23/03/2015

23/05/2015; 00:00:

Gudi Padwa (Marathi New Year; the same day is celebrated under different names in various parts of the country- including Ugadi (Andhra Pradesh), Cheti Chand (Sindhi New Year), Navroz (Parsi) and the beginning of the Navratras) morning was spent cleaning up my room; we had a presentation in the afternoon which was rather okay; we went out for dinner in the evening, to celebrate the beginning of the New Year.
Later in the night, we had a Lady-members-only SAC EC meeting in the hostel.

I transported my dirty clothes to the newly started Xpress-o-mat, earlier this evening. We’ve since been working on our presentation for our course on ‘Introduction to Business History’; it shall be presented in class, early on Monday morning. Our topic deals with McDonalds’ success as a global brand, with emphasis on the franchise business model.

A lot of announcements have been made, over e-mail of course. Zephyr, our new initiative shall see its first session on the evening of Monday, 23rd March at 6:15 p.m.
Retorica has announced its much-awaited event- D’Battle- it shall include, over three evenings an MUN and a British Parliamentary Debate.
The Music Club has begun an initiative that they’re calling ‘Practice Groups’- it’s essentially a platform for all like-minded musicians to get together and jam!
The elections for Atharv-Coordinator shall be held later on Monday evening. All students of the 2013 & 2014 batches shall vote. The final list of applicants who’ve survived 3 rounds of pre-process shall be made public, right before the actual voting.

And, we have an order of Chicken Lollipops sitting on our bed, courtesy the night mess. My friend here demands that I join her, since eating alone makes her feel like a ‘bhukad’. I shall be off!

21/03/2015

21/03/15; 06:57:

It’s Gudi Padwa. I remember, a while back, when it was around Pongal I suppose, we had made a series of plans to have a grand celebration for Gudi Padwa (Marathi New Year) & Ugadi (Telgu New Year) which happen to be on the same date. Let’s hope something eventful happens, today.

So, Thursday aka Sunday, here at the Integrated Programme in Management, at IIM-Indore, was supposed to be all eventful, but ended up being mainly a sleep fiesta. I woke up only around mid-day ( I woke up to the news of being selected for the internship at Sankalp- the one that I’d really wanted- so, that was off to a great start!); i-Help operations carried on as usual; once up, we decided to get working on our Social Media Assignment. We’d picked StumbleUpon as our topic of choice. StumbleUpon is a rather unique way to browse the internet. You sign up, pick a bunch of interests, from an almost limitless list of topics; you hit the ‘Stumble’ button and you’re off! It lands you on WebPages that cater to your tastes! You can choose to bookmark, share, mark up or mark down the pages that you are directed to. We decided to create a ‘real-world’ version of StumbleUpon. A list of topics was drawn up on a whiteboard. I ‘clicked’ one, Nature. I was then thrown in front of a pretty tree! We thus spent the afternoon recording such clips- me stumbling into a bookshelf in the library & being awed by the collection of books (Books), me rolling into the frame and falling asleep under a tree (Nature), me walking straight into a series of cycles (Fitness), me cycling into Mess 2 and staring at the food on offer (Food!), me having a series of handbags dropped on my head (Fashion) and more! I then headed back to my room and promptly fell asleep again. We wound up the loose ends of the video, later in the evening. I then spent an hour camping in the Pi-Shop.

Friday saw a flurry of classes till about 5 in the evening. I then made and received a few calls to/from the media, letting them know about the play that was to happen later in the evening. At 6:30, we made our way (post eating evening snacks, of course) to the New Auditorium, where a bunch of enthusiastic students were staging Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. The play was directed & produced by Dr. Shweta Kushal, our professor, in the Communications Department. The play was beautifully executed- the three months of work that had gone into it was clearly visible- everything from the dialogue delivery to the stage and the assignment of roles was perfect. Unfortunately, I had to miss the last bit of the play, in order to get the press release out on time.

At 9:30, I made my way to the FPM Common Room for a rather grave SAC-EC meeting. The meeting went on for nearly three hours, post which I made my way to the SR-17 Common Room. The interviews for selection of the Atharv ’15 coordinators were to be conducted, from 11 p.m. till about 2 a.m. This was to be the final round- the last people standing shall make it to the election where the students of the 2013 & 2014 batches shall pick their leaders. We missed only one interview- clearly, we were off schedule! The 14 interviews went on nearly all night, ending only close to 6 a.m. We finally had the shortlist down to 6 candidates! The election shall most possibly be held on Sunday! Here’s hoping for a grand-er Atharv 2015!

18/03/2015

18/03/15; 23:00:

It’s been an almost long day, with 5 classes, starting right at 8:45 this morning.

Late on Saturday night, an e-mail was sent out to all those who made it to Round-2 of the Atharv Coordinator selections. The e-mail was sent out at around 1 a.m. The applicants were all to send in their résumés and Statements of Purpose by 6 a.m. i.e. in a few hours, in the middle of the night! They were then asked to report to the SR-17 Common Room at 7 a.m.! On reporting thus, the 20 candidates, who had successfully made it past the first round, were asked to organize into pairs for the next task. They were all to prepare an Action Plan for Atharv 2015!

On the night of 16th March, students of all three batches were invited to be part of Round-2 of the selection process. Each duo was to present their Action Plan to an auditorium full of IPM students, with the Core Committee of Atharv ’14 all perched on the first row, looking on, scrutinizing their every move. The well, event began by 9:30 p.m.; we were all there by 9 p.m., hurriedly deciding the criteria on which the hopefuls were to be marked. The presentations encompassed details of all the different verticals that would be needed to conduct the fest – Marketing, Sponsorship, Hospitality, Events, Informals, Events Coverage, Creatives, Logistics, Participation, Finance, Operations and more; the Pi Quiz, detailed time-lines of the months leading up to the fest; problems encountered during Atharv ’14 and their solutions and more. Everyone shot questions to the mostly patient, composed candidates.
The whole thing went on till a little after 1 a.m. post which everyone returned to their rooms.
I capered about the hostel, putting in flyers at each door- flyers that would let everyone know that Zephyr – that’s what our Psychological Well Being Circle shall be called- is all set to begin!

On Tuesday, the newly opened Laundromat announced its decision to now stay open 24 hours! They’re doing good business, what with people wanting to supervise their own laundry washing!
Meanwhile, the Pi Shop is all set to organize Polythene Reuse Campaign; everyone is encouraged to deposit their used polythene bags at designated collection points – these shall be reused by the Pi Shop.
We heard from Greenpeace, sometime ago; pretty much everyone other than me got an offer letter from them. I felt a little bad; but, I soon learnt that Sankalp Foundation, Banglore- the place that I want to intern at- would be conducting interviews soon.


Today was rather eventful. We had 5 classes, right from 8:45 in the morning. As the pre-lunch session ended at 1 p.m., the IPM Office asked to see some of us; I then received the news that I had an interview with Sankalp lined up later that evening i.e. at 4 p.m. I was rather excited, for I rather like what Sankalp is doing on the whole making blood donation entirely voluntary front. My interview was conducted over the telephone, was about 15 minutes long and was very enjoyable. I was asked about the various points on my résumé including my role as Media Comm. Coordinator, my story of being the PR &Marketing Head for Atharv ’14 & Ranbhoomi ’15, my being co-founder of our educational initiative, i-Help and my project on Measuring & Analyzing the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index at Ashraward Khurd, Madhya Pradesh. The internship involves a lot of travelling, which I am looking forward to; my sole apprehension is not being able to speak the local language i.e. Kannada. I hoping to hear from Sankalp soon, hoping to hear positive things at that too!

Later in the evening, Shruti & I spent time with Prarthana ma’am, working out the details of Zephyr and fixing a date & time for the first session. This was followed by a SAC EC meeting- the SAC Coordinator and Treasurer for the next academic year have to be picked; a set of pre-processes must be designed for the same. Later in the night, a form was sent out, asking for nominations. We cycled around campus and later got ourselves chilled milk at the Pi Shop.

The Dance Club has sent out e-mails, announcing a Merengue Workshop, sometime in April. I shall now find a partner, preferably the Dance Club Coordinator and sign myself up!

16/03/2015

14/03/2015; 14:33:

It’s been one interesting week! And, it’s now Saturday!
Thursday, which is supposed to be our ‘weekly off’, was by far the most hectic day of this week.

We have a course on ‘World Politics’, this term. The first class was held on Monday. The professor has done his PhD in China Studies, while living in China as a cultural exchange student! McDonalds was on campus, in the evening- with an array of burgers on offer. I think a weekly schedule has almost been fixed- some retailer or the other is on campus, on any given day of the week. I shall try and curate a consolidated list of this; it shall be one useful list. The Finance and Investment Club held the first session of their promised Financial Discussion Forum on Monday evening at around 7 p.m.- the session sought to throw light on the world of finance- no prior knowledge of finance or investment was necessary to benefit from the session. We then played Volleyball.
Our session schedules unfortunately would not allow us to participate in Spree- BITS Goa’s sports fest that was due to begin on 12th March. We thus spent Monday night making random phone calls, looking for an alternate sports fest to attend, on a later date.
10th March (Tuesday) was Rang Panchami- the 5th day after Holi. Rang Panchami is celebrated in a big way, in and around Indore; we however had a normal working day- replete with a Game Theory Quiz in addition to a few classes. Things like Game Theory and Nash Equilibrium feel like part of our daily lives, rather than like some abstract concepts that only some people know of, and, that’s awesome. Royal Sandwich was on campus, on Tuesday, with an array of sandwiches on offer. An assignment as part of the course on Social Media was to be submitted on Thursday. Tuesday night was thus spent typing out said assignment.
The IPM SAC meanwhile is trying to create a consolidated list of the achievements of the IPM students. Xpress-o-mat – the new student-driven laundry service began operations on Wednesday evening! Washing machines, dryers, laundry bags, detergents and more have been procured for the same- a room in SR-05 is now ‘Xpress-o-mat’. It looks rather useful- drop off your clothes- they shall be washed, dried and folded, all in a matter of 2 hours! We now have two laundry services on campus- the other, existing one is here, for now. Perhaps, they might choose to merge, at a later date. BKC foods was on campus, on Wednesday with fish fry, veg rolls and chicken popcorn on offer. I like their fish fry.
We spent some time with Prarthana Ma’am, the institute counsellor, working on a project that is a Psychological Well-Being Circle- from what I understand, it will be more of a psychology-related discussion forum than a well-being circle. We designed a flyer, in order to let everyone know of the idea. We set off to Indore city, to get the flyers printed, and managed to get back to campus without the flyers, but with full stomachs instead. We sat down later in the night, working on the aforementioned assignment. It rained almost all through the night!

12th March- Thursday began with our weekly trip to nearby government schools as part of the i-Help initiative. It was a nice cool morning, thanks to the rain; once back, a couple of us huddled together in my room, talking. The topic very soon turned to ghost stories. In the process of this discussion, it was revealed that the New Auditorium is haunted- multiple people have apparently heard a woman’s shrill yelling at various points in time.
I then had a Skype interview with Greenpeace. As part of the course curriculum, we are required to do a social internship at the end of the third year. The placement process for the social internships is thus in full swing. A couple of people have already received offer letters from various NGO’s and CSR-wings- some chose to select candidates entirely on the basis of their résumés, some asked for written pre-processes, still others shall do phone/Skype interviews. I remember seeing some PGP guys roaming around wearing a shirt-tie-blazer and boxer shorts- all of it makes sense now- Skype Interviews! My interview was rather short, 7-8 minutes at most-most other people had 20-25 minute interviews. We should hear from them in a while.
Later in the evening, there was a SAC-EC meeting- a meeting hadn’t been held in a while and there were a couple of things to be discussed- the most important being post-fest follow-up for Ranbhoomi. Low attendance in guest lectures was a topic of discussion. There’s also a proposal for an IIT – IIM FaceOff. We’re looking to having that soon!
Later in the night, at 11 p.m., to be precise, I made my way to the SR-17 common room. The selection procedure for the Atharv ’15 coordinators was due to begin soon! All the interested applicants were divided into 5 groups of roughly 7 members each. One group at a time made their way to the GD room, upstairs where Piyush & Pranav had a cleverly designed problem to drive a group-think! Meanwhile, we spoke to the other people, gauging their specific interests in the fest, their strengths, the flaws in Atharv ’14, the pros & the cons of everything and the expansion plans. This went on till about 3 a.m., post which we were back in the hostel.

16/03/2015; 00:17
Most of Saturday was spent in class; later in the evening, we had a very brief Media Comm. Meeting. Post the meeting, we spent some time with the PGP E-cell. They are planning an event in mid-August and needed a Media Team. The event aims to be a platform to allow for interaction between start-ups that need funding and venture capitalists who are looking for promising start-ups.
Most of Sunday was morning/afternoon and evening was spent sleeping! Looking forward to classes on Monday.. or not!

08/03/2015

08/03/2015; 23:20:


8th March, 2015 saw another first on the IIM-Indore campus. The IPM community, fueled by their passion for change, organized ‘Utkarsha’- the Social Fest. ‘Utkarsha ‘means to rise and that is exactly the sentiment that the fest hoped to capture. ‘To rise’, above it all, to rise, just enough to see beyond everything that is wrong, out over all the good that exists somewhere, within each human, to rise and reach beyond one’s own selfish interests, to rise above the petty few and reach for the grand that is it all, to rise, and move away and beyond the one that’s always been there, to reach out and discover that which could be and deserves to be, to rise, to the depths beyond and then, reach out to another you.
And, what better day to rise to, than International Women's Day!

The event began close to 9 a.m. The event took off with an address by AishwaryaMangla, the convener of the fest. This was followed by words of inspiration courtesy the IPM Chair, Dr Amitabh Kodwani. Ashwini followed this up with a presentation on the social initiatives undertaken by the IIM-Indore community. Mrs. SudhaKaul, the keynote speaker and guest of honour then took centre stage, speaking most necessarily of an inclusive and socially responsible society. She is a Padma Shree awardee and the founder of the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy. The architecture of an inclusive society is based on Democracy, Development, Diversity and Dialogue. Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families, as well as of the local community and society at large. We need, today, more than even before to ‘belong’ to the society that we live in.

The CSR-NGO conclave which took the form of a panel discussion withProf. SatyajitMajumdar (Profeesor , TISS) as the moderator began soon after. The panelists included Mr. Raghavendra K(VP, HR, Infosys BPO) , Dr. K KUpadhyay (CSR Head, FICCI Aditya Birla Center for Excellence); Mr. Bhoopendra Singh (Project Head, Reliance Foundation) ; Mr. Rajesh Tiwari(Founder, ICCSR); Mr. Syed Kazi (Deputy Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation); and Mr. ShubhranshuChoudhary (Founder, CGNetSwara). The topic under consideration was “Creating an enabling environment for Corporate- NGO partnerships in India; Tackling problems faced in forging strategic and long term Corporate – NGO ties”

The discussion opened with the question ‘ Why do corporates in India engage with non-business organizations such as NGO’s ?’ It then moved to ‘Do we see some conflict of interests while corporate association with NGO? Or is there convergence of values?’ This sparked off a healthy debate, among the panelists and also made participants raise questions. The two value systems are inherently the same- their roots may be different, but, even with two viewing angles to the same situation, their values remain the same. Corporates ought to focus on ‘talent development’ in a big way- The closing question wondered whether corporate engagements consider issues related to sustainable development. Corporates focus not only on ROI- return on investments, but also on ROI- return on imagination. The steps to sustainable development begin with feeding, teaching the person how to fish, and continue to hand-holding, to give the person confidence to keep the initiative going, by themselves. CSR helps not only in product differentiation but also in product innovation. There was the talk of reactive and creative stories in journalism and how similarly, CSR ought to be creative rather than merely reactive. Do not just pay the beggar; find out why the beggar exists in the first place- that sums up how society ought to react.

This was followed by a presentation by the trustee and students of Aasthagram Trust, Khargone. Mr. Wajid Khan with his unveiling of his ‘nail-art’ canvases and his story from being a simple village boy to one who is now a record-holder was up next. Mementos for all were provided by Archies& Twenty19.

Later in the day, there were stalls set up by various NGO’s, both to spread awareness and to display products that they create. A gramophone playing hit Bollywood numbers kept the atmosphere lively, through the warm afternoon. We managed to have a pani-puri eating contest, with the loser paying for the other’s food; I very happily enjoyed my free pani-puri.

A CSR-Modelling competition which is definitely the need of the hour, given the huge money involved, with proper channels not always being available to route this fund to the needy, was held, as was Avdhaarna- the Social B-Plan Competition. The CSR-Modelling Competition was won by SPJIMR College. Avdharna was won by SRCC, new Delhi and SCMHRD, Pune.

08/03/2015

08/03/2015; 06:45:

We’re about two hours away from the inaugural of ‘Utkarsha’- the first-ever IPM Social Fest.

The evening of 5th March was spent ushering in spring, with the festival of colours- Holika Dahan i.e. the burning of the fire on Holi happened at around 9 p.m., on the football ground. The event saw music, dancing and of course, it gave way to colours being smeared on everyone’s faces. I got to return to my room with a half red & a half pink face. Of course, not much effort went into cleaning up, for there was a lot more where that came from, all lined up for the next morning.

As decided by the Cultural Committee, Holi was to kick –off at 9 a.m. Of course, all the boys had planned and were there earlier, creating a large pool of muck, where people were to be dunked, all through the celebration. About a hundred kilos of gulaal had been arranged; there was music playing and there were colourful people everywhere. The celebration ended on a perfect note, with water being sprayed everywhere and samosas being served to all.
Later in the evening, we managed to get our hands on delicious gujjiya; our festival was now complete.
We headed out for lunch, on the 7th. At around 10 p.m., we began a run-through of the next morning’s programme.

And, 100 posts down!

05/03/2015

03/03/15; 23:45:

On the morning of 2nd March, right after the EDM night, we have two ECS classes in the morning. We indulged, as promised in a group discussion. The topic in question was ‘Is western culture affecting Indian Youth?’. Post lunch, we had a Game Theory class; we’ve been discussing Nash Equilibrium and the Pareto optimal, among other things. This was quickly followed by a class of ‘Introduction to Medicine’- this course is apparently an important part of our curriculum, so that, when we are managers in a company, and someone takes leave, citing medical reasons, we can try and figure out if they’re lying.
We then went off to collect our IGNOU books for the new academic year, since we had received an e-mail which very clearly threatened to throw all unclaimed books out by the end of the day. We overheard some PGP students discussing the EDM night, near the faculty mess; life’s good, people are talking about Ranbhoomi and in good light.
We then went to have a look at the CSI End Term papers. While we were in there, the rain that had begun to fall was intercepted by a warm sunlight. And, as we stepped out of the classroom and into the corridor, we were greeted by a rainbow, in all its glory- high and might, arced perfectly, each of the 7 strips of colour showing perfectly against the backdrop of the grey-blue sky, with just a whisk of white clouds in the corners of the frame. It was, and I dare not use any other words, for fear of being unable to capture that marvellous spectacle correctly, Perfect.

We then proceeded to walk aimlessly around campus for at least 4 hours. Oh, and, I managed to get some food at Globe @ I , the new Chinese place on campus. Also, the night mess has added a lot of new items to their menu, including Chicken 65 and Spring Rolls.

05/03/2015; 01:41:

Yesterday saw the first class of ‘Introduction to Business History’- the course began with the professor scribbling three questions on the blackboard even before he introduced himself. The course began, much to everyone’s delight, with a quiz. Reading material for the course had been given out a few days before, and, we’d been apparently expected to read through the first prescribed reading. The session itself was rather interesting; we discussed mainly the expectations that people had from the course and the indentured labour system.

I was then in the IPM Office at 5 p.m., getting information about the soon-to-be held Prize Distrubution session for the 2011 batch. I was to prepare and present a PowerPoint presentation on the Achievements of the IPM students. We then designed the content for a flyer that we intend to slip under everyone’s doors, soon. We’re all geared up to start ‘Zephyr’, the Psychological Wellness Circle, under the guidance of the institute counsellor, Ms. Prarthana Sharma. Late evening was spent playing Volleyball. The Pi shop held interviews to recruit new members from the 2013/2014 batches.

3 kids managed to get selected. I was at the Old Auditorium, at 9:15 a.m., as decided at my meeting with the IPM Office. We had a run-through of the Prize Distribution Ceremony which was scheduled to happen at 2 p.m. At this point, we suggested to our IPM chair and the IPM Office to include the menu for the High-Tea that was to follow the ceremony, in the e-mail inviting students to attend. A second session of ‘Introduction to Business History’ and some lunch later, we were all assembled in the Old Auditorium. The function surprisingly began right on time. My presentation began with stating the unique features of the IPM course, including the course curriculum, the exchange programme and the social internship. We then looked at achievements of the 2011 batch students; the events including Ranbhoomi, Utkarsha, Atharv, i-Help and the Khargone visits were highlighted; this was followed by brief mentions of victorious students, at various events including B-plan competitions, essay-writing contests, the Tata Crucible Quiz and in the field of sports. The presentation ended with a collage of assorted, randomly picked pictures of the IPM students in action.
Our Director Sir then spoke, praising the programme and talking of his relationship with the guest of honour, Mr. Luis Miranda. Mr. Miranda then spoke of taking on every opportunity that comes your way, rising up to meet challenges and never undermining the limitless scope of potential possibilities. Certificates of merit were then handed out to the top 5% students of the batch. The High-Tea that followed had good food on offer, including vegetable cutlets and vanilla ice-cream.

We then had one class; the next 4 days are now off. We headed out to Chappan for dinner, in order to welcome our 4-day impromptu break. Quite a few people have headed home; the others here are all in anticipation of the Holi celebration that is in store, on the 6th.

03/03/2015

03/03/15; 01:56:

Let’s start right where we left off. Later in the evening on the 27th, there was an IIT-Indore v/s IIM-Indore Basketball Match. Amity University beat IIM-Indore by a single point to win the Table Tennis event. The Basketball Match was very interesting. Even though by the time I got to the court, the game was well into its second half, each point sent the game this way or that. The game finally ended with a 39-40 score, in favour of IIM-Indore.
Meanwhile, ‘Amplifed’- the Music event had begun in the Central Lawn. All the food stalls- Apna Sweets selling IndiPizza & Ice-cream; Sarafa ka Parathewala with his paneer and sev paratha; Red Dragon had butter chicken, chilli paneer and more; Buddy’s Cafe was dishing out Chinese and milkshakes; Burger Planet stayed true to its name; and Meximus had a large variety of Mexican food on offer- were doing brisk business. Amplified consisted of a series of Musical events, ranging from ‘Tune In’ where the participant had to successfully identify the tune being played and subsequently sing the song in question to a Musical Face-Off! Prizes included boxes of Galaxy chocolates and cans of Red Bull.

The match must’ve ended close to 11 p.m.; soon after, I was back at the Central Lawn. On my way up to the Central Lawn, I met a couple of guys who wished to register for the Campus Roadies thing. It was good to see people interested in the event that was to be conducted by Roadies 5 winner, Ashutosh Kaushik on the 28th.Spotting an available sound system, a microphone, a waiting stage and all, I got talking. We began with looking for the person with the longest name. The winner refused to comply with our request for a rap and we then had to begin a new search. We then had on stage 2 guys in pink T-shirts. They were both Cricket players. We decided to pick the winner via a Cricket-specific sports quiz. Agrim volunteered to ask questions. After both of them failed to get any answers right, a Tug-of-War was suggested. A round of push-ups was then held to determine the winner. By this time, a large crowd had assembled around the stage and a couple more one-on-one push-up challenges followed. A few rounds of tug-of-war soon followed. I managed to be on the winning side, most times. Sensing a lull in the excitement, I got back on stage, to get the party going, since everyone had by now had multiple tries at a tug-of-war. I called to the crowd for random entertainment ideas. No one understood quite how or why, but, there was soon a stripping contest going on, with random guys getting on stage, getting their shirts off and showing off to the crowd. By around 1 a.m., most people had decided to go catch some sleep, since a lot of them had early morning matches.

Most teams were rather happy with the sports facilities extended; what with the newly constructed cricket ground, the indoor wooden Badminton court, the green and red basketball court, the newly done-over Volleyball courts and the sports equipment(courtesy Mahavir Sports).

I walked around for a bit, talking to newly found company. 28th morning saw Volleyball matches – they were mostly happening in the early mornings, for the overhead sun would not allow the ball to be properly visible. The Swimming event began at 9 a.m. and ran till lunch-time. The Swimming events were: 50m & 100m Freestyle, 50 & 100m Breast Stroke, 50 & 100 m Back Stroke and 50m Butterfly - for both men and women. Cricket matches went on till afternoon, post which they had to be abandoned thanks to the sudden rain. It just has to rain when we’re having a fest! It had rained during Atharv and even now, when it was almost March, the rain had to make an appearance. Post lunch, the media and Ashutosh Kaushik were on campus. The power-lifting event was in progress, since late-morning. A short interview of the Roadies 5 winner and some cold coffee later, the media persons decided to leave, since the arm-wrestling event did not appear to be ready to begin, any time soon.

A couple of events had been planned for the evening of 28th Feb, since all of 1st evening was to be the VH1 Supersonic EDM night. The arm-wrestling event began a few hours after its scheduled time, upsetting the schedule of all the other events. After the Women’s Arm-Wrestling and the Men’s Arm-Wrestling over 4 different categories, ‘Footloose’- the Dance event attempted to take off, as did ‘SpotLight’- the Drama event. They then ran rounds of events in alternation- beginning with a round of Newspaper Dancing. This was followed by a hilarious mimicry of various singing stars courtesy one of the Ranbhoomi participants. On popular demand, a second round of Newspaper Dancing was held.
Meanwhile, Campus Roadies took off, with the top 15 candidates who had been previously shortlisted. A quiz, that dealt with the stock market and related concepts was organized by NSE- they gave out office organizers with built-in calculators- the perfect corporate accessory- as prizes . These activities went on, in parallel with the Volleyball Semi-final which was happening on the court adjacent to the Academic Block ( right by the Central Lawn, too!). In a closely contested match, IIM-Indore beat Amity University, to earn themselves a spot in the final. The Badminton final had to be abandoned due to unfavourable playing conditions. Amity University was declared the winner, based on their league scores with the other finalist, NMIMS (Mumbai).

Later in the night, we settled into the reading room of the library and sat there till 4 a.m., planning a grand event that would boost the presence of a sporting culture in the State and later across the country. An appreciation for sports other than cricket is very definitely needed.

1st March- the final day of Ranbhoomi! The day began with the football final at 8:30 a.m. and the second volleyball semi-final at the same time. The IIM-Indore team lost to Sagar Institute, Bhopal, in a closely-contested football match, by 2 goals to 1. The Volleyball final saw IIM-Indore beat Jaipuria University, 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-11, and 25-23). The Chess event ran over three days, with IIM-Indore coming out on top, with Amity a close second. The basketball semi-finals began by late-afternoon. Sanghvi Institute of Management Studies won the first semi-final; IES IPS (Indore) beat IIM-Indore by an almost 20-point difference. The final began after an hour’s gap, where SIMS won against IES IPS, 66-49. Both sides had strong players, and the game was rather enjoyable. Meanwhile, the Closing Ceremony began in the New Auditorium at 3:30 p.m. Mir Ranjan Negi Sir was the Guest of Honour and handed out all the prizes, along with Director Sir, Dr. Rishikesha T. Krishnan. All the trophies and medals handed out were beautiful, and it was at this point that we felt the worst about there not being any girls’ teams for either Basketball or Volleyball.
As soon as the ceremony ended, we had the privilege of spending some one-on-one time with Negi Sir, interviewing him on behalf of the press. He spoke of encouraging sports, for people across all walks of life; he talked about Indore, how he fell in love with the IIM students and more.
Once our final press release (with only pictures of the EDM night and the artists due) was sent out, we could finally breathe. Final arrangements for the EDM night were being made- logos of sponsors were organized, the security team positioned themselves at strategic locations, sound-checks were performed and a contingency plan was prepared. The EDM Night took off at 8 p.m.; the party was in full swing by 10 p.m. We were backstage, sending out pictures to the media, before we made our way to the green room. We spent time with Rishabh from Lost Stories, while the Progressive Brothers were on stage.
The event was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone present and dancing (or not!).

After seeing all the guests off, we finally got ourselves some food and some much-needed rest! And, that kids, is how Ranbhoomi ’15 panned out!

27/02/2015

27/02/2015; 15:00:

It’s been a crazy few days. All we’ve talked about, all we’ve thought about, all we’ve done is Ranbhomi!
It was the night of 25th, when we had an everyone’s –invited meeting right outside the cricket stadium- the excitement in the air was palpable. It was soon going to be the 26th and contingents would start coming in, from as early as 6 a.m. on Thursday! Instructions were given out, ideas were shared, contacts were shared- contact this guy for all transportation requirements, contact that other guy for all logistics, get in touch with her for all informals requirements; important details were shared with everyone- this guy is at the cash counter, these 6 will man the registration desk in shifts, there will be a minimum of 10 people at the Help Desk/Hospitality Desk at any given point of time; people volunteered to go pick up contingents. Most of all, it was hard to believe that after over two months of planning and so many months of waiting, the fest was right here!

Our first set of participants was on campus at around 6 a.m., on the 26th. We got to work, putting up posters in the Central Lawn, adding final touches to the stuff needed for the informal events and generally milling around wherever there was activity. Cricket matches were in full swing, on the newly constructed cricket ground by 8a.m.
We then managed to grab something to eat at around 6 p.m. By 7 p.m., we were gathered in NC-2 (F-101), to make phone calls, just like the previous evening. We must’ve made at least 2000 phone calls, to different people, mainly to let them know about the EDM night that is happening on the 1st. VH1 Supersonic featuring Lost Stories and the Progressive Brothers shall take over the IIM-Indore campus, this Sunday, 7 p.m. onwards! Later in the evening, a few informals took off, including Gully Cricket, Football skills and Twister. A few of the food stalls were already set-up and doing brisk business. Soon, it was mainly our students and the contingent from Amity University- playing Kabbadi, challenging each other to arm wrestling and pulling hard at Tug-of-War. We wrapped up a little after mid-night.

Early this morning, Volleyball matches took off. Cricket and football have been in full swing! We a picked up a contingent from the railway station, close to midday- they’re from Mumbai and are here mainly to enjoy the informal games- Pithoo, Kabbadi and KhoKho!
Table Tennis and Chess are in progress at the Sports Complex and the home team’s cricket match should be starting soon – I’ll be off!

23/02/2015

23/02/2015 ; 22:34:

The last three days (including today) have had a lot going on. Our plans for the 21st included Lunch, as part of a friend’s birthday celebration. We then spent some time shopping for essentials at More, C21 Mall. Later in the evening, at around 7 p.m., there was scheduled to be a Flash Mob, as part of promotional activity for Ranbhoomi. The flash mob began as scheduled, with everyone dressed in red. We got a good video of the well-coordinated dancing. The video was edited and ready before mid-night and is now available on YouTube (there’s also a link to it on the Ranbhoomi Facebook page).
Also, homeopathic medicine for swine flu was made available for everyone on campus; this was mainly for all the paranoid people- to help them be less paranoid. Anyway, with the rising temperature, the virus ought to die, soon.

The evening of 22nd saw a ‘SAC Evaluation’. The coordinators of the various clubs and committees gathered first, to evaluate the performance of the SAC-Coordinator, the Treasurer, all the other clubs & committees and their committee members. Then, members of all the clubs and committees turned up, to evaluate their coordinators, all on the basis of pre-determined parameters. Later that night, the Academic Committee held round 2 of their newly conjured-up logical reasoning quiz, Analyt-i-ka. An updated mess menu has been prepared, with Poha now being on the menu, only 2 Saturdays a month.

This evening, the Literary club worked along with Toastmasters to organize an event called 'SpotLight'. It had to do with public speaking; the event had two rounds. In the first round, a random image was displayed on screen and the participant had to talk about the image for a minute and a half. Six participants made it to round 2, where they were put on a hot-seat, with the spotlight focused on them. They were then subjected to a series of hypothetical situations essentially, their ability to handle stress and take a firm stand was tested. The winner had an option- she could pick either a Toastmasters' membership or Rs 2000 in cash as her prize. My batch-mate gladly picked the money.

We’ve been playing Volleyball in the evenings and basketball after 11 p.m., in preparation for our upcoming sports fest, Ranbhoomi. Late last night, as it’s been through the week, meetings of the PR & Marketing and the Informals verticals were called. Work was delegated- reporters from different newspapers, BIG FM and some TV channels shall be on campus. Several informals including Gully Cricket, Kabbadi, Street Football, Mad Pie, Dare 2 Hit, Bollywood Quiz and Tug-of-War have been planned. Tickets for VH1’s Supersonic – that’s happening on the night of 1st March- are being sold and over 500 participants from various colleges across the country shall be on campus, for the 3-day event.

21/022015

21/02/15; 01:25:

The book launch this evening was an exhilarating success! I was woken up close to mid-day, with my to-be co-host for the evening banging on the door of my room. She demanded that I wake up and we set working on the script for the evening’s programme. A quick bath and some lunch later, we were all seated in NC-2 (aka F-103—they’ve renamed everything in the academic block- which were earlier numbers to letters and everything in the residential areas – which were earlier letters to numbers—I do not know what prompted the change). The whole 2012 Batch was present. The agenda of the meeting was the Social Internships that we are required to undertake in May-June. The meeting was chaired by the IPM chair- the meeting discussed some nuances of the placements for social internships- specifically the right to choose to opt in or to choose to opt out of the process. Those who choose to opt out of the placement process on campus shall source their own internships, through an array of personal contacts or otherwise. While we talked stipends and vacancies, my room-mate had some serious concerns about the geographical location of the internships- of course, her opening her query with ‘I understand that stipends are subject to market risk ’, did not help her case too much. Once the meeting was at a close, we settled at a table in the mess, working on our script for later in the day.

We were done quickly enough, writing a few lines, to fit into the schedule that we had prepared earlier. We then got printouts, got dressed and got ourselves on a bus that was arranged for the express purpose of transporting us to the venue- Brilliant Convention Centre. It took us little over an hour to get to the venue. We were there by 5:30. We milled about, settling our stuff into our ‘green room’- it was almost as large as the hall where the event was to be held – and, there was a dance floor, DJ and food all set out, for us to enjoy! (as and when our performances were over). We checked out the sound system, the stage, the backstage area and the various strategically placed standees that had images from the book, book reviews and pictures depicting a myriad of intense emotions on them.

The invite for the Book Launch stated 6:30 p.m. as appropriate arrival time and most guests were present and socialising by 7 p.m. At 7:15, we set the ball rolling, with a soothing Carnatic Music piece. The event was then officially started with invoking the blessings of the Lord- with Puloma’s rendition of the Ganesh Vandana. Keeping in tune with the auspicious setting, we went ahead and had the formal launching of the book- replete with cutting of red ribbon. This was followed by a reading of an excerpt from the book- one that dealt with corruption in modern day Indore- the police force and the judiciary. A skit depicting an award ceremony for the most corrupt department in the country followed. An excerpt that delved into the charm of 18th century Jaisalmer was then read out, setting the mood for a medley of songs. The songs expressed the feelings of the common man trapped in a corrupt society; the songs are a call to humanity, an appeal for reform. This was followed by a lengthy excerpt from the book. A critical review of the book was then followed by a skit highlighting the plight of today’s society – what with rape and honour killings. An excerpt about the sensuous Banjara dancers then set the stage for a tremendously energetic dance performance which was also centred around corruption. A book reading by the author himself and then a panel discussion brought the show to a close. The book was made available at publisher’s price and the author was around, signing copies.

We received a lot of compliments on the successful execution of our performances. We then enjoyed good food and a DJ party that had been put in place especially for us- the performers!
We left the venue a little before 11 p.m., singing the whole way back to campus! It was indeed a delightful evening! And, one filled with learning and opportunities.

19/02/2015

19/02/15; 17:55:

We had a run through of tomorrow’s event, this afternoon. A skit has been put together by the drama club- it features an award ceremony to recognize the most corrupt department in the country- the nominations include the Police, the forest department, PWD and others. One scene which depicts the interaction between Barrack Obama and Lalu Prasad Yadav is hilarious- each is trying to outdo the other, showing off the corruption in their countries – where Obama shows off a half-constructed bridge, Lalu has to show a non-existent bridge at a ‘completed’ project site. A medley of songs was put together by the music club and a dance performance that deals with corruption and then the common man uniting to break free of the trap that is today’s corrupt society was put together by the members of the dance club.
Once the performances were approved of by the author, Mr. Bapna, we retreated to the MDC lobby, where we sat charting out the sequence of events, fitting in appropriate excerpts from the book wherever apt.
It was then decided that we would head to IIT-Indore at 6 p.m., to go watch the performances that they had lined up. And, we did just that. Now, IIT-Indore doesn’t have a permanent campus yet; their academic building is about 10 k.m. or so from their hostels. I’d seen the academic building before, but, this was to be my first visit to their place of residence- Silver Springs seemed like a fairly nice place. The IIT-Indore dramatics club had prepared a thought-provoking play that dealt with social issues- rape, acid attacks and honour killings- and the apparent apathy of society towards the victims.
Once we were back on campus, we finalized the arrangements for a friend’s birthday. Once it struck mid-night, we got busy celebrating!

18th was Shivratri- over 12,000 devotees were on campus, for there is a very famous temple, here. The whole path, from the gate to the temple was lined with orange flags, the temple was intricately decorated and arrangements for pooja, including a loudspeaker that played bhajans all day, were made.