01/12/2015

01/12//15/; 17:14:

It’s the start of a new month, the last one of this year. It’s surprising to feel that the year is nearly over; there’s this thing about student life that’s really nice- you get to spend time reminiscing the year gone by and celebrate the new year, twice each year, once with the rest of the world, in December & January and another time when the academic year ends and begins, in April & July.
The Rural Immersion Programme kicked off, yesterday. People have headed off to different districts in the state; the aim of this year’s Programme is to work with the Ministry on the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, with specific focus on curbing the problem of open defecation.
Meanwhile, some of us are stuck here, giving IGNOU exams. We went out for lunch on Monday, since the IGNOU papers were to being only on the 1st of December.
I had a ‘Communication Skills in English’ paper at 2p.m. today; it was to be a 3-hour paper and got over some time ago.
Recently, we were talking to the guards at Gate 2 about the growing dog population on campus. In addition to grills, metal net has been put up on the gates since it was thought that the dogs were entering through the space between the grills. Some guards then reported to the authorities that the dogs were in fact scaling the campus boundary wall to get in; the boundary wall is at least 7 feet high and no one seemed to believe this. Two security guards were then posted on either side of a suspected spot of the boundary wall, with recording equipment. After 8-10 days were spent gathering evidence, there was recorded proof of dogs jumping in over the wall and even jumping out at leaving! The walls have since been fitted with barbed wire on top but the dog population seems to keep growing. They’ve even gone past the point where they eat fallen/thrown food and straight up jump at people to grab whatever they wish to eat.
After we’d been receiving an average of 4 e-mails a day about lost stuff, ranging from lost bags and wallets to lost money and reading material, someone decided to create a Google Spreadsheet dedicated entirely to this lost/found business. Whether it’s actually being used or not is uncertain, but, the number of e-mails have definitely gone down!
Perhaps, I should get some more details about the RIP and write about that, but, well.

30/11/2015

30/11/2015; 03:21:

27th morning began with classes. We have a short, 5-session Workshop on Entrepreneurial Orientation that began on Friday morning. We attempted to list what makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur; who qualifies to be one and who doesn’t.
We then had a Finance Class, the 13th of a 15-session course. All other sections have managed to have 3 quizzes by this point in time, but we haven’t received even the slightest hint of one it!
And then since we’re so short on time, we had an OM quiz bang in the middle of our lunch break, at 1:40 p.m. A rather drained-out QT class where even the professor eventually let us off 5 minutes before time then followed.
Some sleep later, we were on the Basketball court for a match- the last of the league matches before we proceed to having the semis and then the finals for each game. We managed to win this one too!
The Operations Club, Kaizen, held a quiz at 10 p.m., the same night. It was a fairly interesting quiz, based largely on all the Operations Concepts that we’ve been learning in class.
We had a Volleyball match at 11 p.m., against section H who have pretty much the best team- the best centre is on their team as is the best lifter. We needed to win this one to have a shot at the semis. We played rather well, and did manage to win a very close match. One thing that really works for our section is the fact that the women on our team can play rather well. The format requires each team to have 4 men and 2 women; most teams end up focussing on ‘covering’ the women on their team; the other team launched at least 4 shots in the direction of the women, expecting free points. What they did not expect was for the ball to be hit back into their court and, they failed to hit it back in time, each time, without exception.
28th morning began with only 2 classes post which we headed out to eat, only getting back late in the night post which we proceeded to amble around campus- it was a Saturday night and understandably, everyone was out roaming.
Given the loads of roaming the night before, most of Sunday was spent sleeping late into the afternoon. I got a marketing assignment done post-dinner. We then proceeded to roam around.

27/11/2015

27/11/2015; 02:14:

We had a few classes post-lunch, on 23rd aka Monday. We’d sent out a pre-event report about Utsaha to the papers, the day before and some of them had it in print.

We worked on finalizing the details of ‘Paparazzi- The Media Quiz’ that Media Comm was to conduct on 25th night. A lot of discussion went into finalizing the dates for there’s been just so much going on, on campus.
Nihilanth- the inter IIT-IIM Quiz is finally back where it began- after kick-starting the event in 2003, IIM-Indore will finally get a go at organizing Nihilanth again! A pre-process was to be sent in, to be part of the organizing team. I sent in a write-up about a campus event, as directed, to be part of the Media team.

Section Wars: The Sports Edition took off on 23rd night with some cricket, football and volleyball matches. Our section boys managed to lose the cricket match by 5 runs; F section’s strategy worked rather well and they won the football match 1-0 against our section- they managed to score one goal and then their whole team proceeded to just linger around their goal till the end of the game, making an equalizer rather impossible.

Utsaha began on 24th morning; there were also some classes to attend. We had a presentation to make, in the Ethics class. Each group had to pick a piece of literature or a movie and analyse an ethical dilemma that forms part of the plot line of said book or movie. Ideas ranged from The Dark Knight & The Wolf of Wall Street to Harry Potter. We picked the Mahabharata as our text of choice for it is full of ethical dilemmas. We picked the part where Drona is deceitfully killed on the 15th day of the battle. Towards the end of our presentation, Sir had a few questions to ask.
Professor: So, you haven’t made a recommendation about how the dilemma ought to have been resolved, since you condemned the act as unethical.
Us: But, sir, we really have no right to make recommendations about The Mahabharata.
Cue laughter from the entire class; sir began laughing as well and conceded that we did have a point and let us off!
We then roamed around, eating before heading off to our hostels for a nap. Later in the evening, the IPM Dance Club held Footloose- an informal dance event at JAM. A new Chinese Outlet was on campus, selling mainly noodles; Meximus was also on campus and we ate some nice nachos.
Our section had a Volleyball match at 11 p.m. which we rather unfortunately lost to section F. At around 11:30 p.m., we were on the Basketball court- the girls managed to win their match, 8-0 while the boys lost a well-fought match, 11-13. Two members of our girls’ team managed to twist their ankles, at the exact same moment in the game which wasn’t too nice.
Wednesday was off for most people while just a few groups had an Industrial Visit lined up. Everyone else headed off to enjoy the mela where Utsaha was being held! The final day of Utsaha was one big celebration! It was the holy day of Kathik Poornima and evidently, everyone was out to spend some time with their families. Over two days, more than one lakh people visited the mela- the highlight of this year was the participation of an overwhelmingly large number of children in the mela. Specifically aimed at the children were a Magic show and a game of Musical chairs. Given the USP of Utsaha, the Disguised Rural Marketing Research, different projects were worked on for the partner clients, through the mode of games and events. Rural Beverage consumption was measured while benchmarking specifically the reach of PepsiCo as compared to its competitors. This along with the offering from Prataap snacks in way of a segmentation project attracted a lot of children- perhaps due to the colourful packaging and relevance of the food items concerned. Emami wished to explore the grooming behaviour of rural men; using Bollywood poster-boys as a ready icon, the reach of their ‘for men-only’ fairness cream, Fair & Handsome was explored. Effectiveness of an aggressive advertising campaign was measured for Ghadi Detergent which is a well-accepted household name. Goodies for participating in the games ranged from detergents to face creams and shampoos which served as an excellent incentive, driving large numbers to flock to the stalls. Due to the much larger turnout, survey targets were met much before closing time. Over 500 students must have visited the mela over the 2 days, many of them enjoying traditional delicacies and the giant wheel which remains the central attraction.
Later in the evening, once everyone was back on campus, we sent out a press release along with some bright, colourful pictures. I also got working on our Marketing Assignment which needed to be sent in before mid-night.
We had a Volleyball Match at 9:30 p.m. We played well and won! As soon as the match ended, I ran up to SR-9 to give an interview to join the media team for Nihilanth. Immediately after, we were on the Basketball court for our match, at 11:30 p.m. We managed to win this one too, along with a Badminton match that was happening at about the same time. We’d even played Pittu, earlier in the evening!
Questions for the Media Comm. Quiz had been prepared by late afternoon and the online quiz which focused on scandals began at 11:15 p.m. The quiz received a good number of responses which we should get around to evaluating!
Thursday i.e. 26th morning began with a few classes; everyone was mostly looking forward to the Boat Building Activity scheduled post lunch as part of our OB course.
By 2 p.m., everyone was assembled in the New Auditorium, waiting for the activity to begin. We’d been divided into different groups- there were 36 competing Boat Building Firms, 6 agents who’d be buying the finished boats, 4 suppliers of raw material, 4 banks to hand out loans, a vigilance department to ensure ethical trade practices and a team of auditors to check for financial irregularities.

I should add some details, soon.
Right after, there was a briefing session about the Rural Immersion Programme that begins on 30th November. We then collected reading material for a course on ‘Entrepreneurial Orientation’ for there was an assignment to be written up and submitted in the first class which is tomorrow.

The evening was one that’s supposed to be typical of a PGP-1 student’s schedule- a QT assignment, a Marketing assignment, the aforementioned EO assignment, an OM quiz lined up and everyone attending an Utsaha meeting at 11:45 p.m.
I shall now attempt to get some sleep!

23/11/2015

23/11/15; 13:46:


On 18th evening, close to 10 p.m., we gathered in front of JAM, with candles light- we then took a short walk before ending up at Mess1 were the candles were arranged in the shape of the international symbol of peace. Several placards with slogans expressing solidarity were put up on one pillar. We then stood in silence, hoping, praying for the best- violence is best answered with peace, to put an end to it all, once and for all. As long as there is hope, violence cannot triumph, not forever, not ever. A short prayer that gave words to our shared sentiment was then read aloud. In that moment, we were one- everyone gathered there, the victims from across the world, their families, time, the inflictors of violence, the ever hopeful- one soul, with one common thought.

Some while later, we headed to Mess2 to get some food. As we walked to the counter, wondering what to order, a hot dosa was brought out and we saw a friend walking up to pick up his food. Acting quickly, we picked up his dosa, began laughing and sat down to eat it while he looked on, aghast. Another dosa was brought for him in some time and he did take our joke in good spirit!
I went down to my room before heading back up for a Media Comm meeting at 11:30 p.m. On my way up, I met people going down to the basketball court. Promising to join them as soon as the meeting ended, I reached the venue exactly on time. The meeting began half an hour late since most other people were late and ended only by 1 p.m. As I headed back down, in anticipation, I met the same bunch of people, coming back up from the basketball court. My luck is so incredibly perfect that the meeting ran for the precise duration of the basketball game.

Thursday i.e. 19th began with 5 classes too. Soon after classes ended by 4:45 p.m., there was stuff in store! At around 5:30, DebSoc’s event, JAM @ JAM (that’s Just A Minute at Juices And More!) took off! I absolutely adore the concept of JAM- there’s one topic, 60 seconds and about 6 people attempting to speak. One speaker begins speaking at the start of the clock- the idea is for him to keep speaking for 60 seconds, about the topic. Now, that sounds fairly simple in theory, but, it really isn’t. The other speakers must attempt to catch the guy speaking, when he falters- relevant objections include the classic ‘Hesitation, Repetition & Deviation’ further objections might include Gesticulation, Voice Modulation, incorrect grammar and nonsensical content. Discretion of whether an objection is valid or not lies entirely with the JAM master. It was a fun event that ran for over 2 hours!
Close to 9 p.m., I headed to the library basement to attempt to get to know something regarding the QT quiz that was to happen soon.
We had 5 classes on Friday too. We’d been told that the Quiz later in the day would cover mainly LPP formulation. And then, towards the end of the QT class, sir grinningly informed us that there would be no formulation-related questions on the quiz. The quiz began at 4:50 p.m., right after class; it was a short quiz that only wanted answers, no processes.
Meanwhile, the Sports Committee announced a Sports Edition of the Section Wars that’d happened in Term-1. Some sports, like Volleyball have mixed teams requiring the six member team from each section to comprise of 4 boys and 2 girls. This shall be fun!

Saturday was no different from the rest of the week and we had 5 classes again. The MacroEco class was exceptionally interesting. Sir explained how the Aggregate Supply curve works- it is horizontal in the short-term, vertical in the long-run and sloping in the medium-run!

The weekend saw two days of activity- it was FootPrints- the Annual Alumni meet! The Alumni interacted with the faculty in the morning; the newly launched alumni portal, iConnect was formally inaugurated! A cultural evening of song and dance was put together by Harmon-I, the Music Club and Vibes, the Dance Club. A DJ party began at 10:30 p.m. and went on until nearly 4 a.m.! We then spent some time with some 2011-13 batch alumni who told us stories from their Student Exchange time and their time at their workplaces.

Sunday morning saw a ceremonial cake-cutting; a lunch was hosted for the alumni before most of them left for home and work, in the early hours of the evening. Mess-2 had decided to do their own bit, this FootPrints and held a ‘Food Carnival’. A large variety of food had been prepared and we did our share of sampling!

Later in the night, I wandered around, clicking pictures of the various Utsaha teams at work. The fest is in less than 24 hours and excitement levels are at an all-time high! Brightly coloured posters were being put together and spirts were equally high.

We then indulged in some VolleyBall for everyone’s geared up for the Section Wars that start today.

We had another WAC report writing before lunch; there are now classes to get to; I’ll be off!

18/11/21015

18/11/2015; 20:37:

I got back to campus at around 11:30 p.m. on the 12th. The campus still looked a little deserted. We settled on the stairs outside Mess 3 to share food and catch-up on each other’s lives.

13th morning began with MAC class where we discussed process costing. There was a Finance Class scheduled to happen right after, but, it managed to get cancelled.
At 11:45, we had our first class of the course on Ethics & CSR- the course began straight with a case that had a young salesperson facing an ethical dilemma.
We then had an OM class after a long time- we’ll be having a quiz soon since there wasn’t a mid-term.
Later in the evening, I headed out to the city to meet an old friend who was in town. I couldn’t spend much time with him since he had to leave soon; I was back on campus close to 9 p.m.

We had a couple of classes on Saturday too. At 2 p.m. we headed to the acad block for a MAC class, we waited, watching YouTube videos on the projector but there was no sign of the professor. Turns out, he wasn’t informed about the class at all. I then headed out to the city to meet a friend who was visiting- this one had all the time in the world and I got back to campus, courtesy Ola, around 10:30 p.m.

The cancelled Finance class was held on Sunday morning after which we headed out to eat. Most people were back to campus by Sunday evening, and just in time too! Starting Monday, we had a rather hectic schedule of classes- 5 of them, each day.

As promised, we had 5 classes on Monday, including an OB class where we discussed the existence and purpose of organizations. We’ll move to learning the details of organizational structure, soon.
Tuesday was all classes too- 5 of them to be precise.
Later in the night, we worked on a brief report on Balanced ScoreCards, for our Industry project- our group has picked an HR project.
Wednesday brings a good change, bang in the middle of the week, in the form of our Industrial Visits. We left campus at around 9:30 a.m. in a larger bus than the usual 24-seater one- ours was one of the last stops along the way and we were seated in the office by 11 a.m. We were to work on an HR Project, focusing on the Rolling Area- the company is divided into functional areas as per the production process that goes into making the steel rods. Within Rolling, there are 5 subareas- Production, Electrical Maintenance, Mechanical Maintenance, Quality and Workshop. We split into three 2-person subgroups and set about meeting the different sub-area heads, gathering information about the process, the employees involved, their work hours, the performance measurement scales and the incentive schemes. The engineers in our group picked up a lot more technical information than we did and we were done by around 3 p.m. The bus was ready to pick us up by around 4 p.m. and we headed back to campus.
All the clubs are in ultra-active mode, conducting events! The Economics Club has come up with a rather interesting sounding event called ‘Snake-o-nomics’ which promises a life-sized Snakes & Ladders game for the finale. Right now, there’s a Consulting Club event in progress, with a Live Project and Rs.5000 on offer as prizes!
Perhaps, this is the result of new-found enthusiasm post the PGP2’s return from their Himalayan Outbound Programme!
There was a Book Launch on campus, this evening- Ishqiyaapa- To Hell with Love by Mr. Pankaj Dubey. There is a candlelight vigil to be held at 10 p.m., today to express our solidarity for the chaos that’s going on over the world.
Also, Utsaha- the Rural Marketing Fest is right around the corner- a Rural Marketing themed quiz titled Utsukta (I credit myself with coming up with a great name!) will be held tonight at 11 p.m. It's just one event after another! And, there's another 5 classes, tomorrow!

12/11/2015

12/11/2015; 17:12:
5th morning began as promised, with a MAC Quiz- the Quiz was fairly simple and based entirely on what we’d discussed in class.
Soon after the MAC Quiz, there was an OM quiz, followed by a QT quiz in the afternoon. Of course, our section got really lucky and we only had the one MAC quiz while a couple of other sections got to write all three. I utilized all the extra free time by sleeping for nearly 20 hours.

I then got about 45 minutes to prepare for the MacroEconomics Mid-Term, the only one that I'd really needed to prepare for, since the others had been open book/ case-based. The MacroEco paper was rather nice and was followed by some food at Mess 2.

The Marketing Paper later in the afternoon was both simple and brief- it took only about half an hour to write out. Then of course, plans were in order for the rest of the evening! We headed to the newly opened 'Sardarji's Punjabi Zyaka Restaurant' for some unexpectedly spicy butter chicken.

Most of 7th was spent sleeping; we ordered some lunch from Bake n Shake and then headed to Chappan in the evening. A lot of people had headed home on 6th evening and most others would be heading home soon. I had a flight to catch, on Sunday morning- and I was home by lunch-time!

It's been a nice 4 days in Mumbai, catching up with friends and my mother. Meanwhile, the IPM-2013 Batch is the only one on campus (other than the FPM guys who're almost always there!)

I now have a flight back to Indore; further updates, straight from IIM-Indore, coming soon!

05/11/2015

05/11/2015; 05:44:

I think I’ve been procrastinating writing this blogpost forever now! It’s actually been over a week (it's a different month, even!) since I last got around to writing and I haven’t even been that busy. Ah, well, I’ve always been a strong believer in ‘better late than never’ and my belief is only stronger now!

26th began with 5 classes; it was hard getting used to class again, after the endless excitement of the fest. We had a session on Negotiation, in the OB class- we were paired up, each member of the pair was given a role sheet with some information on it- one of each pair was either a buyer or seller for a plot of land- some information was common while some was confidential. We were then asked to negotiate a deal- it was an interesting exercise. The negotiation I engaged in ended in 7 seconds flat. I asked the ‘seller’ if he had a price to offer, he made what I considered to be a fair offer- exactly half-way between both our BATNA’s (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) and I accepted immediately. Some other pairs kept haggling, but only one pair ended up with a ‘No Deal’. The exercise was interesting- some buyers outright cheated their sellers while some sellers made unbelievable profits.
Our Marketing Class for the day was cancelled, for unbeknownst reasons. We then had an OB Quiz at 5 p.m. It was a simple, MCQ quiz based on our understanding of the classroom discussions.
Some ambling around later, we ended up in the night mess- it was one typical day here at IIM-Indore- classes, a quiz and food in the night mess.

Tuesday began well, with a finance class where we were to decided whether or not it makes sense to give out an additional loan to an auto parts manufacturer. Two marketing classes ( one that was already on schedule and a second that was carried forward from being cancelled the previous day) followed where we discussed the importance of customer satisfaction. Our marketing teacher now has a favourite student, courtesy his disagreement with every second point raised in these two classes.
Our OB class was spent discussing motivation and leadership styles. The case in hand dealt with two very different basketball coaches- one a strong believer in discipline and the other who treated his team like family- both were effective in their own way. We were asked to recall times when we had been motivated/ we had motivated others. Ultimately the effectiveness of a coach depends on your own learning style.
Some food and sleep later, I headed to SR-16, the IPM girls' hostel to get résumé iteration done before the deadline set by the IPM social committee. We then had a media Comm meeting, the main agenda of which was to tell the junior team to pull up their socks and get working on some new ideas. Meanwhile, the biggest problem confronting one of our members is the distribution of mice (I'm guessing the plural is still mice, even for the computer ones)- there's a free mouse to everyone who's gotten a year long subscription of a particular magazine and he seems unable to track down all the relevant people.
On 28th October i.e. Wednesday, we were to go on a second visit to our allocated industry. Our group had agreed (by way of democratic voting despite our leader's other interests) to work on the HR project the company had to offer. We got to the venue by 11:30 and discussed our choice of project with their boss. The other group who's been assigned the same company decided after much deliberation to work on a operations project. The guys at the company have rather high expectations of us- they strongly believe that 8 visits will not be nearly enough to do justice to the projects we've undertaken- I really hope we live up to these expectations!
After our confabulation, the HR project seemed like a perfect choice- the company has only just added an HR department and any contribution will be a positive step. We then had lunch, a discussion with the HR head and put in requests for some data relevant to the project before our bus arrived and we decided to head back to campus.
En route, we picked up hot jalebis ( mostly since I'd gotten jalebis into everyone's heads on the morning ride, talking on and on about the staple Indore ( or well, M.P.) breakfast of poha-jalebi).
We were back on campus around 5 p.m. Once the sun was down, we took a long walk around campus, ending up at the Meximus setup where we got nachos and some laughs courtesy a friend doing a really bad job of eating a burrito.
There was a Bengali feast set to begin at 8:30 p.m., courtesy the Bengali community on campus and the (Durga Puja) festive season. After an endless wait (wherein I'd convinced myself and everyone around me that the food was most definitely over), we were finally eating, close to 10 p.m. The food was delicious- I don't really like fish most of the time, but, the fish was awesome! I think it's time I learnt some Bengali-style cooking!
29th morning began with a bunch of classes just as it’s supposed to be. There was a surprise in store, for the OB class. There was a case that was to be a ‘role-play’ but, we were in no way prepared for what was coming our way! A toy manufacturer had been blamed for 2 child deaths resulting from swallowing of small parts- a board room meeting was in progress with all the important people (role playing, by our classmates). As they discussed whether to change the product, do a complete recall or just do nothing, an angry mob stormed into the classroom, with loud cries of ‘Hai Hai Chamanlal, down with Asian Toys’. Sobbing mothers, angry media and concerned activists made up most of the crowd. It looked like the real deal; the angry mob later turned out to be a bunch of management students from the Acropolis Institute nearby. They did a marvellous job of scaring the company management into rethinking their decisions. In one of the sections, shirts were torn even, in the midst of an escalated argument!

After this unexpected excitement, we had a MacroEconomics quiz to write. The quiz was fairly simple, MCQ type. We headed for a walk around campus, somewhere at around 7 p.m. A bunch of ‘watch towers’ were installed along the boundary of the campus, some time ago. They’re now functional and unlocked. We just had to climb up and explore! We picked one close to the new cricket ground and slowly made our way up the winding staircase- the view was nice, the cool winter evening breeze was better!
There was then some pending résumé iteration to be done, so I headed straight to SR-16, later going up to the mess to catch up with people. We then indulged in our last favourite pass time, which involves ‘eating a dear friend’s head’- not literally though, but, it’s good fun (mostly because he doesn’t seem to mind either!)

Just as we were heading back to the hostel a little after 11, I spotted a bunch of people with a basketball and they seemed to be heading in the direction of the basketball court. Of course, I had to join them! Nothing is more fun than 2 hours of midnight basketball!

We didn’t have a lot of classes on Friday i.e. 30th October. We spent two WAC classes talking about a case that dealt with Greenpeace taking on FaceBook- for FaceBook had decided to set up data centres that would not be environmental-friendly enough. Greenpeace’s weapon of choice? A social media campaign driven on FaceBook!
We were then sitting around in my room, in the evening when someone called asking for a basketball; soon enough we were on the court- the growing interest in basketball is a good sign; one can only hope that it is here to stay! After a good game, we walked out Gate-2 to get some good chicken and walked back in record time to get back at exactly 10:30 p.m.!



Saturday morning began with a Marketing Class where we had a rather unusual case at hand- a company wanted to begin manufacturing and marketing eye lenses for chicken!
I have no idea how everyone (the professor included) managed to not make a single reference to the oddity of the product, through the entire discussion.
After lunch, at 2 p.m., there was an event on campus, in view of Utsaha- the Rural Marketing Fest. Class 12 students of the Government School at Manpur, in Janpav Kutti were invited to join the MBA 1st year students for a whole afternoon of activities. A session on ‘Career Counselling: New Ideas’ was held for the students. IIM-Indore Faculty, Prof.Sushanta Kumar Mishra of the OB Department and Prof. Shweta Kushal of the Communications department spoke to the students about the importance of having a goal in life and working towards that goal. Ideas emphasised included the need for self-confidence, having belief in oneself and one’s family and friends are essential to succeed in life. The children were quick to understand that money alone does not equate to success. Peace of mind, helping everyone around you, and being happy in life are much more valuable than material wealth. The children shared their dreams, many want to be doctors and contribute to society. The faculty emphasised the importance of diverse career options- a country cannot function with only doctors and engineers; musicians and artists are necessary too.
Following this, there was an informal interaction with the MBA 1st year students where college and life stories were swapped. Just as this informal interaction was beginning, refreshments arrived- hot samosas. I suggested that everyone eat and we then get back to where we were. No one seemed to understand the problem with letting the samosas get cold. I struck up a conversation with a group of girls sitting in the first row and let them know that the samosas were getting cold. While 2 of them were called on to participate in the first ice-breaker activity that involved introductions, one of them and me snuck out, ate piping hot samosas and were back inside before anyone even realised that we were gone. That done, I headed down to my room to file a press release for the event.
Some refreshments for everyone else and a campus tour that I missed brought the event to a delightful close. The Umeed team is a new addition to Utsaha this year. They plan to undertake social welfare and engagement activities in the village, in the run up to the event; this event was part of the same.
We headed out later in the evening, since Saturday calls for good food i.e. Subway sandwiches. We picked up some bedsheets for a friend while we were out; the best part was leaving them behind in the cab we took back to campus- I’m still in the process of trying to retrieve them- hope that works out well.

The new month began on a Sunday which somehow wasn’t spent sleeping until evening- I was up at 11:30 a.m. We ate lots of fruits and then contemplated ordering some pasta for lunch but eventually decided against it, for no one felt like eating cold food.
Then of course, it was Globe@I to the rescue. Mess 2 has decided to put off cooking any food until the PGP2’s who’ve gone off for their Himalayan Outbound Program (a week-long holiday up in the mountains!) are back.
After all the food, I fell asleep at 8, perhaps planning to be up again by around midnight. But, just like it always is with sleep & me (we’re very happy together, thank you) I was up only at 8 the next morning, right in time for class. Waking up exactly when you should be, without an alarm clock is a wonderful feeling, and having slept for 12 hours in the run up to it leaves for words to be added to the English language.
A wonderful Monday morning, with a few classes before lunch. The last class, right before lunch was WAC where we read through and discussed a case involving a soon-to-graduate Business Administration student who needed to pick between two jobs. It was a very relatable case, for most of the class. We were then informed that we would be writing out a detailed WAC report on the case, post lunch. We made our way to our assigned classrooms for the ‘exam’ which began at 2 and went on until 5 p.m.
By 3 p.m., I was at JAM, eating a chicken sandwich. Here, I met the new IPM Media Committee Coordinator, who handed me a copy of the ‘IPM Oracle’. It’s a new initiative- an IPM newsletter! And, it makes for a very interesting read- a roundup of the events and the gossip on campus!
Recently, I’ve discovered a newly begun business venture in Indore. They’re called ‘LalApple.com’ and they deliver fresh fruits and vegetables right to your doorstep! The fruit-seller on campus doesn’t always have all the fruits & veggies I’m looking for, so, this is perfect! I think I’ve been ordering from them everyday since I discovered them, sometime in the last week of October.
We ate delicious butter chicken at a newly opened restaurant close to campus for dinner. I helped a friend with some OM concepts and in return I was introduced to a nice song! I’ve been listening to it on repeat, for 3 days now! That’s just how I ‘do’ music!

All of Tuesday i.e. 3rd November was spent sleeping save for a single Marketing class at 8:45 a.m.
We spent the evening mostly eating- sandwiches, since Royal Sandwich was on campus, then rolls at Globe@I and even lemonade at Mess2.
We then ambled around, got tea and headed back to the hostel. At 1 a.m., I proceeded to walk around campus and get some more tea- the OB midterm the next day was an open-book one so there was definitely no studying to be done.

I fell asleep somewhere after sunrise and was up at 9, just in time for the paper. The paper was interesting- we had to use three of four lenses- Team Design, Team Identification, Leadership and Trust among team members to analyse what could have been done differently in the given case.
Right after the paper, I slept for 7 hours straight, getting up somewhere in the evening, to eat my freshly-delivered fruits and some fried rice.

That's one long blog post! That's probably what happens when you put off writing for so long! And this, when the three days of IRIS had their own post! I should probably get some sleep, there's a MAC quiz in the morning, soon!

26/10/2015

26/10/2015; 02:00:
IRIS 2015! The event kicked off with the Inauguration Ceremony at 9 a.m., in the Old Auditorium. The Auditorium was packed with a bunch of excited souls, waiting for the actual event to begin after days of excitement.
The event kicked off with an opening speech by Prof. Ganesh who spoke about the large number of events the student community holds on campus. Mr. Parmesh Shahani, Head of Godrej India Culture Lab, Author of Gay Bombay, TED & Yale World Fellow, the keynote speaker for the event spoke emphasised the importance of ‘thinking hatke’, accepting differences, working together, sharing value, to make the best of what we have, the best for everyone involved.
A guest lecture by Dr. Mrs. Janak Palta McGilligan, Padma Shri Awardee, Founder Trustee of Jimmy McGilligan Centre for Sustainable Development followed. She is a well-known name in Indore and around, and runs an educational facility for tribal girls- and the facility is entirely self-sustained- as she said, only 4 things- salt, oil, tea and are sourced from outside the facility!
A short presentation by Mr. Rangarajan Shesardi, the CEO of Neeyamo was up next, followed by a joint press release by him and our IPM Chair, Prof. Ranjeet Nambudri. Neeyamo is an HR Consultancy and the lecture was very interesting- it focused on talent acquisition, the limitless possibilities to recruit talent in an increasingly connected world and the need to build HR leaders.

The events took off soon after- Kalpavriksha- the Social B-Plan competition that had funding from the Dorabji Tata Fund this year began with Dr. Janak Palta as the main judge.
Ashwamedha- our flagship management event began with an ice-breaker session- participants (20 of them) who had been selected after a bunch of online processes were now to spend 3 gruelling days, to find the real leader! Tasks over three days tested them on a whole array of personality traits all of which are touted to be equally important for a leader.

I headed over to watch Kalpavriksha, but after a long speech by the judge, an hour-long lunch break was in order before the actual event would begin. I then bid good-bye to the journalists who didn’t want to eat anything and headed to my room.

Voice of Indore- the Singing event of IRIS was set to begin at 4 p.m. I got help getting dressed since I was to be on stage, hosting the event and headed to the Central Lawn. The judge had gotten delayed on the way and the event began by 4:45 p.m. By this time, Kalpavriksha was nearly over and the details of the winners had to be taken, for the press release to be compiled soon.
The event went well, with me falling into character a few performances in, cracking jokes (oft at my own expense, and at that of my co-host). A large standee of our sponsor, ‘Selfie- the Unisex Salon’ was moved onto stage as we stepped on to introduce the next singer- 18 singers had been selected for the finale after a whole month of city-wide auditions- we decided that the standee was our next performer but it shied away and parked itself next to the stage instead.
Right after Voice of Indore, the group dance event of Lasya was set to happen. I got to host this one too. There were 7 teams, each better than the next. And, they had a bunch of crazy names, from ‘D Injectors’ to ‘The Danciners’ Yard’!

23/10/2015

23/10/2015; 06:20:

Friday morning began with a MacroEconomics session, which ended with the professor suggesting that be prepared for a surprise quiz that’s to happen sometime soon. The Accounts professor managed to hold a surprise quiz, right after, based on the case that we ought to have read for said session.
Post-lunch, an OB class was scheduled for all 8 sections. We were to watch a movie- right after lunch, all 563 students moved to the New Auditorium where ‘12 Angry Men’ was screened. It’s a brilliant movie that I’ve seen at least twice before- the arguments, human interaction and behaviour are all very well captured in this movie which focuses on a jury making a decision on a life-sentence.

Right after, I headed up to the Acad Block, for a feedback session by our marketing professor. All the groups had handed in an assignment, and since this was the first of the course, Ma’am decided that feedback was in order. I guess we now have a better idea of what should go into our marketing assignments, and how.

Voice of Indore- the hunt for Indore’s best singer- has been holding auditions across the city in the run up to the finale which is on 23rd October, when IRIS begins. 16th evening saw the Campus edition of the auditions, at 7:30 p.m., at JAM. The judges had come down from Gautam Kale’s Sangeet Gurukul, the same as for all the other auditions. It eventually turned into an evening of joyous singing; we closed with promising to have the results up on the FaceBook page in a few hours and getting a team photo with the judges! It was nice to finally be anchoring an event where I was actually part of the organizing team!

17th i.e. Saturday i.e. end of the working week was soon upon us- it’s probably unfair, at least right now to think of the weekend as well the ‘end’ of work, for with IRIS right around the corner, we’re probably doing more work on weekends than we’d do on any other day.
We had just one OM class to attend, and that too at 10:15; we worked methodically on the case in question, solving the 3 inventory-related problems that the firm was facing one-by-one. An in-class assignment in the form of a similar case has been promised for the next lecture.

Most of the day was spent getting interesting FaceBook posts up on the IRIS page with a short meeting at 1:30 p.m. in the middle. We headed out to get some good food, in the evening. Once back, we stumbled upon an about-to-begin game of football in the centre of SR-09 and promptly joined in- another lady and me appointed ourselves as goalkeepers for either team and did a rather excellent job at staving off goals. Someone brought out a cricket bat about an hour into the game and took over goalkeeping at the other end; eventually football morphed into cricket and we left to head over to the night mess.

Our journey to the night mess turned out to be rather longer than we’d anticipated, courtesy a friend who decided that he ought to fall asleep everywhere! First, in the grass by the footpath close to Mess2, then on the cement platform right outside Mess2 while I fetched another friend who was busy with dance practice. Practice was still to still be in progress for some time, so we decided that it was best to get Mr. Sleepy to his room and then re-convene sans him in the night mess. We managed to get to his hostel without incident- he then fell asleep in a random room on the ground floor; we eventually got to his floor and just when I thought he’d get to his own bed, he plopped down on the bed of the first open room in the hostel and even began sleep-talking. Finally, he decided that his own bed was most comfortable and settled in while I headed off to the night mess.

Sunday morning should ideally have begun late, but, there were Voice of Indore auditions to be conducted- open auditions, at Gautam Kale’s Sangeet Gurukul. We got on the 10 a.m. bus and were at the venue by 11 a.m. Part of the team had gotten there an hour ago and the auditions were in full swing. We stood around, mesmerized by the wonderful singers that came in- a lot of them were really good, which wasn’t a surprise really, given the venue and the fact that a lot of them are pursuing courses at music schools.

We were back on campus a little after lunch-time. We then proceeded to get some food from Dominos and have a nap before the Dandiya night that was in store! The Dandiya Night began at around 8:30 p.m. Close to 10 p.m., we got to see a brilliant performance that was the result of all the dance practice that’d been happening. We then proceeded to dance until the music was turned off at around 3 a.m.

We had four classes to begin Monday with. Even after all the late-night dancing, everyone was in class, and not sleepy too! We had an OB class where we played a team-game, based on the idea of competition v/s cooperation and how sometimes cooperation can lead to better gains for everyone involved.
Continuing with the series of articles we’ve been getting up on InsideIIM, Mercur-I, the marketing club wrote one- the article is titled "E-commerce Sales : A Lesson Learnt" and discusses e-commerce sales, what impact they have on consumers and what e-commerce companies must look forward to on the road ahead.
After class, I spent some time with the juniors, iterating their résumés, in the CC lab. It’s interesting how different yet beautiful everyone’s résumés are! Some food later, I was helping a friend with her marketing assignment.
At around 11, I made my way to SR-18, the IPM Girls’ Hostel to go over some more résumés. Now, most of my other batch-mates (a few of us had volunteered to help out) had called the juniors over to their own rooms, I found it a lot more efficient to go over myself.

Once back, I got working on my IGNOU assignments that needed to be handed in by 5 p.m., Tuesday. I got three assignments done in a little over an hour and was pretty happy; I don’t recall falling asleep but of course I did, waking up with a start close to 9:45 a.m.

I then rushed to class- unlike all the other sections, we didn’t have an 8:45 class, on the 20th. After class, I completed my one leftover assignment- we then headed to go submit them- we split up- one person went to the bank to get DD’s made, another went to the printer room to get the question papers/cover pages printed, a third went over to the IPM Office to get the examination forms and I headed over to SR-08 to pick up envelopes that I’d picked up from the Pi shop the night before. We then re-convened in the CC lab and got our assignments in order, filled in the examination forms and had them submitted a little after 4:30 p.m.

A short nap later, I headed out for dinner; my father was in Indore for official purposes and dinner was definitely in order before he headed back.

There was only one class on Wednesday morning; I was then woken up at 2:30 in the afternoon, courtesy some persistent banging on my door by a concerned friend. Some food later, we made plans to play basketball.
At around 8 p.m., we headed up to the Pi Shop where a Durga Puja pandal had been set-up. The Ashtami Aarti was indeed a grand affair- people all dressed up and dancing! We ordered in some food and spent a long time eating it!

Thursday morning i.e. 22nd October i.e. Dusshera! I was woken up at 11 a.m. for a Media team meeting was to be held at 11:30; the meeting got postponed, but at least my day began in the first half (and on a holiday too!).
Some rice and pickle for lunch later, I fell asleep again, only to be finally be woken up at 8:30 p.m. for a Voice of Indore team meeting- IRIS begins tomorrow and the grand finale of Voice of Indore is the first event to take over the Cultural Events scene, early in the evening. Work was to be divided and I get to host the event. Some preparation about the finalists and their songs needs to be done.

Some milk at the Pi-Shop later, I headed to Mess2 and got myself lemon soda and a chicken sandwich to go. Only once I’d reached my room did I realise that I never actually picked up the sandwich- I clearly got distracted by the ice in my soda and the sandwich slipped my mind completely.
It was nearly 10:30 and the re-scheduled Media team meeting was to happen at 11, so I headed up. The meeting was once again shifted, to midnight, this time. My sandwich and I returned to my room; we made our way up to the meeting, via Mess-1, clicking a few pictures that’d look good on the FaceBook page.
We went over the IRIS schedule to make sure that everything would be covered and make it to the press release. I picked up some food, and just as I reached the hostel, a member from the Operations team called me up. Apparently, the IRIS T-shirts had arrived and everyone other than the Media team had collected theirs. The only reasonable thing to do was to collect said T-shirts- they look really nice- they’re a brilliant shade of blue, with our names and ‘MEDIA’ printed on the back.

I’ve since been up, putting pictures up on the FaceBook page- I even got one of some participants arriving with their bags!

The Inauguration Ceremony begins at 9 a.m. and I should probably get some sleep if I hope to be there- IRIS 2015!!

16/10/2015

16/10/2015; 02:41:


13th morning began with a few classes- we discussed a case, which dealt with whether or not to fire an employee. We were then required to write out a detailed but brief report explaining our choice.
In the evening, we got around to getting our Marketing Assignment done- it dealt with the community building that has been successfully undertaken by Harley Davidson. At 10:30 p.m., Mercur-I, the marketing Club held the first online quiz in a series of Marketing Quizzes titled ‘Mardi Gras’- the quiz was very interesting- it had taglines, memorable advertisements and famous marketing personalities.
The IRIS FaceBook page, now powered by a team with a 10-day mission, got really active- I got the countdown started, with a picture of the My Campaign team at their event, holding up placards that read very simply, ‘10’. I then managed to fall asleep at a reasonable time, since 14th was to be a long day!
I was up at 6:30 a.m., like almost everyone else. It was our first visit to our allocated Industry, as part of the IV course that is spread over the 1st year. Everyone collected near Mess-1 by 7:30 a.m. - the mess had decided to open early, and it felt just like a picnic! Dozens of people ambling around, making sure that their entire group has managed to reach Sanchi Point to board the buses, trying to find out which of the many buses will head to their destination, eating and drinking and generally in a jovial mood. Our group leader who’d nicely instructed us to be dressed in smart casuals- with a full-sleeve shirt and sports shoes- managed to oversleep, waking up only at 7:30 a.m. All the groups headed to Dewas were to leave first, since Dewas is an almost 2-hour bus ride; the groups heading to Sector-3 of Pithampur were to follow; all the groups heading to Sector-1 in Pithampur and to Indore were to wait around until the buses dropped off the first lot of people and returned. This gave our group leader some additional lead time- he was at the venue, properly dressed up and looking unapologetic, by 7:45 a.m. He even managed to get some breakfast before we left campus at around 8 a.m. There were 5 groups on our bus, heading to 3 different industries. Now, we found the first one rather easily, since it was right on the highway and two groups headed off. We then began a wild-goose chase for the other two industries and managed to successfully drop off another group before deciding to use Google Maps and find our destination. Our group leader, armed with new information courtesy Google Maps, directed us to Jaydeep Ispat & Alloys by 9:30 a.m.
Large red signage that read ‘Moyra Sariya’ brought us to a halt. We got ourselves into their site office and sat around drinking coffee until the plant head, our guide, joined us by 10:15 a.m. We were given a short presentation about the industry and the process of making steel rods from scrap iron/metal. A plant tour was then in order- all 12 of us (2 groups) were taken around the facility by 4-5 senior people from the industry. Our tour began with the scrap yard where large mounds of scrap iron/metal were being moved around by a large, electromagnetic crane and another large tool called a ‘grasper’ that did exactly that- it grasped large chunks of the metal scrap with its 5 clawed arm and moved them into bins. These bins were for segregation of the scrap, according to composition- since the final product needs to have a certain fixed composition of various metals including iron, magnesium, chromium and nickel.
Our next stop was the furnaces- scrap metal was continually fed into large furnaces which I believe had a temperate of about 1600 degrees. The furnace just gobbling up large, different-sized pieces of metal, a bunch of electronic devices that controlled the temperature- current was being used to maintain the temperature- the devices displayed readings of voltage, current and the resulting temperature in real time. We stood there, watching as a furnace was turned on its side, impurities falling out into a designated container; the molten metal itself flowing out, when the furnace was turned over into giant buckets that they called ladles. We then moved over to the cooling area where molten metal flowed down vertically, and was showered with water, bringing the temperature down to about 800 degrees. The metal was then cast into billets. An unending stream of metal flowed, it was cut at pre-designated lengths and sprayed with water as it zoomed across a conveyor belt. Ahead, it was pressed into rods of varying diameters, ranging from 8 to 32mm. Heat emanated from what appeared to be bright, nearly neon orange streaks of light, zipping past us at unimaginable speeds- these streaks of light were in fact red hot metal rods! They then moved into a machine which runs based on German Technology, Thermax- they were fired with high pressure water from all directions- in a matter of seconds, hot red streaks of light seemed to flow in, get drenched, and sleek metal rods flowed out that were then stacked into place- now at less than 400 degrees. These were then loaded onto trucks and sent their way! We even got to see their workshop- where some of the machines are designed and produced, and the quality control lab where tensile strength and composition of random samples are periodically checked!
Still in a state of mesmerized daze, we walked back to their site office, for a Q&A session. All the engineers in our group had a bunch of technical questions about the processes while I listened carefully, trying to take in as much of the new information as I could. At the suggestion of the plant head, we then moved to more ‘management- related’ questions, about operating efficiencies, marketing the product and the organizational structure.

Post-lunch, a detailed organizational structure was explained to us- they’ve recently added an HR department too! It is a family-owned business and wishes to continue to remain so. 6 different projects- two operations-related ones- dealing with the acquisition of scrap, inventory and dispatch schedules, one HR project dealing with designing appraisal systems, a marketing project dealing with increasing their market share and selling more of their product to government projects, an Environmental-related project dealing with disposal and usage of their waste products and a last more technical project that dealt with the actual processes were then shared with us. We are to pick one or more of these projects- which are all related to the problems/improvement of the industry-, work on them over the next 6 months, make some recommendations and hope that they be actually implemented. All the projects sound enticing- the reward of seeing our recommendations in actual practice is sure going to be great.
We then headed back to campus; our next visit will probably be towards the end of the month- by when we’d ideally have picked our projects- we sure are looking forward to that!

15th morning began with a few classes- we learnt about Economic Order Quantities in the OM class and then had all our ‘definitely true’ concepts shaken up in the QT class. The professor has decided to focus on relevant decision-making and take a mostly non-mathematical approach to problem solving- identifying what needs to be worked on is more important that knowing what mathematical tools to employ in solving the issue.

After class, we headed to JAM to get some food. We then worked on the WAC report that needs to be handed in sometime soon- we’ve agreed on getting the employee in question to train his own replacement before he is told that he should get packing.
At 7 p.m., we had an Utsaha Media Team meeting- we’re going to get working on articles for the blog, the FaceBook page and some press releases. A trip is being made to Janpav Kutti- the village where the actual event is held, this Sunday, by the ‘Umeed Team’ to indulge in some social initiatives.

I then headed to the C-Block Common Room to capture the Flash Mob practice in progress- photographs of the dance team were perfect for the ‘8 days to go’ post!

Some food at Globe@I, some chai at Night mess later, here I am, typing away!
Auditions for Voice of Indore will be held on campus, on 16th evening. An open audition will be held at Sa Re Ga Ma Music School on Sunday! A Food Walk is also being organized as part of IRIS, over the weekend; excitement levels are certainly soaring, and not without reason!

13/10/2015

13/10/2015; 02:58:

9th October saw classes in the morning, and the afternoon too. It’s a new term, a new beginning and spirits are soaring!
Our MacroEconomics professor is really nice. He’s a chemical engineer who then proceeded to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics. This leads to him using beautiful analogy in the classroom- ‘So, this is a catalyst to the GDP’. MacroEconomics is sure going to be fun, this term!
Our Marketing Professor has adopted a rather curious approach to the ‘Class Participation’ component of the grading scheme- at the beginning of each session, a list of participants is put up on the board- and the onus of contributing in that session lies on these participants and the members of the group to whom the case in question has been assigned.
The first Finance lecture was spent mostly telling us that a problem is never a marketing problem or a finance problem, but a business problem.
Post lunch, we had our first OB class- we did what is known as a Desert Survival test. You are stranded in a desert owing to a plane crash. A list of 15 items is made available- these must be ranked from 1 through 15 based on which you would most definitely hold onto and which you wouldn’t. We did the ranking exercise first individually, then in groups of 6-7 members and compared scores in both scenarios to the answer key. Most people did better as a team than individually. The larger purpose though was to understand how groups are formed, how they develop, function and then dissociate.
As soon as class ended (at 3:15 p.m.), I head off to get a couple of things done. A saw my OM End-Term paper where I’d managed to score rather well; then there was some reading material to be collected from the Distribution Centre aka the library basement. I then headed to collect a cheque that was to be handed over to HT Media for IRIS Promotions. I collected my clothes from the laundry- they’d been there for nearly two weeks!- it was then that I remembered that I’d needed to visit the PGP Office too. I headed down to my room to drop off my freshly laundered clothes, changed into a smart-looking shirt and then rushed up again to the PGP Office- our end-of-year IGNOU exams for our final year happen to clash with the dates of the Rural Immersion Programme and proof in form of our subject details had to be submitted to the Office. I then got myself on the 4 p.m. bus to the city. It’s surprising how productive one can get when pressed for time- tasks that I’d ideally get done with ‘eventually’ were all done with, in about half an hour!

We got off at the Press Complex near LIG Chouraha and headed straight up to the HT Media Office, to meet with their marketing head. Promotions for IRIS are in full swing and everyone’s excited. A Media Committee Junior Team party was in order and we got back to campus only by 11 p.m.

10th morning began with classes too- we discussed a case where a clothing company was attempting to tie-up with an insect-repellent manufacturer to produce insect-repellent clothing in the Marketing Class. There were then two WAC- Written Analysis and Communication- classes where we spoke about report writing and appropriate formats. QT was the last class for the day which was spent in introducing us to the course- it’s going to deal mainly with decision-making- in certainty and uncertainty.

Clueless- the hugely popular online puzzle hunt of IRIS kicked off at 10:30 p.m. I ought to atleast try and attempt some bit of it!
We had a Media Team meeting at 11:30 p.m. where we discussed a 10-day promotion strategy for the final run-up to IRIS 2015. A Countdown, numerous posters, blogposts, some press-releases and radio promotions are in order! I get to be in-charge of the countdown- from 10 down to 0 and then IRIS!

Most of Sunday was spent catching up on sleep- mainly to make up for the loss of sleep that resulted from not managing to adjust to a reasonable sleep cycle now that classes have begun.
Monday morning saw a few classes; we were then free, post-lunch. We had a meeting with the PR Rep of the institute, to work out the details of the press-releases for IRIS. We then strolled around campus in the evening, trying to cheer up a rather antagonized friend. It seemed pretty bad- even ice-cream didn’t instantly work!
We walked upto Mess 1 at around 7:30 p.m. where the Pre-Buzz event for ‘My Campaign- the Marketing Event with a cause- was being held. The theme was ‘Ban the Ban’- a comprehensive list of all recent bans that have been imposed in the country was made available- and one could choose to write a slogan calling for the Ban to be banned. We wrote out a few slogans, got a few nice pictures including one for the IRIS- 10 Days to go- post.
I retreated my room for a while before heading up to the Night Mess some while later. I then picked up some IRIS posters and got busy putting them up around campus. They have a list of the major events and a large ’10 Days to Go’ on them. Looks like I have a new nightly routine!

09/10/2015

30/09/2015; 16:26:

It's been rather long, 10 days to be precise since I was last at my writing board. And, given that classes have not been running, that’s mostly surprising, or not.
It’s that classic paradox- when there’s a lot going on, there’s no time to be writing about it and then, when you have all the time in the world to be writing, there’s really nothing to be written about.

So, we’ll do the usual, and start right where we left off- 21st September, right after the birthday. E-mails calling for registration for various IRIS events began to be sent out- I think Entreprid- the Strategy event was the first to get started on this and even conducted their first round- an online quiz on 20th night.
21st morning began with the Business Communication end term that was somehow left out (or perhaps it was always scheduled to be so) at 10 a.m. I finished the paper in under 20 minutes and strode out of the exam hall and made a few failed attempts to get something to eat.
At 6 p.m., Ganpati Visarjan was to happen- the procession set out from the SR10 basement and ended at the Rain Water Harvesting pond near Gate-3.

Meanwhile, I finally got my article about my summer internship complete and sent it out to BLoC- Business Line on Campus. I think it went up on 22nd and looks good! Later in the afternoon, the OM Quiz papers were shown- this quiz was significantly easier than the last one and that was reflected in the marks. Since it was Tuesday, Royal Sandwich was on campus. Soon time ago, they’d gotten a flex printed, that pretty much stays put on campus- with their menu on it- at the bottom, it proudly proclaims ‘At IIM-Indore campus, every Tuesday’.

Wednesday was mostly spent doing nothing, filling out a few applications, making some power point presentations and looking for food. Later in the night, we got an article written about the upcoming, actually, up and running Voice of Indore event for IRIS 2015. The auditions are in full swing and will culminate in a grand finale on Day 1 of IRIS i.e. 23rd October. Meanwhile, an online version of the event has been started on the FaceBook page, and multiple entries are coming in!

24th began, somehow, somewhere with this vacation and everything, each day just seamlessly blends into the next and you perhaps do not even realise- an obvious consequence of having no fixed schedule or sleep time. The day just begins as and when you wake up and then never ends before the next one begins, for, you forgot to go to bed that night!

Our Marketing Mid-Term marks were put on an Excel sheet and sent to us; we’ll probably get to see the papers along with the End-Term ones. There was a workshop about Digital Marketing that began at 1 p.m. It was an interesting workshop- with a fast-growing number of internet users in the country, social media is more important than ever before for businesses reaching out to (potential) customers.
The Accounts End Term papers were shown at 5 p.m. in H-101. Poha Point had decided to make and sell dahi vada, and I hear that it was rather good. Burger Planet was on campus too. They’ve recently added new ‘tandoori’ variants of their burgers to the menu.
Bazinga- the Informals team of IRIS 2015- opened entries for a Blitz Chess event- each player gets a total of 3 minutes to make their moves. It sounds like my kind of game.
I think the Globe@I’s Thursday Night late show is now going to be a regular feature. Meanwhile, Yem Bee Yay, the troll MBA FaceBook page sent out a detailed e-mail, letting all those still not in the know be made aware, and inviting applications for a ‘top-secret’ summer internship before they decide on the new admins for the next year.

25th began late too, with a workshop on ‘Communication as You’ve never Seen it Before’ organized, courtesy Zephyr, the Psychology Interest group.
Meanwhile, we’ve been working hard on trying to get a Radio / Mall Partner on board for IRIS 2015. And, we received communication that TVF is going to be on campus for IRIS, on the 24th of October, so, that’s something to look forward to, in the near future. 25th was Eid and CulComm accordingly arranged for an ‘Eid Feast’- mutton and chicken biryani was made available for everyone interested.

A new mess menu being sent out was the highlight of the 26th. Advaita- the HR event of IRIS held their first round- an online quiz at 10:30 p.m. We did a decent job of the quiz and made it to the next round! We then had a Batch Meet at 11:45 p.m. There’s just something about having everyone gathered together, and then listening to a few important things before heading off to the Night Mess as one!

Sunday- 27th - well, the whole week had been off and felt like Sunday anyway, so this one Sunday lost its uniqueness!
IIM-Ahmedabad is holding their Sports Fest on the 9th of October which is awesome; however it seems very unlikely that the Women’s Basketball team can attend the event which is disheartening.

28th- Monday morning- it was still Term Break so, it was one good Monday morning! We received Round-2 of Advaita on e-mail- the deadline to send our submissions in was 4th of October, so we conveniently put this at the back of our minds- we never actually got around to doing it, but, well.

Udaan was set to happen on 2nd October, like every year- on 29th, a pre-event promotional Nukkad Natak was staged in Central Mall. Meanwhile, we received a reminder e-mail about the IGNOU assignments. I really need to get around to doing them. Even with the late fee, they need to be written and sent in by the 20th of October!

We got to see the MicroEconomics end term papers on the 30th- I didn’t actually have to go up to the Library Basement (which is where the TA’s work and entertain students) since some nice soul from my section took it upon himself to see everyone’s paper and message them their scores. I woke up late in the afternoon to a message with my marks, the class average and the total- and, it was good marks too!
A second performance of the Nukkad Natak was staged at C21 Mall, in the evening.

09/10/2015; 03:54:

And then, the new month dawned- Gate 1, which has been under construction for over 2 years now, was finally ready! An inauguration ceremony was held at 9:30 a.m. It’s one grand piece of work- the gate now needs three people just to push it open!
A temporary Bloomberg Terminal has been setup in the Finance Lab and an information session regarding the same was held at 1 p.m. on 1st October. By night, a lot of people who’re on the Udaan team made their way to Dusshera Maidan- that’s where the 11 k.m. run kicks off- to get banners up, the registration desks set up and more. It’s a lot like a party- lots of happy, enthusiastic people mulling around, getting work done- it’s a very my-kind of set-up. On-spot Registrations for the run began at 5 a.m.; the race was flagged off at 7 a.m. and the 3 k.m. ‘Dream Run’ began at 8 a.m. on campus.
Buses for participants began plying to Dusshera Maidan from campus at 4 a.m.- the run begins way too early- this year, just like the year before I’d decided to go run the 11 k.m. but of course, I never managed to get up. Next year- and that’s something I really should do, since it’ll be my last year here- I shall get up in time to run the 11 k.m.
As participants began arriving on campus (the end point for the run), certificates were to written out, prizes handed out and more. Each year, the run comes with a social cause- this year, it was Udaan- Run to Empower the Old. Significant contribution was made to the old-age homes in the city- in the form of essential supplies and time!

3rd October was the 19th Foundation Day of IIM-Indore. The PGP-1 students from the Mumbai Campus were here, for the occasion. The ceremony began at 4 p.m. with the Foundation Day Lecture on ‘Look Beyond, See Invisible’ by Shri Anshu Gupta of the GOONJ Foundation followed an award ceremony- with Best Teacher, Best Staff awards given out, and Academic Excellence Awards given out to the top 5 percent of the current PGP-2 batch. A violin recital preceded the Foundation Day dinner at 8 p.m.
On this occasion, the Media Committee ran a Photo Contest- an image depicting life at IIM-Indore was to be put up with an interesting caption.

Sunday was spent mostly sleeping and then heading out to eat at Chik n’ Serve.

It was then another Monday that didn’t feel like a Monday. Meximus was on campus in the evening, serving up Tandoori items- Chicken tikka, Paneer tikka and even tandoori mushrooms. Laavanya- the Fashion Show at IRIS 15- sent out an e-mail calling for participation. An IIM-Indore team needs to be formed and auditions will be held for the same. Two peppy tracks have been picked out for the audition- we convinced our friend who’s on the organizing team to be the show-stopper for the event- replete with the topless look that’s somewhat standard for the show-stopper- at least that’s the trend we’ve managed to piece together from the last few Ramp events here.
Also, the date, 5/10/2015 is a palindrome! I just find palindromes really fascinating, so, that had me raving through the day to whoever would listen!

On 6th, Advaita sent out an e-mail announcing a Wild Card Entry Round. We decided to work on the Quiz as soon as it would be sent out, i.e. at 10:30, that night. Of course, we got busy doing other things and completely forgot about this until it was too late.
Meanwhile, the ‘Happiness Project’ that one IPM junior had embarked upon reached completion- in form of a short film that was shared with the institute. A lot of thinking and hard-work has certainly gone into making it- there’s even some scenes shot way up in the hills!
Bazinga- the Informalz team for IRIS 2015- threw open registrations for a Salsa Workshop. They even followed the registration mail up with a few pointers on what all the ‘single people’ could do to try and get themselves a partner. And, like they said, it just seems difficult. It is in fact much, much harder to implement in real life. There was also some motivation as a close- your Salsa partner could always turn into something more.

7th October- Registration Day for Term 1 finally dawned. A Registration form as well as the Undertaking for the Rural Immersion Programme that’s to happen this term were to be submitted at D-101, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. After submitting the requisite papers, reading material for the term was to be collected from the Library Basement. The Book Vendor was also on campus and a lot of very enthusiastic souls quickly headed to buy the necessary books- one on MacroEconomics, one on Cost Accounting, and two on Finance- Financial Management and Corporate Finance.
Later in the day, payments were to be made for customized IRIS T-shirts- replete with the name of the event/vertical one is part of and one’s own name. Since ‘Voice Of Indore’ would likely be abbreviated to ‘VOI’, on the T-Shirts, I decided to get one that says ‘Media’ instead.


8th October saw Term 2 begin in full force. Classes began at 8:45 a.m. It’s weird getting used to the schedule again, considering that we’ve been on campus for 2 weeks, on term break. My sleep-cycle is still messed up; it’ll take some getting used to this 8 a.m. alarms going off again.

There are more classes tomorrow, and getting to bed sure seems like a good idea!

20/09/2015

20/09/2015; 23:00:

It's weird writing a different year next to your birth date. So, this is it! Birthday Blog post!


My birthday began well, with the end term exams coming to an end.
We then proceeded to have a large party, sending out invites to everyone- a message was duly posted on each section group.
I cut two cakes- one courtesy the party people and the other courtesy the Media Comm team. I managed to escape getting any cake on me- mostly thanks to my friend’s efforts. I’m positively terrified of getting cake on me- I don’t actually know why- I just have this bad memory from long ago of spontaneously bursting into tears when cake found its way to my face.
I was then up earlier than usual, for a Sunday. We headed out for lunch at O2 Café for they have nice food. Once back on campus, we resumed our usual ambling around, for there wasn’t much else to do. There was then a Batch-Meet scheduled at 11:30 p.m.- the perfect close to a perfect Birthday.
Later in the night, we proceeded to have another party in the girls’ hostel.

I think it was a good day!

19/09/2015

19/09/2015; 21:00:

16th was the last day of classes for term 1, for the end term exams were to begin on 17th morning.
We had a marketing class at 11:45 a.m. - the last class for Term 1. It was an interesting class, as usual and ended in smiles.
Later, we attempted to get some studying done- my approach to this was to take a 6-hour long nap.
At around 9 p.m., I made my way to SR-17 to read some OB. We agreed to split the readings- I began reading from the first one and my friend began reading from the last one- the idea was to read half & half and then discuss.
There was a take-home quiz to be done and sent in by mid-night, for the OB course. There was a reading along with the questions, explaining the whole idea of Transactional Analysis. It is indeed a very fascinating idea. We e-mailed the completed document to sir- and, he replied to each person individually, thanking them for their submission! Sir is awesome!
I went off to Mess 1, at around midnight, to celebrate the birthday of one of our Media Committee team members. I think she must’ve cut atleast 3 cakes, all of which eventually ended up on her head. Some food at night mess later, I was back in SR-17.
Readings done, we lounged on the terrace, before getting to our planned ‘discussion’. A couple of other people settled wherever they could find space, to listen in. That was that. There wasn’t anything much to study for the Accounts paper, since sir had done an excellent job of the classroom teaching. Explaining the cash flow to a few separate groups of people and attempting to learn up the different financial analysis ratios later, we were done and headed off to sleep.

17th morning began with the Accounts paper- it was a fairly simple paper that covered the exact topics that we’d gone over. I was done writing, about an hour into a two-hour long paper. I headed to my room via Mess 2 to read the remaining readings of OB anyway.
Meanwhile, Zephyr held their second workshop for the academic year, on ‘Reflections on your Perceptions’ at 12 p.m. They seem to be scheduling all their workshops to ensure that I cannot be present (of course, that isn’t true- everyone has different conflicting schedules and the least offensive is selected)
The OB paper at 2:30 p.m. was fairly simple and only about an hour long. One good thing about the end-terms was that the morning paper began only at 10 a.m. and not any earlier.

In the evening, at around 6 p.m., Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations began- Ganapati Staphna was done in the late evening, in the SR-10 basement.
Meanwhile, all the IPM-2 students sent out surveys to the institute, on topics ranging from happiness to beauty. There was a paper to be written as part of their Psychology course that merited all this data be collected.

And then, since it was Thursday, Globe@I decided to do a re-run of their previous week’s late night show, with fried rice and chilly chicken/paneer on offer.
Of course, I returned from the OB Mid-term and promptly fell asleep. The plan was to do a re-run of the previous night and get some studying done. I woke up only in the middle of the night i.e. at 3 a.m.
I made some half-hearted attempts at studying Micro-Economics before falling asleep again. The paper was, as promised, significantly easier than the mid-term exam. There was even a smiley face next to the instructions, informing us that there would be no negative marking on this one!

I went over my QT notes in the few hour gap between the papers; the QT paper began at 2:30 p.m. and was 3 hours long! Perhaps, to make up for the Eco paper, this one was significantly more difficult than the mid-term exam.

Uber is on board, partnering with our upcoming fest, IRIS. As part of the deal, we received a promo code on e-mail that entitles the holder to 2 free rides around Indore!

There wasn’t any studying to be done for both the end-terms the next day, so lots of sleep was in order.

19th morning began with the OM paper- it was an open book/notes exam and the paper was mainly a bunch of cases to be analysed and solved. One question even asked about the Student Mess and what can be done to increase its capacity.
The last end-term, Marketing, began at 2 p.m. – we were greeted with a 25-page long case as soon as we entered the exam hall. The examination was 3 and a half hours long, mostly to give enough time to read through the case.

At 8 p.m., in keeping with the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, there was a Maharashtrian feast arranged for, in Mess 3.
Most of us headed out to eat, right after the exam ended- restaurants nearby were completely packed, and all with IIM-Indore PGP1’s!

Meanwhile, a lot of the different events as part of IRIS have opened registrations and we’ve been receiving mails, accordingly. Voice of Indore is in full swing, with auditions held at DAVV, recently.

The evening wore on and the clock ticked, all closer to my birthday !

15/09/2015

14/09/2014; 05:44:

And, Atharv is finally at a close. After 3 crazy days of events, fun, music, friends- new & old, prizes and food, here we are, at 6 a.m. on a Monday morning.

15/09/2015; 19:47:

Well, it isn’t 6 a.m. anymore, for all that fun surely got me tired and sleeping!

11th morning- Atharv Day 1 began with the opening ceremony in the New Auditorium. I-Conclave- the panel discussion began soon after. Unfortunately, I had classes until 1 p.m. and missed all of this.
Right after class, I headed down to the HRC, to see all the participants pouring in! A short drizzle, a trip to the laundry to pick up my clothes (after a really long time; clothes that I hadn’t worn in forever had made an appearance even!) and a quick stop at Mess 2 later, I was in my room. I much needed nap (for our marketing assignment had kept us awake through the night) later, I headed to the Academic block. War of Words- the Parliamentary Debate event of Atharv was in progress. Some searching (I found the B-Plan event and the MUN) eventually led me to the right classroom. I was rather excited to be judging the debates, after a brief stint at last year’s event! Meanwhile, Finopoly- the Finance event went on in the adjoining block and Vanity- the Fashion Show progressed in the New Auditorium. A couple of interesting debates later, by which time it was nearly 7:30 p.m., we strolled across to the central lawn where a considerable number of food stalls were set up- Chick n’ Serve, Ice Cream, Thick Shake, Burger Planet (an old staple), Mashal, Kolkatta Rolls and a Hyderabadi Biryani guy who’d actually flown in from Hyderabad just for the event! A lot of these stalls were perhaps making their maiden appearance on the IIM-I campus and we were glad to have change. Some food later, the Old Audi beckoned- the sector-wise preparatory sessions arranged for by the Industry Interaction Cell- the day’s sessions focused on the Retail Sector and the Pharma Industry. Organized Retail has only 7% penetration in the Indian Market- we discussed in detail, the rise and fall of Subhiksha and the problems that current players in the sector are facing. The Pharma sector is a fairly technical one and we dealt with technical terms before moving on to other details including that 70% of all Pharma products are exported. The speaker wondered if there were any persons with a pharmacy background in the audience- one sleeping girl immediately shot her hand up, deciding that she was a doctor. Only when she was asked for expert opinions on the subject did she realize what she’d managed to volunteer for; the engineer in her was promptly wide awake and refuting any relation to the field whatsoever. Well, it did make for an interesting interruption.
At around 8:30 p.m., the much awaited Comedy Night titled the ‘Unsingle Tour’ featuring Biswa and Kaneez Surka, both of YouTube fame, began in the New Auditorium. It certainly had the audience in splits- a very large audience- the Audi was definitely filled beyond capacity!
After the session and some more food later, I was once again in the Old Audi, this time to watch the opening round of ‘Game of Shadows’- the Game Theory event of Atharv- it’s one of the more mind-boggling events and is fun to watch! There were over a hundred participants. The first round was simple- each participant had to pick a number (any number from 0 to the uncountable) and they would receive points depending on how close they got to the mean of all numbers chosen. They had 15 minutes to wander about, discussing, trying to find out what everyone else was up to, before locking in their numbers. Various theories including the ‘zero’ idea were perpetrated.
The next round dealt with more numbers- this time, points were to be awarded to the smallest, most unique selection. One guy in the crowd- who was promptly labelled ‘green T-shirt guy’ had taken it upon himself to explain Game Theory to everyone who would listen. It was rather surprising to see a lot of people listening rather intently. By the end of 4 rounds- which included arriving at the median of all numbers and correctly predicting your rank at the end of the last 3 rounds- he had managed to explain the Prisoner’s Dilemma about 3 times. Towards the end of the second round, I, deciding that the event was getting a tad bit too serious jumped on stage and got talking. We got people to perform on stage- some wonderful singing was seen- and eventually handed the mike over to the green T-shirt guy, to help him reach out to his audience better.
Once the event had wrapped up, a lot of us headed to the night mess. It was well past 4 a.m., when we headed to the lawn near JAM/SR 10. A lot of people were sitting, randomly scattered across the lawn and the footpaths- some talking, some sleeping, some playing music, others singing along- perfect festive mood! We joined one group who were singing popular Bollywood tracks, complete with a guitar, a keyboard and some beats! I finally headed to my room to add some finishing touches to the marketing assignment. There was time for a quick nap before 8:45 class.

11th night seamlessly merged into 12th morning even before we knew what was happening. It was the last QT session of the term and for unbeknownst reasons, the class was being recorded on video. We also had a quick quiz in the last OB session. Right after class ended, I headed over to judge more debates. Meanwhile, Vendition Vendatta - the Marketing event- went on in the next block. The participants who were in teams of 2 to 5 members were asked to pitch one of two obscure products- a torn tennis ball or a used deodorant can. Fascinating. I headed off to meet the marketing professor, in a short gap between debates. Each of the project groups had been assigned a slot to meet with the professor and discuss the case analysis assigned to them. Now, most groups, including the two who went right before us spent at least half an hour with the faculty, perhaps answering questions or defending their solutions. Our group, well, we got to spend exactly 5 minutes before our assignment was deemed done well; great feeling!
The last debate for the day was the semi-final and, what a beautiful debate it was - replete with strong logical arguments and well-timed humour. A paintball set-up was arranged, right next to our hostel and a zorbing one too- on the slope that leads to the stairs down to Patal-lok. Fests are indeed fun. Some food later, I headed to the Old Audi, for the penultimate session of the Industry Deep Dive series. We discussed the IT & Telecom sectors- the Telecom sector has really seen a lot of changes in the past decade, from the GSM / CDMA trade-off to price wars and now rising call tariffs and super-fast data plans.
This ended, as the speaker put it, ‘at the stroke of the midnight hour’. Soon after, I was in NC-1, watching Round 2 of the Game of Shadows in progress. It was a blind trading game- each team was given a random set of items to begin with; the aim of the game was to collect at least one of each type of item available in the game. Additionally, the teams had to guess the market value of each of the items being traded. It was interesting to see the teams break into members, head into 5 separate rooms and trade, without knowing what exactly their team-mates were upto.
The top 24 participants made it to the third round. Here, each participant was allotted a house- there were a total of 8 houses and 3 members in each. Now, no one was aware of anyone else’s allotment. The task was simple- you had to correctly guess the other two members of your house- they would then be eliminated and you’d make it to the top 8. This went on till nearly 6 a.m.
Walking back down to the hostel, I once again found people settled on the lawn, having a good time. This time, I checked with one of them, for my curiousity got the better of me- had the organizing team actually failed to arrange accommodation for these people- it seems that accommodation had been allotted starry night sky was alluring.
Sunday- 13th- the final day of Atharv 2015- the finales of most events including the debate were held. The Game of Shadows finale was rather interesting- survey questions were presented to the top 8 participants. The top 10 answers to these questions had been curated from a random sample of IPM students, earlier in the month. The participants would receive points if their answer matched one of the existing answers- with increasing points for answers lower down on the list. The participants were then informed that one of them was the ‘shadow’ and had the answer key- the challenge was to identify this shadow and eliminate him/her. At the end of each round, the identified ‘shadow’ was eliminated. The catch of course was that each of the 8 participants were ‘shadows’- of course, none of them knew that!
Much earlier on Sunday morning, we had the last session of the Industry Deep Dive series- this dealt with the Banking industry.
The highlight of the last day was the VH1 Supersonic Dance evening that ran well past mid-night. It was fun, music and beats at its finest! Meanwhile, we rushed around, submitting forms for our summer internships. I, like the genius that I am, did not remember to stick a photograph on the form- it just completely slipped my mind. I only realised that said photograph was missing when I went in to submit my form and was promptly informed of the missing element. It was then a hurried trip back to the hostel and then back again.

We sat around on the central lawn- the participants wishing to soak in the atmosphere at Planet-I and Atharv, one last time before they had to reluctantly leave; the organizing team finally enjoying some peace of mind, and random other people who found the weather & mood very agreeable. A round of Antakshari, some games of Truth & Dare and Charades were indulged in, as was harmless banter and insightful talk.
A quick stop at the night mess for tea later, we re-settled near SR10, where someone had set up a music system and a party was in full swing! Everyone left to get some sleep, only by day-break. Truly, a wonderful, crazy three days!

Then, there was Monday, 14th September- falling back into routine after the joyous chaos of the last three days was surprisingly effortless- one of those things that life here at IIM-Indore gets you used to!
We had a Marketing Class where our group had to present not one, but, two different presentations- one on the case in question that dealt with a Fashion TV Channel and another which summarized a book that details the importance of the customer in business-related decision-making.
Later in the afternoon, we had an Accounts Quiz- the quiz was fairly simple. I then spent some time in the library, reading the Reader’s Digest- it’s a beautiful compilation of articles- and has been my primary reason for visiting the library over the last 3 years.
At 10 p.m., Mercur-I, the Marketing Club had arranged for the second installment of their ‘Marketing Capsules’ series- here, a couple of PGP2’s who’d done internships in the marketing area shared their experiences. Mercur-I has gotten themselves personalized T-shirts printed- they’re a beautiful shade of red, with the club name & IIM-Indore on the back and the member’s name on the bottom left corner on the front. Media Comm ought to get T-shirts too!

Today i.e. 15th was a good day. I rushed to the library in the morning, to get our marketing assignment completed in time for class at 11:45 a.m. We’d worked on the assignment a long time ago and only the final report was left to be compiled, so it took only about half an hour. The marketing class was interesting- there was a case discussion and a presentation that spoke of the ‘Indian Middle Class’ - its complexities mainly.

We then had an OM Quiz at 2:30. The Quiz was fairly simple. The last question was rather absurd, introducing a non-existent crane into the equation- my solution was simple- I sketched a beautiful looking crane into the answer space and that was it.
Some food later, here I am, at the writing board again- and, I love it!

11/09/2015

11/09/2015; 04:09:

It’s been a long day, today! But as always, let’s begin right where we left off!
6th September was the birthday of our CR and we had a blast- mostly on the Whatsapp group, but, well. Her new phone is now the latest topic of discussion. I spent a good part of 6th night ordering stuff online- mostly deodorants, for well, retail stores just don’t cut it anymore!
7th morning began with a few classes; later in the afternoon, there was a guest lecture to attend. It was mainly focused on the IT industry, more specifically, how it is changing the way most other businesses operate- everything from banks making lending decisions to sales people making decisions now relies heavily on large databases and automation of processes. In the evening, we headed out to Indore city, and got ourselves some nice pasta for dinner!

8th morning began with classes too- it was the last Accounts session and sir ended the course with a heartfelt speech- he’s really awesome! All the engineers in the class have managed to pick up the basics of accounting rather too well, all thanks to him! It was the last session of Business Communication too, and we indulged in verbal proposals- the product chosen to be sold was a yellow pencil-box, courtesy the lady on the first bench who owns said pencil-box. Creativity was at its fullest as people linked the yellow to the minions franchise and even quoted non-existent studies about the colour! After classes ended for the day, we headed over to see our MicroEconomics quiz papers. There was then an interesting talk to be attended.
At 5 p.m., the group leaders for the Industrial Visit groups made their way to the Old Auditorium, to pick industries. Now, we’d already made our expectations very clear to our group leader- he’d better pick an interesting industry, preferably one related to food. The session was clearly a success- we will be visiting an alloy industry, in the near future. In his defence, the group leader isn’t too responsible for this mismatch of interest, after all, the allocation was based on a lucky draw- where chits were picked out. Since it was Tuesday, Royal Sandwich was on campus- clearly, it’s making its presence felt- unlike the other cases whose discussion is limited to a session or two only, Royal Sandwich has been a constant, all through the OM course. It is hard to be buying sandwiches from them, without all the OM concepts, including bottlenecks, capacity planning and resource allocation, coming to mind.

9th, aka Wednesday began with a MicroEconomics class where we learnt about Externalities- the positive or negative effect that results as a consequence of another activity- and is most often not taken into account when the equilibrium is determined in a free market. You pay only for your phone connection, but gain from the positive externality that results from each individual who purchases one- giving you that many more people to call! Right after was the last session of the OM course- we all handed in a rather interesting assignment- a single-page write-up that documented our learnings from the course.
Post-lunch, we had an SMOD (Spreadsheet Modelling) Quiz, at 2:30 p.m. A password-protected data file was shared with us an hour before the quiz. The quiz itself was fairly simple, employing most of what we’d gone over in class. The collection of our answer sheets- excel sheets this time, took almost as long as the exam itself! After viewing our QT Mid-Term answer sheets and changing into business formals,we headed over to the Old Auditorium for a guest lecture focusing on Credit Risk Analysis and its importance. There are so many things going on in the world; just thinking about them is amazing.
Soon after, we headed back to the Old Audi for another session. The Industry Interaction Cell has decided to organize a series titled ‘Industry Deep Dive’ where, each session explores one particular industry, over the course of an hour. This first session was about E-Commerce. The person conducting the sessions is really nice- it was interactive and very helpful. We spoke about growth drivers for the industry, new happenings in the industry and the idea of e-commerce players shifting to be mobile-only.

Early on 10th morning, a pooja was arranged, to invoke the blessings of the Lord, for a successful second edition of Atharv! And, from the looks of it, it definitely looks all set to succeed! There was then class at 10:15- a nice change from the 8:45 routine we’d gotten used to for a while now. After classes, there was a guest lecture to attend- this whole week’s been pretty busy, that way. I then had a short nap, before heading to the Old Audi for session 2 of the Industry Deep Dive series. Today, we spoke about the FMCG industry and Consumer Durables. I guess the FMCG sector is very appealing, mostly because it is the easiest to relate to! Since it was Thursday- the day when there’s no Night Mess, we headed over to Globe@I, around 11:30 p.m. They had a special ‘Late Night Show’ and were serving up fried rice and chilly chicken. Soon after, our assigned study group collected in the library, to work on the marketing assignment. The case in question deals with a Fashion TV channel and its marketing strategy. After dividing up the work, some people headed back to their rooms while we continued to sit around in the library, getting some work done and well, doing other stuff too.
All through the day, Atharv participants have been arriving, roaming around campus- there were so many people around even when I walked back to my room at 4 a.m.! And, these Nukkad Natak guys have positively scary levels of energy. Even as I type, I can hear them practising, outside my window! And, they aren’t even right outside, they’re on Level 2 of the campus, near Mess 2. I can hear them, not just random cacophony, but, actual clear words.
Atharv’s opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.; there are over 1200 participants, this year; looking forward to an interesting, crazy 3 days!