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!