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: