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!