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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