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!