27/03/2015

25/03/15; 23:45:

Monday - classes; PR; Zephyr session; Chiraag meeting, media comm. Meeting; atharv coordinator voting; result;
Tuesday- Classes; city; mani-pedi; food- sac-c briefing; resume/sop
Wed- Classes; zephyr; volleyball; sac-c task2; task 3 begins.
26/03/15; 07:37:

I’d just about settled down to write, sometime around 11 p.m., when I decided to make a phone call to Oshin, to check on the progress of the meeting that had been called at 10:15 p.m. Work was very much in progress and I made my way down towards it; I got to my hostel just about now.

Let’s get to where we left off. Monday began with our McDonalds presentation which left everyone hungry but happy. At 5 ‘o clock in the evening, we had our first session of ‘Public Relations’.
This was followed by the very first meeting of Zephyr- our Psychological Well-Being circle. This session was mainly an ice-breaker; we tried to understand everyone’s interests and their reasons for being inclined towards delving into the mysterious depths of psychology. Right after this ended, there was a Chiraag meeting to participate in- we discussed new ideas and more!
There was time enough just for a quick dinner before a Media Comm meeting was in order. I’d tried to be all formal, announcing the meeting over e-mail and changing the venue from our usual table in Mess 2 to an actual classroom in the Academic Block. This meeting was very different from most others. I stood there, facing all my team members (we’re usually just seated around a table!); everyone was asked to identify the hierarchy followed by power structure in our Committee- everyone agreed that it was simply a circle- everyone was equal. Sheets were then handed out to each member. They were all asked to write down what they’ve done, what they’ve learnt, what they could have done better, what they wished they’d have done, what the feel, what their take-away will be and more, after dedicating a good part of their academic year to working as part of the Media & PR Committee. I myself sat writing; everyone was done writing in about half an hour post which a couple of members tried to ‘submit’ their sheets to me- of course, I did not even look at any of them for they were for their author’s eyes only. I then proceeded to share everything that I’d written down ranging from how I should have learnt more from my team & how I should make my decision-making less emotional to how we’d successfully worked as a team & what I liked best about/ learnt from each member. The floor was then open to everyone- people shared their highs, their lows, their learning and more. It was a very fruitful discussion and a very enjoyable one at that too! We had to wrap up the session since it was almost 11 p.m.

The final list of candidates who’d made it to the final election stage as part of the selection process for the Atharv ’15 coordinator was sent out at around 8:30 p.m. All students of the 2013 & 2014 batches were required to make their way to the SR-17 Common room, post 11 p.m. and cast their votes. So, that’s right where I headed. I sat around, manning one of the voting machines (which was essentially a laptop running a program on Excel). The voting ended close to 1 a.m. Of course, everyone was rather anxious to know the result- most of all the hopefuls! The results were sent out around 3 a.m., to save the final 5 a sleepless night. Harish & Shashank are now the Coordinators for Atharv ’15. Here’s hoping for a hugely successful fest!
I was later on the phone, talking to one of the unsuccessful candidates, trying to get him to feel better. Tuesday morning began with a PR class. At 1:15 p.m., a briefing session for all the SAC-C and SAC-T applicants was called- they were informed about the duties & responsibilities that being SAC-C/T entails. Also, they were told to be prepared for a rigorous pre-process that would get them there!
Soon after the meeting, an e-mail was sent out, detailing the first pre-process. It was the standard SoP & Résumé- they had to be sent in by 7 p.m., the same evening. The next task involved scrutinizing the IPM SAC Constitution- suggesting changes, comparing it with the Constitution of the Student Body of another B-School and the PGP SAC Constitution and more. This was to be sent in by 2200 hours on the 25th.
We headed out to visit ‘Fingertips- The Nail Spa’ in Indore city, for we had a voucher worth Rs. 5000 to redeem. All three of us got manicures & pedicures. This was a novel experience for me- of course, I was aware of these procedures but had never actually experienced one. It was rather oaky and as I’d envisaged rather weird to have someone handle your feet. My nails are all red & pretty, so, that’s an upside. Cheesecake and ‘not-on-the-menu-but-prepared-specially-for-me’ honey chilly potatoes later, we were on our way back to campus.
Meanwhile a meeting had been called at 8:30 p.m. to brief the SAC-C hopefuls about their next task which was to manage to PGP Convocation- working hard on hospitality and logistics on the 26th & the 27th of March. Also, I managed to find a partner (or he managed to find me!) for the British Parliamentary Debate being conducted as part of D’Battle.

Wednesday saw a few classes, till about 5 p.m. We also managed to have a surprise quiz in our Game Theory class. Sir wrote a problem on the board; we got to solving it when the IPM Office people suddenly burst into the classroom bearing blank sheets. Said problem was then to be solved on the sheet and submitted.
After class, I made my way to Xpress-o-mat to pick up my clean clothes. At 6:30 we had a Zephyr session- we discussed dreams. The session began with everyone spelling out the one value that is at the centre of their being, their one fundamental value and sharing a little incident or two that highlights the same. A little thinking later, I decided that my core value is Love- that is the most important thing to me and lies at the centre of all my dealings- Love that is manifested as happiness.
Soon after, I was on the terrace of the Academic Building, looking up at the constellations in the night sky. I’d found myself a willing guide- he pointed out constellations, Jupiter, Sirius and gave out random interesting facts.
I managed to play some volleyball before returning to my room. Post this, I made the aforementioned phone call to Oshin and found myself at the HRC, doing a whole lot of work. This included going to multiple hostel blocks, opening rooms and laying out mattresses and pillows as per the requirement list. The PGP Convocation is on the 28th and hence all the 450 PGP participants, some PGP-UAE participants, some PGP-Mumbai participants and even a few FPM participants along with their families shall be on campus. I was out working till about 7:30 a.m. before retiring to my room to get some much needed rest.

27/03/15; 01:58:

And, I’d been writing for sometime before I decided to catch some sleep, for I had plans for later in the day.
I woke up around 1 p.m., having gotten a few hours of sleep. As previously planned, we got ourselves on the 2 p.m. bus. Our Media & PR committee was to have a lunch together. We spent over 3 hours, talking over lots of food and even more Thums Up, at Chawla’s.
Once back, I headed straight to the HRC to get even more work done. About half the PGP participants are already on campus; the rest should get here by 27th evening. A very efficient system has been devised to keep track of all the required mattresses, the security deposit, the guest rooms and more.
At about 9:30 in the morning, we shall leave for our ‘field trip’ to Unique hospital- courtesy our course titled ‘Introduction to Medicine’.