A couple of people went shopping / mandir-hopping. We went off to see the sunrise, early the next morning, at Ravidas Ghat. The sun simmering gently, rapidly where it hit the water kept us staring in silence. Two Girls’ Volleyball matches and a Basketball one followed. There was also a Boys’ Cricket Match, 2 Volleyball matches and the Power-lifting event. A kid from the 2014 batch had taken part in the Under 60 kg category and he won gold, lifting an impressive 270 kg. There was an opening ceremony at 4:00 p.m., where we participated in a march-past, dressed in jerseys, carrying the IIM-Indore flag and all.
Night was spent discovering the IIT-BHU canteen. Saturday was spent playing one match each of Volleyball & Basketball. We went out in the evening, hoping to get some Banarasi pan and chaat too! Sunday morning saw the Girls’ Basketball semi-final which we unfortunately lost to the home team. The Badmintno boys narrowly missed a shot at Gold while the Squash team won Silver.
The rest of the day was spent sight-seeing- the Ghats, the temples and the markets! Some people even went to Sarnath, which is about 10 km. away. Monday morning was spent trying to get a little more sight-seeing in, before we made our way to the railway station, to catch an 11:20 train to Jabalpur; we changed trains at Jabalpur and reached Indore at 10:45 a.m., on the 4th i.e. earlier today.

The team at BITS-Goa definitely had a better time roaming around the place than at the actual fest. The dance team made it to the finale- the top six! And the Drama team finished fourth. A couple of people picked up prizes in individual and pair events- Press Corps, Finance and the like. Bikes, beaches and a well-maintained new campus kept people happy over the weekend. My batch chose to travel by train, while the juniors preferred to book a bus. Sun, sand and sight-seeing pretty much summed their trip up!

07/11/2014; 01:15:

The team from BITS-Goa was back to campus, in two installments- on the night of the 4th and on the morning of the 5th. 4th was an Institute Holiday and we ended up going out for dinner- we also ended up going out for dinner on the 5th and the 6th, but, that's a different story!

5th & 6th of November was Utsaha-the Annual Rural Market Research Festival, the 'Kartik Purnima' mela of Janav Kutti Village, attended by the PGP batches of IIM-Indore. It was the 7th edition of an event which spans two days, reaches out to over 50,000 rural people and involves engaging the rural audience by designing games, events and shows structured around the research objectives, thus lending the whole experience an element of fun along with learning.
It was rather successfully organized, with Unilever, ITC, Pepsi, Mondelez (Formerly known as Cadbury), Vodafone and Pidilite on board as the market research partners.

An industrial visit to Signet Industries was organized by the E-Cell for students of all three IPM batches, on the 6th of November. Interested students went in two batches and had a wonderful learning experience. We got to see the manafacturing process that goes into making various agricultural implements, from micro irrigation pipes to those used in bore-wells.

There's a Mathematical Modelling Quiz, scheduled to happen at 10 a.m., in a few hours. Also, the Newspaper Bulk deal is to be renewed and new subscriptions taken, for all the IPM students.

The 2014 batch is all back from a relaxing first term break and they appear all geared up to take on the world! Most of us, the 2012 batch, are looking forward to the month-long break in December- the break is planned, in order for us to be able to write our IGNOU end-year exams well!

There's a report to be submitted as part of the course on Social Entrepreneurship, by the end of today. The report ought to document each of the three guest lectures that we've attended as part of the course- each guest lecture was delivered by the founder of a well-established social enterprise.
There's a lot of good learning to happen! A site-visit to an organization in Dewas has also been planned, on the 13th of the month.

The Principles of Management classes just get better and better! There have been videos and engaging discussions galore! Last class, sir handed out blank sheets, paired us up and asked each of us to sketch our partners! This was then followed by a test of creativity, where we were given 30 blank circles to convert into meaningful objects, in the least possible time! It was great to see imaginations soar!

The most important thing to remember during a brain-storming session is that one ought not to reject ideas outright, but, one is only to collect all ideas that are being suggested at the moment; criticism and the feasibility of ideas is to be taken up only at a later stage- this allows ideas to flow freely and ensures that the best ideas surface!

30/10/2014

30/10/2014; 02:56:

The last couple of days have begun with early morning MM classes. It’s fascinating how the beating of the human heart, the spread of epidemic diseases and species ecology can all be drawn into differential equations. I remember reading somewhere that ‘Maths is the language of Nature & Physics its poetry’. A beautiful quote which reads, now, truer than ever.

We managed to squeeze in a couple more volleyball / basketball practices on the 27th and the 28th.
The faculty mess has relocated itself, albeit temporarily, to the first floor of the Academic Block, from its usual ground floor site. It now sits in the room orthogonally adjacent to the CAO’s Office. Of course, they still continue to serve dahi kachori, Maggi and fruit juices.

There was an Econometrics Quiz on the afternoon of the 27th. There has been a certain tinge of excitement in the air, with lots of IPM students going to participate in one of two fests that are happening at the same time-BITS Goa’s Cultural Fest ‘Waves’ & IIT-BHU’s Sports Fest ‘Spardha’.

28th Night, 10:00 p.m. saw an open-air performance, on the basketball court to be precise, by the team going to perform a Nukkad Natak at ‘Waves’. The drama is titled ‘ Sex-Sex Shh-Shh, Sex-Sex Shh-Shh’ and deals with the taboo associated with the word as well as the inadequate state of sex education in India. The other team’s play too, is centred around rape, female foeticide and abuse. So much for non-taboo, conventional themes. Other participants include the dance team, the Fashion Show team and the literary events teams.
The Boys’ Cricket, Volleyball, Badminton, Squash, Power-Lifting and the Girls’ Basketball & Volleyball teams make up the contingent that will represent IIM-Indore at Spardha.

We left, the afternoon of the 29th, at 12:30 p.m., to catch a 2:00 p.m. train to Banaras. The train takes about 21 hours to get from Indore to Banaras. The mess packed us lunch to go & a well-equipped first-aid kit was arranged; all month long, the hostel office has been nice enough to arrange for sports equipment and permission for late-night practice.
We’re now on the train which will soon halt at Kanpur. I’m really looking forward to getting some hot food at Kanpur station.

Here’s hoping for a win at the Sport’s fest!