26/05/2015

25/05/15; 01:00:

And, a second eventful week in Banglore is about to draw to a close. This week has perhaps been better than the last; if this keeps up, my last week here will be beyond beautiful!

I was last writing on Monday evening; perhaps we can pick up from there.

I went into work on Tuesday morning, working on matching data for 2015, on the same donor reactions. I then drew up a summary of all the missing data; the next task is to try and procure most of this missing data, by getting in touch with the blood banks involved.

I was woken up early on Wednesday morning with a new task at hand- arranging meetings with blood banks at a short notice was rather impossible; a list of probable target companies had been drawn up and I was to visit them and talk to their HR people about the possibility of us conducting a blood donation drive at their organization. A large part of the voluntary blood collected comes from college students and during this time of the year, most colleges are either closed or conducting exams- this of course leads to a deficit in blood supply. Add to this the fact that many surgeries are scheduled at this time of the year and the dengue cases and we have a situation where a shortage of blood is faced- desperate calls for even common blood groups like O+ve and B+ve become an unwanted reality. Our best effort to try and cull this is to try to meet some of this deficit through upping our donation drives in corporate offices (mainly IT companies).

I walked around some part of Banglore, visiting or more accurately attempting to visit the HR people in different organizations. I encountered a variety of responses- from asking me to come back on Friday to telling me how the activity for the quarter (in this case, a visit to an orphanage) had already been undertaken. I tasted delightfully sweet success too- the best response was at the very last company that onI visited- their HR manager took time out to hear me talk about Our organization, asked me questions and shall most probably get in touch with us rather soon! During the course of my visits, I also found that one of the companies had nicely shut shop and moved their office elsewhere; two offices were untraceable (though I had a successful telephonic conversation with one of them!) and I also had a job offer from one of the companies that I visited!

I got back home and updated the results of my curious wandering on the portal. We headed out to a place which had a karaoke night that evening; we later met an old friend before heading back.

I was up early on Thursday morning, to head to Wipro’s campus in Electronic City. There’s an awesome flyover, which I hear is almost 10 k.m. long that we took to get there- the Wipro campus is rather big and has some 12 different entry gates- the BMTC even runs a multitude of bus routes to Wipro Gate 3 and back!
It was to be a large blood donation camp, with two blood banks in tow- ESI & NIMHANS. I got myself masala dosa from their cafeteria- much to my disappointment, it wasn’t very good; a couple of employees I spoke to concurred with me. We collected nearly 250 units of blood that day. I also met a nervous donor who’s now a good friend- it’s simple protocol to be talking to & distracting a nervous/ first-time donor; following protocol was never this good!

On Friday, I was at the Bosch campus in Bommanhalli which isn’t too far from Koramangla- it’s about a third of the way to where I’d been the previous day( i.e. Electronic City). The blood bank this time around was Bowring; I’d been informed that they are very efficient, and, they definitely were! The drive was conducted in a conference room- replete with a large immovable table in the centre! It kind of let the whole process- pre-donation, bleeding and post-donation have a cyclical feel to it. Just like last week, when we were at the Bosch campus at Marathalli, we collected exactly 147 units of blood- this was almost one-and-a-half times what we’d been told to expect (and, this was after we’d had to refuse people and send them away due to paucity of time and blood bags!)- the response was very overwhelming!
At one point, we ran out of the ‘Thank You’ cards that we hand out to the donors, post-donation- these have a couple of precautions and our Blood Helpline Number listed on them. Hence, I was to spell out the precautions orally and get people to save the helpline number on their phones instead. It was at this point that I realised that most people just watch me speak, without listening to what I have to say! I’m not sure why this is the case, but, well, it is. After I’d tell people to save the number, they’d just nod; with some people, repeating myself and asking them to pull out their phones worked; with a few, that failed too! They’d just smile and nod at me!

Friday evening was rather interesting- nice dinner followed by a look-around at Banglore city, by night!

Saturday morning began late; my parents had decided to drop by and say hello while on their tour of South India. Post-lunch, I was at People Tree Hospital, Yeshwantpur- The organization I work with was celebrating their 12th anniversary! The event consisted of a series of talks by a lot of people who have been associated with them over the last 12 years and specifically over the last 2 years. The event was very motivational- the things we’ve been doing, the things that we are doing and the things that we will be doing! All the people associated with them are wonderful and it was a nice setting to be in!

Sunday began with a nice lunch and a lazy afternoon; this was followed by late-evening coffee and an animated dinner! It ended with watching the IPL Final that Mumbai very deservingly won!! Huh, that sounds like an awesome Sunday!

26/05/15; 00:31:

Today was spent mostly in writing out a report about my second week at work! That and I should probably get to sleep!

18/05/2015

18/05/15; 20:51:

It’s been an eventful first week in Banglore! I walked down to my new workplace on Saturday morning (9th May). I got an introduction to the organization- how it all began, how it functions, their goals, beliefs and an insight into my role, working with them, over the summer. It’s a really small organization (I met most of the team!) in terms of human resource; but, it is very large in terms of the impact that they have and are creating! I will be dealing with collating data for an imminent scientific paper, organizing blood donation drives and creating awareness about the importance & benefits of voluntary blood donation.

After the short introduction, I made my way to M.G Road which is one of the most famous locations in Banglore! We walked down to Indiranagar and got ourselves good food and dessert to match! I walked back some way to where we’ve put up; en route, I made a mental note of the multiple nice-looking food places that I passed by!

Sunday was mostly spent lazing around and eating!

11th May i.e. Monday morning (maybe I’ll just call it Day#1) was my first real day at work! I sat around, tallying data off physical forms with the data on the online database. I also met some more members of the team; I also got a look at the different websites and apps that are in use.
We got ourselves some Andhra-special food from Nagarjuna for dinner! (This followed an attempt at spending time at Dice n’ Dine- the board game cafe; we shall go there again, with more people!)

Tuesday (Day#2) began at about the same time as Monday, around 9:30 a.m. Work that had begun on Monday was wrapped by Tuesday evening; I shall follow up on gathering the missing data early next week.

I was to attend my first blood donation camp in capacity of a member of the organizing team on Wednesday i.e. 13th May at EIC-Telecom at ITPL, Whitefield. I walked down to Silk Road Junction to get myself on a bus to Whitefield (which is about 20 k.m. away). I got there a little after 1, for the camp that was to begin by 2 p.m. i.e. right after lunch. I watched the setup very curiously- there was a pre-donation area where donors were to fill out forms detailing their medical history; then, there was a team of technicians and a doctor, carrying out a general physical examination of the potential donors- including their weight, Blood Pressure, Haemoglobin and Blood group; next was the bleeding area, where the actual blood donation happens- each donor was handed a labelled blood bag and directed to an empty bed. There was, on an average, one phlebotomist (the technician who bleeds the donor) to every two donors.
The last bit of arrangement was the post-donation area- where mandated refreshments- about 200ml juice and a pack of biscuits were handed to the donors, along with a list of precautions that they should follow for the next few hours.
The donors started rolling in almost as soon as the camp began; there is a set of requisite questions that must be asked of each potential donor- related to food, sleep, medication, alcohol and drugs.
The camp wrapped at around 5 p.m.; about 20 units of blood were collected that day!
Later, I accompanied Arpit (the guy at work whom I’ve been shadowing) to a meeting with the HR head at Aegis; in the next building- we’re looking to organize a blood donation camp there, in the near future.
I was back by late evening and headed out to join my new Banglore room-mate (still my batch-mate at IPM!) who was meeting an old friend for dinner!

14th May aka Thursday was spent at a Blood Donation Camp at Robert Bosch at Marathalli. This is also where my new boss works, on the side (So, the NGO I work with is run by a small, enthusiastic team of young people who are software engineers by day and the NGO guys all the time!). This camp was very well organized; I’d made a mental note of how it was the best blood donation camp I’d attended – the events over the next two days verified this!
I got back rather late; we had rasam-chawal for dinner, at the PG and tried to get to sleep early.

After getting to sleep only post-midnight, I was up a little before 4 a.m., and ready to head to Mysore on the 5:40 a.m. train. A cab and Arpit picked me up from my PG; we spent the three hours on the train talking and then sleeping.
Once in Mysore, we had chicken curry and parrotas for breakfast, right outside the Wipro Mysore campus. The Blood donation camp began a little after 10 a.m.; we had a very large number of women donors coming in, here!
A little after 6 p.m., I was on an inter-city bus, back to Bangalore; thanks to the famous Bangalore traffic I only got home by 11 p.m.

Early the next morning, i.e. the morning of Saturday 16th May, I made my way to Ittina Neela Apartments at Electronic City. I managed to get terribly lost on my there (even falling asleep on the bus and missing my stop by a good 10 kilometres!) and got to the venue only by 10:30; the camp began by 11 a.m. We had our expectations set rather high and were disappointed by the donor turnout. I made a new friend in a bubbly 3-year old whose mother donated blood! It began to rain (I think it was most definitely a thunderstorm) around 2 p.m. post which we lost power too. I got back, soaking wet, by 8 p.m.

Most of Sunday was spent sleeping in; I then got myself Masala Dosa for breakfast- I also learnt the right way to eat a Masala Dosa! I then met an old friend for lunch; we spent a lot of hours talking. I got to sleep early, and then proceeded to get up late on Monday morning.

There was a report of my activities of the past week to be compiled, so, I got working on that! I also got my bag fixed; in other happier news, I finally bought an umbrella and fixed the button on my jeans! Looking to a good dinner, now!

09/05/2015

09/05/15; 08:43:

Let’s just pretend that it’s still the 5th and I’m still on campus! So, our last paper for the year, our last ever exclusive paper as the IPM 2012 batch ended close to 11 a.m., on the 5th of May! Everyone hurriedly packed up – packed up their room into cartons to be left behind in the cloak-room while we were out and packed up some essential bits & pieces into suitcases to be carried to our place of internship!

A couple of good-byes later, people began to leave; it began as a trickle of people leaving on early afternoon flights, it almost became a flood around 2 p.m. (that’s close to when the trains to Delhi/Bombay/everywhere else leave Indore station!), turning into a trickle, by the dinner-time! About half the batch managed to leave on the 5th; the other half would probably repeat this setup on 6th!
We got on a 10:45 (p.m.!) bus to Bombay (It was supposed to be a 9:15 bus, but, well, technical difficulties got in the way)

We got to Bombay, by around 10 a.m., on the 6th. We spent the day wandering around parts of Mumbai, eating; We then made our way to Bangalore- it took us nearly 24 hours to get there!

I stepped foot in Bangalore, on the afternoon of 8th May! We then made our way to some predetermined accommodation, close to Forum Mall.

I’m not really sure if the details of what happens in Bangalore ought to form part of the ‘Life @ IPM, IIM-I’; but then, it is as part of my social internship which of course is part of the course curriculum.

Anyway, I’ll go visit my soon to-be workplace at around 10:30. I’d tried going in earlier and failed; I’m currently sitting around, waiting, thinking!

05/05/15

05/05/15; 04:50:

Let’s get to the beginning of this month, before anything else.

The morning of 1st May began with an end term – the first of the total 7- ‘Introduction to Medicine’. We hadn’t managed to get any preparation done, but, the paper was fairly simple (being based on general facts about the human body/diseases that most people ought to know).
The afternoon paper was on Introduction to Business History. It was an open-book exam—that’s not usually a good thing- it only means more difficult, analytical questions. Of course, it also means that we get complacent with the preparation. The paper was fairly interesting. Right after the paper, I made my way to the IPM Office, to collect my internship documents- my offer letter, the internship guidelines and an evaluation form in a sealed envelope. My offer letter looks beautiful; the internship guidelines are very specific- a report has to be submitted about the internship and everything; the evaluation form has to be submitted to the mentor at the organization concerned, on the very first day at work- its contents are secret; it shall be duly sealed and returned, on the last working day- it must then be handed in to the IPM Office- I get to transport a form back and forth without getting so much as a peek at its contents!

Both the papers the next day were touted to be difficult- Game Theory and Development Economics. We attempted to hold interviews for the various vertical heads for i-Help, that evening; there was a movie scheduled to be screened, like every Saturday- fortunately, we did manage to hold the interviews even though we had to postpone them to later in the night! We then tried at hand at preparing for the two papers the next day.

A single A4 size sheet of notes was allowed to be carried to the examination hall, for the Social Media End Term- of course, the paper involved devising a Social Media Strategy for an Educational Board Games related start-up and the ‘cheat sheet’ was entirely useless. The PR paper later in the afternoon was a mix of theory-based questions and two case studies- one involving identifying the mistakes in a PR campaign undertaken by a company and the other involving picking out and detailing a PR campaign for a company. Right after the exam, I got to taking interviews for the Hospitality Vertical for Utkarsha- the Social Fest- the interviews had followed a short pre-process where in 275 words both the span of activities of the Hospitality vertical as well as operational difficulties (last year as well as anticipated) were to be detailed. As soon as the interviews ended, I got to the newly made, ready to be inaugurated IPM SAC Office in SR-07! We gloriously cut the pink ribbon to applause and merriment; everyone then entered the space and a perfectly-placed cake was then cut (and quickly eaten, of course!) 3rd May, 20:45- Inauguration of the IPM SAC Office- the moment ought to go down in IPM history!
The IPM 2012 Last ever Batch Party began at 9:30 p.m., with food, drink and excellent music! The dancing went on until late in the night- of course, many, many pictures were also clicked, all through the night!

4th May aka Monday was an Institute holiday and I slept until 4 p.m., very nicely missing my chance to sign the IPM SAC Registration documents as one of the three founding members. We walked around campus in the evening; elections for the various vertical heads for Utkarsha were held from around 8:30 to nearly 11 p.m.
I then spent the next few hours talking to my roommate, over countless bottles of Thums Up and food from the Night Mess. It was our last night as roommates and we made the most of it, indulging in good conversation, curious questions and some confessions!

There’s a paper that’s to happen at 9:30 (in a few hours!). Haven’t gotten any studying done, but, getting some sleep is important- being awake for the paper is obviously more important than having stuff to write in the paper; off to bed!