Sunday 25 January 2015

25/01/2014



25/01/2015; 00:24:
And, Term 8 is now at a close. It was a pretty eventful term; I’ll just come to that in a bit, once I wrap up the happenings of the past few days. This is the problem with long intervals between posts, you miss the little things that make each day special, and all you do is sum up the larger happenings.

To pick up where I left off, we did win the final of the Basketball League; it was a good game, we finally won by a single point. The boys’ final too was won by a single point. Later in the week, we won the Volleyball League too; the boys’ games are still underway.
In more academic news, the process of résumé iterations was in process and is now complete. A few of our seniors volunteered to help us modify/prepare our CV’s for the social internship placements that shall start soon. A long list has been prepared by the IPM Office- it lists a large number of NGO’s and CSR wings. Shortlists, interviews and offers shall follow in the term to come.

The week gone by saw all our end-term exams, one after the other. The Principles of Management End term was very enjoyable; it had a couple of case-studies to be interpreted as one felt like; the Geography end term was on the same day- the papers have been corrected and shown to us today, all in a matter of 2 days!. 4 other end-term exams followed- the Econometrics end term was a lab exam on R which went by without any technical glitches. And, I think we must’ve had cold coffee, each evening, courtesy Mess2.

Now, the important part is that the term is over. The highlight of the term was definitely the sports events and getting official permission to organize our very first Sports Fest- Ranbhoomi; we’re inviting participation from all across the country! And, I’m now off on a fortnight-long break. The juniors shall have end term exams soon; they get to go home only at the end of the month, for a fortnight too. Happy Holidays!

Monday 19 January 2015

19/01/2015



19/01/2015; 20:17:
Haha, 2017 is also the year that we shall graduate, after spending five fruitful years here at IIM-Indore.
18th morning saw the last few sessions of our course on Social Entrepreneurship; it felt less like an academic course and more like a series of life-lessons, life lessons that are more necessary to be happy, than anything else.
18th afternoon saw the concluding sessions of our course on Mathematical Modelling. We learnt quite a bit about the professor too; he indulges in poetry and languages, apart from being in love with his subject. There was a Volleyball match, in the evening. We lost the first set, but, won the next two, thus winning the game; another match is scheduled, possibly day after tomorrow. Meanwhile, The Men’s IIM-Indore Basketball League (IBL) final was won by one of the IPM2013 Batch teams. Later in the evening, we ‘volunteered’ to help out the PGP-I guys with their market research project since it dealt with food. We got to give our expert commentary about Food in Indore as well as dissect the marketing strategies of some food joints.

We’ve been working with R and feel confident enough to do a pretty useful analysis of a large amount of data. There’s the IBL Final, in another few minutes now; here’s hoping that we win!

Sunday 18 January 2015

17/01/2015




17/01/2015; 23:34:

15th aka Thursday aka holiday (yay!) was spent mostly sleeping (like all other holidays). Meanwhile, campus roadies made good progress, holding a task early on a holiday morning. All the roadies hopefuls gathered at the Sports Complex at 7 a.m. They were then divided into 4 teams- a task was in order. It mostly involved running; from the Sports Complex to Gate 1, back to the Sports Complex, to Gate 3 and then all the way up the Sports Complex stairs. Another round was held on the next night i.e. 16th. This was aimed at testing muscle strength and had a version of 'Push-the-Opponent-Out-of-the-Circle' for the male participants and Arm-Wrestling for the female participants.
I was out roaming on the 15th, and then again on the 16th. The 2012 Batch guys won Clan Raid – the Inter-Batch Counter-Strike Tournament, the first of its kind, organized by ReSpawn (the IPM Gaming Self-Interest Group). Meanwhile, our team is now in the final of the Basketball League.
There was a CSI Quiz on 16th morning; the junior batch had a Money, Banking & Finance End Term. We’re making good progress with ‘R’, in the Econometrics classes. In the evening, we decided that we should try our hand at baking brownies. And of course, it had to be in a big way. We set out, on impulse, to buy ingredients worth over 2k, with the intention of doling out many brownies.
All of 17th morning and afternoon were spent waiting for it to be evening. Adaa- the Drama Club had an event, ‘Spotlight, that began at 7 p.m. We took over JAM (Juices And More) and began working on our brownies. Each plate was deemed complete only with 2 scoops of ice-cream, chocolate sauce and nuts on top. The chocolate sauce was prepared from scratch and was delicious. I was all set to lick the pan, but, someone beat me to it while I was washing the other vessels. Adaa’s event was very enjoyable- they hosted events ranging from Stand-Up Comedy to Dumb Charades with a Twist. Meximus was on campus; nachos and brownies complement each other perfectly. The brownies were well appreciated; we actually ran out of brownies and had to turn people away before we shut shop!

In other news, registrations for Ranbhoomi are open; we’re looking for a possible pro-night as well.

Thursday 15 January 2015

15/01/2015



15/01/2015; 00:25:

Apart from one late-morning class, most of 13th was spent sleeping. There was a bonfire and dancing, on the football field, as part of Lohri celebrations on campus. Later that night, we tried getting some studying done for the Mathematical Modelling Quiz on the 14th. Of course, we were pretty unsuccessful. We sat around listening to music instead. I was then up, watching a movie.

I was woken up at noon, on the 14th- Makar Sankranti/Pongal! We then tried our hand at reading through some notes; we then had a CSI class post-lunch. This class involved only presentations- on different scams that have taken place since India has been a free country. The scams included the Black Money holed up in Swiss banks, the CoalGate scam, the Andhra Pradesh Land scam and the 2G scam. The professor managed to find enough topics for the whole batch! (The presentation was in pairs.)
Soon after, was the quiz i.e. at 4 p.m. We wandered off to the Medical Centre after, and ate chocolate cake and ice-cream at the PiShop later. This was followed by dosa and tea at the mess, post which we made our way to the basketball court for the match. It was our team v/s Team Monika (also of the 2012 Batch). The score, surprisingly, was 3-2. We won, though! The Basketball League began on 13th evening with a Boy’s Match. It shall continue for the next few days, now.
Soon after the match, Mr. Upendra Singh, who’s recently written a book titled ‘A Perennial Stream’ was on campus. He’s having a book launch in Indore, in the second week of February and, we’ll be working with him on that. Got to have dinner with him and Director Sir; life’s good.
The junior batches have been having exams/quizzes; there’s a Money, Banking & Finance End Term for the 2013 Batch, on the 16th. Post the dinner, there was a meeting at 10:15 p.m. The meeting dealt with the Media/PR vertical of our upcoming Sports Fest, Ranbhoomi. Some ideas were discussed; new ideas were generated; everyone’s looking forward to working on the fest.


Tuesday 13 January 2015

13/01/2015



13/01/2015; 01:48:

Impulse, the newly christened IPM Dance Club held its first event for the year. ‘Footloose’- a crazy evening of fun, games and of course, dancing was held on the evening of 12th January, 2015. The games ranged from the usual party-dancing games- Paper Dancing & Balloon Dancing to the rather difficult PropMaster and Mis-Connect.

Meximus- the new Mexican place in Indore was on campus, offering free food as prizes all while making brisk sales; JAM meanwhile dished out Spaghetti courtesy their new guest chef. A beautiful stage had been erected on the lawn opposite JAM, with dancing space on all sides.
The first game for the evening was Paper Dance- the rules were simple- get a partner and a sheet of newspaper and join in the dancing! Both partners must remain on the paper at all times- music is played, partners attempt to dance on the limited space; at the end of each round, the newspaper must be folded in half and the fun continues. The event began with partners dancing next to each other and ended with people in each other’s arms, on each other’s toes and on piggyback.
The next event was called DanceBasanti- the objective was simple, a popular song was played and the participant had to dance out the signature step of the song, correctly and with enthusiasm!

The next event was called CopyCat- a dance video was played and the participants had to copy the video as well as possible- where B-schools are all out against plagiarism, we have this!
This was followed by another round of Paper Dance. BumbumBole- I don’t know who named that one!- came after. A box was tied around the participant’s waist- the box was filled with paper balls. A booty shake was the key to get all the balls out of the box in the shortest possible time. A rather difficult, ‘PropMaster’ was up next. A chit was to be picked, each chit had a prop mentioned on it; each prop had a song assigned to it; the assigned song was played and the participant danced to the song, using the prop accordingly.
This was followed by ‘Mis-Connect’ where one partner did the other expressions and the other was the hands, standing right behind the guy who was to be the face. The Dance Face-Off was next. This was the Grand Event of the evening- it was nice to see a lot of participation for all the events, through the evening. The concluding event for the evening was ‘Close Up- Do jism, ek Balloon’- it was the classic Balloon Dancing party game- the event worked in pairs- each pair had a balloon that had to be balanced between them while they moved to the beat of the music.

The event that began at 7 p.m. finally came to a close around 10 p.m. Everyone danced; everyone was happy! I got to be the M.C for the evening- the stage was all mine! (since the dancing all happened on the ground for the stage was not designed to take on all the Bollywood jhatkas that the evening saw).

Lined up for tomorrow evening i.e. 13th evening is a bonfire as part of Lohri celebrations at 8 p.m. 14th has a Mathematical Modelling Quiz during the day, Kite Flying at 2 p.m.(Makar Sankranti!), and Pongal-celebration related games being at 3 p.m. The day ends with a Pongal feast later in the night.
In other news, the group discussion round of Campus Roadies was held yesterday i.e. 11th Jan and the interviews were held earlier this evening. We’re waiting for the event to proceed to the ‘task’ stage, where we can follow the action, live! Our Sports Fest, Ranbhoomi is all set to happen; our FaceBook page is now live! Meetings are in full swing, of different verticals and related to different sports.

There's a Basketball as well as a Volleyball league happening on campus- the best part is that there is a sufficient number of women participants for both games! An auction was held on the night of 11th January, in the girls' hostel. Each captain was given 2000 points to bid for players. I got to build a team for both Basketball and Volleyball; life's good! Looking forward to when the matches begin!
In happier news, we got media coverage for various events, day before, yesterday as well as today! And, there was also this meeting with the Chair, HS&A, this evening. It was more of an 'introduction' session where he wished to meet the SAC EC members. Looking forward to flying kites on Makar Sankranti!!









Sunday 11 January 2015

11/01/2014




11/01/2015; 00:39:

It's been a long day! And, an enjoyable one at that too! We had morning classes and a few classes after lunch too- we had 5 classes today, after a long time- what with revised credit requirements and all - there are 360 credits to be completed in 3 years i.e. 40 credits a term, over 9 terms.

Right after class ended at 6:15 p.m., the Creativity Club's event took off. The event, 'Idea-thon': the marathon for idea structured like a pentathlon had five events- and each of them willed the participants to exploit their creative bent to the maximum. The event had over 100 participants! The first event ‘Survival of the fittest' was an elimination quiz on ad-marketing. Only 25 teams made it to the next round, ‘Spot the Place’ where unusual photographs of the IIM-Indore campus were shown & the teams were supposed to identify the location in question.
15 teas then made it to the final 3 rounds- the first of which was called ‘Sell your Brand’ where each team was handed an ordinary looking item- say a pair of pants or a tube of toothpaste. One special property was to be added to the item, such that your product and advertisement would be most appealing. Imagine a tablecloth that doubles up as a Superman cape. This round saw toothpastes that double as fairness creams, a kurti that vests in the lady super self-defence powers, 'Easy-Fly Slippers' and a basketball that turns into a furry friend at night! The second event was called 'Popcorn Wars’, which, unfortunately was not a food fight, but, involved instead creating art out of a limited popcorn supply. ‘Doodle it Out’ saw each team have a product/theme and a pen and paper for props- a mind-map of everything that the product made them feel was to be sketched
out, in circles, designs and imaginary characters. I'm definitely going to upload pictures of our creations- the Doodle and the Popcorn!

As soon as the event ended, just like yesterday, I took off running, to get the event report and pictures to the media. A hurried dinner later, there was a meeting to attend. IIM-Indore's first-ever sports fest is set to be organized in February-from 27th Feb to the 1st of March. Operations for the same were to be discussed in a meeting attended by students from all three batches. The website and FaceBook page will be live soon; 11 sports are scheduled to happen; there are also plans to hold a pro-night on the last day.

Looking forward to tomorrow! And, the results of the Idea-thon which should be here sometime soon!

Saturday 10 January 2015

09/01/2015



09/01/2015:

We spent the night of 6th January, celebrating birthdays that went by, in the December vacation. The most important thing that came out of this was a 'selfie' of most of the girls of the hostel. Lights, cake, confetti and the selfie.

Econometrics classes have been spent working on R- we're working with large amounts of Financial Date, courtesy the Stock Exchange and Nifty. It's rather interesting; and is less difficult than it sounds. Team i-Help got a group picture clicked on the afternoon of 7th January. There is a new idea, I'm not sure who the ideator is, that involves putting up framed pictures of various student activities all around the Academic Block. That's a fine idea- there are pictures from the Social Committee's work at Khargone, from Dance Events and the latest addition shall be one that captures the i-Help journey. Also, the faculty mess on the ground floor has been rebuilt; it's all metallic and swanky, now! The Dahi Kachori is still the same, though!

ReSpawn- the IPM Gaming SIG is organizing 'Clan Raid'- the mega CounterStrike 1.6 tournament.
The Creativity Club is planning to conduct an Idea-thon on 10th evening; they've got exactly a 100 registrations for this marathon of ideas. The Dance Club intends organizing an evening of song & dance, on the 12th; the Activity Club is planning a campus edition of 'Roadies'; the Sports Club shall hold a Volleyball & a Basketball League.
The final of the Football League was held, on the evening of 8th January. We walked around campus, eating Pani Puri and burgers, courtesy Poha Point and Burger Planet.

There was a 'Human Rights' End Term, earlier this afternoon.

9th January i.e earlier this evening saw 'Heart-i-culate'- organized by the Literary Club in association with the PGP DebSoc. On the evening of 9th January, the Literary Club of IIM-Indore organized an event titled 'Heart-i-culate' - speak, but, strictly from your heart. Maya Angelou once said, 'There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.... but what is even more agonizing is holding inside you, an opinion on something that you really loved.' And, the theme for the evening was set.It was a marketing event teamed with stage presence and creativity. Each participant had three minutes and a book/movie of their choice to sell. The event was judged by Dr. Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM-Indore. A stage was set-up bang in the middle of the hostel blocks, with chairs and enthusiastic audience all around. And, keeping with the chill in the air, there was a bonfire and snacks- courtesy JAM- the student-run food point!People sold books from 'The Ascent of Money' to Chetan Bhagat's 'Half Girlfriend'. Movies ranged from Bollywod classics, 'Sholay', to happening Hollywood, 'V for Vendetta'. The sales techniques included mock book launches, impersonations of authors, drama, speech, a rendition of grandma's story-time and history lessons.

Looking forward to Idea-thon, tomorrow!


Monday 5 January 2015

5/01/2015




4/01/2015; 09:30:

It's a new year; a 'new year ' post on the 1st was very called for , but, I was too busy celebrating and travelling back to Indore.
Starting from around Christmas, I missed a little and a lot on campus, while I was away. Here, I'm going to take the liberty and borrow the Christmas Celebration report written by one of the juniors:
The denizens of Planet-i soaked in Christmas cheer on Wednesday by celebrating a Christmas eve night full of music and enjoyment.
The celebrations started with a Christmas play organized by the IPM drama club. The play showed how the witch Practikaal kidnaped Santa Claus and how a brave group of friends along with the snowman Olaf rescued him. The play brought out the message of the supremacy of joy and goodwill over evil, leaving the audience mesmerized by its beautiful rhyming dialogue and the skill of the performers.
This was followed by the screening of the film 'Nightmare at Christmas' which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
The celebrations reached the peak as midnight approached. The IPM community gathered on the library lawns to celebrate the joyous occasion together. A bonfire added warmth to the occasion as everyone enjoyed the festive air. The Music Club organized a Carol Singing event and everyone sang heartily and melodiously to add to the glory of the occasion. When midnight approached, a delicious cake was cut and enjoyed by all to commemorate the occasion. Later as the music played on everyone danced late into the beautiful night.
Thus the festival of joy became all the more special as everyone everyone celebrated in harmony together making it an altogether festive occasion.

After the Christmas Celebration (the essence of which has been beautifully captured by Utsav), a lot of the junior batch made their way to attend Mood Indigo at IIT-Bombay, where they understandably had a gala time. One thing I found most fascinating (apart from the fact that their title sponsor was a chocolate brand!) was the use of RFID's for each person.

On the night of 27th December, all the lights of and around the Academic Block were turned off for the night. This was to facilitate the latest fascination of Photon- the IPM Photography SIG- Star Trails- the 'trail' left by a star, as captured by multiple long exposure photographs super-imposed one over the other. The final result was spectacular. Perhaps, I'll get permission and upload one of the picture; of course, they are available on the Official IPM FaceBook page.

A party was held on campus to usher in the New Year. Despite unexpected showers, the party went on! And, happily!
I was back on campus on the morning of the 2nd- post which there was a lot of catching up on the gossip and the winter.

The Batch boys have moved to the new hostel, aka SR-17, which is close to the Sports Complex; the shortest way from there to the Acad Block is via the 'Great Wall of IIM' stairs- which is at least a hundred stairs! The girls shall be moved there once all the construction work is over i.e. when all 4 hostels are painted and furnished. Classes have been in full swing since the 4th.