26/05/2015

25/05/15; 01:00:

And, a second eventful week in Banglore is about to draw to a close. This week has perhaps been better than the last; if this keeps up, my last week here will be beyond beautiful!

I was last writing on Monday evening; perhaps we can pick up from there.

I went into work on Tuesday morning, working on matching data for 2015, on the same donor reactions. I then drew up a summary of all the missing data; the next task is to try and procure most of this missing data, by getting in touch with the blood banks involved.

I was woken up early on Wednesday morning with a new task at hand- arranging meetings with blood banks at a short notice was rather impossible; a list of probable target companies had been drawn up and I was to visit them and talk to their HR people about the possibility of us conducting a blood donation drive at their organization. A large part of the voluntary blood collected comes from college students and during this time of the year, most colleges are either closed or conducting exams- this of course leads to a deficit in blood supply. Add to this the fact that many surgeries are scheduled at this time of the year and the dengue cases and we have a situation where a shortage of blood is faced- desperate calls for even common blood groups like O+ve and B+ve become an unwanted reality. Our best effort to try and cull this is to try to meet some of this deficit through upping our donation drives in corporate offices (mainly IT companies).

I walked around some part of Banglore, visiting or more accurately attempting to visit the HR people in different organizations. I encountered a variety of responses- from asking me to come back on Friday to telling me how the activity for the quarter (in this case, a visit to an orphanage) had already been undertaken. I tasted delightfully sweet success too- the best response was at the very last company that onI visited- their HR manager took time out to hear me talk about Our organization, asked me questions and shall most probably get in touch with us rather soon! During the course of my visits, I also found that one of the companies had nicely shut shop and moved their office elsewhere; two offices were untraceable (though I had a successful telephonic conversation with one of them!) and I also had a job offer from one of the companies that I visited!

I got back home and updated the results of my curious wandering on the portal. We headed out to a place which had a karaoke night that evening; we later met an old friend before heading back.

I was up early on Thursday morning, to head to Wipro’s campus in Electronic City. There’s an awesome flyover, which I hear is almost 10 k.m. long that we took to get there- the Wipro campus is rather big and has some 12 different entry gates- the BMTC even runs a multitude of bus routes to Wipro Gate 3 and back!
It was to be a large blood donation camp, with two blood banks in tow- ESI & NIMHANS. I got myself masala dosa from their cafeteria- much to my disappointment, it wasn’t very good; a couple of employees I spoke to concurred with me. We collected nearly 250 units of blood that day. I also met a nervous donor who’s now a good friend- it’s simple protocol to be talking to & distracting a nervous/ first-time donor; following protocol was never this good!

On Friday, I was at the Bosch campus in Bommanhalli which isn’t too far from Koramangla- it’s about a third of the way to where I’d been the previous day( i.e. Electronic City). The blood bank this time around was Bowring; I’d been informed that they are very efficient, and, they definitely were! The drive was conducted in a conference room- replete with a large immovable table in the centre! It kind of let the whole process- pre-donation, bleeding and post-donation have a cyclical feel to it. Just like last week, when we were at the Bosch campus at Marathalli, we collected exactly 147 units of blood- this was almost one-and-a-half times what we’d been told to expect (and, this was after we’d had to refuse people and send them away due to paucity of time and blood bags!)- the response was very overwhelming!
At one point, we ran out of the ‘Thank You’ cards that we hand out to the donors, post-donation- these have a couple of precautions and our Blood Helpline Number listed on them. Hence, I was to spell out the precautions orally and get people to save the helpline number on their phones instead. It was at this point that I realised that most people just watch me speak, without listening to what I have to say! I’m not sure why this is the case, but, well, it is. After I’d tell people to save the number, they’d just nod; with some people, repeating myself and asking them to pull out their phones worked; with a few, that failed too! They’d just smile and nod at me!

Friday evening was rather interesting- nice dinner followed by a look-around at Banglore city, by night!

Saturday morning began late; my parents had decided to drop by and say hello while on their tour of South India. Post-lunch, I was at People Tree Hospital, Yeshwantpur- The organization I work with was celebrating their 12th anniversary! The event consisted of a series of talks by a lot of people who have been associated with them over the last 12 years and specifically over the last 2 years. The event was very motivational- the things we’ve been doing, the things that we are doing and the things that we will be doing! All the people associated with them are wonderful and it was a nice setting to be in!

Sunday began with a nice lunch and a lazy afternoon; this was followed by late-evening coffee and an animated dinner! It ended with watching the IPL Final that Mumbai very deservingly won!! Huh, that sounds like an awesome Sunday!

26/05/15; 00:31:

Today was spent mostly in writing out a report about my second week at work! That and I should probably get to sleep!

18/05/2015

18/05/15; 20:51:

It’s been an eventful first week in Banglore! I walked down to my new workplace on Saturday morning (9th May). I got an introduction to the organization- how it all began, how it functions, their goals, beliefs and an insight into my role, working with them, over the summer. It’s a really small organization (I met most of the team!) in terms of human resource; but, it is very large in terms of the impact that they have and are creating! I will be dealing with collating data for an imminent scientific paper, organizing blood donation drives and creating awareness about the importance & benefits of voluntary blood donation.

After the short introduction, I made my way to M.G Road which is one of the most famous locations in Banglore! We walked down to Indiranagar and got ourselves good food and dessert to match! I walked back some way to where we’ve put up; en route, I made a mental note of the multiple nice-looking food places that I passed by!

Sunday was mostly spent lazing around and eating!

11th May i.e. Monday morning (maybe I’ll just call it Day#1) was my first real day at work! I sat around, tallying data off physical forms with the data on the online database. I also met some more members of the team; I also got a look at the different websites and apps that are in use.
We got ourselves some Andhra-special food from Nagarjuna for dinner! (This followed an attempt at spending time at Dice n’ Dine- the board game cafe; we shall go there again, with more people!)

Tuesday (Day#2) began at about the same time as Monday, around 9:30 a.m. Work that had begun on Monday was wrapped by Tuesday evening; I shall follow up on gathering the missing data early next week.

I was to attend my first blood donation camp in capacity of a member of the organizing team on Wednesday i.e. 13th May at EIC-Telecom at ITPL, Whitefield. I walked down to Silk Road Junction to get myself on a bus to Whitefield (which is about 20 k.m. away). I got there a little after 1, for the camp that was to begin by 2 p.m. i.e. right after lunch. I watched the setup very curiously- there was a pre-donation area where donors were to fill out forms detailing their medical history; then, there was a team of technicians and a doctor, carrying out a general physical examination of the potential donors- including their weight, Blood Pressure, Haemoglobin and Blood group; next was the bleeding area, where the actual blood donation happens- each donor was handed a labelled blood bag and directed to an empty bed. There was, on an average, one phlebotomist (the technician who bleeds the donor) to every two donors.
The last bit of arrangement was the post-donation area- where mandated refreshments- about 200ml juice and a pack of biscuits were handed to the donors, along with a list of precautions that they should follow for the next few hours.
The donors started rolling in almost as soon as the camp began; there is a set of requisite questions that must be asked of each potential donor- related to food, sleep, medication, alcohol and drugs.
The camp wrapped at around 5 p.m.; about 20 units of blood were collected that day!
Later, I accompanied Arpit (the guy at work whom I’ve been shadowing) to a meeting with the HR head at Aegis; in the next building- we’re looking to organize a blood donation camp there, in the near future.
I was back by late evening and headed out to join my new Banglore room-mate (still my batch-mate at IPM!) who was meeting an old friend for dinner!

14th May aka Thursday was spent at a Blood Donation Camp at Robert Bosch at Marathalli. This is also where my new boss works, on the side (So, the NGO I work with is run by a small, enthusiastic team of young people who are software engineers by day and the NGO guys all the time!). This camp was very well organized; I’d made a mental note of how it was the best blood donation camp I’d attended – the events over the next two days verified this!
I got back rather late; we had rasam-chawal for dinner, at the PG and tried to get to sleep early.

After getting to sleep only post-midnight, I was up a little before 4 a.m., and ready to head to Mysore on the 5:40 a.m. train. A cab and Arpit picked me up from my PG; we spent the three hours on the train talking and then sleeping.
Once in Mysore, we had chicken curry and parrotas for breakfast, right outside the Wipro Mysore campus. The Blood donation camp began a little after 10 a.m.; we had a very large number of women donors coming in, here!
A little after 6 p.m., I was on an inter-city bus, back to Bangalore; thanks to the famous Bangalore traffic I only got home by 11 p.m.

Early the next morning, i.e. the morning of Saturday 16th May, I made my way to Ittina Neela Apartments at Electronic City. I managed to get terribly lost on my there (even falling asleep on the bus and missing my stop by a good 10 kilometres!) and got to the venue only by 10:30; the camp began by 11 a.m. We had our expectations set rather high and were disappointed by the donor turnout. I made a new friend in a bubbly 3-year old whose mother donated blood! It began to rain (I think it was most definitely a thunderstorm) around 2 p.m. post which we lost power too. I got back, soaking wet, by 8 p.m.

Most of Sunday was spent sleeping in; I then got myself Masala Dosa for breakfast- I also learnt the right way to eat a Masala Dosa! I then met an old friend for lunch; we spent a lot of hours talking. I got to sleep early, and then proceeded to get up late on Monday morning.

There was a report of my activities of the past week to be compiled, so, I got working on that! I also got my bag fixed; in other happier news, I finally bought an umbrella and fixed the button on my jeans! Looking to a good dinner, now!

09/05/2015

09/05/15; 08:43:

Let’s just pretend that it’s still the 5th and I’m still on campus! So, our last paper for the year, our last ever exclusive paper as the IPM 2012 batch ended close to 11 a.m., on the 5th of May! Everyone hurriedly packed up – packed up their room into cartons to be left behind in the cloak-room while we were out and packed up some essential bits & pieces into suitcases to be carried to our place of internship!

A couple of good-byes later, people began to leave; it began as a trickle of people leaving on early afternoon flights, it almost became a flood around 2 p.m. (that’s close to when the trains to Delhi/Bombay/everywhere else leave Indore station!), turning into a trickle, by the dinner-time! About half the batch managed to leave on the 5th; the other half would probably repeat this setup on 6th!
We got on a 10:45 (p.m.!) bus to Bombay (It was supposed to be a 9:15 bus, but, well, technical difficulties got in the way)

We got to Bombay, by around 10 a.m., on the 6th. We spent the day wandering around parts of Mumbai, eating; We then made our way to Bangalore- it took us nearly 24 hours to get there!

I stepped foot in Bangalore, on the afternoon of 8th May! We then made our way to some predetermined accommodation, close to Forum Mall.

I’m not really sure if the details of what happens in Bangalore ought to form part of the ‘Life @ IPM, IIM-I’; but then, it is as part of my social internship which of course is part of the course curriculum.

Anyway, I’ll go visit my soon to-be workplace at around 10:30. I’d tried going in earlier and failed; I’m currently sitting around, waiting, thinking!

05/05/15

05/05/15; 04:50:

Let’s get to the beginning of this month, before anything else.

The morning of 1st May began with an end term – the first of the total 7- ‘Introduction to Medicine’. We hadn’t managed to get any preparation done, but, the paper was fairly simple (being based on general facts about the human body/diseases that most people ought to know).
The afternoon paper was on Introduction to Business History. It was an open-book exam—that’s not usually a good thing- it only means more difficult, analytical questions. Of course, it also means that we get complacent with the preparation. The paper was fairly interesting. Right after the paper, I made my way to the IPM Office, to collect my internship documents- my offer letter, the internship guidelines and an evaluation form in a sealed envelope. My offer letter looks beautiful; the internship guidelines are very specific- a report has to be submitted about the internship and everything; the evaluation form has to be submitted to the mentor at the organization concerned, on the very first day at work- its contents are secret; it shall be duly sealed and returned, on the last working day- it must then be handed in to the IPM Office- I get to transport a form back and forth without getting so much as a peek at its contents!

Both the papers the next day were touted to be difficult- Game Theory and Development Economics. We attempted to hold interviews for the various vertical heads for i-Help, that evening; there was a movie scheduled to be screened, like every Saturday- fortunately, we did manage to hold the interviews even though we had to postpone them to later in the night! We then tried at hand at preparing for the two papers the next day.

A single A4 size sheet of notes was allowed to be carried to the examination hall, for the Social Media End Term- of course, the paper involved devising a Social Media Strategy for an Educational Board Games related start-up and the ‘cheat sheet’ was entirely useless. The PR paper later in the afternoon was a mix of theory-based questions and two case studies- one involving identifying the mistakes in a PR campaign undertaken by a company and the other involving picking out and detailing a PR campaign for a company. Right after the exam, I got to taking interviews for the Hospitality Vertical for Utkarsha- the Social Fest- the interviews had followed a short pre-process where in 275 words both the span of activities of the Hospitality vertical as well as operational difficulties (last year as well as anticipated) were to be detailed. As soon as the interviews ended, I got to the newly made, ready to be inaugurated IPM SAC Office in SR-07! We gloriously cut the pink ribbon to applause and merriment; everyone then entered the space and a perfectly-placed cake was then cut (and quickly eaten, of course!) 3rd May, 20:45- Inauguration of the IPM SAC Office- the moment ought to go down in IPM history!
The IPM 2012 Last ever Batch Party began at 9:30 p.m., with food, drink and excellent music! The dancing went on until late in the night- of course, many, many pictures were also clicked, all through the night!

4th May aka Monday was an Institute holiday and I slept until 4 p.m., very nicely missing my chance to sign the IPM SAC Registration documents as one of the three founding members. We walked around campus in the evening; elections for the various vertical heads for Utkarsha were held from around 8:30 to nearly 11 p.m.
I then spent the next few hours talking to my roommate, over countless bottles of Thums Up and food from the Night Mess. It was our last night as roommates and we made the most of it, indulging in good conversation, curious questions and some confessions!

There’s a paper that’s to happen at 9:30 (in a few hours!). Haven’t gotten any studying done, but, getting some sleep is important- being awake for the paper is obviously more important than having stuff to write in the paper; off to bed!

30/04/2015

30/04/2015; 20:41:

29th began with a shock- the front page of the national edition of Hindustan Times’ weekly education supplement had an article that spoke badly of the IPM programme- the article had been driven by a distraught student who had left the programme, after our 1st year. Such negative press had to be dealt with, as soon as possible- also, it had to be ensured that none of us go around making any remarks that may be misinterpreted. An e-mail from the Director followed; that helped cool things down for we were then aware that it was being dealt with at an appropriate level.
29th was the last day when we had actual classes, for the 9th term- the last term of the 3rd year! We had a Development Economics Quiz that was rather difficult and only 30 minutes long. Lunch was followed by PR classes. We had an assignment to present- an organization that’s facing a scandal or one that’s looking to launch something new was to be picked and a PR campaign prepared to help them combat the situation / reach stakeholders effectively. We picked up the currently hot issue of #BlackLivesMatter, following killings of unarmed black men at the hands of the police, in the USA. The police needs to win back public faith and rebuild lost trust. That’s exactly what our solution aimed to do- now that I think about it, we should probably see if we can actually get our ideas implemented! Other scandals picked up included the FlipKart Big Billion Day fiasco, KFC’s problems in China, Malaysia Airlines and their missing aircrafts, the idea of Car-Pooling and the recent LensKart goof-up in wake of the Nepal Earthquake.
We had a class at 5 p.m. which was our last exclusive ‘IPM’ class. The next time we’ll find ourselves attending a lecture on campus, it’ll be with the new PGP guys, not all our IPM batch anymore.
A group photograph was thus clicked at the end of class followed by some nominal celebration.

Later in the evening, I spent some time with the newly selected Media Comm. team. At around 10 p.m., I sat down to hold interviews for the Utkarsha team. Since Utkarsha wasn’t very big last year, there wasn’t really a specific team organizing it; this year, however, a team will be selected. I held interviews for the Head of the Media & PR team as well as the Head of the Logistics Team. Two coordinators for Utkarsha were chosen, earlier in the week.

I got the hostel a little after 2 a.m.; we talked for a while, since it was kind of our last few days as just our IPM batch.

I got up early this morning (surprisingly) and made my way to F-104 to have a look at the PR Quiz papers. We spent some time talking to the PR professor, before retreating to the hostel. The IPM SAC Treasurer is in the process of wrapping up the accounts for this year; he’s been making phone calls, confirming expenses and matching what the club/committee coordinators have to say with his records.

Post this, I wrapped up some pending interviews from the night before. This was followed by a trip to the Pi-Shop; we spoke to the newly selected vertical heads of Atharv, sharing with them all what could have been better; we also discussed ideas for expansion.

Some food later, I was back here, typing this!

30/04/2015

25/04/2015

25/04/15; 03:35:

The 24th, as we were prepared to expect was rather busy. The day began with a PR Quiz- the nice part was that the Quiz had 20 fairly simple Multiple Choice Questions. Right after, we had a World Politics class where a couple of groups put up presentations on topics ranging from relations between Kenya and China to the Non-Proliferation Treatment. The Introduction to Business History class was spent on a group presentation that dealt with Crompton Greaves, Kiloskar Industries and United Breweries.
Post lunch, we had a Game Theory class where an assignment submission was due. We spent some time discussing the ‘nucleolus’ solution to cooperative games. Post this, there was an Introduction to Medicine Quiz- this again was a Multiple Choice Questions only Quiz. A short Introduction to Medicine class followed where we spoke about HIV/AIDS. This term has had an emphasis on group assignments; only 2 courses of the 8 this term had mid-term exams!

Later in the evening, we headed to Mess 2 to get ourselves some cold coffee; there was a Music Club event that was to begin at 8 p.m. The event titled ‘Students’ Choice Awards’ was slated to be a platform for faculty-student interaction. There were songs to be sung, by the faculty and the students- solos, duets and group performances. It was a democratic platform; based on mutual consensus arrived at via a yelling match, two 1st prizes were given to the faculty members- for a solo performance and for a duet performance! It was amazing to see our faculty taking to the stage and joining us in singing our loud to a beautiful evening! Everyone appreciated the idea of the event and there was again a mutual consensus to hold a second edition of the event- even more participation from the faculty members has been promised!

The event ended only by 11 p.m.; right after there were interviews to be taken for the Industry Interaction Cell! The interviews ended only by 3:30 a.m. and now, I ought to be off to sleep!

23/04/2015

23/04/15; 19:30:

And, I’m currently settled in the library, attempting to work on the multiple assignments and quizzes that for some unbeknownst reason are all on the 24th & 25th of April. After a whole 12-week long term, everything happens tomorrow!
The Development Economics assignment was finally compiled, late in the night and presented in the class on the 20th. Our choice of topic was excellent (we picked an easily explicable topic) and sir did not ask us more than 2-3 questions at the end of the presentation.
The evening of 20th April was spent on the last Media Comm pre-process before the interviews; it entailed Content Creation- content was to be created for the soon to-be updated IIM-Indore website. Short write-ups about each club/committee were prepared and then edited.
We made it to the final round of #Adster- the pan-India hunt for the most creative minds that is being organized by the Activity Club. However, the poster must be submitted by midnight today and, we haven’t really gotten working.
On 21st morning, we had a Game Theory quiz which was surprisingly simple. Right after, we had a session as part of an ongoing workshop on ‘Team-Building & Time Management’. We did a few simple exercises that made us realise that each and every one of us has inherent biases, some driven by stereotypes and our interaction with the world around us. We’ve been learning about Corporate Branding in our PR course and the concept is rather interesting; we were talking and concurred that a lot of us actually really enjoy watching advertisements, more so if they are well-made!
Later in the evening, elections were held, in order to appoint the Vertical Heads for the various verticals for Atharv ’15. That evening, we managed to take out some time to head out to O2 café- O2 has a Lebanese food festival going on and we got some delectable food to enjoy.
At around 11:30 p.m., we held interviews for the Media Committee hopefuls. The interviews ran till 2 a.m., with everyone having a lot of rather interesting things to say. All the pre-processes sent in were also very interesting- the freedom given also lead to a large variety of responses- including a Listicle on why Listicles are awesome, a take on the management lessons that the Media Comm. can draw from the big screen, opinion-pieces, a proposal for a Quiz Club, reflections and even a magazine titled ‘Media Committee Insider’ that had gossip, inside stories and more!

We had a solitary early morning class on the 22nd; post-lunch, we sat down to watch ’12 Angry Men’ as part of the ‘Team-Building & Time-Management Workshop’- this movie built on the ideas that we’d earlier discussed in class.
There was a pre-dinner i-Help meeting, perhaps the last meeting of the whole team, before we handover the reins to the junior Batch! Interviews for selection shall be held, probably on the 24th & 25th.
Post-dinner, there was a conference call with the Media Team of the upcoming I-Summit- a 2-day entrepreneurship carnival that’s the brainchild of the E-Cell. It shall entail guest lectures, a panel discussion and will culminate in a competition where 15 teams get 15 minutes each to pitch their start-up, for a shot at a 15 lakh investment in their business. The event hopes to bring together venture capitalists and young start-ups.
Later, we got working on our Social Media Project; we collected a fairly large amount of respondent data. We’re analyzing YouTube stars in India- what makes them popular, what makes them click, whether people enjoy adverts and more! Hopefully, the information that we gather will be useful to the incoming Media Comm. Team, for a lot of the 2013 batch kids seem rather interested in using YouTube in a big way, to let the world know about IPM.
The highlight of today was by far the 2-hour long meeting that the SAC-EC and the newly selected SAC-C and SAC-T had with the new Hostel & Student Affairs Chair. A couple of issues were discussed including the hostel In-time for the IPM students, the new hostel blocks, installation of WiFi, revamping of the sound system in the Old Auditorium and coaches for various sports. The highlight of course was that the registration process for the IPM SAC has been initiated!

Mirage- the Creative Club began a rather interesting initiative- Mirage ka Taaj- awards for the IPM batch moving from the 3rd to the 4th year (to be with the PGP). Nominations were called for, under various categories; all IPM participants were free to nominate their seniors, juniors, friends and foes! There were almost 20 different award titles thought of by Mirage and a few others added on by enthusiastic others! The most nominated people in each category (4-6) were put on the final list- and the 2012 batch then got to vote for the most apt candidate in each category! The Award Ceremony will be held on the evening of 26th! A lot of the titles are very interesting- I think I’ll put in the details, after the ceremony.

There is a Public Relations Quiz, in the morning; there is also an Introduction to Medicine quiz; our SM assignment must be completed as must the Game Theory assignment. To end on a happy note, Photon, the Photography Club has agreed to hold a photo-shoot on the evening of 26th April! Group pictures of different clubs/committees and more shall be clicked! We shall also work on a YearBook, soon- these pictures shall come handy.

19/04/2015

19/04/15; 20:45:

And, the Industrial Visit to Pune was rather awesome. It all began with us getting ourselves on the bus- 3 AC Sleeper buses had been arranged. All the girls were on one bus- this bus was brand new and out on its first ever journey!
We got to Pune at around 10:30, on the morning of 14th April. Some breakfast later, we were en route to the IT Park of Pune- in three groups- one each heading to Infosys, Wipro & TCS. We were given a short talk and shown a video of how the organization grew from its inception to today. We were then shown around the campus- the IT companies all had large, college-like campuses, replete with living quarters and a recreation centre. The Infosys campus houses the largest gym in all of Pune. An excellent lunch later, we made our way to Forbes Marshall. A second group visited Thermax. We were shown a short video and then taken around the manufacturing area- boilers et al. We got off the bus, en route to the hotel and set off to explore Pune. We got onto a local transport bus, and got off at Shivaji Nagar- rather close to Ferguson College. The whole F.C road is a rather student-friendly place, what with street shopping and good food that’s not too hard on the bank. We walked along the road, eating and looking (and shopping a little!). We got kairi off a tapri, got excellent dosas and finally settled for dinner at Good Luck Café which is known for its non-vegetarian food. Since it was Ambedkar Jayanti, there was a host of celebration in full swing at the Shaniwarwada Fort, a little distance away!
We got back to the hotel a little before 10 p.m., which was the stipulated deadline. This was followed by attempts to attend the Karaoke Night happening in the hotel. (We had put up at VITS/ Orchid) – of course, our attempts failed, since the hotel had decided to keep the venue shut, on account of Ambedkar Jayanti.
Early the next morning, one group set out to visit the manufacturing plant of JCB- which makes earth-moving machinery- and were awed by the large machinery. Two other groups set out to visit Polyplastics and Kalyani Forge. Polyplastics makes a large range of plastic parts for automobile companies. Both groups then headed to FIAT, where we saw cylinder valves, cylinder blocks and crank shafts being made. We also saw cut-sections of different diesel and petrol engines. After this, it was an almost two-hour ride back to Pune city. All of the bus got off at Koregaon Park- the ‘happening’ area of Pune. Three of us rode on, and got off only close to Ferguson College where I met some old friends, Shruti caught up with her sister and Angaee visited her relatives. We also ate excellent Pav Bhaji before getting back to the hotel. We also managed to squeeze in a bike ride- it had rained earlier in the day and the weather was nice!
Early the next morning, one group visited Finolex cables while another set out for Steelcase. This trip ended a little after mid-day, leaving us with a few hours to take in as much of Pune as we could. We headed out to treat ourselves to some excellent Malwani Food- Surmai Fry, Paplet (Pomfret) Curry and Bombil (Bombay Duck), Sol Kadhi (traditional Marathi drink made of coconut milk & kokum berries) and Kombdi (Chicken) Wade. Post this, we headed to the famous Kayani Bakery and picked up a couple of boxes of their excellent Shrewsbury biscuits. We also ate some mulberries on the way, before parking ourselves at German Bakery.
Some food later, we walked towards the famous Osho Garden, passing shops selling Osho chappals and more. The place was rather serene; we even saw peacocks. We then ate excellent risotto at Dario’s before catching a cab to head back to the hotel. We stopped at Satguru’s- the art gallery- en route; we also picked up Vada Pav.
We’d already packed our stuff before heading out. We picked up our luggage and got on the buses, all ready to head back to Indore after an interesting, well-enjoyed vacation.
We reached Indore around 10:30, the next morning i.e. 17th April to a breakfast of Aloo Parathas and Poha. We then attempted to get some studying done since there was a World Politics Mid-Term at 3 p.m.
After the paper, we began the pre-process for the selection of the Media & PR Committee team for next year. The nominations had come in on the 16th. We met the applicants at 6:30 p.m., conducted a surprise general awareness quiz and then proceeded to tell them exactly what the Media Committee does. There was a press release to be done, that evening which we then did right in front of them, for they need to have an idea of what exactly they’ve signed up for! We then ran a series of group discussions, on topics suggested by the applicants themselves.
We then explained the written pre-process to them- they had 700 words, to send in anything that they liked –an SoP, a résumé, an article, a letter, the media comm. budget i.e. just about anything was welcome, only the word limit had to be stuck to. Right after this, the Acad Comm. Interviews began at 9:30 p.m.
We went to watch the semi-final of the ICL – the Cricket League; Round 1 of the Creative Club’s Ad-Making event Adster began at 11 p.m.- it was an online quiz based on brands, advertising, taglines and more. We then worked on our Social media project before falling asleep.

Most of 18th was spent in class. On the evening of 19th, we held the practical task as part of the Media Comm. Pre-process- all the applicants were given information about an upcoming Film-Making event being organized by Adaa- the IPM Drama Club. Each one then spoke to a journalist from a different newspaper, composed the e-mail that was to be sent out and even did the follow-up.

Right after this, the voting for the Acad Comm. Coordinator was held. I sat around, watching, writing this!

There’s now a Development Economics assignment to be done! The Game Theory assignment is rather interesting- we were asked to find a real life problem and apply game theory to it. We’ve chosen to apply Game Theory to the Greek Credit Crisis, the internet.org issue and the relations that Russia & USA have with Cuba.

13/04/2015

13/04/2015; 18:26:

We had two Social Media classes on Saturday, until 6:15 p.m.; right after, we met in the library to do some sort of research for our debate.
The debate began a little after 8 p.m.; there were two judges, one faculty from our institute and another Literature professor from IIT-Indore. It was a 4-person team, with each speaker speaking for 5 minutes. The topic for the debate was ‘This House Believes that the United Nations as an institution has failed in its role’. We got to be the proposition. The back-and-forth of arguments was followed by a 20-miunte open house session where the other team, the audience as well as the judges threw questions. At the end of the rather closely-contested debate, we spent several terse moments waiting for the judges to come up with the results. We did win! The best speaker was from the IIT-Indore team.
Meanwhile, the Group dance event began in the New Auditorium. Performances included Classical dance forms as well as Contemporary and Salsa. A Photography Exhibition, old-school style was held right at the entrance of the Sports Complex. There were 7 pictures a side, on display. The art of viewing photographs is one that is rather big in the west; this is an art form that never really took off in India, what with all the Social media that abounds. It is indeed an art form to be embraced and celebrated; giving people food for thought while sparking off something new was the motive behind holding the Exhibition. Later, a little after 10 p.m., the Finals of the Quiz began. There were 6 teams- three from IIM and three from IIT. The Quiz was won by team Delta, from IIT-Indore; Team Bravo from IIM came a close second.

IIM-Indore won the overall trophy; there was grand celebration at winning the face-off. Pleasantries were exchanged and the IIT-Indore students left campus, with both sides promising a bigger, better challenge the next time around.

A little after 11 p.m., the interviews for the Atharv Media and Participation teams took off, as scheduled. The Pi-Quiz interviews had been held a little earlier; the Participation interviews were also held. The junior batch is very enthusiastic!

Most of 12th was spent trying to begin working on the Project for the Social Media course, without too much success. Later in the night, we held interviews (a group discussion to be precise) to select the Control Centre team for Atharv. This shall be a small 4-5 member team which will do exactly what the name suggests!

Some vertical interviews are done; some others shall happen after the 17th. Meanwhile, interviews for the 2014 batch shall be conducted by the already short-listed members of the 2013 Batch.

The 2012 Batch is off to Pune. We’re off on a 4-day Industrial Visit! All my packing is done; the bus is at the Acad Block reception; I’ll just be off!

11/04/2015

11/04/2015; 01:53:

Day 1 of the IIT v/s IIM face-off just got to a close.

So, let’s catch where we left off and get to today. Wednesday was pretty uneventful, through the day. We almost caught ourselves heading out to Indore city to pick up some items needed for the Face-Off, but, that was put on hold. Right after class, a few of us (including the entire Photon team) assembled in NLT9, looking through photographs- those clicked by the Photon team members themselves as well as those sent in by members of the IIM community. 7 best clicks of the many wonderful ones that we had were to be picked. We did narrow down to about 20 that day- the final shortlist was curated the next day. Right from there, I headed down to JAM- some students from IIT-Indore- their Cultural Secretary, their Dance/Drama/Music/Debate heads were all on campus to finalise the details of the Face-Off. Most events would see 2 judges- one courtesy IIM and the other courtesy IIT. The final schedule was worked out- all events were made to fit in perfectly.
Post this, an IPM aspirant was on campus with his friends; I proceeded to show them around campus, telling them stories and attempting to dole out advice at the same time. This tour ended in ice-cream at Mess2; life’s good! Post this, there was a SAC-CC meeting- one with the SAC-C, the SAC-T and the coordinators of all clubs and committees. The newly appointed SAC-C and SAC-T were also present. A couple of things came out of this meeting- the Infrastructure Committee will henceforth have one additional member each from the 1st year & 2nd year- sending their total to 8- up from the existing 6; further, an Industry Interaction Cell will be setup- they shall deal with Live Projects, connecting IPM students to the industry, start-ups and more!
This meeting was immediately followed by the Academic Committee pre-process. The Coordinator of the Academic Committee shall be the student representative in the IPM EC; hence, this coordinator will be chose before the coordinator of any other club/committee is chosen. The pre-process involved a few questions that called for out of the box thinking and a role-play in which the SAC EC played the role of the IPM Office.

9th April was a Thursday and a very welcome holiday at that too! A Marketing Challenge, organized by the E-Cell in association with eChai began at 9 a.m. and ran through the day, ending only after 7 p.m. Internships, and over Rs.10, 000 worth of prizes were given out to the winners. Various start-ups pitched their ideas to the students, post which 3 teams of 3 members each worked on designing a marketing strategy for their assigned start-ups. The start-ups were all Indore based- including Flap App, Engineer Babu and Pulpy Papaya. The event was a huge success!

After an eventful Friday, where our World Politics midterm was shifted from being on the 11th to being on the 17th, evening was even better! Afternoon saw a Team Building and Time Management Workshop for Section B- various team games and an analysis of the movie ‘Chak de India’ formed the crux of the course. At 6:15 p.m., the prelim for the Quiz to be held as part of the Face-Off was held.

At 7:00 p.m., the Music event took off in the New Audi. The Music events included one Vocal-Solo event and one Acoustics event. Both events were won by IIT-Indore, with participants from IIM being the runners-up in both.
This was followed by the Dance Event- both the Solo and the Duet events were won by IIM-Indore participants! This went on till almost mid-night, in the New Auditorium. At the same time, the Nukkad Natak event was held on the Events Court. This was won by IIM-Indore.

Meanwhile, ‘Tranquil’- the Creative Writing event was conducted in the Acad Block at 8 p.m. This was followed by the prelims for the Debate. The prelim was a group discussion- the top 4 members from IIT as well as IIM were selected, to form the team that would represent their institute in the final debate. The topic for the final debate is ‘This House believes that the UN as an Institution has failed in its role’. We shall be the proposition! The debate is 20 minutes long, plus a closing speech followed by a 20-minute open-house session where the judges, opposition and audience alike can throw questions.
I hope we do a good job of the debate! The Group Dance event, the Photography Exhibition and more Literary events shall happen on 11th evening!

08/04/2015

08/04/15; 02:49:

Monday was rather eventful. The day began with classes and ended with the SAC-Coordinator and Treasurer for next year being successfully selected.
The final short-list (with the scores) was sent out to everyone, at 3 p.m. As per the IPM SAC Constitution, there must be a minimum 4-hour gap between the declaration of the short-list and the actual election. The election was accordingly held at 7 p.m. Both the candidates with the highest scores also received the highest number of votes; it was good to know that our opinion matched that of the 2014 & 2013 batch kids! Gowtham is now SAC-T and Tirtham is SAC-C; they’ll take over responsibilities only in July, next academic year, though. All other club-committee coordinators will now be selected.
At the same time, Elixir, organized by the Academic Committee was in progress. GLU, a fashion brand plans to expand in a big way and was down in IIM-Indore, getting ideas. I believe that the winners get themselves cash, internships and more. The winning team (of 2) was composed of media committee members, just like at so many other events.
Meanwhile, the ICL- Indore Cricket League is in progress again- I believe that a second edition is being conducted due to popular demand. Later in the night, we met to discuss the selection of the Vertical Heads for Atharv ’15. The teams ought to be ready and working by the 15th of this month.
As for the Student Body selections, the coordinator of the Academic Committee will be selected first, since it has been decided that this person will be the student representative in the IPM EC. After this, all other club/committee coordinators will be selected.
The E-Cell is holding a Marketing Challenge in association with eChai Ventures on Thursday morning. The event looks rather interesting. Meanwhile, Mirage, our Creative Club has just launched a pan-India contest called Adster- it deals with advertising, poster designing and more!
Preparations for the IIT-IIM Face-Off are in full swing! Photon- the Photography club has decided to hold an exhibition of photographs, in old-school style!