Monday 30 November 2015

30/11/2015



30/11/2015; 03:21:

27th morning began with classes. We have a short, 5-session Workshop on Entrepreneurial Orientation that began on Friday morning. We attempted to list what makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur; who qualifies to be one and who doesn’t.
We then had a Finance Class, the 13th of a 15-session course. All other sections have managed to have 3 quizzes by this point in time, but we haven’t received even the slightest hint of one it!
And then since we’re so short on time, we had an OM quiz bang in the middle of our lunch break, at 1:40 p.m. A rather drained-out QT class where even the professor eventually let us off 5 minutes before time then followed.
Some sleep later, we were on the Basketball court for a match- the last of the league matches before we proceed to having the semis and then the finals for each game. We managed to win this one too!
The Operations Club, Kaizen, held a quiz at 10 p.m., the same night. It was a fairly interesting quiz, based largely on all the Operations Concepts that we’ve been learning in class.
We had a Volleyball match at 11 p.m., against section H who have pretty much the best team- the best centre is on their team as is the best lifter. We needed to win this one to have a shot at the semis. We played rather well, and did manage to win a very close match. One thing that really works for our section is the fact that the women on our team can play rather well. The format requires each team to have 4 men and 2 women; most teams end up focussing on ‘covering’ the women on their team; the other team launched at least 4 shots in the direction of the women, expecting free points. What they did not expect was for the ball to be hit back into their court and, they failed to hit it back in time, each time, without exception.
28th morning began with only 2 classes post which we headed out to eat, only getting back late in the night post which we proceeded to amble around campus- it was a Saturday night and understandably, everyone was out roaming.
Given the loads of roaming the night before, most of Sunday was spent sleeping late into the afternoon. I got a marketing assignment done post-dinner. We then proceeded to roam around.

Friday 27 November 2015

27/11/2015




27/11/2015; 02:14:

We had a few classes post-lunch, on 23rd aka Monday. We’d sent out a pre-event report about Utsaha to the papers, the day before and some of them had it in print.

We worked on finalizing the details of ‘Paparazzi- The Media Quiz’ that Media Comm was to conduct on 25th night. A lot of discussion went into finalizing the dates for there’s been just so much going on, on campus.
Nihilanth- the inter IIT-IIM Quiz is finally back where it began- after kick-starting the event in 2003, IIM-Indore will finally get a go at organizing Nihilanth again! A pre-process was to be sent in, to be part of the organizing team. I sent in a write-up about a campus event, as directed, to be part of the Media team.

Section Wars: The Sports Edition took off on 23rd night with some cricket, football and volleyball matches. Our section boys managed to lose the cricket match by 5 runs; F section’s strategy worked rather well and they won the football match 1-0 against our section- they managed to score one goal and then their whole team proceeded to just linger around their goal till the end of the game, making an equalizer rather impossible.

Utsaha began on 24th morning; there were also some classes to attend. We had a presentation to make, in the Ethics class. Each group had to pick a piece of literature or a movie and analyse an ethical dilemma that forms part of the plot line of said book or movie. Ideas ranged from The Dark Knight & The Wolf of Wall Street to Harry Potter. We picked the Mahabharata as our text of choice for it is full of ethical dilemmas. We picked the part where Drona is deceitfully killed on the 15th day of the battle. Towards the end of our presentation, Sir had a few questions to ask.
Professor: So, you haven’t made a recommendation about how the dilemma ought to have been resolved, since you condemned the act as unethical.
Us: But, sir, we really have no right to make recommendations about The Mahabharata.
Cue laughter from the entire class; sir began laughing as well and conceded that we did have a point and let us off!
We then roamed around, eating before heading off to our hostels for a nap. Later in the evening, the IPM Dance Club held Footloose- an informal dance event at JAM. A new Chinese Outlet was on campus, selling mainly noodles; Meximus was also on campus and we ate some nice nachos.
Our section had a Volleyball match at 11 p.m. which we rather unfortunately lost to section F. At around 11:30 p.m., we were on the Basketball court- the girls managed to win their match, 8-0 while the boys lost a well-fought match, 11-13. Two members of our girls’ team managed to twist their ankles, at the exact same moment in the game which wasn’t too nice.
Wednesday was off for most people while just a few groups had an Industrial Visit lined up. Everyone else headed off to enjoy the mela where Utsaha was being held! The final day of Utsaha was one big celebration! It was the holy day of Kathik Poornima and evidently, everyone was out to spend some time with their families. Over two days, more than one lakh people visited the mela- the highlight of this year was the participation of an overwhelmingly large number of children in the mela. Specifically aimed at the children were a Magic show and a game of Musical chairs. Given the USP of Utsaha, the Disguised Rural Marketing Research, different projects were worked on for the partner clients, through the mode of games and events. Rural Beverage consumption was measured while benchmarking specifically the reach of PepsiCo as compared to its competitors. This along with the offering from Prataap snacks in way of a segmentation project attracted a lot of children- perhaps due to the colourful packaging and relevance of the food items concerned. Emami wished to explore the grooming behaviour of rural men; using Bollywood poster-boys as a ready icon, the reach of their ‘for men-only’ fairness cream, Fair & Handsome was explored. Effectiveness of an aggressive advertising campaign was measured for Ghadi Detergent which is a well-accepted household name. Goodies for participating in the games ranged from detergents to face creams and shampoos which served as an excellent incentive, driving large numbers to flock to the stalls. Due to the much larger turnout, survey targets were met much before closing time. Over 500 students must have visited the mela over the 2 days, many of them enjoying traditional delicacies and the giant wheel which remains the central attraction.
Later in the evening, once everyone was back on campus, we sent out a press release along with some bright, colourful pictures. I also got working on our Marketing Assignment which needed to be sent in before mid-night.
We had a Volleyball Match at 9:30 p.m. We played well and won! As soon as the match ended, I ran up to SR-9 to give an interview to join the media team for Nihilanth. Immediately after, we were on the Basketball court for our match, at 11:30 p.m. We managed to win this one too, along with a Badminton match that was happening at about the same time. We’d even played Pittu, earlier in the evening!
Questions for the Media Comm. Quiz had been prepared by late afternoon and the online quiz which focused on scandals began at 11:15 p.m. The quiz received a good number of responses which we should get around to evaluating!
Thursday i.e. 26th morning began with a few classes; everyone was mostly looking forward to the Boat Building Activity scheduled post lunch as part of our OB course.
By 2 p.m., everyone was assembled in the New Auditorium, waiting for the activity to begin. We’d been divided into different groups- there were 36 competing Boat Building Firms, 6 agents who’d be buying the finished boats, 4 suppliers of raw material, 4 banks to hand out loans, a vigilance department to ensure ethical trade practices and a team of auditors to check for financial irregularities.

I should add some details, soon.
Right after, there was a briefing session about the Rural Immersion Programme that begins on 30th November. We then collected reading material for a course on ‘Entrepreneurial Orientation’ for there was an assignment to be written up and submitted in the first class which is tomorrow.

The evening was one that’s supposed to be typical of a PGP-1 student’s schedule- a QT assignment, a Marketing assignment, the aforementioned EO assignment, an OM quiz lined up and everyone attending an Utsaha meeting at 11:45 p.m.
I shall now attempt to get some sleep!

Monday 23 November 2015

23/11/2015



23/11/15; 13:46:


On 18th evening, close to 10 p.m., we gathered in front of JAM, with candles light- we then took a short walk before ending up at Mess1 were the candles were arranged in the shape of the international symbol of peace. Several placards with slogans expressing solidarity were put up on one pillar. We then stood in silence, hoping, praying for the best- violence is best answered with peace, to put an end to it all, once and for all. As long as there is hope, violence cannot triumph, not forever, not ever. A short prayer that gave words to our shared sentiment was then read aloud. In that moment, we were one- everyone gathered there, the victims from across the world, their families, time, the inflictors of violence, the ever hopeful- one soul, with one common thought.

Some while later, we headed to Mess2 to get some food. As we walked to the counter, wondering what to order, a hot dosa was brought out and we saw a friend walking up to pick up his food. Acting quickly, we picked up his dosa, began laughing and sat down to eat it while he looked on, aghast. Another dosa was brought for him in some time and he did take our joke in good spirit!
I went down to my room before heading back up for a Media Comm meeting at 11:30 p.m. On my way up, I met people going down to the basketball court. Promising to join them as soon as the meeting ended, I reached the venue exactly on time. The meeting began half an hour late since most other people were late and ended only by 1 p.m. As I headed back down, in anticipation, I met the same bunch of people, coming back up from the basketball court. My luck is so incredibly perfect that the meeting ran for the precise duration of the basketball game.

Thursday i.e. 19th began with 5 classes too. Soon after classes ended by 4:45 p.m., there was stuff in store! At around 5:30, DebSoc’s event, JAM @ JAM (that’s Just A Minute at Juices And More!) took off! I absolutely adore the concept of JAM- there’s one topic, 60 seconds and about 6 people attempting to speak. One speaker begins speaking at the start of the clock- the idea is for him to keep speaking for 60 seconds, about the topic. Now, that sounds fairly simple in theory, but, it really isn’t. The other speakers must attempt to catch the guy speaking, when he falters- relevant objections include the classic ‘Hesitation, Repetition & Deviation’ further objections might include Gesticulation, Voice Modulation, incorrect grammar and nonsensical content. Discretion of whether an objection is valid or not lies entirely with the JAM master. It was a fun event that ran for over 2 hours!
Close to 9 p.m., I headed to the library basement to attempt to get to know something regarding the QT quiz that was to happen soon.
We had 5 classes on Friday too. We’d been told that the Quiz later in the day would cover mainly LPP formulation. And then, towards the end of the QT class, sir grinningly informed us that there would be no formulation-related questions on the quiz. The quiz began at 4:50 p.m., right after class; it was a short quiz that only wanted answers, no processes.
Meanwhile, the Sports Committee announced a Sports Edition of the Section Wars that’d happened in Term-1. Some sports, like Volleyball have mixed teams requiring the six member team from each section to comprise of 4 boys and 2 girls. This shall be fun!

Saturday was no different from the rest of the week and we had 5 classes again. The MacroEco class was exceptionally interesting. Sir explained how the Aggregate Supply curve works- it is horizontal in the short-term, vertical in the long-run and sloping in the medium-run!

The weekend saw two days of activity- it was FootPrints- the Annual Alumni meet! The Alumni interacted with the faculty in the morning; the newly launched alumni portal, iConnect was formally inaugurated! A cultural evening of song and dance was put together by Harmon-I, the Music Club and Vibes, the Dance Club. A DJ party began at 10:30 p.m. and went on until nearly 4 a.m.! We then spent some time with some 2011-13 batch alumni who told us stories from their Student Exchange time and their time at their workplaces.

Sunday morning saw a ceremonial cake-cutting; a lunch was hosted for the alumni before most of them left for home and work, in the early hours of the evening. Mess-2 had decided to do their own bit, this FootPrints and held a ‘Food Carnival’. A large variety of food had been prepared and we did our share of sampling!

Later in the night, I wandered around, clicking pictures of the various Utsaha teams at work. The fest is in less than 24 hours and excitement levels are at an all-time high! Brightly coloured posters were being put together and spirts were equally high.

We then indulged in some VolleyBall for everyone’s geared up for the Section Wars that start today.

We had another WAC report writing before lunch; there are now classes to get to; I’ll be off!

Wednesday 18 November 2015

18/11/21015



18/11/2015; 20:37:

I got back to campus at around 11:30 p.m. on the 12th. The campus still looked a little deserted. We settled on the stairs outside Mess 3 to share food and catch-up on each other’s lives.

13th morning began with MAC class where we discussed process costing. There was a Finance Class scheduled to happen right after, but, it managed to get cancelled.
At 11:45, we had our first class of the course on Ethics & CSR- the course began straight with a case that had a young salesperson facing an ethical dilemma.
We then had an OM class after a long time- we’ll be having a quiz soon since there wasn’t a mid-term.
Later in the evening, I headed out to the city to meet an old friend who was in town. I couldn’t spend much time with him since he had to leave soon; I was back on campus close to 9 p.m.

We had a couple of classes on Saturday too. At 2 p.m. we headed to the acad block for a MAC class, we waited, watching YouTube videos on the projector but there was no sign of the professor. Turns out, he wasn’t informed about the class at all. I then headed out to the city to meet a friend who was visiting- this one had all the time in the world and I got back to campus, courtesy Ola, around 10:30 p.m.

The cancelled Finance class was held on Sunday morning after which we headed out to eat. Most people were back to campus by Sunday evening, and just in time too! Starting Monday, we had a rather hectic schedule of classes- 5 of them, each day.

As promised, we had 5 classes on Monday, including an OB class where we discussed the existence and purpose of organizations. We’ll move to learning the details of organizational structure, soon.
Tuesday was all classes too- 5 of them to be precise.
Later in the night, we worked on a brief report on Balanced ScoreCards, for our Industry project- our group has picked an HR project.
Wednesday brings a good change, bang in the middle of the week, in the form of our Industrial Visits. We left campus at around 9:30 a.m. in a larger bus than the usual 24-seater one- ours was one of the last stops along the way and we were seated in the office by 11 a.m. We were to work on an HR Project, focusing on the Rolling Area- the company is divided into functional areas as per the production process that goes into making the steel rods. Within Rolling, there are 5 subareas- Production, Electrical Maintenance, Mechanical Maintenance, Quality and Workshop. We split into three 2-person subgroups and set about meeting the different sub-area heads, gathering information about the process, the employees involved, their work hours, the performance measurement scales and the incentive schemes. The engineers in our group picked up a lot more technical information than we did and we were done by around 3 p.m. The bus was ready to pick us up by around 4 p.m. and we headed back to campus.
All the clubs are in ultra-active mode, conducting events! The Economics Club has come up with a rather interesting sounding event called ‘Snake-o-nomics’ which promises a life-sized Snakes & Ladders game for the finale. Right now, there’s a Consulting Club event in progress, with a Live Project and Rs.5000 on offer as prizes!
Perhaps, this is the result of new-found enthusiasm post the PGP2’s return from their Himalayan Outbound Programme!
There was a Book Launch on campus, this evening- Ishqiyaapa- To Hell with Love by Mr. Pankaj Dubey. There is a candlelight vigil to be held at 10 p.m., today to express our solidarity for the chaos that’s going on over the world.
Also, Utsaha- the Rural Marketing Fest is right around the corner- a Rural Marketing themed quiz titled Utsukta (I credit myself with coming up with a great name!) will be held tonight at 11 p.m. It's just one event after another! And, there's another 5 classes, tomorrow!

Thursday 12 November 2015

12/11/2015



12/11/2015; 17:12:
5th morning began as promised, with a MAC Quiz- the Quiz was fairly simple and based entirely on what we’d discussed in class.
Soon after the MAC Quiz, there was an OM quiz, followed by a QT quiz in the afternoon. Of course, our section got really lucky and we only had the one MAC quiz while a couple of other sections got to write all three. I utilized all the extra free time by sleeping for nearly 20 hours.

I then got about 45 minutes to prepare for the MacroEconomics Mid-Term, the only one that I'd really needed to prepare for, since the others had been open book/ case-based. The MacroEco paper was rather nice and was followed by some food at Mess 2.

The Marketing Paper later in the afternoon was both simple and brief- it took only about half an hour to write out. Then of course, plans were in order for the rest of the evening! We headed to the newly opened 'Sardarji's Punjabi Zyaka Restaurant' for some unexpectedly spicy butter chicken.

Most of 7th was spent sleeping; we ordered some lunch from Bake n Shake and then headed to Chappan in the evening. A lot of people had headed home on 6th evening and most others would be heading home soon. I had a flight to catch, on Sunday morning- and I was home by lunch-time!

It's been a nice 4 days in Mumbai, catching up with friends and my mother. Meanwhile, the IPM-2013 Batch is the only one on campus (other than the FPM guys who're almost always there!)

I now have a flight back to Indore; further updates, straight from IIM-Indore, coming soon!

Wednesday 4 November 2015

05/11/2015



05/11/2015; 05:44:

I think I’ve been procrastinating writing this blogpost forever now! It’s actually been over a week (it's a different month, even!) since I last got around to writing and I haven’t even been that busy. Ah, well, I’ve always been a strong believer in ‘better late than never’ and my belief is only stronger now!

26th began with 5 classes; it was hard getting used to class again, after the endless excitement of the fest. We had a session on Negotiation, in the OB class- we were paired up, each member of the pair was given a role sheet with some information on it- one of each pair was either a buyer or seller for a plot of land- some information was common while some was confidential. We were then asked to negotiate a deal- it was an interesting exercise. The negotiation I engaged in ended in 7 seconds flat. I asked the ‘seller’ if he had a price to offer, he made what I considered to be a fair offer- exactly half-way between both our BATNA’s (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) and I accepted immediately. Some other pairs kept haggling, but only one pair ended up with a ‘No Deal’. The exercise was interesting- some buyers outright cheated their sellers while some sellers made unbelievable profits.
Our Marketing Class for the day was cancelled, for unbeknownst reasons. We then had an OB Quiz at 5 p.m. It was a simple, MCQ quiz based on our understanding of the classroom discussions.
Some ambling around later, we ended up in the night mess- it was one typical day here at IIM-Indore- classes, a quiz and food in the night mess.

Tuesday began well, with a finance class where we were to decided whether or not it makes sense to give out an additional loan to an auto parts manufacturer. Two marketing classes ( one that was already on schedule and a second that was carried forward from being cancelled the previous day) followed where we discussed the importance of customer satisfaction. Our marketing teacher now has a favourite student, courtesy his disagreement with every second point raised in these two classes.
Our OB class was spent discussing motivation and leadership styles. The case in hand dealt with two very different basketball coaches- one a strong believer in discipline and the other who treated his team like family- both were effective in their own way. We were asked to recall times when we had been motivated/ we had motivated others. Ultimately the effectiveness of a coach depends on your own learning style.
Some food and sleep later, I headed to SR-16, the IPM girls' hostel to get résumé iteration done before the deadline set by the IPM social committee. We then had a media Comm meeting, the main agenda of which was to tell the junior team to pull up their socks and get working on some new ideas. Meanwhile, the biggest problem confronting one of our members is the distribution of mice (I'm guessing the plural is still mice, even for the computer ones)- there's a free mouse to everyone who's gotten a year long subscription of a particular magazine and he seems unable to track down all the relevant people.
On 28th October i.e. Wednesday, we were to go on a second visit to our allocated industry. Our group had agreed (by way of democratic voting despite our leader's other interests) to work on the HR project the company had to offer. We got to the venue by 11:30 and discussed our choice of project with their boss. The other group who's been assigned the same company decided after much deliberation to work on a operations project. The guys at the company have rather high expectations of us- they strongly believe that 8 visits will not be nearly enough to do justice to the projects we've undertaken- I really hope we live up to these expectations!
After our confabulation, the HR project seemed like a perfect choice- the company has only just added an HR department and any contribution will be a positive step. We then had lunch, a discussion with the HR head and put in requests for some data relevant to the project before our bus arrived and we decided to head back to campus.
En route, we picked up hot jalebis ( mostly since I'd gotten jalebis into everyone's heads on the morning ride, talking on and on about the staple Indore ( or well, M.P.) breakfast of poha-jalebi).
We were back on campus around 5 p.m. Once the sun was down, we took a long walk around campus, ending up at the Meximus setup where we got nachos and some laughs courtesy a friend doing a really bad job of eating a burrito.
There was a Bengali feast set to begin at 8:30 p.m., courtesy the Bengali community on campus and the (Durga Puja) festive season. After an endless wait (wherein I'd convinced myself and everyone around me that the food was most definitely over), we were finally eating, close to 10 p.m. The food was delicious- I don't really like fish most of the time, but, the fish was awesome! I think it's time I learnt some Bengali-style cooking!
29th morning began with a bunch of classes just as it’s supposed to be. There was a surprise in store, for the OB class. There was a case that was to be a ‘role-play’ but, we were in no way prepared for what was coming our way! A toy manufacturer had been blamed for 2 child deaths resulting from swallowing of small parts- a board room meeting was in progress with all the important people (role playing, by our classmates). As they discussed whether to change the product, do a complete recall or just do nothing, an angry mob stormed into the classroom, with loud cries of ‘Hai Hai Chamanlal, down with Asian Toys’. Sobbing mothers, angry media and concerned activists made up most of the crowd. It looked like the real deal; the angry mob later turned out to be a bunch of management students from the Acropolis Institute nearby. They did a marvellous job of scaring the company management into rethinking their decisions. In one of the sections, shirts were torn even, in the midst of an escalated argument!

After this unexpected excitement, we had a MacroEconomics quiz to write. The quiz was fairly simple, MCQ type. We headed for a walk around campus, somewhere at around 7 p.m. A bunch of ‘watch towers’ were installed along the boundary of the campus, some time ago. They’re now functional and unlocked. We just had to climb up and explore! We picked one close to the new cricket ground and slowly made our way up the winding staircase- the view was nice, the cool winter evening breeze was better!
There was then some pending résumé iteration to be done, so I headed straight to SR-16, later going up to the mess to catch up with people. We then indulged in our last favourite pass time, which involves ‘eating a dear friend’s head’- not literally though, but, it’s good fun (mostly because he doesn’t seem to mind either!)

Just as we were heading back to the hostel a little after 11, I spotted a bunch of people with a basketball and they seemed to be heading in the direction of the basketball court. Of course, I had to join them! Nothing is more fun than 2 hours of midnight basketball!

We didn’t have a lot of classes on Friday i.e. 30th October. We spent two WAC classes talking about a case that dealt with Greenpeace taking on FaceBook- for FaceBook had decided to set up data centres that would not be environmental-friendly enough. Greenpeace’s weapon of choice? A social media campaign driven on FaceBook!
We were then sitting around in my room, in the evening when someone called asking for a basketball; soon enough we were on the court- the growing interest in basketball is a good sign; one can only hope that it is here to stay! After a good game, we walked out Gate-2 to get some good chicken and walked back in record time to get back at exactly 10:30 p.m.!



Saturday morning began with a Marketing Class where we had a rather unusual case at hand- a company wanted to begin manufacturing and marketing eye lenses for chicken!
I have no idea how everyone (the professor included) managed to not make a single reference to the oddity of the product, through the entire discussion.
After lunch, at 2 p.m., there was an event on campus, in view of Utsaha- the Rural Marketing Fest. Class 12 students of the Government School at Manpur, in Janpav Kutti were invited to join the MBA 1st year students for a whole afternoon of activities. A session on ‘Career Counselling: New Ideas’ was held for the students. IIM-Indore Faculty, Prof.Sushanta Kumar Mishra of the OB Department and Prof. Shweta Kushal of the Communications department spoke to the students about the importance of having a goal in life and working towards that goal. Ideas emphasised included the need for self-confidence, having belief in oneself and one’s family and friends are essential to succeed in life. The children were quick to understand that money alone does not equate to success. Peace of mind, helping everyone around you, and being happy in life are much more valuable than material wealth. The children shared their dreams, many want to be doctors and contribute to society. The faculty emphasised the importance of diverse career options- a country cannot function with only doctors and engineers; musicians and artists are necessary too.
Following this, there was an informal interaction with the MBA 1st year students where college and life stories were swapped. Just as this informal interaction was beginning, refreshments arrived- hot samosas. I suggested that everyone eat and we then get back to where we were. No one seemed to understand the problem with letting the samosas get cold. I struck up a conversation with a group of girls sitting in the first row and let them know that the samosas were getting cold. While 2 of them were called on to participate in the first ice-breaker activity that involved introductions, one of them and me snuck out, ate piping hot samosas and were back inside before anyone even realised that we were gone. That done, I headed down to my room to file a press release for the event.
Some refreshments for everyone else and a campus tour that I missed brought the event to a delightful close. The Umeed team is a new addition to Utsaha this year. They plan to undertake social welfare and engagement activities in the village, in the run up to the event; this event was part of the same.
We headed out later in the evening, since Saturday calls for good food i.e. Subway sandwiches. We picked up some bedsheets for a friend while we were out; the best part was leaving them behind in the cab we took back to campus- I’m still in the process of trying to retrieve them- hope that works out well.

The new month began on a Sunday which somehow wasn’t spent sleeping until evening- I was up at 11:30 a.m. We ate lots of fruits and then contemplated ordering some pasta for lunch but eventually decided against it, for no one felt like eating cold food.
Then of course, it was Globe@I to the rescue. Mess 2 has decided to put off cooking any food until the PGP2’s who’ve gone off for their Himalayan Outbound Program (a week-long holiday up in the mountains!) are back.
After all the food, I fell asleep at 8, perhaps planning to be up again by around midnight. But, just like it always is with sleep & me (we’re very happy together, thank you) I was up only at 8 the next morning, right in time for class. Waking up exactly when you should be, without an alarm clock is a wonderful feeling, and having slept for 12 hours in the run up to it leaves for words to be added to the English language.
A wonderful Monday morning, with a few classes before lunch. The last class, right before lunch was WAC where we read through and discussed a case involving a soon-to-graduate Business Administration student who needed to pick between two jobs. It was a very relatable case, for most of the class. We were then informed that we would be writing out a detailed WAC report on the case, post lunch. We made our way to our assigned classrooms for the ‘exam’ which began at 2 and went on until 5 p.m.
By 3 p.m., I was at JAM, eating a chicken sandwich. Here, I met the new IPM Media Committee Coordinator, who handed me a copy of the ‘IPM Oracle’. It’s a new initiative- an IPM newsletter! And, it makes for a very interesting read- a roundup of the events and the gossip on campus!
Recently, I’ve discovered a newly begun business venture in Indore. They’re called ‘LalApple.com’ and they deliver fresh fruits and vegetables right to your doorstep! The fruit-seller on campus doesn’t always have all the fruits & veggies I’m looking for, so, this is perfect! I think I’ve been ordering from them everyday since I discovered them, sometime in the last week of October.
We ate delicious butter chicken at a newly opened restaurant close to campus for dinner. I helped a friend with some OM concepts and in return I was introduced to a nice song! I’ve been listening to it on repeat, for 3 days now! That’s just how I ‘do’ music!

All of Tuesday i.e. 3rd November was spent sleeping save for a single Marketing class at 8:45 a.m.
We spent the evening mostly eating- sandwiches, since Royal Sandwich was on campus, then rolls at Globe@I and even lemonade at Mess2.
We then ambled around, got tea and headed back to the hostel. At 1 a.m., I proceeded to walk around campus and get some more tea- the OB midterm the next day was an open-book one so there was definitely no studying to be done.

I fell asleep somewhere after sunrise and was up at 9, just in time for the paper. The paper was interesting- we had to use three of four lenses- Team Design, Team Identification, Leadership and Trust among team members to analyse what could have been done differently in the given case.
Right after the paper, I slept for 7 hours straight, getting up somewhere in the evening, to eat my freshly-delivered fruits and some fried rice.

That's one long blog post! That's probably what happens when you put off writing for so long! And this, when the three days of IRIS had their own post! I should probably get some sleep, there's a MAC quiz in the morning, soon!






26/10/2015



26/10/2015; 02:00:
IRIS 2015! The event kicked off with the Inauguration Ceremony at 9 a.m., in the Old Auditorium. The Auditorium was packed with a bunch of excited souls, waiting for the actual event to begin after days of excitement.
The event kicked off with an opening speech by Prof. Ganesh who spoke about the large number of events the student community holds on campus. Mr. Parmesh Shahani, Head of Godrej India Culture Lab, Author of Gay Bombay, TED & Yale World Fellow, the keynote speaker for the event spoke emphasised the importance of ‘thinking hatke’, accepting differences, working together, sharing value, to make the best of what we have, the best for everyone involved.
A guest lecture by Dr. Mrs. Janak Palta McGilligan, Padma Shri Awardee, Founder Trustee of Jimmy McGilligan Centre for Sustainable Development followed. She is a well-known name in Indore and around, and runs an educational facility for tribal girls- and the facility is entirely self-sustained- as she said, only 4 things- salt, oil, tea and are sourced from outside the facility!
A short presentation by Mr. Rangarajan Shesardi, the CEO of Neeyamo was up next, followed by a joint press release by him and our IPM Chair, Prof. Ranjeet Nambudri. Neeyamo is an HR Consultancy and the lecture was very interesting- it focused on talent acquisition, the limitless possibilities to recruit talent in an increasingly connected world and the need to build HR leaders.

The events took off soon after- Kalpavriksha- the Social B-Plan competition that had funding from the Dorabji Tata Fund this year began with Dr. Janak Palta as the main judge.
Ashwamedha- our flagship management event began with an ice-breaker session- participants (20 of them) who had been selected after a bunch of online processes were now to spend 3 gruelling days, to find the real leader! Tasks over three days tested them on a whole array of personality traits all of which are touted to be equally important for a leader.

I headed over to watch Kalpavriksha, but after a long speech by the judge, an hour-long lunch break was in order before the actual event would begin. I then bid good-bye to the journalists who didn’t want to eat anything and headed to my room.

Voice of Indore- the Singing event of IRIS was set to begin at 4 p.m. I got help getting dressed since I was to be on stage, hosting the event and headed to the Central Lawn. The judge had gotten delayed on the way and the event began by 4:45 p.m. By this time, Kalpavriksha was nearly over and the details of the winners had to be taken, for the press release to be compiled soon.
The event went well, with me falling into character a few performances in, cracking jokes (oft at my own expense, and at that of my co-host). A large standee of our sponsor, ‘Selfie- the Unisex Salon’ was moved onto stage as we stepped on to introduce the next singer- 18 singers had been selected for the finale after a whole month of city-wide auditions- we decided that the standee was our next performer but it shied away and parked itself next to the stage instead.
Right after Voice of Indore, the group dance event of Lasya was set to happen. I got to host this one too. There were 7 teams, each better than the next. And, they had a bunch of crazy names, from ‘D Injectors’ to ‘The Danciners’ Yard’!