Back Home..

Things can’t get worse than this.. 9^th Dec was the last post and no post after that. Even worse is the fact that the page-view counter keeps on going up. The Stud (nic update: Sportscommer becomes The Stud :D )accused me of doing this on purpose, so that all my dear readers keep opening the page with the hope of seeing a new post, but they are disappointed. Awwww.. That wasn’t the intention, but nice idea :P Ok.. Excuses for not blogging for all these days: Bad Health, Exams. Real reason: Not bothering to find time for making one small post. So here I am, back home, in my room, taking out time to make this post...

So what happened during all those days? One startling thing is that a lot of people are exhibiting their writing skills: some through Facebook Notes, some through blogs. The Depilated Photographer has entered the blogosphere because of some “inspiration” and he has shown some publicity skills there. And people call poor Story Teller the “blogowhore” :P

Anyways, apart from that, we had our end-terms. Haha.. No point telling how it went. I’m just glad it’s over. Went to this place named 60 ml after the last exam. Had to rush midway to catch the train back home. Was a good experience overall :D

I’d made certain plans for the 2^nd term after the end terms of the 1^st term. Executed most of them (sitting in the front, paying attention, taking notes blah blah). I don’t care about the grades I get this term. But thanks to all these things, the studies this term seemed easier, and more enjoyable. So well done Bhaiyya, keep it up. :D

As for the 3^rd term, no point making plans. The plan is to enjoy the Tridev.. :D

9th Dec: And it ends...

The lectures for the 2nd term are finally done.. We are towards the end of the 2nd term!! We have completed 33% of our course!! This term seemed so short.. And thanks to my lazy blogging, I don't have any proof to think otherwise (just 18 posts in this term so far.. the "ferformance is bad"!)
Anyways... I missed writing it in my earlier post... We got the first mail from the Raavan himself.. It caused too much brouhaha with people uploading their gtalk statuses, facebook statuses.. Baldy (nickname update: Gamer would henceforth be referred to as Baldy) had a good one.. "There's no point getting psyched.. at least, not yet".. Precisely my take on all this.. :)
Late in the night, while I was trying to study.. in come Daadu ka Pyaar and my Gaaon Waala and take me to Story Teller's room.. Joined by the Lucknowi Thanekar, Dutto (surprisingly) and the one and only Rangeela.. Party about to begin.. Exam pressure.. :P Btw.. As ordered, I didn't drink.. (Hope the message reaches the concerned person)
Came back from the party and tried breaking my head over Financial Ratios again.. By the time, I decided to call it a day, it was 6 30 and wasn't feeling sleepy.. How do I solve this problem? Simple... Start reading OB2.. 10 minutes is all I took!! :D

8th Dec: The Blogosphere explodes..

It all started with the Story Teller.. Now, please note that the Story Teller here was with a resolve to quit smoking, driven by a new obsession and without hair.. :P He all of a sudden decides to quit Facebook.. Result: Hibernation?? Nahh.. He becomes super active on blogosphere.. Some really brilliant articles written there.. And the one that caught everyone's attention: YOU! :P
Call it fate, destiny or coincidence, the YOU also enters the blogosphere.. Was expecting some post from her as a reply to the Story Teller.. And I followed her blog.. That was it.. Smart ass Story Teller identified that 'Just a Thought' was me.. (NFS! You spoiler!).. And the word spread across..
I never intended to keep my blog a secret.. But, I didn't want a lot of publicity either.. Reason: Didn't want to get burdened by the thought that people would be reading it, so I need to write something which they'll like.. But that's not going to happen.. My intention of writing this blog stays the same: Preserving all the moments spent here, so that it's fun to read some years later..
But.. Thanks to this mini-publicity, gone are the days when I could give any nicknames to anyone freely.. :P
Oh.. Btw.. We still have our end terms from Monday.. Just reminding myself..

6th - 7th Dec: Towards the end...

My 50th post... YAaayyyyyy!!!
Have been pretty slow reaching here.. Should have achieved this feat long back.. But initially I never thought I would be having my blog with 50 posts on it.. So congrats to me nonetheless.. :D
Anyways.. Things are drawing to a close here.. Lectures almost over.. End terms starting from 13th of this month..
People worried about "how many lectures have they been absent? How many profs have declared marks for attendance? How much attendance is needed to avoid a grade drop? What's the weightage assigned to the end terms? How much was that quiz worth?"
Baahh!! The good things here... The weather has become awesome!! A slight drizzle.. Cool weather.. Mild breeze blowing.. Definitely not conducive to study..
Lady Teddy shares her birthday with Baba on the 7th.. A sweetheart that she is, she gave the entire class a treat at Dadu..
A distinct feature these days is that people (excluding me sadly) have started studying in full swing.. A good point was made by the Telugu Pujari, "In the last term, people were studying very stealthily and claiming that they haven't studied at all (typical school guys behavior), but this time, everyone is openly slogging.."
Hmmmm... The bell for the last round has rung.. Like Rocky Balboa, it's time to go all out on the opponent.. No matter what, don't go down (to sleep).. Like he used to say "No Pain! No Pain".. I'm saying.. "No Sleep! No Sleep"...

5th Dec: Birthday Bashing at its worst (or best)..

Boring lectures in the morning.. HBS online Accounts working in the noon.. What all do we have to do to earn our CP points? Going through a free trial online course made by Harvard and giving the online tests there.. Talk about the professor himself FRAXing.. :P
Anyways, the highlight of the day came at near midnight.. Some loud noises were heard in the alley.. Walked out to see the birthday boy: Dadu ka pyaar, all drenched in water, with people taking chances to kick him, hit him with chappals, belts, iron rods and cricket bat..
The phase 2 of the birthday bashing was on the 3rd floor terrace.. He was drenched again with some funnily smelling water, kicked, hit again with all the above apparatus (add to it a crutch as well this time), smeared with coconut oil (which was a superb reference to a special someone ;) ), and then came the ice-cream pack on the face (a substitute for a cake).. Just when people thought it was getting over, out came a beer bottle and the contents were sprayed on the birthday boy.. Finally he was sent away to go and have a hot water bath.. The moment he comes out of the bathroom, "Splash".. Rose syrup this time.. and this procedure was repeated twice.. :P
One of the most wicked birthday celebrations I've seen... But was fun.. I guess even Dadu ka pyaar would remember this forever.. I guess these are the moments you carry forward in your life.. not the grades or marks you earn.. Wish I have many such memorable moments to witness here..

4th Dec: And Finally...

As expected, no one was awake except Randy (pronounced in a way rhyming to "candy", i thought it was safe to clarify ;) ) who had just woken up at 6 30.. But I don't accept defeat so easily.. I went and pulled the 2nd floor punters out of their slumbers.. So.. the 8 of us finally went and had our much awaited breakfast.. A decent experience.. Hams, Sausages, Fried Chicken, Vanilla Milkshake, Fruits, Fruit juices.. wow..
Came back and slept at 10 30 just to be woken up by the constantly vibrating cell phone at about 4 30.. Bakared online for a long time..
Later in the evening, had a quiet daaru party with few of the guys on the 3rd floor terrace out in the chilled atmosphere.. Nice experience.. Made good use of the TAS mugs which we had got.. :P Btw, I realized that it was probably the first time when, I had consumed a cocktail with such a wide variety of liquor.. Enjoyed the critical analysis discussion which went on during the party.. Can't give the details here.. But as rightly pointed out by my gaaon waala in his comment, it'll be fun later on.. So, the discussion was basically about looking at a certain section of people of our batch in a different angle and how their immediate surroundings have an impact on them and the others.. ;)
Slept "happily" at about 3 am.. Is the final hectic phase of this term just round the corner? Who cares right now? :P

2nd Dec - 3rd Dec: Another Mini Vacation..

I mentioned some quiz at the end of my earlier post.. Well, no need to know how it went.. :P
But it actually was significant in some ways.. To study for that test, I slept for only 2.5 hours.. Man! Remembered my engineering days.. Studying through the night, leaving some chapters for option, and then asking some friends to explain that in 10 minutes..
Anyways, it also signaled the start of another mini vacation (we've had too many this term).. This was on account of the birthday of St. Xaviers.. What it really meant was: a good dinner and no lectures for the next 2 days.. Yipppee! Some people went to Mandarmoni, some went to Kolkata, some just drank the whole night.. I didn't fall in any of these categories.. I had intended to spend the afternoon sleeping, but I ended up in the TT room (again) and spent my noon there, came back and found the movie Natarang on the lan.. A point to make here... AMAZING movie.. No wonder Aai was going all gaga over this..
Anyway, slept early (that's 2 am).. and got up at 1 pm.. Woah! 11 hours! Now that beats any Mandarmoni or Kolkata.. :P
Spent the remaining day by going to Payal Cinema and watching "Khele Hum..." God! Pathetic Movie.. What's wrong with Ashutosh Gowarikar??? Isn't he the same director who gave us Lagaan, Swades and Jodha Akbar?
Anyways, planned to go to Sonnet (again :P ) and decided to stay awake till 6.. and sleep after having the breakfast there.. Used a lot of tricks to stay awake.. 3 Bishu da trips, NFS and the movie Prestige.. It's 6 15 as I'm making this post.. I played my part.. But I don't think anyone else is awake.. I'll try to wake up the others and let's see whether we get the Sonnet breakfast.. Haha.. Some suspense for you readers, which will be revealed in the next post.. :P
Till then..
\m/ Keep XLing \m/

27th Nov-1st Dec: Cricket, TT, Movies n ya.. Projects n Quizzes too

Things are strange here.. Things seem hectic and then suddenly everything seems so relaxed... And my rate of blogging is inversely proportional to the amount of hectic stuff.. But today is an aberration.. No work to do.. Next two days holidays.. Mailboxes and Facebook homepages being spammed.. Some asking for a trip, n some bummers floating their stupid market surveys..
Now, the past 5 days..
With the amount of cricket, we played in Ashes 2009, we had become champions of the virtual world.. Now we thought, it was time to show our exploits in the real world.. Things started one night, when we played in the common room.. Played for almost 4 hours.. The next day, everyone stepped on our cricket ground... And Man!! Absolute Fun! Played cricket on a ground after ages.. Mr Happily Married might suck in the virtual cricket, but showed everyone "who's the boss" on the real cricket field..
With cricket, the next game I've been playing a lot these days is TT.. Games kinda improved.. And thanks to the weight loss, the movement's good.. Sports do make you feel fitter and younger ;)
The free time I got, I made full use of the Hub (a.k.a. DC a.k.a. Shakespeer on my mac) and watched a lot of movies... Some of those movies which people go gaga about and when you tell them you haven't seen it, they go like, "You haven't watched THIS movie.. Man!! Which planet do you live on?" (As if I said, I haven't watched Sholay or DDLJ).. Anyways.. enjoyed most of them..
Now, if people feel like, this is the only thing we do here, you are sweetly mistaken.. The free time which we had got was actually supposed to be utilized to study for the coming quizzes and working on our projects.. But as usual, started at the last moment for the project.. But, this project submission was the best experience so far.. I would love to keep a copy of this project report with me even after leaving XL.. Analyzed the business of the Dhobi of St. Thomas Hostel.. We GASed it so much, that if the Dhobis get to read it, they'll feel as if they are doing a job which is more complex than the NASA scientists.. But then, isn't that what MBAs generally do? Complicate simple things and (try to) Simplify (or rather over-simplify) complex things..
Oh.. this thing needs a mention here.. While talking with my parents, Aai makes a comment, "Now that your end terms (which are starting from the 13th) are 'coming near', don't you need to start preparing for them?" Haha.. I had a quiz to give within the next 10 hours and I hadn't even started studying for that.. When will Aai understand? :P

24th - 26th Nov: Quizzes and NFS

As a continuation 2 the earlier post.. God did give Dutto the strength to wake up.. So I was able to attend the lecture.. Yeaaah !!
One bad thing which has happened over the last few weeks is that my body cycle has screwed up big time.. People say it's normal in a B school, because of the hectic schedule here.. but I tend to stay awake throughout the night even if I've no work to do.. For instance now.. I'm making this blog at 6 15 am..
Had back to back quizzes on 25th and 26th, but the 25th got rescheduled to 27th (Will be writing it in about 10 hours time)..
Now when everyone was running helter-skelter, preparing for the Macro-Eco Quiz on 26th, I chanced to open the lone game on my mac.. NFS Most Wanted.. I used to hate racing games.. Until this moment, that is.. I played that game for 9 hours on the 25th.. Man! It's so addictive.. However after much self-imposed control, I managed to do some studies on that night (as usual till 5 30 - 6 ) and then again the next day.. Was pretty confident by the test time.. Looks like my efficiency is improving.. And the exam: AMAZING!! A paper in which each question made you think and apply whatever you've understood.. The kind of paper where I enjoyed writing and would not care how much I score..
Now once an exam gets over, I never feel like studying.. But I didn't even take proper rest to make me feel fresh for tomorrow's quiz..  placecom was doin their work, controls was doin their work, some ppl were studying in their rooms/library, many were sleeping.. n WE.. we bakared away our time.. Baaaah!! Am over-estimating my efficiency now, I guess.. :P

20th-23rd Nov: Alumni, Wet Night and Projects

Oft repeated thing.. Backdated Blogging again!! I hate it!!
Got 2 days off from lectures thanks to the Alumni Homecoming events.. Although some serious (read boring :P ) people might've utilized this time for preparing for upcoming project submissions, quizzes, I utilized it nicely for sleeping, performing a Street Play, hogging on the excellent lunch provided in the JLT lawn (Prawns curry in coconut gravy.. aaaahhhh.. I almost had a mini orgasm while having it), attending some boring talk sessions conducted as a part of the Homecoming (I felt bad for the alumni.. you call these people to a remote far-off place like Jamshedpur and you keep lectures for them to attend.. So insensitive!!).. And no event is successfully concluded without a Wet Night... So had the customary wet night.. But this one was by far the saddest wet night that I've attended at XL, for the sheer less attendance here (bloody "ghissus" working on their OB2 and Law projects)..
21st Nov: A typical medium pressure situation.. coz there were two project submissions the following day and needless to say there was a lot of work pending on both the projects.. Now the ghissus would be having the last laugh.. By night, the pressure was gradually building up.. 10 page report and a ppt to be prepared for OB2 and a 5 page report to be prepared for Law... The usual calculation of the ratio of time left by the work left had started...
22nd Nov: High pressure situation!! The projects submission day!! Got up at 9 30 and sat in one place doing the project till 5.. No break, no facebook, no blogs, no watching cricket, missed a lecture, skipped breakfast, lunch, snacks.. Now that's called dedication!! Anyways, the presentation made by our group turned out to be pretty crappy. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to present.. It feels good to assume that it would've been better had I got that chance :P .. But finally, what counts is the project is OVER! Celebrated it by watching a movie: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".. Amazzzing Movie btw..
23rd Nov: The weather has become awesome now.. It's become very cool.. It's become extremely difficult to get out of the bed in the morning.. Dutto took the responsibility of waking up the entire 4th floor for the 9 am lecture.. God Bless Him!.. And thanks to Dutto again, I got up from my noon siesta (which went on for about 3 hours) to go and give the Law viva which lasted for just 1 minute.. The shortest viva of my life!!
The highlight of the day: Thanks to Luthu Maharaj realized that my name had appeared in Hindustan Times for winning the Bosch Case Study at Ensemble!! Wooohhoooo!! (Would try to get a cut out, scan it and paste a copy here as soon as possible)
Just back from an Accounts session taken by Miss ICWA.. She was stricter than most of the professors here.. :P But, brilliantly taught!! Hats off!!
Ok.. almost 4 am now.. Laal Salaam has already started snoring loudly.. God, please give me the strength to be able to wake up for the 9 am lecture (Aai has started keeping a tab on the number of 9 am lectures I'm missing, DANGER!!).. If not me, at least give Dutto the strength to do so.. :D

19th Nov: Cheeeeeel Maaar

After sleeping yesterday at 5 30, got up today at 2 30.. nice NINE HOURS SLEEP!!! :D :D
Had to get started with the OB project.. But then.. Project Submission date 3 days away.. so.. Cheeeel Maaar.. :P
Still, to avoid wasting the day completely, had an OB group meeting, which was quite helpful.. Might streamline our efforts in the next 2 days..
Ohh.. Yes.. There are a lot of XL Alumni on the campus for the Homecoming event.. It's good to see these oldies coming here and acting like college guys again.. Do I see my future? Have heard some more alumni coming tomorrow by their chartered planes.. Ah.. Now I definitely see my future... ;)
Just came back after playing Lawn Tennis for the first time in my life.. And I definitely don't want it to be the last time.. Coz, I didn't suck as much as I thought I would.. :P
It's 4 45 am, and am not at all sleepy.. So, what do I do? Study?? Naaaah... :P

18th Nov: Testing Times

9:36 showed the cell phone, when I looked at it with squinted eyes right after I got up.. Missed the lecture.. :( .. Thankfully could attend Lady Teddy's lecture with the other section...
Today was the Test Day.. And Boy! What a Test!! I felt as if I'm back to school giving my "Unit Tests".. The questions in our Law exam consisted of Fill in the Blanks, Write Short Answers, Give Short Notes... :D
2 days of holidays declared.. Some guys planning to go on an overnight trip.. I'll prefer sleeping in Room Number 425 and doing some of the pending assignment work ... In case, I sound like a geek, beware.. Coz, I've always thought and planned like a geek.. It's only in the execution part that I lose track of the geekiness..
Ohh.. 5 15 am.. Time to sleep.. Planned to sleep early, get up early and go and have breakfast at Sonnet.. Looks like, we'll have to postpone the plan for some other day... :-)

17th Nov: OB2-XX-055 ends!!

Back in school, "Exam next week" used to be a super pressure situation.. Now "Exam tomorrow" also seems like a chilled out situation. So, we were supposed to have our Law Midterm tomorrow.. But who wants to start so early? 77 slides and around 20 pages to read for the test and 14.5 hours to go.. So, procrastinated the test preparation.. (as usual :P)
So, we are finally done with the pre-class assignment crap of the Smiling Assassin.. So no more "OB2-XX-055".. But these assignments were very helpful.. My typing speed has improved more because of them.. Also, I have gained the competence of filling 2 pages of GAS in half an hour's time.. Apart from that, they just helped me to make a very frequent use of MS Word, nothing else..
Oh.. suddenly remembered the test for tomorrow before sleeping... And then, the classical dilemma of "whether I should get up early tomorrow and study or should I study till late and get up late".. Much to my discomfort, chose the 2nd option... Lady Teddy's class tomorrow at 9 am.. Don't wanna miss...

16th Nov: Sleeepppyyy

As expected, it proved to be a wise decision of not studying for Mees Queez's test.. But would've been wiser had I slept properly and not whiled away the time at night and had a sleep of just 3.5 hours.. Result.. was too sleepy in the morning.. The exam was pretty random.. So sad that, it was Mees Queez's last lecture with us... And going by the feedback which we have given her and we might give towards the term end, it might well be her last lecture at XL.. (That's mean.. but true.. )
At the cost of sounding like a sexist, I feel that it is rare to find a female with a great sense of humor and who can crack witty jokes.. But when I find such women, I'm completely impressed by them.. Lady Teddy is the latest addition to this list.. This is what happened soon after the "queez"..
Lady Teddy was teaching about some interest rates and government expenditure and overall production.. Then, suddenly she started talking about fees in XL and asked me, "Did you pay the fees for this term?"
I was like.. "No.. The last day is 30th Nov.. A lot of time 2 go for that.."
She said.. "Well.. It's not 30th, It WAS 15th.. Do one thing.. Run to the bank now.. And get the DD.."
Hearing so, I was about to get up and start running immediately.. I lost my balance and was about to fall... Had to prevent the fall.. "WHaaammmm!!" A loud noise of my legs banging against the seat and my hands holding the desk.. Lady Teddy was still busy with Nominal and Real Interest Rates.. The class looks amused and starts laughing... "Damn it!! I was dreaming the whole while!!!".. She thinks it was my neighbor and says to him, "I'm sorry.. Did I wake you up?"
LAUGHTER
He : "No ma'm.. wasn't me.."
LT: "Oh! Coz I saw you sleeping a while ago.. that's when I lowered my volume"
LAUGHTER
Me: "Well ma'm.. it was me.. I woke up a little violently.."
LAUGHTER
LT: "Oooh.. Good.. I appreciate your honesty.. "
LAUGHTER
LT: (with a smile) "But I don't appreciate the fact that you were sleeping though.. "
LAUGHTER
LT: "How can you sleep in the class? I mean.. It's so uncomfortable 2 sleep here on the wooden desks and that too with so much noise going around.."
LAUGHTER (I join in too..)
LT: "Ok.. Back to interest rates..."
Everyone wide awake by now.. :D
What a personality!! Admiration and Respect for her!! :)

15th Nov: Post Ensemble

Man!! I agree.. Blogging isn't easy. A regular blogger like Mucchhad deserves a standing ovation..
The last post mentioned about the increasing amount of workload.. It continued for around 10 days.. and then the festive season began.. Ensemble 2010..
This was the first time I was going to look at a festival as a participant and not an organizer.. Had consciously stayed away from being involved with any organizing part.. Was kind of excited about my new role... But the event disappointed me to an extent.. Most of my batch mates went home.. there was hardly any excitement on the campus before the festival or even during the festival.. There was very little participation from other colleges.. So the entire festival seemed so "un-festive"..
Anyways.. Ensemble ended with yours truly participating in an IR-related group case study competition (which we won.. :) :) ), a creativity based event (where our creativity was eliminated in the 1st round itself) and a street play (where people seemed to enjoy it).. No event ends here without the customary "Wet Night".. So boozed, danced a lot n finally slept at 6.. and needless to say missed today's 9 am lecture..
Now again.. we have realized that a lot of work has piled up.. I guess, that is the time I think of blogging.. :P
btw.. I've 2 give a quiz after 5.5 hours.. Tried studying, but all of us have realized that there's no point in studying for the quiz of 'Mees Queezer'.. 
And yes.. I'll try to be more punctual with my blogging.. I think that's possible.. Coz I don't think there will be a situation, where we wouldn't have any work..
Yawwwwwwnnnn!!

31st Oct: Oh Shit!

With the end of SIP, we had almost imagined as if we had done our MBA.. But now, all of us are slowing coming to terms with reality, and have realized the tremendous amount of workload to be delivered in the next few days.. A typical situation to say "Oh Shit!!"

• 2 project submissions,
• pre class readings almost everyday,
• 2 quizzes announced (and another one on the way..),
• presentations to be made..

Inspite of having so many things lined up, I slept nicely in the morning and noon.. That's the confidence we've developed here in a term .. NOT!! :-P
Tried studying, but a heavy cold, running nose and watery eyes ruined my plans.. (I never seem to fall short of excuses :-P)
4 15 am!! :-O ! Time to sleep.. In a few hours, will be attending lectures after a week.. Hoping to stay awake through most of them...

29th - 30th Oct: Phew!!

Well.. There were reasons for not blogging in the past few weeks..
The main reason: Not being able to find time..
The other: With the SIP in action for the past few weeks, we weren't allowed to disclose any information through any media.. so, there wasn't much to write anyways..
It was an action packed week..
Not getting any shortlists in the beginning, cursing my work-ex which was supposedly the reason for not making into most of the shortlists.. once I made an entry in some short list, enjoying the love, care and affection of Team Services ;-) .. once I got to the GD round, seeing people "cut-throat"ing others in GDs..  after that, cramming labour laws, OB concepts, company facts at the last moment, goofing up in the interviews, seeing the companies select only good looking chics and feeling lost, the uncertainty about the selection in a company, getting frustrated at the seniors for keeping critical info as confidential and finally happiness and relief when got to know that I've been placed in KPMG.. Yayyyy!! :-) :-)
The entire drama is over now.. The entire batch of 240 placed.. Celebrated this achievement by having a "JLT wet night" day before, which was preceded by the "Aarti Corpus".. Amazing fun!! One of the most memorable moments of my stay here..
Btw.. I've been told by many XL alumni, that some years down the line, we'll laugh at how much importance we had attached to something as trivial as SIP.. Let's hope this blog entry serves as a joke some years later.. :-P

Sachhiiiiiinnnn!!!

Watching India beat Australia in the series with Sachin playing a crucial role in it to earn the Man of the Series award... Awesome!! Actually, for the past 2-3 days, everyone around here seem to be discussing (read praising) Sachin... A true role model for our generation!! I can go on and on about him in this post.. But then, there isn't anything left to talk about him.. To put it the way we address it back home.. "God is God!!" This post dedicated to our beloved God!!

10th n 11th Oct: Same old crap..

While I was working, I used to complain that life has become too monotonous, too mechanical.. Getting up at the same time everyday, getting ready, catching the same train/bus, sitting on the same desk in the office, doing similar work everyday, getting up at the same time for lunch, tea break, and then coming back, eating at home, studying during my CAT/XAT days and then sleeping.. n the cycle would continue..
But guess what.. the phase is back here.. Everyday seems similar.. Lecture, some company PPT where we sleep shamelessly, form filling, CV uploading, assignment work and then sleep.. In fact, while I write this blog, I couldn't think of anything different which happened for the past few days..
Only one thing.. Smiling Assassin conducted his first surprise quiz of this term..
This is how boring life has become here.. A test makes me feel relieved that there is at least something different happening.. :P

20th Sep - 9th Oct : The Hibernation ends..

God!! It feels like an eternity since I wrote here... Am back after almost a month. Should have started on the 20th of September, but somehow FRAXed for the past 20 days.
Ok.. So 2nd term started.. No real recap needed.. Coz, the only words which would dominate the entire post would be

1. Deadlines
2. SIP
3. CV

I have developed a hatred against the word deadline now.. Thats the word which frequently appears in my mailbox now.. Actually a search for the word "deadline" gave me a result of 263 mails!! When it's not CRISP, it's the PLACECOMM who gives a deadline. When it's neither of the two, it's our new Smiling Assassin.. Thanks to him, I have started paying much attention to the 'Subject' of the mail.. :P

SIP and CVs have become the new buzzwords on the campus. 

All of us dressed in formals attend PPTs.. Boring stuff.. Pretty much the same stuff said by every company... and pretty much the same questions by our batchmates... 

Aahh.. One more common sight here.. People are running here and there, holding their CVs, seeking advice from the "seniors" who seem to take pride in giving advice about CVs. In India, everyone seems to be an expert in cricket. In XL, each senior seems to be an expert in CVs.. I guess, most of us, would be doing the same next year.. So, wouldn't comment much about it..

A note on my CV.. People ask.. "How's your CV?"... My reply, "It reflects me.."

3rd - 6th Sep: Pretty much the Same Story

Haaah... No use making separate posts for each exams when the content is more or less the same.. So.. a common post for all the exams thereafter.. Finally done with all the exams.. Glad to be going back home (actually writing this post from the comforts of my sweet home.. :) ). "How were the exams?".. Not Important.. :-P
The more important thing is the plan which some of us have chalked out for the next term to avoid a similar fate in the next exams.. Sounds simple and very familiar.. I've been making such plans for the past 8 semesters of my engineering.. But have somehow faltered in the execution part.. :-P
So, the steps to be followed:

• Sit on the first or the second row, and be extremely attentive in all the classes. Dozing off in the class is a strict NO.
• Don't just sit and listen, take comprehensive notes during the lectures. Don't overestimate your retention capacity.
• Spend a "little" time "everyday" to read the things taught in class. (sounds familiar.. :-P)
• When you realize that the above step is going to take up only "little" time, you can spend the remaining time on completing homework, doing project work right from the beginning, working on some meaningful competitions et al.

Plans made.. Hoping to execute at least some of them.. Hoping to have a great 2nd term... 

But now more importantly, hoping to have a great time at HOME... :-)

Next post... From Room 425.. Till then.. Tata.. 

2nd Sep: FIRed away!! :)

This was one subject I'd enjoyed studying during the first term.. I enjoyed and learnt many new things while working on our "grrr"oup project.. Also, having a close proximity to Laal Salaam, helped.. :-P
But studying for the course and studying for an end-term, and that too after giving such disastrous papers the earlier days, is a different ball game all together. So, managed to study some things from here and there.. And..

Exam 3: FIR
One thing.. I enjoyed solving the paper.. And when this happens, marks don't matter.. So, I don't care whether I did well or poorly.. That'll be evident once I get the grades.. :P
After the paper, all I felt was ,"3 down, 4 more to go.." Come on!!

1st Sep: First Blow!!

Hadn't slept the night before thanks to the numerous reports I had to write. And couldn't dare to sleep on the 31st night again, as had to study for the end terms. To make matters worse, the college had kept 2 exams on the 1st day. How can people be so sadist!

Paper 1: Managerial Economics

One word to describe it.. DISASTER!! Prof. Lovely probably thought he's setting a paper for the PHD students of Economics. And the worst part is, he had declared 3 days before the exam that he has set a very EASY paper.. Shouldn't have done that.. We at least could have expected before hand what was going to happen for sure..

Thanks to the efforts I put in Eco for the whole night, which eventually turned out to be futile, I just had 5 hours to study for this.. Worked really hard to keep the sleep away.. Finally the exam..

Paper 2: Organizational Behaviour -1

Don't know what to make of it.. Was weird.. The last time I 'wrote' so much was during my 12th standard exam.. But it was relatively better as compared to Eco. The benchmark that Eco has set is so low, that I guess almost all the papers after that would seem better than that.. :P

Had a looong break after the exams.. Started studying the next subject at 11 pm.. Studied till 3 30.. Slept all exhausted...

Man!! Wish I could just fast forward the date to 6th of sep..

27th-30th Sep: Days gone by in a jiffy..

Wooahh!! Long time no see.. But, doesn't feel like long time though.. Days just zapped by.. :)

Well, I was too lazy to do so many backdated entries. So decided to club these days.

These days seemed more or less the same. Running against the time to catch up with the schedule, wishing for some more time in a day, praying for an extension of a deadline (which was obviously never answered.. I guess, after getting me into XLRI, god has stopped answering my prayers :P)

The things which were lined up after our presentation on the 27th.

• 28th: MCN submissions: some cover letters and biodata crap
• 29th: Economics Assignment (had no clue what to write here)
• 30th: Labour Laws Midterm (which was announced on 28th)
• 31st: OB Group Project Report Submission (preponed from 1st to 31st)
• 31st: OB Personal Learning Paper Submission (preponed from 1st to 31st)
• 1st: End terms begin, 2 papers on that same day: Eco and OB
• 2nd: MCN group project report submission.

And needless to say, the end terms go on, non stop till 6th Sep.

An important point to note here. I'm making this blog entry post at 1 am on the 2nd September. Which means, I survived through all these days.. Woohooo!! An achievement!! :D

26th August: The Aftermath & The Spark of Creativity!

The aftermath of a party could be observed everywhere. Some drowsy, some searching for aspirin, some drinking lemon juice, some still in the bed. Some of them trying not to be embarrassed because of the activities they did yesterday :P. Some, still trying to find out what they did yesterday, what did they speak yesterday, how did they get a wound on their hand.. Just for the info, yours truly wasn't in any of these categories. It was fun observing this atmosphere though.. :D

Anyways, had an eco presentation to be done the next day. As usual, started working on it late in the evening.. Our topic "Minimum Support Prices".. Yuck!! Who on earth would want to know about it?? We were trying hard to make the ppt attractive and picturesque so that it offsets the boredom of the subject. Suddenly, late at night, I thought of a wonderful idea (again, self appreciation.. :P).. I thought of explaining the whole thing by bringing in a very real life analogy. All things were gelling well in my mind. And the topic suddenly seemed to have come alive. Called for an emergency meeting of the group. With the help of Story Teller, who seemed pretty kicked with the idea (now was the kick solely due to the idea or something else, is debatable :P), explained the entire idea to the others.

Man!! That was the coldest response I ever got to anything. If Aamir Khan had given such a response to Ashutosh Gowarikar after listening to the script of Lagaan, he would have quit film making. People in my group were so reluctant to change anything. Actually, not entirely their fault. The time was 4 30 am, the presentation due at 11 am. The spark of creativity probably came too late.. :(

So, we just decided, not to be too ambitious and stick to whatever has been done so far..

But, what if the idea had come earlier to me? What if I was able to convince others to do it my way? What if, our work was well appreciated in the end? Aaahhh.. That's the worst phrase that can ever come to your mind: "What if"? I hate it.. hate it.. hate it!!

25th August: Party Again!!

Ok.. I guess I'll have to brand myself as the "lazy blogger" (courtesy my gaaon waala).. :P

Anyways, rewinding back to the 25th..

I mentioned in my earlier post, that things will be hectic from tomorrow.. How wrong could I be! 25th was the date for the Economics Presentation of half of our class. 27th was going to be the date for the remaining half. So 25th night when the entire class was free (this half couldn't properly celebrate on the 24th).. Result: PARTAAYY!!

Awesome party planned by our PPT (Party Planner Team).. Lights, Music, Dance and obviously Booze.. People drank their hearts out. Everyone needed, or rather needs a long break desperately. Thanks to my school friends (Saab, KP, Chix, US, SAP, Cutebull..), who have helped me boost my level of endurance to alcohol, I was able to study and know the "real" sides of many people.. ;)

Anyways.. Slept off in a happy state.. 2 happy nights in a row! Would that signify trouble ahead??

Only time will tell..

P.S. Photos of our party were uploaded by DKC on facebook.. But, he later made a wise decision (very rare of him :P) of removing them.. (or was he ordered to do so by OMAXI?).. Well, a lot of people are waiting for him to convert that decision into action..

24th August: Done!!

Staying up till 7 am.. Getting up again at 8 30 for Godfather's 9 am class.. Last minute running for printouts, for stick files.. Mailing.. And yes... The report was submitted.. Wooohooo!!

There are other things in the pipeline.. But then.. That doesn't stop us from celebrating..

Talking about celebrating.. The whole hype of being a "Bhaiyya" and celebrating Raksha Bandhan turned out to be a dud affair.. Raksha Bandhan.. And the Bhaiyya doesn't get a single Rakhi.. Baaah!!

Ya.. So back to my celebrating.. Sleep in the evening for a nice 2.5 hrs.. A bike ride in the slight drizzle to Chhappan Bhog, having chat there.. Coming back and having 3 pegs of Signature.. and fried cheese maggi at Bishu Da..

Life's good.. :) But, it will be hectic again from tomorrow.. But then, what's life if you don't enjoy it in between these hectic moments?

Err.. Is it the whiskey which is making me a tad philosophical? Who cares? Lights off.. Good night (at 5 am :-P ).. Class at 9 again tomorrow.. Hoping to get up on time.. :-)

23rd August: FIRing and 'Bhaiiya' creates a rage on FB :)

When the deadline for FIR project report submission is on 24th August, it's needless to say that everyone (our group included) was busy with FIRing..

During this, Facebook came alive.. VESITian Bhaiyya was going to leave for France the next day.. So she uploaded all her college photos on facebook.. My god! Such an awesome collection.. We actually relived all those days.. Comments were pouring in, photos were being "like"d.. The entire VESITian friend circle had reunited.. Special thanks to VESITian Bhaiyya for so many of those splendid solo photos.. :)

Just when things were beginning to settle down, the photo of XLer Bhaiyya (that's me :D ) came alive on Facebook (courtesy Dance Partner and Gamer :P).. A 'Raksha Bandhan' special photo dedicated to me was uploaded there.. People, supposedly, soo busy with their FIR projects actually took out time to morph my photo and then keep commenting on it for such a loong time.. Wow!! :D

Actually, felt good to be a common subject of joke.. Felt good, that I was (though indirectly) responsible for bringing some lighter moments during the moments of the supposed "academic rigour".. :-)

22nd August: The group responds..

Back to my backlog blogging.. :P

People in the group not working.. The deadline fast approaching.. Frustration gradually increasing.. What do I do? (Ashes 2009 gave a momentary pleasure.. but it can't be a final solution.. :P) .. I realized, that's when 'Family' comes to the rescue.. Just one phone call and then, the nerves calmed down and I realized there's definitely a solution..

Aai, Baba.. \m/ U GUYS ROCK!! \m/

Anyways, in the evening, I was pleased to see, our group was working.. A special mention.. Choti Behena actually gifted me a hand-made "Sorry" card for not working up to the mark till now.. Got confused.. Am I doing MBA or tutoring some Primary Grade students? :P

Anyways.. work finally divided and was being done..

Worked till late and finally slept.. but this time.. NO FRUSTRATION.. The Group's Back on Track!! :D

21st August: 'Grrrrr'oup Project and Ashes..

A few posts ago, I had mentioned, "Team Work Rocks".. But now, I've realized that this statement depends a lot on the group you are working with.

I had formed this group in the very initial stages, when people hardly knew each other. As it is, Mr. Dean's project had no specific guidelines. On top of it, his surprise interaction mails. I guess, we are more or less done with the surprise interactions. But the worst part has come closer: Project Submission. And here I am, running from group member to group member telling him/her to start with the report.. But no one seemed to bother. Was totally frustrated with the group. To cheer myself up, had a long session of "Ashes Cricket" on the Gamer's pc. Got hooked on to it, forgot my frustration and had a good time temporarily.. My gaaon waala came 2 drive me away to my room at 5 30 am.. Came and worked a bit on my "supposed group" project and dozed off at 7.. Class tomorrow at 10 am.. :( :(

20th August: Project Report and the Best Advice!

One of the things which give you immense satisfaction.. Setting the alarm for 10:30 am, shutting it off, and waking up at 12:30 pm.. :-)

Anyways, made a plan for the entire day. And guess what, it gets disturbed the moment you are about to start executing it.. Call for Eco project discussion.. Grrrrr... All you time management gurus, could you please tell me how do you plan for the day when such unplanned things just keep cropping up the whole day.

After attending the 6 pm lecture, bakared till 8 30 at Dadu's and then on the 2nd floor.. After dinner, it was time to execute the entire plan in the remaining time. Started working on the project. Structuring the entire thing took a lot of time and efforts.. Now, once that's ready, delegating and assigning work to the remaining team members becomes easier. So team work starts from tomorrow..

During this time got an amazing piece of advice from an XL alumnus I met on Facebook.. The things which this guy told formed like the 2nd best piece of advice I have ever got since coming to XL..(The 1st goes to my dad :) ).. This guy really provided a lot of motivation for the remaining terms.. God Bless him!!

Anyways.. It's 7 10 almost.. Have got Mr. Dean's class tomorrow at 9 am.. Some people are expecting a "surprise" quiz again.. My take on it.. LIC!! :P

Hoping to wake up by 8 30 am..

19th August: IR-A Lunch and a Steady Start..

Yes.. Got up by 11 30.. Worked with the group to finish the presentation.. Now it's Mr. Dean's headache to decide whether our presentation is worth being among the top 4, worth to be presented in front of Asian Paints Executives..

Next event... Class Lunch at Ganga Regency.. Was a nice outing.. Would have enjoyed more had it not been a Thursday.. Yes Aai, I still have kept my 'no non-veg on Thursdays' commitment.. But we had fun.. Gorging on the food, laughing at stupid jokes, enjoying the impressions being done around (yours truly being one of the performers too :) ).. A good bond is now beginning to form in the class (or maybe I'm noticing it now).. Outings like these really help to do this..

\m/Thank you PPT!! \m/

Ohh yes.. Time for the Biggest Achievement of the day!! Made a steady start to the end term preparation.. It happened thus..

• Bakar starts with my gaaon waala in his room, at the end of which we realize that, it's about time we start studying..
• Bishu Da break..
• Bakar at Naughty's room..
• Study commences, with Sportscommer doing the teaching..
• Over burdened with gyaan..
• Bishu Da break..
• Chalked out an ambitious plan with my gaaon waala to practise tomorrow all what we learned today..

Up in my room now.. Completed two blog entries, now going to sleep with 2 proud feelings.. As planned, I did start my end term preps on 20th and more importantly, finally reached the situation of an up-to-date blog.. :D

It's almost 6 am.. When sane people wish "Good Morning", we, MBAs say, "Good Night"..

18th August: Sleeeep and Asian Paints..

When you have a class directly at 6 pm and you slept at 4-5 am types the earlier day (or is it the same day.. whatever!), what does that amount to? Sleeeeeep.. Wow.. Great start to the day.. I got up at something like 11 40.. We've reached a stage where 6.5 hours amounts to super deluxe luxurious sleep (and gets a mention in my blog too :P).. B-school culture has got to me.. :)

6 pm.. Godfather's lecture.. Time for presenting our ad-analysis.. Needless to say, none of us were able to give a satisfactory analysis.. 3 groups had chosen Tanishq (the ad, where the girl changes her mind to get married after seeing Tanishq jewellery).. The makers of the ad, who might have been basking in the glory of making a well-appreciated ad, would have committed suicide on listening to the way Godfather criticized it.. Memorable!!

In the night at around 1 am, we started with the case study for the Asian Paints Case Study Competition.. Surprised as to how did I participate? Well, Mr. Dean had insisted on a "mandatory participation" :( .. But it was actually fun to sit with 7 other people and do the entire thing.. We racked our brains, trying to come up with some innovative solutions.. And must say.. Team Work Rocks.. Every one did their bit..

\m/ Channel V (that's our team name) Rocks!! \m/

So,.. Worked.. Worked.. Took a Bishu Da break.. and finally slept at 7 am.. Had to get up at around 11 am, add finishing touches and submit the entire presentation at 1 pm..

17th August: A Walk down the memory lane..

People have suddenly become very busy.. This case study competition, that event, make this group, make that group, suddenly remember something about the project work, fret over studies... phew!!

You can choose to stay away from all this.. But then, you'll be losing out on a lot of things.. I still chose to go slow with all these things.. That's usually my modus operandi.. Start steadily, learn the surroundings, and then, go all out!! (sounds good to read this :P ) Hence, just participated in one event.. With due regards to the organizers, it wasn't that great.. Or maybe, I was expecting too much..

Next step.. MCN assignment..

Godfather had given an assignment of analyzing any ad of our choice... Sounded like fun.. Our group had chosen the Maruti Service Network ad... I sat down at night to do this, as my team mates were busy with some case study discussion.. So, there I sat analyzing.. If, you start analyzing even the most interesting ad, in the end, after analysis, the ad looks so dull.. Why can't we just let some good things in life be as they are without analyzing them? :P

During this exercise, I watched many of those old ads on youtube.. Bajaj, Nirma, Lifeboy, Ajanta, Doodh doodh, cadbury ('the crazily dancing girl on the cricket' ad) and many more.. Man.. I actually went back to my childhood.. These old ads have so much innocence in them.. Someone with a clean mind made them.. The same can't be said about the current ads.. There's smartness, there's entertainment, sometimes enjoyable stupidity, but they completely lacks the innocence of the old ones.. But wait, like beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, does innocence lie in the mind of the viewer? If that's the case, were those old ads a reflection of my mind in my childhood? Are the current ads a reflection of my present state of mind?

Man!! Such heavy thinking.. And FYI.. I wasn't high.. :P

Anyway, completed the analysis and pondering over the heavy thought, went off to sleep...

16th August: Race against time..

I had expected that my group members would not have completed their work. But I overestimated them.. I realized they hadn't even started their work.. :P

So, it was all frenzied work, with people constantly calling, mailing, writing, trying to analyze and people like me taking up the arduous task of formatting (that too at a super fast pace).. Cursed Microsoft Word, Bill Gates, Gmail, the Printer, file holders, Jamshedpur.. But eventually.. our group was able to submit a report of 57 pages JUST before the deadline time.. Not Bad!! Well Done!! :-D

In the evening, to rejuvenate myself, went and played Badminton (this was the 2nd time of my life on a real Badminton Court).. Was better than the previous time.. steady improvement.. Not Bad!! Well Done!! :-D

After playing, had a long bakar session.. which ended at 5 45.. Slept with the hope that I better get up for tomorrow's 9 am lecture...

15th August: VANDE MATARAM!!

Yes!! I could wake up at 8 30 to get ready for the 9 30 flag hoisting ceremony.. An interesting thing to note here. When I usually wake up at 8 30 for my 9 am lecture, at the back of my mind I do get tempted to sleep for some more time or even bunk that lecture.. But this day, I was eager to go to see the Flag Hoisting.. I think, it was in my third year of my engineering, that I had attended a formal Hoisting Ceremony.. 4 years later, I was about to witness a similar event.. And yes!! The feeling was awesome. I still get a kick when I stand facing our flag and listen to some patriotic songs.. Man!! It feels great to be an Indian..

Now, the second half.. We had our FHRM (Fundamentals Of HR Management) project submission the next day. We hadn't started and all of us, as in our group, was present on the eve of that private party held the day before. So, all of us were sleep deprived..

Result : All of us slept through the afternoon and by the time we got up, we realized, we were pretty much screwed.

So, we divided our work quickly and decided to work on it and complete it before the day end. So that we could devote the next day in the final formatting and some finishing touches. Now here was a twist in the tale.. There was a "wet night" planned that same night..

So, I skipped the wet night and did the project work: my part and some of the common jobs which come in the end.. Wasn't expecting my group people to finish their parts by day end. So tried to do some things which may save our time the next day. Acted like a responsible group member (self appreciation :P) and slept at 5 30 in the morning.. zzzz

14th August:Calamity Strikes, but Life goes on..

When I decided to get inspired by muchhad's 'Life in HelL', I never imagined that I would be forced to write on the same topics. The topic which I'm referring to: ANTS!!

These bloody jobless red tiny creatures, do nothing, just crawl on anything they feel like and the worst part.. they BITE!!

Even after cleaning the little furniture we have here in our room, they still stayed.. Talk about the "never give up attitude"!!.. Now they attacked a different area.. They attacked my undies which I'd kept for drying on the rope in my room.. :-(

I never noticed that, until I felt things crawling in my pants while sitting in the OB lecture.. After a while, those "things" probably got bored of it. This time, they started doing their second favorite past-time job : Biting!!

Believe me.. those 90 minutes were like the most horrible 90 minutes of my life.. But, in b-schools, we learn to endure such pains and try to get over it as soon as possible. So, there I was.. Putting that painful experience behind (took the entire noon to get over the pain.. :P ), dancing at a small private party held at IOCL's room late that evening.

It was 5 30 when I came to my room all soaked in sweat.. Changed n was just about to sleep, when, the 4th floor Bakar Badshahs started banging on the door.. It was INDEPENDENCE DAY!! How can we not shout "Bharat Maata ki JAY!!".. Shouted slogans, sang the national anthem and slept..

Mission: Not to miss tomorrow's Flag Hoisting of the college.

13th August: Peepli Live and the Alcohol Drive

Shit man... Again.. Procrastination in blogging.. In fact, I was actually free for the past 2-3 days.. But I was so busy whiling time away doing nothing, that I couldn't blog. I usually blog when things get hectic here.. :-P

So, Friday the 13th.. Supposed to be an unlucky day.. Not really in my case. This was the day where there wasn't any immediate submission (16th was the earliest project report submission, that demonstrates how our definition of immediate changes : P), tests or any such stupid boring things. Taking advantage of this situation, I had planned my entire day wonderfully to sleep. But, my gaaon waala and sportscommer managed to convince me to come for Peepli Live.

Movie Verdict: Bad.. I slept during the first half. People are calling it "satire ka baap" and all.. I found the satire too lame and the humor too stale. But yes, got to sit and sleep on a comfy chair in the theatre after a very long time. Our arses are used to wooden chairs now. So the feel of foam felt really goood. :D

Later I witnessed, (but could not participate : ( ) the Alcohol Drive Competition devised by the Third Floor Hooligans. One guy has to finish one entire 750 ml of alcohol of his choice (except beer). It was superb fun to watch the guys try so hard.. Went and played volley ball when the competitors had taken a break..

A day completely wasted but nicely enjoyed.. :-)

12th August: We all laboured..

Technology SUCKS!! With the quiz to be held at 2:30 pm and with hardly any preparation done, I had slept at 2:00 am and messaged my gaaon waala to wake me up at 3:00 am. That was my plan B, to study through the night. And guess what, the damn sms was never delivered. No one came to wake me up and I woke up with a start at 7:30 in the morning. :-O

This is one of those moments where "Oh Shit!!" is most redundant, yet, most used. :-P

Studied in a frenzy till about 8:30 am. Went to the 9 am lecture. And then.. a study conference by the "HooHaa" group as we call our study group now. Again.. This saved my backside during the exam. What would I have done had it not been for "HooHaa".. :-)

As we had a tough time studying for this whole thing (apparently) I went along with my friends for a dinner at Little Italy..

Started the day with an "Oh Shit" and ended the day with a "Burp".. Satisfactory.. :-D

11th August: And Finally..

Remember, I'd mentioned my overgrown shapeless hair.. Finally, I went and had a haircut. Wow.. The head feels lighter now. :-) Had to come back quickly to get ready for the Placement Brochure Group photo shoot. All of us dressed in suits, girls in saris.. everyone looking almost indistinguishable from each other. I remember, while I was XATing and CATing, I used to look at the prospectus of these premier institutes, look at the photo of the batch, all of them wearing suits n saris, smiling.. n i would say, "Lucky Bastards!!".. This time, I'm glad to be among these "bastards" ;-)

Ohh yes.. talking of lucky bastards, I shouldn't be banking on luck to pass tomorrow's quiz. So earnest effort to start studying in the noon.. Result : Slept within an hour.. That's the whole thing about Labour Laws.. It felt so interesting when Prof. Lawyer taught us, but when you try to read it later, baaahhh.. Pakaaaau!!!

So, earnest effort part 2 at night after dinner:

Plan made for the studies to be completed before sleeping : Excellent

Execution of that plan : Pathetic

Result : Dozed off at 2 and messaged my gaaon wala to wake me up by 3:00.. Time to execute Plan B.. 'Labour' through the night.. :-)

That signals the end of day.. End of this post..

10th August: Salsa Again

This is what happens when I do blogging with retrospective effect (that's a law term.. wow.. application of knowledge :P).. So, here I actually have to scratch my head to think what significant things happened 3 days back. The only thing that comes to mind is the last and final day of the Salsa Workshop.. Btw.. I'm still doing MBA at XLRI.. :P

When the workshop was about to start at 12 midnight, girls entered with dresses completely suited for the occasion.. Some were looking gorgeous, some tried hard, but couldn't and some looking "different". And there I was, wearing a white shirt which had black colored stains (courtesy: Chotu, my dhobi) and jeans, which haven't been washed for almost 2 weeks. The dancing was fun. This is one area where I'm slightly better than the average. So, I enjoyed the privilege of being one of the few guys who could dance 'okay'ishly ;)

Anyways, after the workshop, all of us (the salsa dancers) slowly realized that when we were dancing to glory, our batchmates had started preparing for the Labour Law quiz on 12th. Hmmm.. Time to pull up my socks?? Naahh.. not yet!! :P

9th August: Surprise n Salsa!!

Yes.. The news was all over the town.. A joint lecture of Mr. Dean for both the sections. We knew what to expect now: The most awaited "surprise" quiz.

All of us (yes, including me) studied during the noon, after lunch. All of us entered the hall, all prepared for our "surprise" quiz. And then.. the test paper comes.. SURPRISE!! Nothing related to the thing which we had been studying all day. It was related to the project which we are doing and which, unfortunately, has been long neglected by most of us. Hats off to you Mr. Dean.. You surely know how to surprise us.

The night was the start of a 2-day Salsa Workshop. Attempted a "formal" kind of dance for the first time in life. And boy, it was fun!! 1,2,3.., 5,6,7,.. (4 and 8 are pauses.. a revision of Salsa :-P)..

Life moves on so fast here. Look at the chain of events which happened in a span of a single day: People studying hard in the noon, getting surprised in the evening and then 'salsa'ing in the night.

Wow!! XL culture bemisaal!!

7th n 8th August: Nothingness continues..

The reason why I've clubbed these 2 days together is that, there haven't been too many things of great importance. I seemed to have pulled a muscle in my thigh thanks to my extreme badminton practice on the 6th. So, the whole plan of playing more badminton went flop. :-(

So, the most consequential activities of these two days:

1. Watched Dark Knight finally. Loved the movie and Heath Ledger in particular.
2. Went to get a hair cut. But unfortunately I reached at the time of his lunch, which starts at around 1:00 pm and goes on till 4:00 pm. (3 hours for lunch!!). So would have to bear with my overgrown shapeless hair for some more time. :-(
3. In order to avoid the guilt of not utilizing these holidays to study, did a bit of studying for the probable "surprise" quiz.

Hectic time is fast approaching. All the deadlines of our projects have almost arrived. This is the time when you feel you should have done something regularly right from the beginning, so that it doesn't come together in huge quantities in the end. This feeling is something which I've experienced so many times in my life, but have never done anything to avoid it. But I don't feel bad or guilty about it. In fact, I feel this practice makes us good "Crisis Managers" :-P

6th August: Chillaxx!!

The first day of our mini vacation. Most of the people in the hostel are suffering from hangovers.. Not me.. Old Buddy, Old Monk, still loves me and my body composition.. :-P

So.. I woke up at 11:30, which gave me a nice 6 hr sleep.. The first half of the day was spent doing nothing.. I didn't even sleep, I wonder why.. Went with Jharkandi to get a pair of new shoes (remember,my earlier shoes are unusable thanks to my adventure trip). As always, had problems finding shoes of my size, owing to my huge broad feet. A dangerous comment was passed by one of the shopkeepers while he was trying to find the right size for me, "Bhagwaan ne aapko sab kuch badaa diya hai: pair, height, body.." Thank God, there weren't any ladies around.. ;-)

After gorging on the chicken dinner, played badminton in the night.. Played on a real standard baddy court for the first time in my life.. Realized that badminton isn't as easy as it looks.. Realized how much I still need to work upon my stamina.. :-(

Realized something else too.. The only times when the day seems shorter:

1. When you have absolutely nothing to do (like today)
2. When you have soo manyyy things to do (like most of the other days here) :-P

5th August: Examination, Anticipation n Celebration

Yes.. did manage to wake up at 7 15, thanks to my gaaon waala.. after moments spent in morning activities, honest studying, 'breakfast'ing, 'bakar'ing I, along with the 2nd floor punters, finally decided to have a group study vision/revision session at 10 am.. Man!!! That was an awesome session.. Really saved our backside in the exam.. :-)

Now.. The next big thing.. 'Will he? Won't he?' People had already started studying in anticipation.. N just for info, I wasn't a part of those people. Although I intended to, but again my nemesis while studying, "Sleep" ruined my intentions.. :-( What I feel about this whole thing is, if Mr. Dean has announced it will be a "surprise" quiz, please respect his intention and let it be a "surprise" indeed.. Finally, all of us were surprised as there wasn't any quiz. Mr. Dean sure knows how to surprise us all the time. :-P

And.. now.. time to PARTAAYYY!!! 3 days off.. No Lectures, no immediate submissions, no imminent quizzes!!

Venue: L-Top.. Got re-united with my college buddy, 'Old Monk'.. Tried something for the first time. Went and played volley ball and basket ball in a drunk state at about 2:30 am. Played till 4:30 am. One word to describe the experience. "AWESOME"!! :-D

4th August: Of CP and TP

CP points (that's class participation points), that's the latest buzzword among us right now. All the profs are now using this weapon against us to ensure that we come to the class well prepared with all that has been done so far and also read up things which we'll be discussing in class. That's bad.. Aren't we supposed to go to the lecture with an open mind? :-P

Anyways, this has put an extra burden on us. So, while we are having a test tomorrow, we aren't preparing for it, we're busy preparing ourselves for the lectures of the day. So, even if you decide, not to procrastinate, the college will force you to do so.

When Prof. Lawyer's class got over at 9 15, it signaled us that we can start preparing for tomorrow's FHRM test. But no.. after the profs it's the seniors.. This SIP session, that psychometric test etc etc.. Now finally it was 1 when all these things got over. That meant 10 hours for the test. And preparation.. NOT STARTED!! :-(

Now starts the combo of Test Preparation and Time Pass (TP):

• 1:00 am: Start studying, fight hard 2 keep sleep at bay
• 2:30 am: Sleep conquers me..
• 3:00 am: Woken up by a friend, go to Bishuda, have aloo paratha
• 3:30 am: Commence bakar on the 2nd floor under the pretext of group studies.
• 4:30 am: Reality strikes!! 6.5 hrs to go and 10% preparation done. :-O . Start studying again.
• 5:15 am: Can't keep my eyes open. Decide to sleep, with the plan to wake up at 7:15 am.

That signaled the end of day.. What happened next will be continued in tomorrow's post.. :-)

Till then..

\m/ Keep XLing! \m/

3rd August: Disappointment :(

Slept at 5 30 and got up at 6 15, when the alarm was set at 6 30.. Now that's examination pressure.. :-D

Presentation time.. In my limited experience of giving presentations, this was my worst performance.. Our group miscalculated the entire time, and I, the last speaker had to condense the material of 12 minutes in less than 5 minutes.. I had to skip a few slides, rush through my sentences and what not.. blaaaahhh.. :-(

Bottom line: That's it.. My OB presentation marks, one place where I was confident of getting decent marks had slipped away.. :-(

Immediately after this, we had to give the quiz and the midterm. Had to put my morning's disappointment aside, so that I could make place for the upcoming disappointment. But.. (a pleasant 'but' this time) it wasn't that disappointing.. Probably because I was expecting worse.. :-P

In the end, I learnt some valuable things:

• Too much of procrastination can screw you.
• You may be pretty good at making presentations and have a few tricks up your sleeve to make a good presentation, but all these things get thrown out of the window in a group presentation, when you are the last speaker and your initial team member(s) have screwed up.
• "Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst" doesn't work here. Here, all you have to do is, "Prepare for the worse and expect the worst" . That ways, on a very few occasions, you will be pleasantly surprised and most of the times, your expectations are met. :-D

2nd Aug: When 24 hours seemed less..

The day after adventure trip.. Body aches, limping legs, bandaid covered hands, legs, tanned faces.. And the worst part.. The realization that you have 3 classes, some crisping to do, got to study for tomorrow's quiz, midterm and prepare the OB presentation.. Aaarrgghh!!

Started with the OB presentation in the afternoon by sacrificing my sacrosanct sleep.. Lambu Dracula is a master in his area.. Had it not been for him, the presentation would not have been possible.. Worked for almost 6 hours to make the entire presentation.. (We never realized that time flew so fast.. The last time it flew this fast, I was at Saab's place playing PS2 during the 26th july deluge :D).. Oh.. btw, we weren't finished completely.. Anyways, we realized that, we also have 2 tests tomorrow.. So, then started the amazing job of two-timing.. Doing both the things almost simultaneously.. Result: Not much progress with the presentation and still clueless about the test.. :-(

Went from room to room, to search for someone who could explain the things properly, so that I don't have to read the whole thing.. Some made an honest effort.. And then I looked at the time.. it was 5 30 am in the morning.. Decided against making any further effort.. Forced myself to sleep.. Wonder what d next day would hold in store for me?

30,31 July n 1st August: Adventure Trip

Man.. I've 2 stop doing this.. I have to stop making back dated entries in my blog.. Will try harder next time.. Ok.. will start with my entry..

The above mentioned 3 days are going to stay in my memory for a loooong time. We'd gone to the Adventure Outbound Program organized by the college conducted by TSAF.. Amazzzing experience.. This entry dedicated to the adventure trip..

Just to mention the list of the activities we did there : Obstacle Race (military type obstacles.. not benches n desks put in between the track like our school level obstacle races :P ), Rock Climbing (that too in the scorching heat and on not so easy terrains), Caving (included crawling on the floor with no regards to your dresses and whatever your hand touches inside that dark cave), Flying Fox, Rappelling (these two events seemed like fun activities compared to others), Rafting (which included making your own raft with tyres and bamboos and rowing it in a lake, if that sounds easy to read, try it sometime :-) ) and many such adventurous games.

The entire program helped me to stretch my limits and see how far can I go.. and boy, did I surprise myself!! Well, the stamina might have waned, but it hasn't completely gone.. Well, apart from this pleasant realization, the other things I got were some cuts and bruises on my body, broken unusable shoes, stinky clothes, a horribly tanned face and one of the most amazing experiences..

Before:

After:

28th July 2010

The worst possible start to a day.. Woke up at 9:05 a.m... And the realization dawned upon me that I'd missed my 9 am lecture :-(

Blame it on the weather.. Suddenly the weather has cooled a bit. Result: Dozing off while studying at night, shutting the alarm off, and sleeping again, and eventually missing lectures.. So much for the start..

Today was the day of MCN (that is Managerial Communication) midterm. Supposed to be an open book test for 90 minutes. No one had a clue as to what would we be tested on.. Had an unintentional 1.5 hr sleep before the exam.. Damn you weather!!

Exam.. Hahaha.. One of the weirdest exams I've ever given. The first question took the cake:

"Meenakshi, your 23 year old neighbor, excitedly comes running towards you and tells you that she's got a job in Hewitt. She has an athletic build, light skin, heart shaped face, small nose and full lips. She wants you to help her to select her wardrobe for her new office. What would you suggest her?"

I took almost 30 minutes to dress up Meenakshi. I gave her a very decent advice. But I felt left out of place when I came out and guys were discussing this answer. I guess we, guys just look for opportunities to give our frank advice. Some of the mind blowing advices which I heard.. (I wonder how Godfather would react looking at these answers ;-) )

"Wear dark lip stick because your lips are full"

"Dont wear dresses which would reveal your cleavage"

"Dont wear dresses through which your inner wear would be seen"

Don't blame us. We are engineers who are on our way, trying hard to be HR managers.. Don't expect us to be Manish Malhotras or Hemant Trivedis..

Anyways, "bakar"ed a lot later in the night, studied a bit for Lawyer's class. Here we have to study to earn our Class Participation points. How cruel can our life be? Some "Crisp"ing done as well.. Finally dozed off at 5.. zzzzzz

My Inspiration n my Guidelines..

This whole idea of blogging my MBA days has been inspired by mucchhad's "In the Gates of HelL".. So mucchhad.. "Yo my inspiration nigga!" I don't know whether I'll be able to match your regularity. But I'll try nonetheless.

I'll try to stay away from posting any sort of gyaan which I study in the classroom (i.e. "IF" I study any). As far as possible I'll try not to mention any names in the blog. All the people when they are to be referred, will be referred to by some indirect nicknames.

Ooh.. looks like I've been thinking too much about law. I'm actually framing rules. Looks like Prof. Lawyer is having an effect on me after all.

Anyways.. The blogs following this, would be my daily accounts. Till then..

Keep XLing.. \m/

A Quick Recap

As, I've already mentioned I am 1.5 months late to blog. So, a quick recap of things which have happened so far. As we are always advised in the B school to write things in bullet points,

• Got bummed out looking at my hostel room. I don't know why I had imagined a rosy picture of a hostel room. A point to note is my room's strategic location. It's right next to the toilet. Yep, it has its own advantages and disadvantages. Fell in love with the calm n serene nature of the college campus.
• The initial days can be very frustrating. A lot of people shaking hands, flashing their smiles around, as if there's been a leak of laughing gas, telling their names. You can't even remember 10% of the names you hear. So the first 1-2 weeks are dedicated to name sharing and smile flashing.
• Had to attend the prep course organized by the college. This was really helpful as it prepared me for the rigours ahead and gave me a clear picture of what I would be facing in the coming two years.. NOT!!. Also had to face... (well, let's not go there.. ;-) )
• As far as the acad life goes, done with 3 'okay'ish quizzes and 1 disastrous Economics mid term. Project work for different subjects is just piling up with the deadlines fast approaching (and here I am, making my blog :-D). Had some really nice lectures, some boring ones, some where I dozed off in the class and some (just 3) which I bunked (2 of them voluntarily).
• As far as the non-acad life goes, had 1 punch night, 1 wet night, 1 jesu night, 2 booze nights (out of which 1 I don't even remember :-P). Have had many endless 'bakar' sessions on the 4th floor of my hostel. For some strange reason, I've given a royal ignore to all the committees which float around here. And yes.. one wonderful experience at the village, thanks to the village exposure program of the college. One blog post would be dedicated to the entire "Village Experience".

Ok.. Enough of recap.. Wouldn't make my blogs too long. Two reasons for that : 1) I would get bored reading them later and 2) I'm an MBA student.. I don't have that much time :-P

Here I go..

Ok.. I've started writing this blog pretty late. I have already spent 1.5 months here. The thing is, life goes so quickly here. Bidding farewell to my dad and coming to live a hostel life for the first time in my life, this incident seems so fresh, as if it happened yesterday.

Well, that's why I decided to start blogging so that, at the end of two years, I shouldn't keep thinking 'what did I do in these two years'...

N that's why.. Here I go.. :-)