21/02/2016

20/02/2016; 07:02:

Once back from the Lasya party, I headed over to Mess 1 to pick up a birthday cake that’d been kept there for safekeeping. The whole setup was ready right before midnight and two cakes were cut to the sounds of ‘Happy Birthday’- it was my neighbour’s birthday and my room was to be hosting the party. Of course, the party ended soon enough once both cakes had been eaten.

There was a single SM class on 18th morning post which we lay around doing pretty much nothing until another Sustainability class at 5 p.m. We then headed out in the evening as part of the aforementioned neighbour’s birthday celebration.

19th February began early in the morning with the usual 8:45 a.m. class. Somehow, it feels like I’ve been awake forever and that it’s definitely been more than a single day. It has been about 24 hours- and a very eventful 24 hours at that too!
We had a presentation to give, in the Sustainability class- somehow, incredibly, our whole group had worked equitably on this project and our work was well appreciated. The 10:15 slot was randomly empty- somehow, the PGP Office does not realise the uselessness of having this slot empty when there are classes both right after and right before it. 75 minutes is not enough time to run back to your room and catch a nap and 75 minutes is also too much time to sit around and wait for the next class. This problem was solved for the day since a Leadership workshop session managed to be scheduled. The Leadership Workshop is a 2-credit course, this term. A group of 10-12 students have been assigned a mentor each, from the PGP2 batch- these mentors are responsible for conducting the sessions as well as for the evaluation. Today’s session dealt with making an extempore speech, 2-3 minutes long, on a random topic. My topic was ‘If you don’t participate in the rat race, you will end up a dead rat’. After this, there was an interesting Finance class, post which we received an email announcing a LAB quiz at 5 p.m.
I headed down to my room to get some work done- there was a pre-process to be submitted to be part of the Voice of Indore Senior Team, for IRIS 2016. It was a simple, interesting and very relevant pre-process which included preparing the budget for the event, designing the pre-process for the selection of the junior team and listing your contribution as a member of the junior team. I then attempted to study for the quiz but gave up soon enough and headed to the Hostel Office to book a guest room for a friend is visiting soon.

21/02/2016; 11:29:

I went up to the Acad Block for the quiz which was very interesting- the first part had 15 short cases along with their verdict. One had to merely agree or disagree with the decision that had been taken. The second part was a few True/False statements.
While all sections had managed to have a section party in the first term itself, ours was long overdue. Despite being pegged the ‘party section’, we were the only ones to not have had one- this was to change soon i.e. on the 19th of Feb. We all headed to Rider’s Republic for our much-awaited section party. There was music, food, dancing and someone had even taken on the role of official photographer!
Once back, we all ran to the Old Audi for a batch-meet scheduled to begin at 11:45 p.m. By around 11:50 p.m., the whole batch was seated in the Audi, waiting for the meeting to begin. Just as the Coordinator began to make his way across the stage, to the podium to begin speaking, a dog darted in the door, dashed onto the stage and stood triumphantly at the podium while the Coordinator looked on, shocked. The entire auditorium broke into spontaneous laughter while the dog who was clearly enjoying the attention decided to get up close and personal with his new-found fans. So for the next ten minutes, the Placement Committee members proceeded to chase the dog around the auditorium- up the stairs, down the stairs, across the stage- while everyone looked on. By now, the auditorium had split into two teams- one cheering for the dog and the other rooting for the Placement Team. We figured that the dog was probably looking for a placement too; and the placement team members now had a new item added to their job description. Eventually, some security staff made some appearance, armed with their sticks and managed to chase the star out of the back door!
As the Audi grew silent once again, I yelled across the floor to wish someone a Happy Birthday for the clock had just struck twelve. This was cue for everyone to start singing- some of them didn’t even know her name, but that didn’t stop anyone.

Eventually, order was resumed and the meeting began with apologies for the delay due to ‘technical glitches’. The senior batch had been working hard, through the year, preparing material for both our summer placements as well as their own final placements. It was decided that a separate Placement Preparation Committee was to be formed, to take on this task, from the new year forth. This was to ensure that we had original content being created, the content was relevant specifically to IIM-Indore and the working was efficient. The Committee will have about two members for each domain to ensure that all bases are covered. Applications for the committee were thrown open shortly after the meeting.

I headed down to the hostel, planning to sleep. But, that was not to be. Less than half an hour later, I was on the football field, yelling at the top of my lungs. The campus IPL began two days ago and a match had just started at 1 a.m. - one team managed to win an ‘all-out’ victory in all of 10 overs. A second match then began at around 3 a.m. Somewhere towards the end of the second innings, a fight broke out. The batsman had hit the ball towards the boundary in what he thought was a perfect six. A fielder had managed to jump in the air and strike the ball inwards, straight into the hands of a waiting team member. After a few moments of deliberation, the umpire declared the batsman out. The entire batting team and their rather large group of supporters broke into loud screams declaring that the shot was most definitely a six. A 45-minute argument then followed where the rules of cricket from different sources were googled, interpreted and misinterpreted. The fielding team kept insisting that the umpire’s first decision ought to be the final one. Two other umpires had also joined in as had all the members of the Sports Committee. Eventually, someone announced that the decision taken by the Sports Comm. would be final. Then, they proceeded to have a meeting right there, in the middle of the ground while everyone looked on. Finally, the ball was declared a dead ball and the game continued. The batting team won the game, a few balls later; it was 5 a.m., by this point and some cheering later, everyone was back in their rooms.

I decided to stay up and wait on the sunrise. Some mindless gossip later, I was on my table, writing, watching the sun come up. Happy, I eventually fell asleep.

I got up close to 4 p.m. on 21st, all ready to go for class at 5 p.m. The PGP Office had managed to troll me- they’d sent in an email at around 11 a.m. announcing that the 5 p.m. class had been preponed to 3:30 p.m. If only they’d sent in this email the night before. But then, no one else really sets an alarm for 4 p.m.

In the evening, we headed out for dinner since it was a close friend’s birthday. Some nice food later, we were back on campus. There were some interviews going for, to ascertain the senior teams for the various Iris events. Some aimless ambling around later, I was back in my room and fast asleep.

And I’m now up on a Sunday morning, even though I do not know why. Life’s good!