05/12/2014

05/12/2014; 00:13:

Right before people left to go home, on the 30th, there were meetings held, to come up with parameters to evaluate the SAC-C and the SAC-T. Each club coordinator had to come up with a set of parameters according to which the members would be evaluated in the future. The club members had to come up with a similar set for the evaluation of the coordinator. All this is being done as part of the efforts to draft the IPM Constitution. It feels good to be in the Drafting Assembly!
The selection process for selecting next year’s Atharv team was discussed in another of the series of meetings that evening. The final meeting of the evening detailed the recently approved Sports Fest proposal. Ranbhoomi- the IPM Sports Fest is set to happen in the last week of February, tentatively from the 27th to the 1st of March. We hope to draw in participation from across the country! Almost all of December shall be spent planning!

It’s been a leisurely four days, with the December vacation in full swing. Some people (like my room-mate) had a paper on the 1st; I didn’t. I spent most of Monday (1st) sleeping; evening was spent playing volleyball and then having dinner at Pishori – we ate mostly Tandoori Chicken. An institute-wide initiative has been undertaken, in the form of Oscar Wilde’s play ‘The Importance of being Earnest. Auditions were called for, at 7 p.m. on the 2nd of December. Practice is now in full swing!
At 8:00 p.m., the Activity Club had arranged for the screening of the movie ‘Inglorious Bastards’. I have no clue why they suddenly did so; people did, however enjoy the movie.


After sleeping in excess on Monday, I was up in time to get some breakfast, on Tuesday. The FST- Foundation in Science & Technology paper is on the 6th- it’s the only compulsory paper as part of the BDP (Bachelor’s Degree Programme) 2nd year curriculum. I pulled out the books on Tuesday, mainly to ascertain their number. There are a total of 8 books; hopefully, we’ll read through them all, before the paper. We did read them in bits and pieces to solve the assignments, but never once through.
After the All-IPM meet, where the Khargone project was discussed, a volunteer form was sent across to everyone. Later in the evening, the music club sent out a mail detailing its newest idea- practice groups- to hone different talents including singing and playing different musical instruments.

On Wednesday, we put together a 3-member team to conduct the skill-building workshop in Khargone. Another set of volunteers was organized to interact with the children at Aasthagram.
By mid-night, we also received a good number of entries for the Journalist Face-Off event that Media Comm. is planning to hold.
i-Help has been in the process of picking out the team that shall call the shots, next year. Basically, we’re getting old and it’s time to hand over the reins to the junior batch! As part of this, every week, a different set of interested juniors are appointed to interim coordinator roles – 2 coordinators and one vertical head each for the HR, Media & PR and Academic verticals. Everyone is thus being given a chance to actually put their skills to a practical test, because that’s what is finally needed! Everyone is taking their roles seriously and working really hard; the Academic vertical has been meticulously preparing worksheets, Media & PR has been preparing weekly reports and HR has been working and re-working the time-table to get the perfect fit!

We left for Khargone at 7:30 on Thursday (4th) morning in a white ‘traveller’. The traveller was also unique- the last row of seats had been replaced by a bed! Of course, since it was early morning, to people immediately settled in to sleep! We stopped en route for poha-jalebi and once to click photographs. Once at Khargone, we split into the two assigned teams. We headed to open the registration desk for the workshop while the other team headed straight for the kids! The workshop covered the whole job application process – finding the right job, filling out an application, preparing a résumé and facing the interview. The participants included students of the Government P.G. College at Khargone. Their feedback (after an almost 5 hour long workshop!) suggested that we did manage to do a fairly okay job of making them aware and guiding them.
Meanwhile elsewhere, our other team visited the Sports & Cultural Competition that was being organized for the differently abled children, on the occasion of World Disability day which was on the 3rd of December. They also spent time with the other children, playing games like Fire on the Mountain and Dog & the Bone.
The whole Khargone experience just makes everyone who goes there so happy; by the end of the day, you’re tired and yet unwilling to leave, promising to come back; of course, on the way back everyone falls asleep (except my room-mate!). We were back on campus by around 9 p.m. post which dinner was had. A large amount of vanilla ice-cream followed! We took good advantage of the newly launched sachets of Hershey’s chocolate syrup while we were at eating the ice-cream!

While we’ve been having a gala time, what with the vacations and everything, both the junior batches have been writing an assortment of quizzes and mid-term exams! And, a play is being prepared for Christmas Eve, by the junior batches! Christmas Eve is fun time, with mid-night carol singing, cake-cutting, movie screenings and even a theme-based play, this time around!
In other news, Chiraag, our very own IPM E-magazine has sent out its monthly call for articles. They seem to have this thing for all the unusual themes that one could possibly come up with! The theme this time is ‘Hard to get’. It’s been rather hard to get what exactly this latest theme could mean; I’ll probably figure something out and write out a piece!

01/14/2014

01/12/2014; 00:47:

It’s now been a whole week of crazy. 28th evening was scheduled to be AMPLIFIED- the biggest music event at IIM-Indore, organized by Amplif-I- the IPM Music Club.
The event began at 7:00 p.m. but, of course, preparations had been in progress for a long while. The event had heavy logistical requirement and over 12 hours and a small lot of human resource were spent getting a stage put together, getting mikes, speakers, a mixer, lights, karaoke versions of songs and musical instruments.
Talented guitarist, Mr. Aishwarya Dhoble had consented to be the judge for the evening. The event was aimed at getting everyone involved and feeling the music- providing a platform to the bathroom singer in everyone. The first event of the evening was ‘Tune-in’ where a tune was played and the participant had to identify the song in question and sing it- the more lyrics you got right, the better!
The next event was a Theme-based singing event, with themes ranging from Death, Violence and Rebellion to Love, Forgiveness and Freedom. This was followed by a Jingle Making event- with topics ranging from Smokin’ Joes Pizza to Indore and IPM. The best part was that prizes for all events were food- courtesy the Smokin’ Joes Pizza and Buddy’s Café stalls that were doing brisk business all evening. The other events included a Music Quiz and a much enjoyed Face-Off.
The evening was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone present; with the food (including pancakes at JAM) and array of events on offer. I had the privilege of being the MC for the evening and, did I have a gala time! I even tried my hand at playing the drums! It was nice to see so much undiscovered talent come forth and find a platform.

And because one crazy, event-filled night wasn’t enough, another immediately followed it. 29th evening was Lit-Night, courtesy Literar-I- the IPM Literary Club. The events for the evening included hourly scrabble matches and word games. The first event was fun- a picture was to be identified, and the interpretation and its anagram found! A total of 30 pictures had been procured. The event was intellectually challenging and fun! The next event was called ‘Rhyme & Time’- all contestants sit in a circle, a syllable is declared and sentences that rhyme are stated one after another. Inability to come up with a new rhyme results in elimination. The last man standing wins it all!
The third event for the evening was called ‘What’s the good word?’- it took place in 3 stages. The first stage was a set of 10 jumbled letters that had to be unscrambled to arrive at the correct answer, in accordance with the clue provided. The second stage included correctly identifying the word that met the prescribed criteria, a total of 15 such words were to be found, with a different, interesting clue for each. The final stage was challenging- a set of clues, one after the other were given and you had to identify the word using the least possible clues.
The last event for the evening was a Spelling Bee. The evening was very enjoyable and it wasn’t all done! The event concluded with an online crossword round that began at 12 a.m. and added the last dash of awesomeness to it all.

We were out for dinner, on the evening of Sunday, the 30th of November. The evening ended with a walk around campus, ice-cream and a birthday celebration in the Girls’ Hostel.

The month of December is off, for the IGNOU exams. A lot of people left to go home, on Sunday evening. A few shall leave this morning, in a few hours. Others who are in love with this place shall give the exams in Indore, with the IIM-I campus functioning as their exam centre. The first paper is tomorrow; of course, since IGNOU has a very large variety of subjects on offer, not everyone has the same exam schedule. My first paper is on the 6th of December- the compulsory course titled ‘Foundation Course in Science & Technology’. The B.Comm. guys have 7 papers while I have only 4.

28/11/2014

28/11/2014; 13:59:

It’s been two busy days. There was one class on the morning of the 26th. We then went out for lunch, to celebrate a batch-mate’s birthday. Lunch was very enjoyable. I waited around after lunch to meet a friend who was visiting.

I was back on campus, just in time to make the 9 p.m. meeting. A meet had been arranged by the social committee, for our batch to interact with the seniors and hear about their social internship experiences. About a dozen seniors turned up to share their varied experiences- they had interned at NGO’s, CSR-wings, CSR Consultancies and taken up individual project under different foundations. More than anything else, it made us aware of the options on offer.

Right after the meeting ended, there were interviews to be conducted, 10:30 p.m. onwards, to select associate members for the Media Committee. A 5-member panel sat, taking interviews, for 5 hours. A successful night was wrapped up at around 3:30 a.m.

I was up in 2 hours, at 6 a.m., for there was a visit to Aasthagram, Khargone as part of the project being undertaken by the Social Committee. We reached Khargone at around 10 a.m. Post- breakfast, we split up into our assigned teams and set off. One team was to work on Financial Literacy- enlightening class 11 students about the working of a Bank, fixed deposits, NEFT’s and ATM’s. Another was to work with the students in Aasthagram, engaging them in games of Chess & Carrom. A third – the team composed of the senior members of the Social Committee was to sit and chalk out detailed plans for a working long-term model. And, lastly the Media Team was to be everywhere they pleased! Aasthagram Trust houses about 80 hostel students on campus, has 30 day scholars and also supports other schools in the area through different programs, like the one our team conducted on Financial Literacy. On campus, their school follows a policy of inclusive education, where differently-abled students study in the same class as all other students. I sat with a group of about 9 girls, telling them how chess worked. It took me a while to realise that 5 of them were deaf & mute- the kids had perfect coordination- the ones who could hear had been signing everything that I was saying, as I was saying it! It was perfect- I did not even notice the gap; only an obvious signing when one of the girls was making a wrong move made me aware of the happening.
By 6:00 p.m., everyone was tired but happy! And, we’ve all made plans to go back as soon as our schedules permit. I’ve taken up a project to conduct workshops for the local youth on job applications, CV’ and interviews. This shall keep me occupied, during the December break. Of course, all plans to visit home or elsewhere had to be cancelled. We left Khargone a little after 7 and were back just in time for a bath before the SAC-EC meeting at 11 p.m.

The SAC-EC meeting was called, to work on the IPM Constitution. It’s like the Drafting Assembly. Most of the Constitution has been put together by the SAC-C, using the PGP Constitution as reference. We’re just working on changes and clarifications before it is made open to all to propose changes/ seek clarification. The meeting ended with us having read through about half the document. Another meeting is in store.

Today evening will see AMPLIFID – the music event that has been put together by the Music Club, AMPLIF-I! The evening promises an array of competitions, an open-mic session, an open-Jamming session and Karaoke! And, the prizes for winning the various events – theme-based singing, musician face-off and jingle-making- are all in the form of free food from the Smokin’ Joes and Buddy Café stalls that have been roped in for the event. Looking forward!

25/11/2014

25/11/2014; 23:38:

And, after the week which went by in a blur, we had a nice relaxed weekend. After a few classes on Saturday, we sat around twiddling our thumbs. The weather was nice and we set out on a walk, walked out of Gate 2, past Rau Railway Crossing and ended up at S-47’s new ‘Hill View’ Restaurant. They had a Punjabi food festival going on and we enjoyed some good food. They’d served us lassi in giant kulhads. We left for campus with two earthen kulhads in our hands and plans to use them, for milk, the next morning!

Once back on campus, there were interviews for Chiraag’s Art and Graphics departments in progress. I sketched all three members of the panel as well as the interview room as part of my assigned task. The interviews for the editorial board were held earlier in the week.

Later, at 11 p.m., the IPM Cricket League final began. It was a nail-biting finish, with Rishi Rowdies needing two runs off the last ball, to successfully chase the 76-run target that Akshay Aces had set. The bat struck the ball, it didn’t go too far; one mis-field and some furious running later, all of the Rishi Rowdies were on the field, pulling up wickets and dancing. A trophy, cash prizes, celebratory drinks and shutterbugs were soon everywhere.
I walked back to my hostel, staring up at the sky. We traced out Orion in the night sky and walked towards the North Star. It was then that we heard wailing. There had been a litter of abandoned puppies on campus, that I’d remembered spotting a few days ago. Heading towards the source of the noise, we spotted one puppy, whimpering. Working on instinct, I called up the self-proclaimed animal activist of our batch, who confirmed that he’d gathered up the puppies, fed them and put them in the cardboard box, earlier in the day. I then only asked how many puppies there were. Peeking into the box to see all three, who were understandably freezing, we acted quickly, transporting the box indoors and arranging milk. Wrapping them in a warm jacket, we stayed up most of the night. A veterinarian was nice enough to come in the next morning and take a look at the tiny things. Two animal-lover batch-mates carted the puppies to a shelter, in the evening.

Most of Sunday morning was spent sleeping. There were two post-lunch classes after which we got ourselves on the bus and headed out to eat. We ate at a new Mexican place in town- Meximus- the interior was red, simple and replete with sombreros and pictures of chillies. And, the food was rather good! Sunday evening saw a cook-off at JAM, organized by the E-Cell. Pancakes, pasta, French toast, sandwiches and more were whipped up by enthusiastic participants. The results of the cook-off are awaited. We’d meant to participate and prepare but we conveniently forgot to fill in the ‘ingredients required’ form.

The Social Entrepreneurship classes saw very meaningful guest speakers come in; both organizations are working in rural areas in Amravati and the North-East, providing medical aid and training.
On Monday evening, a workshop by the Krishnamurthy Foundation was held. The topic of discussion was ‘Mundane Issues’. The workshop however was unlike its name and was enlightening.

25th November was the birthday of one of our Media Comm. team members. We decided to call a ‘meeting’ and surprise him with cake.
The plan was beautifully executed and the cake was good. Media Comm. floated a mail, like most other committees, to get new associate members on board. Interviews for the same shall be held tomorrow. We’ve also planned a rather exciting journalist face-off! It shall happen in 3 stages and the final round will be held on the 10th of December.
After the meeting, we wandered off to go see the new hostels which are nearly completed. They look rather different from all the existing hostels which are square in shape, with an open central area and rooms on four sides. The new hostels are rectangular, and much longer than they are wide. There is a single long corridor, in the centre, with rooms on both sides. All doors open into the central corridor. The common washrooms appear to be on both ends of the building. The hostels are currently being furnished and shall be operational tentatively by January.

Night was spent trying to spot stars in the hazy sky. One of these days, I’m going to catch someone who has a good idea of all the constellations up there and have a whole star-gazing night.

22/11/2014

22/11/2014 ; 02:04:

The week just went by in a blur, with the mid-terms and the cricket matches.

15th evening was the last day of IRiS. Coke Studio had been contacted and Agnee – the band- set the stage on fire, true to their name.

A kid from the 2014 batch decided to record a video of the raita in the mess, since its consistency did not live up to his standard. He then mailed the video to the Infrastructure Committee and his whole batch, complete with hashtags including #raitamainpaaniyapaanimeinraita and #boondikaraita.

On the evening of the 16th, the MM professor was nice enough to hold a doubt-clearing session, on the eve of the mid-term.
17th was the Mathematical Modelling mid-term. 18th was the Human Rights mid-term and 19th was the Geography mid-term.

Right before the Human Rights mid-term began, there was a bunch of wailing puppies, near the classroom; no one could quite understand why they were wailing, though it seemed obvious that they were hungry. By the time the mid-term was over, a bunch of the classroom attendants had organized milk and warmth for the puppies, much to everyone’s satisfaction.

The IPM Cricket League is in full swing. We’re just back from watching the semi-finals! The final is set to be Rishi Rowdies v/s Akshay Aces – both teams from the 2012 Batch!

On the 17th, we were greeted with the happy news that 3 of our batch-mates had done the institute proud by winning a National B-Plan competition that was held in Mumbai, with their plan for Roof It- roofing solutions.

The week also saw a couple of newspapers/magazines including the Business Standard and India Today writing about the IPM Programme as an innovation in education. Each of us was really proud to see our course receive such positive coverage.

On the 18th, we received an e-mail from the Literary Club, regarding the revival of the hugely popular ‘Writer’s Den’ event from last year. It’s essentially a creative writing competition, with a 500-word limit on the entries and a new theme each week. The topic for the first week is themed on Harry Potter & reads ‘I AM THE WAND THAT CHOSE TOM RIDDLE’.

Mirage- the Creative Club held its first event for the year – BrandMaster – Logo/Advertising Quiz. It was a rather quick, 10-minute quiz and was fairly interesting. We’re looking forward to solving a second edition, soon!

The second half of the batch went on the trip to SPS, in Dewas. It was hotter and their trip was a lot more tiring than the first group’s!

The Media Committee is doing a good job of sending out a weekly newsfeed for the benefit of the IPM Community- the newsfeed ought to help the IPM kids keep track of what is going on the world around them!

A SAC EC meeting was held on the night of the 20th at 11 p.m. The proposed Gaming SIG (Self Interest Group) has been given a go-ahead and the idea of a data sever which houses all academic material relevant to the IPM course is being actively looked into. The Social Committee plans to pick up a rather extensive project in Khargone district, working with an NGO called Aasthagram that has been working in the area for over 25 years now.

In other news, the IGNOU Hall Tickets are out and a couple of exams have been rescheduled from the original plan, courtesy the State Elections in Bihar.

Also, JAM-Juices & More- has announced plans to hold a Cook Off, sometime soon. The prospect of innovative food looks rather promising.

15/11/2014

14/11/2014; 12:18:

11th & 12th November went by in a blur, with the Indian Politics & the Econometrics Mid-Terms.

IRiS- the PGP management-cum-cultural fest, began on the 13th. It’s a three day fest that will culminate in a performance by Agnee, presented by IRiS in association with Coke Studio.

Yesterday was also the field trip for the course on Social Entrepreneurship. We left campus at 6:30 in the morning, after we sat around waiting for over half an hour for everyone to turn up. We were to visit SPS- Samaj Pragati Sahyog, Dewas. We reached their Bagli Office at 9:05 a.m. where we were greeted with a warm breakfast of puri-sabji.
We were then on our way to Kevatipani, which I estimated to be about 10 k.m. The drive through the hills was refreshing. We were soon at the nearest site where watershed management had been implemented. A mud dam had been constructed by the village people, along with a large pond to harvest rain water, since the area has always been drought-prone. We then attended a lecture by Mr. Mihir Shah, the head of SPS, at their campus in Neemkheda. We made a stop at their Women’s Empowerment Cell and the BMC - Bulk Milk Cooler- site, both of which have contributed significantly to providing employment in the area, before starting our return journey.

15/11/2014 ; 03:00:

Meanwhile, thanks to IRiS , the campus is buzzing with activity. A stage has been set up in the Central Lawn, the one in the centre of the Acad Block and all events are being held there! 13th evening saw the Group Dance event while 14th evening saw the Fashion Show and the other Dance events.
The Management & Quizzing events have been going on, through the day, in various classrooms. Afternoon saw a Guinness World Record attempt at making the world’s largest soap mosaic, in association with HUL, in support of their ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ campaign which aims to create awareness on the issue of children’s health. Paintball & Gaming events have been going on, through the day as well.

Chiraag- the IPM e-magazine recently opened applications for new members in their various departments- Art, Photography, Editorial, Management and Graphics. I decided to try my hand at things other than writing & management and put in my name for the Art & the Photography departments. The pre-process for the Art department includes creating a sketch/painting on the theme ‘Elegance & Spice’ and interpreting a given work of art. The pre-process for the Photography department entails capturing a picture that fits one of the themes- Patriotism/ Another Brick in the Wall / Supernatural. The Editorial guys have an article to write and another to proof-read. The Management – Executive Team- had a written test; I assume that other rounds will follow. The Graphics guys had a logo to design and a story to illustrate. The Tech guys have an interview to give.

I sat, completing the pre-process, a little before the 12 a.m. deadline, a few hours ago, after which we were off to see the day’s cricket matches, for the IPM Cricket League is in full swing!

10/11/2014

10/11/2014; 17:02:

The weekend i.e. 8th & 9th of November was rather interesting! The IPM Cricket League began on Saturday. A bidding process was held in the Old Auditorium, at 10:45 p.m., on the night of 7th November. Seven teams have been made, three from the 2012 Batch, two from the 2013 Batch and two from the 2014 Batch. The names of the teams are most amusing- each is named after the captain- ‘Utkarsh United’, ‘Lalit Lions’ , ‘Dhananjay Dragons’ , ‘Rishi Rowdies’, ‘Akshay Aces’, ‘Sehera Serpents’ and ‘Saurav Sharks’! The first two matches were played on Saturday night with a large audience cheering!

Iris – the PGP cultural-cum-management fest begins on 13th! Excitement in the air is palpable. There are e-mails announcing new events being sent every day! Paintball, a Salsa Workshop, Finance & Marketing Events, the Fashion event and the pro-night which is all set to feature Coke Studio!

The weekend also saw the PGP batch host ‘Footprints’ – the annual alumni meet! Lunches, meeting with the faculty, a DJ party an performances by Vibes- the dance club & Harmon-I – the Music club ensured a fun weekend for all the alumni.

The IPM Finance Cell began the third edition of their ‘StockHunt’ event. The event is fairly simple - a fact sheet is sent at 11:30 p.m., the sheet contains clues about a particular listed firm. The first three people to correctly identify the firm are in to win! It is a week-long event with daily as well as an overall prize.

All these activities have been interspersed with a few classes. There’s a mid-term, tomorrow and another one , the day after.

07/11/2014

04/11/2014; 16:08:

And, there are a couple of pending things to write about- our experience at Spardha, the fun at BITS-Goa and the on-campus happenings in the last few days.

Let’s begin at home i.e. at IIM-Indore. Our term 7 Grades greeted us on the evening of 30th October, much to our terrible delight. 31st of October saw the launch of a Seed fund competition on campus – the event is an initiative of certain IIM-Indore alumni along with Hiranandani Group and promises up to 25 lakh seed funding to well-thought start-up ideas. The music club is all set to organize a Guitar Workshop for all the interested participants, starting somewhere in early December. They’ve also put a Guitar Bulk deal up on offer.
31st October also saw the celebration of Sardar Patel’s 139th Birth Anniversary as Rashtriya Ekta Divas, as part of which, there was an oath-taking ceremony in the afternoon and a movie-screening along with drama & music performances in the evening.
Planning for a Children’s Day event has begun, courtesy i-Help. The tentative plan includes fun events for the students of IIM-Indore’s adopted schools, both on our campus and in their classrooms!
The Sports Committee circulated the third edition of SportsPulse- the monthly Sports Newsletter on the 2nd of November. This edition encompasses the details of the Asian Games, EPL 2014 and the Women’s Volleyball World Championship 2014.
3rd of November saw a guest lecture by Miss Debolina Dutta, Head of Human Resource, VF Corporation, organization courtesy our E-Cell.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, we reached Banaras station at around 11 a.m., on the 30th of October. We were then whisked away to the IIT-BHU campus in a couple of SUV’s. We were on campus close to lunch-time. The BHU campus is beautiful; it’s no wonder it is talked about! We strolled around, discovering campus. A replica of the famous Kashi Vishwanath Mandir has been built on campus by Maviyaji, the founder. The campus is actually like a city in itself, buzzing with tourists even!
We sat around, watching a couple of matches that had started; the boys won a Badminton match. A couple of people went shopping / mandir-hopping. We went off to see the sunrise, early the next morning, at Ravidas Ghat. The sun simmering gently, rapidly where it hit the water kept us staring in silence. Two Girls’ Volleyball matches and a Basketball one followed. There was also a Boys’ Cricket Match, 2 Volleyball matches and the Power-lifting event. A kid from the 2014 batch had taken part in the Under 60 kg category and he won gold, lifting an impressive 270 kg. There was an opening ceremony at 4:00 p.m., where we participated in a march-past, dressed in jerseys, carrying the IIM-Indore flag and all.
Night was spent discovering the IIT-BHU canteen. Saturday was spent playing one match each of Volleyball & Basketball. We went out in the evening, hoping to get some Banarasi pan and chaat too! Sunday morning saw the Girls’ Basketball semi-final which we unfortunately lost to the home team. The Badmintno boys narrowly missed a shot at Gold while the Squash team won Silver.
The rest of the day was spent sight-seeing- the Ghats, the temples and the markets! Some people even went to Sarnath, which is about 10 km. away. Monday morning was spent trying to get a little more sight-seeing in, before we made our way to the railway station, to catch an 11:20 train to Jabalpur; we changed trains at Jabalpur and reached Indore at 10:45 a.m., on the 4th i.e. earlier today.

The team at BITS-Goa definitely had a better time roaming around the place than at the actual fest. The dance team made it to the finale- the top six! And the Drama team finished fourth. A couple of people picked up prizes in individual and pair events- Press Corps, Finance and the like. Bikes, beaches and a well-maintained new campus kept people happy over the weekend. My batch chose to travel by train, while the juniors preferred to book a bus. Sun, sand and sight-seeing pretty much summed their trip up!

07/11/2014; 01:15:

The team from BITS-Goa was back to campus, in two installments- on the night of the 4th and on the morning of the 5th. 4th was an Institute Holiday and we ended up going out for dinner- we also ended up going out for dinner on the 5th and the 6th, but, that's a different story!

5th & 6th of November was Utsaha-the Annual Rural Market Research Festival, the 'Kartik Purnima' mela of Janav Kutti Village, attended by the PGP batches of IIM-Indore. It was the 7th edition of an event which spans two days, reaches out to over 50,000 rural people and involves engaging the rural audience by designing games, events and shows structured around the research objectives, thus lending the whole experience an element of fun along with learning.
It was rather successfully organized, with Unilever, ITC, Pepsi, Mondelez (Formerly known as Cadbury), Vodafone and Pidilite on board as the market research partners.

An industrial visit to Signet Industries was organized by the E-Cell for students of all three IPM batches, on the 6th of November. Interested students went in two batches and had a wonderful learning experience. We got to see the manafacturing process that goes into making various agricultural implements, from micro irrigation pipes to those used in bore-wells.

There's a Mathematical Modelling Quiz, scheduled to happen at 10 a.m., in a few hours. Also, the Newspaper Bulk deal is to be renewed and new subscriptions taken, for all the IPM students.

The 2014 batch is all back from a relaxing first term break and they appear all geared up to take on the world! Most of us, the 2012 batch, are looking forward to the month-long break in December- the break is planned, in order for us to be able to write our IGNOU end-year exams well!

There's a report to be submitted as part of the course on Social Entrepreneurship, by the end of today. The report ought to document each of the three guest lectures that we've attended as part of the course- each guest lecture was delivered by the founder of a well-established social enterprise.
There's a lot of good learning to happen! A site-visit to an organization in Dewas has also been planned, on the 13th of the month.

The Principles of Management classes just get better and better! There have been videos and engaging discussions galore! Last class, sir handed out blank sheets, paired us up and asked each of us to sketch our partners! This was then followed by a test of creativity, where we were given 30 blank circles to convert into meaningful objects, in the least possible time! It was great to see imaginations soar!

The most important thing to remember during a brain-storming session is that one ought not to reject ideas outright, but, one is only to collect all ideas that are being suggested at the moment; criticism and the feasibility of ideas is to be taken up only at a later stage- this allows ideas to flow freely and ensures that the best ideas surface!

30/10/2014

30/10/2014; 02:56:

The last couple of days have begun with early morning MM classes. It’s fascinating how the beating of the human heart, the spread of epidemic diseases and species ecology can all be drawn into differential equations. I remember reading somewhere that ‘Maths is the language of Nature & Physics its poetry’. A beautiful quote which reads, now, truer than ever.

We managed to squeeze in a couple more volleyball / basketball practices on the 27th and the 28th.
The faculty mess has relocated itself, albeit temporarily, to the first floor of the Academic Block, from its usual ground floor site. It now sits in the room orthogonally adjacent to the CAO’s Office. Of course, they still continue to serve dahi kachori, Maggi and fruit juices.

There was an Econometrics Quiz on the afternoon of the 27th. There has been a certain tinge of excitement in the air, with lots of IPM students going to participate in one of two fests that are happening at the same time-BITS Goa’s Cultural Fest ‘Waves’ & IIT-BHU’s Sports Fest ‘Spardha’.

28th Night, 10:00 p.m. saw an open-air performance, on the basketball court to be precise, by the team going to perform a Nukkad Natak at ‘Waves’. The drama is titled ‘ Sex-Sex Shh-Shh, Sex-Sex Shh-Shh’ and deals with the taboo associated with the word as well as the inadequate state of sex education in India. The other team’s play too, is centred around rape, female foeticide and abuse. So much for non-taboo, conventional themes. Other participants include the dance team, the Fashion Show team and the literary events teams.
The Boys’ Cricket, Volleyball, Badminton, Squash, Power-Lifting and the Girls’ Basketball & Volleyball teams make up the contingent that will represent IIM-Indore at Spardha.

We left, the afternoon of the 29th, at 12:30 p.m., to catch a 2:00 p.m. train to Banaras. The train takes about 21 hours to get from Indore to Banaras. The mess packed us lunch to go & a well-equipped first-aid kit was arranged; all month long, the hostel office has been nice enough to arrange for sports equipment and permission for late-night practice.
We’re now on the train which will soon halt at Kanpur. I’m really looking forward to getting some hot food at Kanpur station.

Here’s hoping for a win at the Sport’s fest!

26/10/2014

26/10/2014; 03:20:

The highlight of the 24th was the successful rescue-mission that we undertook. Our 3 basketballs that had landed into construction pits were gallantly rescued by 3 of our team members working in tandem. This activity was undertaken at around 5:30 p.m. and was successfully completed in about 20 minutes. We then treated ourselves to Keema parathas and ice-cream in the Food Court.

Volleyball practice followed soon after. And of course, our post-dinner exploits continued uninterrupted, on the basketball court. This was followed by writing late into the wee hours of the morning, while watching the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy.

25th saw the very first SAC body meeting for the new academic year. Core members of all the committees and clubs were present, in a meeting chaired by the SAC-Coordinator. Unfortunately however, the 2014 Batch is on vacation and the kids missed the very first meeting. The main agenda of the meeting was an introduction session, to ensure that every member of the SAC knows every other member. The meeting began at 9:00 p.m. and lasted around an hour or so.
Immediately after, the SAC EC- Executive Committee, met for the first time too. The SAC EC comprises of the SAC-Coordinator, the SAC-Treasurer and the coordinators of the 5 committees- namely the Sports, Media, Social, Academic and Infrastructure Committees. Matters discussed in this first meeting included a proposal to start a Laundromat service in the institute, the formation of new Self-Interest-Groups and the idea of conducting a Sports Fest in the last week of February.

We rushed off for Basketball practice as soon as the meeting was over. After practice, we ended up at our usual post-practice haunt- the Night Mess. Diwali sweets, courtesy one of the team members was a perfect close to the evening.

Now, IRIS- the PGP cultural-cum-management fest is just around the corner. E-mails containing details of the various events are being sent out, periodically and, life is interesting!

24/10/2014

24/10/2014; 06:50:


Okay, now I ought to fill in the days in between.
Most of this time was spent in piecing together the Media Comm. team which, yay, is now complete!

18th was the deadline for the 2013 Batch to send in their pre-process tasks. The pre-process task for the 2013 Batch was the same one that had been designed for the 2014 Batch. We read some of them as they came in and read all of the others during the day, on the 19th.
Classes done, all of 19th evening, from 6p.m., all the way till 2 a.m. was spent taking interviews, for we called in each of the candidates for a one-on-one interaction unlike all the other committees who’d prepared shortlists.

The elections- the final stage in the selection of the members was conducted on the morning of the 20th, while we were in class. Post-lunch, I sat around with the SAC-Coordinator, counting out the votes. The results were sent out, soon after! The night was as has become routine spent playing Basketball.

21st morning began with a Mathematical Modelling class. Sir somehow manages to make everything sound so very fascinating; it is a pleasure to listen to him!! There was then a session of ‘Principles of Management’. Sir is very nice! Every new topic begins with a song being played! And, the song is even relevant to the topic! Like, when he was to begin the topic on ‘Evolution of Management’, he played the song ‘Dheere Dheere’; this clearly brought out the difference between ‘evolution’ which is slow & gradual and a sudden, rapid ‘revolution’! Also, he incorporates different movie clips into his teaching!
We then played Volleyball in the evening! Our team is getting better; I’ve also managed to pick up a decent bit of Volleyball, so, life’s good. Basketball was played from 10:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.; there were a couple of guys who joined us, we started a match and went on playing until everyone was exhausted! This was followed by some ‘team-bonding’ time and cold-drinks at the night mess before everyone filed into their respective rooms, showered and crashed!

Okay, and, that’s that, pretty much! The campus is kind of deserted, with the 2014 Batch home on vacation, PGPII not yet back from their Himalayan Outbound Programme and a lot of PGPI & IPM-2013 & 2012 home for Diwali. Hoping to see the campus buzzing with life, soon!

24/10/2014

24/10/2014; 03:43:


And, Happy Diwali, everyone!!
The build-up to Diwali began a little before the 22nd, when we made plans for the 22nd! There was a three-day break lined up from the 22nd to the 24th; a lot of people made good use of this opportunity and spent Diwali at home.

After a meeting the previous night, I was woken up at mid-day to put out plan into action. We were to visit an Old Age Home in Indore, in order to share the joy of Diwali with the residents. A bus was scheduled to leave at 1:00 p.m. Usually, there are more seats in the bus than people willing to go, but, this time around, there was one bus and loads of people. The first instalment of people was sent on this bus- the guys who were to perform and everything- and a second bus was soon arranged for the rest of us. We reached Aastha Vradhaasram at around 2:30 p.m. All the creative ladies got to work on a rather beautiful rangoli. Some people immediately set off to interact with the senior citizens, sharing stories and life histories. Others, the performing & organizing teams went about, arranging their guitars, music system, sweets that were to be distributed and handing over the monetary contribution ( and a carom board!) that had been raised back home at IIM-Indore to the managing committee of the trust. I walked around, watching the set-up guys at work, admiring the handiwork of the rangoli ladies and smiling and greeting everyone I came across. My friend and I walked into the ladies’ residence, for the interaction team seemed to have missed that, smiling & gossiping. We then settled down to play carom with one very talkative uncle and his friend.

At around 3:30, a large troupe of enthusiastic senior citizens trooped into the main hall, where the performance guys were all ready and waiting. They began with singing a few rather emotional songs, followed that up with dances to a few trendy numbers, added another song and closed with a very well-received old number. Sweets were then distributed to everyone, while we sat around in groups, talking & sharing laughs. One uncle spent a considerable amount of time reciting shaayaris- the crowd around him kept growing! He brought his performance to a close with a ghazal!!
A few of our kids had gotten really sentimental, were missing long-gone grandparents and had begun to weep. Of course, all the love pouring in from the new ‘nanis’ and ‘dadis’ we’d found solved all that. In the middle of all this, the press made an appearance- and insisted on clicking photographs in the oddest of poses- an old lady playing the guitar and a group of them staring at the rangoli- all while the (well-dressed!) kids were made to stand around and watch!
Shruti had complained about the press coming in, even the day earlier! She felt like it made the whole effort seem like it was done only to draw publicity. And since that was not our aim, anything which projected it that way was a strict no. Of course, I had to explain that no press meant that my Media Comm. would be rendered redundant! And, well, since she hadn’t voiced her opinions loud enough, the press was welcome!
Blessings, smiles and reluctance later, we were on our way – some on their way straight back to campus and others, like me, on their way to roam around.
I ended up in the food court on the top-floor of Malhar Mall, eating Honey Chilli Potatoes from my usual shop. They now recognize me as the ‘honey-chilli-potato-lady’. Well, at least it saves me the effort of choosing and placing an order! I was then in More, shopping.

Back on campus, a stall selling diyas had been set-up outside the Pi Shop by the i-Help volunteers. The diyas had been painted by the kids that the i-Help volunteers teach. All proceeds from the sale are to go to Goonj, to the aid of the Jammu & Kashmir Flood victims. i-Helps’ earlier initiative- the Daan Utsav had managed to help raise almost 50,000 rupees for the same cause.

Once I was back on campus, write-ups and accompanying pictures were sent to a couple of newspapers who hadn’t turned up at the event. Our first press release since taking over the IPM Media Comm! We then played Volleyball, before turning our attention to Basketball practice. We only played for a short while, since a lot of the team members were out, celebrating Diwali with family. We decided to take a shortcut on our way back from the Basketball court to our hostel. Since construction is underway, we encountered a couple of pits. Now, none of our members were lost in transportation, but, 3 of our 5 Basketballs found their way to the bottom of 2 pits. Annoyed, snickering, surprised, we made a mental note to return in the morning to rescue them and went on our merry way.

We ended up outside the main mess, where 3 of our fellow IPM girls were at work, making a beautiful rangoli. We wandered into the night mess and ate a couple of paneer parathas. I then walked around the rangoli, feeding the now 4 ladies at work, since one of our team-mates had joined in!
Once back in the hostel, we spent some time, ‘chilling’.

I woke up late in the afternoon and it was Diwali! We then headed to the first event lined up as part of the Diwali celebration on campus- Diya painting at Mess 2. While everyone was hard at work, meticulously painting diyas in an array of colours and adding designs, I picked one up and painted it bright neon pink. And, it looked beautiful; it stood out alright.
I then made my way to the Pi shop where Rangoli making was in progress. I joined in, trying my hand at something I’d clearly not done any of, before. I was then hungry. We poked the food court at Mess 2, where we were informed that no food would be available till 7:30 p.m. We hung around, ate chicken curry and parrota and then walked up to our hostel where a few of my friends took it upon themselves to get me better dressed for the occasion than the T-shirt & shorts I was in. A new kurti, which was a recent birthday gift, was unearthed and new earrings off of a recent Kashmir trip emerged as well. Once the new look was approved, we made our way to the mandir, to join in the Diwali Pooja.
At around 9:00 p.m., arrangements were in full swing, on the football field. A music system and speakers were in place, blaring dance tracks! I spent half an hour, trying to get someone to join me, dancing, but, gave up, after an entirely failed enterprise. By 10:00 p.m., crackers were being burst, a bonfire was lit and sky-lanterns were floated.
A little gossiping and a lot of selfies later, Diwali night drew to a close.
And, it’s now light outside. Since we forgot to go looking for the Basketballs, courtesy Diwali, we shall be off now! Here’s hoping for success!