19/04/2015

19/04/15; 20:45:

And, the Industrial Visit to Pune was rather awesome. It all began with us getting ourselves on the bus- 3 AC Sleeper buses had been arranged. All the girls were on one bus- this bus was brand new and out on its first ever journey!
We got to Pune at around 10:30, on the morning of 14th April. Some breakfast later, we were en route to the IT Park of Pune- in three groups- one each heading to Infosys, Wipro & TCS. We were given a short talk and shown a video of how the organization grew from its inception to today. We were then shown around the campus- the IT companies all had large, college-like campuses, replete with living quarters and a recreation centre. The Infosys campus houses the largest gym in all of Pune. An excellent lunch later, we made our way to Forbes Marshall. A second group visited Thermax. We were shown a short video and then taken around the manufacturing area- boilers et al. We got off the bus, en route to the hotel and set off to explore Pune. We got onto a local transport bus, and got off at Shivaji Nagar- rather close to Ferguson College. The whole F.C road is a rather student-friendly place, what with street shopping and good food that’s not too hard on the bank. We walked along the road, eating and looking (and shopping a little!). We got kairi off a tapri, got excellent dosas and finally settled for dinner at Good Luck Café which is known for its non-vegetarian food. Since it was Ambedkar Jayanti, there was a host of celebration in full swing at the Shaniwarwada Fort, a little distance away!
We got back to the hotel a little before 10 p.m., which was the stipulated deadline. This was followed by attempts to attend the Karaoke Night happening in the hotel. (We had put up at VITS/ Orchid) – of course, our attempts failed, since the hotel had decided to keep the venue shut, on account of Ambedkar Jayanti.
Early the next morning, one group set out to visit the manufacturing plant of JCB- which makes earth-moving machinery- and were awed by the large machinery. Two other groups set out to visit Polyplastics and Kalyani Forge. Polyplastics makes a large range of plastic parts for automobile companies. Both groups then headed to FIAT, where we saw cylinder valves, cylinder blocks and crank shafts being made. We also saw cut-sections of different diesel and petrol engines. After this, it was an almost two-hour ride back to Pune city. All of the bus got off at Koregaon Park- the ‘happening’ area of Pune. Three of us rode on, and got off only close to Ferguson College where I met some old friends, Shruti caught up with her sister and Angaee visited her relatives. We also ate excellent Pav Bhaji before getting back to the hotel. We also managed to squeeze in a bike ride- it had rained earlier in the day and the weather was nice!
Early the next morning, one group visited Finolex cables while another set out for Steelcase. This trip ended a little after mid-day, leaving us with a few hours to take in as much of Pune as we could. We headed out to treat ourselves to some excellent Malwani Food- Surmai Fry, Paplet (Pomfret) Curry and Bombil (Bombay Duck), Sol Kadhi (traditional Marathi drink made of coconut milk & kokum berries) and Kombdi (Chicken) Wade. Post this, we headed to the famous Kayani Bakery and picked up a couple of boxes of their excellent Shrewsbury biscuits. We also ate some mulberries on the way, before parking ourselves at German Bakery.
Some food later, we walked towards the famous Osho Garden, passing shops selling Osho chappals and more. The place was rather serene; we even saw peacocks. We then ate excellent risotto at Dario’s before catching a cab to head back to the hotel. We stopped at Satguru’s- the art gallery- en route; we also picked up Vada Pav.
We’d already packed our stuff before heading out. We picked up our luggage and got on the buses, all ready to head back to Indore after an interesting, well-enjoyed vacation.
We reached Indore around 10:30, the next morning i.e. 17th April to a breakfast of Aloo Parathas and Poha. We then attempted to get some studying done since there was a World Politics Mid-Term at 3 p.m.
After the paper, we began the pre-process for the selection of the Media & PR Committee team for next year. The nominations had come in on the 16th. We met the applicants at 6:30 p.m., conducted a surprise general awareness quiz and then proceeded to tell them exactly what the Media Committee does. There was a press release to be done, that evening which we then did right in front of them, for they need to have an idea of what exactly they’ve signed up for! We then ran a series of group discussions, on topics suggested by the applicants themselves.
We then explained the written pre-process to them- they had 700 words, to send in anything that they liked –an SoP, a résumé, an article, a letter, the media comm. budget i.e. just about anything was welcome, only the word limit had to be stuck to. Right after this, the Acad Comm. Interviews began at 9:30 p.m.
We went to watch the semi-final of the ICL – the Cricket League; Round 1 of the Creative Club’s Ad-Making event Adster began at 11 p.m.- it was an online quiz based on brands, advertising, taglines and more. We then worked on our Social media project before falling asleep.

Most of 18th was spent in class. On the evening of 19th, we held the practical task as part of the Media Comm. Pre-process- all the applicants were given information about an upcoming Film-Making event being organized by Adaa- the IPM Drama Club. Each one then spoke to a journalist from a different newspaper, composed the e-mail that was to be sent out and even did the follow-up.

Right after this, the voting for the Acad Comm. Coordinator was held. I sat around, watching, writing this!

There’s now a Development Economics assignment to be done! The Game Theory assignment is rather interesting- we were asked to find a real life problem and apply game theory to it. We’ve chosen to apply Game Theory to the Greek Credit Crisis, the internet.org issue and the relations that Russia & USA have with Cuba.