23/10/2015

23/10/2015; 06:20:

Friday morning began with a MacroEconomics session, which ended with the professor suggesting that be prepared for a surprise quiz that’s to happen sometime soon. The Accounts professor managed to hold a surprise quiz, right after, based on the case that we ought to have read for said session.
Post-lunch, an OB class was scheduled for all 8 sections. We were to watch a movie- right after lunch, all 563 students moved to the New Auditorium where ‘12 Angry Men’ was screened. It’s a brilliant movie that I’ve seen at least twice before- the arguments, human interaction and behaviour are all very well captured in this movie which focuses on a jury making a decision on a life-sentence.

Right after, I headed up to the Acad Block, for a feedback session by our marketing professor. All the groups had handed in an assignment, and since this was the first of the course, Ma’am decided that feedback was in order. I guess we now have a better idea of what should go into our marketing assignments, and how.

Voice of Indore- the hunt for Indore’s best singer- has been holding auditions across the city in the run up to the finale which is on 23rd October, when IRIS begins. 16th evening saw the Campus edition of the auditions, at 7:30 p.m., at JAM. The judges had come down from Gautam Kale’s Sangeet Gurukul, the same as for all the other auditions. It eventually turned into an evening of joyous singing; we closed with promising to have the results up on the FaceBook page in a few hours and getting a team photo with the judges! It was nice to finally be anchoring an event where I was actually part of the organizing team!

17th i.e. Saturday i.e. end of the working week was soon upon us- it’s probably unfair, at least right now to think of the weekend as well the ‘end’ of work, for with IRIS right around the corner, we’re probably doing more work on weekends than we’d do on any other day.
We had just one OM class to attend, and that too at 10:15; we worked methodically on the case in question, solving the 3 inventory-related problems that the firm was facing one-by-one. An in-class assignment in the form of a similar case has been promised for the next lecture.

Most of the day was spent getting interesting FaceBook posts up on the IRIS page with a short meeting at 1:30 p.m. in the middle. We headed out to get some good food, in the evening. Once back, we stumbled upon an about-to-begin game of football in the centre of SR-09 and promptly joined in- another lady and me appointed ourselves as goalkeepers for either team and did a rather excellent job at staving off goals. Someone brought out a cricket bat about an hour into the game and took over goalkeeping at the other end; eventually football morphed into cricket and we left to head over to the night mess.

Our journey to the night mess turned out to be rather longer than we’d anticipated, courtesy a friend who decided that he ought to fall asleep everywhere! First, in the grass by the footpath close to Mess2, then on the cement platform right outside Mess2 while I fetched another friend who was busy with dance practice. Practice was still to still be in progress for some time, so we decided that it was best to get Mr. Sleepy to his room and then re-convene sans him in the night mess. We managed to get to his hostel without incident- he then fell asleep in a random room on the ground floor; we eventually got to his floor and just when I thought he’d get to his own bed, he plopped down on the bed of the first open room in the hostel and even began sleep-talking. Finally, he decided that his own bed was most comfortable and settled in while I headed off to the night mess.

Sunday morning should ideally have begun late, but, there were Voice of Indore auditions to be conducted- open auditions, at Gautam Kale’s Sangeet Gurukul. We got on the 10 a.m. bus and were at the venue by 11 a.m. Part of the team had gotten there an hour ago and the auditions were in full swing. We stood around, mesmerized by the wonderful singers that came in- a lot of them were really good, which wasn’t a surprise really, given the venue and the fact that a lot of them are pursuing courses at music schools.

We were back on campus a little after lunch-time. We then proceeded to get some food from Dominos and have a nap before the Dandiya night that was in store! The Dandiya Night began at around 8:30 p.m. Close to 10 p.m., we got to see a brilliant performance that was the result of all the dance practice that’d been happening. We then proceeded to dance until the music was turned off at around 3 a.m.

We had four classes to begin Monday with. Even after all the late-night dancing, everyone was in class, and not sleepy too! We had an OB class where we played a team-game, based on the idea of competition v/s cooperation and how sometimes cooperation can lead to better gains for everyone involved.
Continuing with the series of articles we’ve been getting up on InsideIIM, Mercur-I, the marketing club wrote one- the article is titled "E-commerce Sales : A Lesson Learnt" and discusses e-commerce sales, what impact they have on consumers and what e-commerce companies must look forward to on the road ahead.
After class, I spent some time with the juniors, iterating their résumés, in the CC lab. It’s interesting how different yet beautiful everyone’s résumés are! Some food later, I was helping a friend with her marketing assignment.
At around 11, I made my way to SR-18, the IPM Girls’ Hostel to go over some more résumés. Now, most of my other batch-mates (a few of us had volunteered to help out) had called the juniors over to their own rooms, I found it a lot more efficient to go over myself.

Once back, I got working on my IGNOU assignments that needed to be handed in by 5 p.m., Tuesday. I got three assignments done in a little over an hour and was pretty happy; I don’t recall falling asleep but of course I did, waking up with a start close to 9:45 a.m.

I then rushed to class- unlike all the other sections, we didn’t have an 8:45 class, on the 20th. After class, I completed my one leftover assignment- we then headed to go submit them- we split up- one person went to the bank to get DD’s made, another went to the printer room to get the question papers/cover pages printed, a third went over to the IPM Office to get the examination forms and I headed over to SR-08 to pick up envelopes that I’d picked up from the Pi shop the night before. We then re-convened in the CC lab and got our assignments in order, filled in the examination forms and had them submitted a little after 4:30 p.m.

A short nap later, I headed out for dinner; my father was in Indore for official purposes and dinner was definitely in order before he headed back.

There was only one class on Wednesday morning; I was then woken up at 2:30 in the afternoon, courtesy some persistent banging on my door by a concerned friend. Some food later, we made plans to play basketball.
At around 8 p.m., we headed up to the Pi Shop where a Durga Puja pandal had been set-up. The Ashtami Aarti was indeed a grand affair- people all dressed up and dancing! We ordered in some food and spent a long time eating it!

Thursday morning i.e. 22nd October i.e. Dusshera! I was woken up at 11 a.m. for a Media team meeting was to be held at 11:30; the meeting got postponed, but at least my day began in the first half (and on a holiday too!).
Some rice and pickle for lunch later, I fell asleep again, only to be finally be woken up at 8:30 p.m. for a Voice of Indore team meeting- IRIS begins tomorrow and the grand finale of Voice of Indore is the first event to take over the Cultural Events scene, early in the evening. Work was to be divided and I get to host the event. Some preparation about the finalists and their songs needs to be done.

Some milk at the Pi-Shop later, I headed to Mess2 and got myself lemon soda and a chicken sandwich to go. Only once I’d reached my room did I realise that I never actually picked up the sandwich- I clearly got distracted by the ice in my soda and the sandwich slipped my mind completely.
It was nearly 10:30 and the re-scheduled Media team meeting was to happen at 11, so I headed up. The meeting was once again shifted, to midnight, this time. My sandwich and I returned to my room; we made our way up to the meeting, via Mess-1, clicking a few pictures that’d look good on the FaceBook page.
We went over the IRIS schedule to make sure that everything would be covered and make it to the press release. I picked up some food, and just as I reached the hostel, a member from the Operations team called me up. Apparently, the IRIS T-shirts had arrived and everyone other than the Media team had collected theirs. The only reasonable thing to do was to collect said T-shirts- they look really nice- they’re a brilliant shade of blue, with our names and ‘MEDIA’ printed on the back.

I’ve since been up, putting pictures up on the FaceBook page- I even got one of some participants arriving with their bags!

The Inauguration Ceremony begins at 9 a.m. and I should probably get some sleep if I hope to be there- IRIS 2015!!

16/10/2015

16/10/2015; 02:41:


13th morning began with a few classes- we discussed a case, which dealt with whether or not to fire an employee. We were then required to write out a detailed but brief report explaining our choice.
In the evening, we got around to getting our Marketing Assignment done- it dealt with the community building that has been successfully undertaken by Harley Davidson. At 10:30 p.m., Mercur-I, the marketing Club held the first online quiz in a series of Marketing Quizzes titled ‘Mardi Gras’- the quiz was very interesting- it had taglines, memorable advertisements and famous marketing personalities.
The IRIS FaceBook page, now powered by a team with a 10-day mission, got really active- I got the countdown started, with a picture of the My Campaign team at their event, holding up placards that read very simply, ‘10’. I then managed to fall asleep at a reasonable time, since 14th was to be a long day!
I was up at 6:30 a.m., like almost everyone else. It was our first visit to our allocated Industry, as part of the IV course that is spread over the 1st year. Everyone collected near Mess-1 by 7:30 a.m. - the mess had decided to open early, and it felt just like a picnic! Dozens of people ambling around, making sure that their entire group has managed to reach Sanchi Point to board the buses, trying to find out which of the many buses will head to their destination, eating and drinking and generally in a jovial mood. Our group leader who’d nicely instructed us to be dressed in smart casuals- with a full-sleeve shirt and sports shoes- managed to oversleep, waking up only at 7:30 a.m. All the groups headed to Dewas were to leave first, since Dewas is an almost 2-hour bus ride; the groups heading to Sector-3 of Pithampur were to follow; all the groups heading to Sector-1 in Pithampur and to Indore were to wait around until the buses dropped off the first lot of people and returned. This gave our group leader some additional lead time- he was at the venue, properly dressed up and looking unapologetic, by 7:45 a.m. He even managed to get some breakfast before we left campus at around 8 a.m. There were 5 groups on our bus, heading to 3 different industries. Now, we found the first one rather easily, since it was right on the highway and two groups headed off. We then began a wild-goose chase for the other two industries and managed to successfully drop off another group before deciding to use Google Maps and find our destination. Our group leader, armed with new information courtesy Google Maps, directed us to Jaydeep Ispat & Alloys by 9:30 a.m.
Large red signage that read ‘Moyra Sariya’ brought us to a halt. We got ourselves into their site office and sat around drinking coffee until the plant head, our guide, joined us by 10:15 a.m. We were given a short presentation about the industry and the process of making steel rods from scrap iron/metal. A plant tour was then in order- all 12 of us (2 groups) were taken around the facility by 4-5 senior people from the industry. Our tour began with the scrap yard where large mounds of scrap iron/metal were being moved around by a large, electromagnetic crane and another large tool called a ‘grasper’ that did exactly that- it grasped large chunks of the metal scrap with its 5 clawed arm and moved them into bins. These bins were for segregation of the scrap, according to composition- since the final product needs to have a certain fixed composition of various metals including iron, magnesium, chromium and nickel.
Our next stop was the furnaces- scrap metal was continually fed into large furnaces which I believe had a temperate of about 1600 degrees. The furnace just gobbling up large, different-sized pieces of metal, a bunch of electronic devices that controlled the temperature- current was being used to maintain the temperature- the devices displayed readings of voltage, current and the resulting temperature in real time. We stood there, watching as a furnace was turned on its side, impurities falling out into a designated container; the molten metal itself flowing out, when the furnace was turned over into giant buckets that they called ladles. We then moved over to the cooling area where molten metal flowed down vertically, and was showered with water, bringing the temperature down to about 800 degrees. The metal was then cast into billets. An unending stream of metal flowed, it was cut at pre-designated lengths and sprayed with water as it zoomed across a conveyor belt. Ahead, it was pressed into rods of varying diameters, ranging from 8 to 32mm. Heat emanated from what appeared to be bright, nearly neon orange streaks of light, zipping past us at unimaginable speeds- these streaks of light were in fact red hot metal rods! They then moved into a machine which runs based on German Technology, Thermax- they were fired with high pressure water from all directions- in a matter of seconds, hot red streaks of light seemed to flow in, get drenched, and sleek metal rods flowed out that were then stacked into place- now at less than 400 degrees. These were then loaded onto trucks and sent their way! We even got to see their workshop- where some of the machines are designed and produced, and the quality control lab where tensile strength and composition of random samples are periodically checked!
Still in a state of mesmerized daze, we walked back to their site office, for a Q&A session. All the engineers in our group had a bunch of technical questions about the processes while I listened carefully, trying to take in as much of the new information as I could. At the suggestion of the plant head, we then moved to more ‘management- related’ questions, about operating efficiencies, marketing the product and the organizational structure.

Post-lunch, a detailed organizational structure was explained to us- they’ve recently added an HR department too! It is a family-owned business and wishes to continue to remain so. 6 different projects- two operations-related ones- dealing with the acquisition of scrap, inventory and dispatch schedules, one HR project dealing with designing appraisal systems, a marketing project dealing with increasing their market share and selling more of their product to government projects, an Environmental-related project dealing with disposal and usage of their waste products and a last more technical project that dealt with the actual processes were then shared with us. We are to pick one or more of these projects- which are all related to the problems/improvement of the industry-, work on them over the next 6 months, make some recommendations and hope that they be actually implemented. All the projects sound enticing- the reward of seeing our recommendations in actual practice is sure going to be great.
We then headed back to campus; our next visit will probably be towards the end of the month- by when we’d ideally have picked our projects- we sure are looking forward to that!

15th morning began with a few classes- we learnt about Economic Order Quantities in the OM class and then had all our ‘definitely true’ concepts shaken up in the QT class. The professor has decided to focus on relevant decision-making and take a mostly non-mathematical approach to problem solving- identifying what needs to be worked on is more important that knowing what mathematical tools to employ in solving the issue.

After class, we headed to JAM to get some food. We then worked on the WAC report that needs to be handed in sometime soon- we’ve agreed on getting the employee in question to train his own replacement before he is told that he should get packing.
At 7 p.m., we had an Utsaha Media Team meeting- we’re going to get working on articles for the blog, the FaceBook page and some press releases. A trip is being made to Janpav Kutti- the village where the actual event is held, this Sunday, by the ‘Umeed Team’ to indulge in some social initiatives.

I then headed to the C-Block Common Room to capture the Flash Mob practice in progress- photographs of the dance team were perfect for the ‘8 days to go’ post!

Some food at Globe@I, some chai at Night mess later, here I am, typing away!
Auditions for Voice of Indore will be held on campus, on 16th evening. An open audition will be held at Sa Re Ga Ma Music School on Sunday! A Food Walk is also being organized as part of IRIS, over the weekend; excitement levels are certainly soaring, and not without reason!

13/10/2015

13/10/2015; 02:58:

9th October saw classes in the morning, and the afternoon too. It’s a new term, a new beginning and spirits are soaring!
Our MacroEconomics professor is really nice. He’s a chemical engineer who then proceeded to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics. This leads to him using beautiful analogy in the classroom- ‘So, this is a catalyst to the GDP’. MacroEconomics is sure going to be fun, this term!
Our Marketing Professor has adopted a rather curious approach to the ‘Class Participation’ component of the grading scheme- at the beginning of each session, a list of participants is put up on the board- and the onus of contributing in that session lies on these participants and the members of the group to whom the case in question has been assigned.
The first Finance lecture was spent mostly telling us that a problem is never a marketing problem or a finance problem, but a business problem.
Post lunch, we had our first OB class- we did what is known as a Desert Survival test. You are stranded in a desert owing to a plane crash. A list of 15 items is made available- these must be ranked from 1 through 15 based on which you would most definitely hold onto and which you wouldn’t. We did the ranking exercise first individually, then in groups of 6-7 members and compared scores in both scenarios to the answer key. Most people did better as a team than individually. The larger purpose though was to understand how groups are formed, how they develop, function and then dissociate.
As soon as class ended (at 3:15 p.m.), I head off to get a couple of things done. A saw my OM End-Term paper where I’d managed to score rather well; then there was some reading material to be collected from the Distribution Centre aka the library basement. I then headed to collect a cheque that was to be handed over to HT Media for IRIS Promotions. I collected my clothes from the laundry- they’d been there for nearly two weeks!- it was then that I remembered that I’d needed to visit the PGP Office too. I headed down to my room to drop off my freshly laundered clothes, changed into a smart-looking shirt and then rushed up again to the PGP Office- our end-of-year IGNOU exams for our final year happen to clash with the dates of the Rural Immersion Programme and proof in form of our subject details had to be submitted to the Office. I then got myself on the 4 p.m. bus to the city. It’s surprising how productive one can get when pressed for time- tasks that I’d ideally get done with ‘eventually’ were all done with, in about half an hour!

We got off at the Press Complex near LIG Chouraha and headed straight up to the HT Media Office, to meet with their marketing head. Promotions for IRIS are in full swing and everyone’s excited. A Media Committee Junior Team party was in order and we got back to campus only by 11 p.m.

10th morning began with classes too- we discussed a case where a clothing company was attempting to tie-up with an insect-repellent manufacturer to produce insect-repellent clothing in the Marketing Class. There were then two WAC- Written Analysis and Communication- classes where we spoke about report writing and appropriate formats. QT was the last class for the day which was spent in introducing us to the course- it’s going to deal mainly with decision-making- in certainty and uncertainty.

Clueless- the hugely popular online puzzle hunt of IRIS kicked off at 10:30 p.m. I ought to atleast try and attempt some bit of it!
We had a Media Team meeting at 11:30 p.m. where we discussed a 10-day promotion strategy for the final run-up to IRIS 2015. A Countdown, numerous posters, blogposts, some press-releases and radio promotions are in order! I get to be in-charge of the countdown- from 10 down to 0 and then IRIS!

Most of Sunday was spent catching up on sleep- mainly to make up for the loss of sleep that resulted from not managing to adjust to a reasonable sleep cycle now that classes have begun.
Monday morning saw a few classes; we were then free, post-lunch. We had a meeting with the PR Rep of the institute, to work out the details of the press-releases for IRIS. We then strolled around campus in the evening, trying to cheer up a rather antagonized friend. It seemed pretty bad- even ice-cream didn’t instantly work!
We walked upto Mess 1 at around 7:30 p.m. where the Pre-Buzz event for ‘My Campaign- the Marketing Event with a cause- was being held. The theme was ‘Ban the Ban’- a comprehensive list of all recent bans that have been imposed in the country was made available- and one could choose to write a slogan calling for the Ban to be banned. We wrote out a few slogans, got a few nice pictures including one for the IRIS- 10 Days to go- post.
I retreated my room for a while before heading up to the Night Mess some while later. I then picked up some IRIS posters and got busy putting them up around campus. They have a list of the major events and a large ’10 Days to Go’ on them. Looks like I have a new nightly routine!

09/10/2015

30/09/2015; 16:26:

It's been rather long, 10 days to be precise since I was last at my writing board. And, given that classes have not been running, that’s mostly surprising, or not.
It’s that classic paradox- when there’s a lot going on, there’s no time to be writing about it and then, when you have all the time in the world to be writing, there’s really nothing to be written about.

So, we’ll do the usual, and start right where we left off- 21st September, right after the birthday. E-mails calling for registration for various IRIS events began to be sent out- I think Entreprid- the Strategy event was the first to get started on this and even conducted their first round- an online quiz on 20th night.
21st morning began with the Business Communication end term that was somehow left out (or perhaps it was always scheduled to be so) at 10 a.m. I finished the paper in under 20 minutes and strode out of the exam hall and made a few failed attempts to get something to eat.
At 6 p.m., Ganpati Visarjan was to happen- the procession set out from the SR10 basement and ended at the Rain Water Harvesting pond near Gate-3.

Meanwhile, I finally got my article about my summer internship complete and sent it out to BLoC- Business Line on Campus. I think it went up on 22nd and looks good! Later in the afternoon, the OM Quiz papers were shown- this quiz was significantly easier than the last one and that was reflected in the marks. Since it was Tuesday, Royal Sandwich was on campus. Soon time ago, they’d gotten a flex printed, that pretty much stays put on campus- with their menu on it- at the bottom, it proudly proclaims ‘At IIM-Indore campus, every Tuesday’.

Wednesday was mostly spent doing nothing, filling out a few applications, making some power point presentations and looking for food. Later in the night, we got an article written about the upcoming, actually, up and running Voice of Indore event for IRIS 2015. The auditions are in full swing and will culminate in a grand finale on Day 1 of IRIS i.e. 23rd October. Meanwhile, an online version of the event has been started on the FaceBook page, and multiple entries are coming in!

24th began, somehow, somewhere with this vacation and everything, each day just seamlessly blends into the next and you perhaps do not even realise- an obvious consequence of having no fixed schedule or sleep time. The day just begins as and when you wake up and then never ends before the next one begins, for, you forgot to go to bed that night!

Our Marketing Mid-Term marks were put on an Excel sheet and sent to us; we’ll probably get to see the papers along with the End-Term ones. There was a workshop about Digital Marketing that began at 1 p.m. It was an interesting workshop- with a fast-growing number of internet users in the country, social media is more important than ever before for businesses reaching out to (potential) customers.
The Accounts End Term papers were shown at 5 p.m. in H-101. Poha Point had decided to make and sell dahi vada, and I hear that it was rather good. Burger Planet was on campus too. They’ve recently added new ‘tandoori’ variants of their burgers to the menu.
Bazinga- the Informals team of IRIS 2015- opened entries for a Blitz Chess event- each player gets a total of 3 minutes to make their moves. It sounds like my kind of game.
I think the Globe@I’s Thursday Night late show is now going to be a regular feature. Meanwhile, Yem Bee Yay, the troll MBA FaceBook page sent out a detailed e-mail, letting all those still not in the know be made aware, and inviting applications for a ‘top-secret’ summer internship before they decide on the new admins for the next year.

25th began late too, with a workshop on ‘Communication as You’ve never Seen it Before’ organized, courtesy Zephyr, the Psychology Interest group.
Meanwhile, we’ve been working hard on trying to get a Radio / Mall Partner on board for IRIS 2015. And, we received communication that TVF is going to be on campus for IRIS, on the 24th of October, so, that’s something to look forward to, in the near future. 25th was Eid and CulComm accordingly arranged for an ‘Eid Feast’- mutton and chicken biryani was made available for everyone interested.

A new mess menu being sent out was the highlight of the 26th. Advaita- the HR event of IRIS held their first round- an online quiz at 10:30 p.m. We did a decent job of the quiz and made it to the next round! We then had a Batch Meet at 11:45 p.m. There’s just something about having everyone gathered together, and then listening to a few important things before heading off to the Night Mess as one!

Sunday- 27th - well, the whole week had been off and felt like Sunday anyway, so this one Sunday lost its uniqueness!
IIM-Ahmedabad is holding their Sports Fest on the 9th of October which is awesome; however it seems very unlikely that the Women’s Basketball team can attend the event which is disheartening.

28th- Monday morning- it was still Term Break so, it was one good Monday morning! We received Round-2 of Advaita on e-mail- the deadline to send our submissions in was 4th of October, so we conveniently put this at the back of our minds- we never actually got around to doing it, but, well.

Udaan was set to happen on 2nd October, like every year- on 29th, a pre-event promotional Nukkad Natak was staged in Central Mall. Meanwhile, we received a reminder e-mail about the IGNOU assignments. I really need to get around to doing them. Even with the late fee, they need to be written and sent in by the 20th of October!

We got to see the MicroEconomics end term papers on the 30th- I didn’t actually have to go up to the Library Basement (which is where the TA’s work and entertain students) since some nice soul from my section took it upon himself to see everyone’s paper and message them their scores. I woke up late in the afternoon to a message with my marks, the class average and the total- and, it was good marks too!
A second performance of the Nukkad Natak was staged at C21 Mall, in the evening.

09/10/2015; 03:54:

And then, the new month dawned- Gate 1, which has been under construction for over 2 years now, was finally ready! An inauguration ceremony was held at 9:30 a.m. It’s one grand piece of work- the gate now needs three people just to push it open!
A temporary Bloomberg Terminal has been setup in the Finance Lab and an information session regarding the same was held at 1 p.m. on 1st October. By night, a lot of people who’re on the Udaan team made their way to Dusshera Maidan- that’s where the 11 k.m. run kicks off- to get banners up, the registration desks set up and more. It’s a lot like a party- lots of happy, enthusiastic people mulling around, getting work done- it’s a very my-kind of set-up. On-spot Registrations for the run began at 5 a.m.; the race was flagged off at 7 a.m. and the 3 k.m. ‘Dream Run’ began at 8 a.m. on campus.
Buses for participants began plying to Dusshera Maidan from campus at 4 a.m.- the run begins way too early- this year, just like the year before I’d decided to go run the 11 k.m. but of course, I never managed to get up. Next year- and that’s something I really should do, since it’ll be my last year here- I shall get up in time to run the 11 k.m.
As participants began arriving on campus (the end point for the run), certificates were to written out, prizes handed out and more. Each year, the run comes with a social cause- this year, it was Udaan- Run to Empower the Old. Significant contribution was made to the old-age homes in the city- in the form of essential supplies and time!

3rd October was the 19th Foundation Day of IIM-Indore. The PGP-1 students from the Mumbai Campus were here, for the occasion. The ceremony began at 4 p.m. with the Foundation Day Lecture on ‘Look Beyond, See Invisible’ by Shri Anshu Gupta of the GOONJ Foundation followed an award ceremony- with Best Teacher, Best Staff awards given out, and Academic Excellence Awards given out to the top 5 percent of the current PGP-2 batch. A violin recital preceded the Foundation Day dinner at 8 p.m.
On this occasion, the Media Committee ran a Photo Contest- an image depicting life at IIM-Indore was to be put up with an interesting caption.

Sunday was spent mostly sleeping and then heading out to eat at Chik n’ Serve.

It was then another Monday that didn’t feel like a Monday. Meximus was on campus in the evening, serving up Tandoori items- Chicken tikka, Paneer tikka and even tandoori mushrooms. Laavanya- the Fashion Show at IRIS 15- sent out an e-mail calling for participation. An IIM-Indore team needs to be formed and auditions will be held for the same. Two peppy tracks have been picked out for the audition- we convinced our friend who’s on the organizing team to be the show-stopper for the event- replete with the topless look that’s somewhat standard for the show-stopper- at least that’s the trend we’ve managed to piece together from the last few Ramp events here.
Also, the date, 5/10/2015 is a palindrome! I just find palindromes really fascinating, so, that had me raving through the day to whoever would listen!

On 6th, Advaita sent out an e-mail announcing a Wild Card Entry Round. We decided to work on the Quiz as soon as it would be sent out, i.e. at 10:30, that night. Of course, we got busy doing other things and completely forgot about this until it was too late.
Meanwhile, the ‘Happiness Project’ that one IPM junior had embarked upon reached completion- in form of a short film that was shared with the institute. A lot of thinking and hard-work has certainly gone into making it- there’s even some scenes shot way up in the hills!
Bazinga- the Informalz team for IRIS 2015- threw open registrations for a Salsa Workshop. They even followed the registration mail up with a few pointers on what all the ‘single people’ could do to try and get themselves a partner. And, like they said, it just seems difficult. It is in fact much, much harder to implement in real life. There was also some motivation as a close- your Salsa partner could always turn into something more.

7th October- Registration Day for Term 1 finally dawned. A Registration form as well as the Undertaking for the Rural Immersion Programme that’s to happen this term were to be submitted at D-101, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. After submitting the requisite papers, reading material for the term was to be collected from the Library Basement. The Book Vendor was also on campus and a lot of very enthusiastic souls quickly headed to buy the necessary books- one on MacroEconomics, one on Cost Accounting, and two on Finance- Financial Management and Corporate Finance.
Later in the day, payments were to be made for customized IRIS T-shirts- replete with the name of the event/vertical one is part of and one’s own name. Since ‘Voice Of Indore’ would likely be abbreviated to ‘VOI’, on the T-Shirts, I decided to get one that says ‘Media’ instead.


8th October saw Term 2 begin in full force. Classes began at 8:45 a.m. It’s weird getting used to the schedule again, considering that we’ve been on campus for 2 weeks, on term break. My sleep-cycle is still messed up; it’ll take some getting used to this 8 a.m. alarms going off again.

There are more classes tomorrow, and getting to bed sure seems like a good idea!