So the question is what motivated me to finally sit in front of my lappy (which is very usual) and write somethin' on my blog (which is quite unusual) after 8 months ??? The title says it all. My hostel has taken its first step towards Sikandar. For the uninformed, Sikandar is the sports championship that happens every year between hostels that compete for the Prestigious Sikandar Cup here. The games include Basketball, Football, Cricket, Volleyball, TT, Badminton etc. So it's a big thing for any hostel to hoist the cup.

Last year, it was Hostel 9 who took the cup. Last year was also the year when Hostel 14 was established in true sense (id est PGPs started livin here). We had a fair chance of winning Sikandar which we would have managed but for a one run defeat to hostel 12 in the Quarterfinals of Cricket. We've been waiting ever since to regain and make our second year the memorable year if not the first one. Last year, we were the only hostel to be comprised of only PGP 1s (that's the first years). This time, however, PGP 1s have started living in our hostel (Ohh, By the way, I'm a PGP 2 now ... I survived the first year) and some of them are really good sportpersons. Armed with this added pool this time and the same spirit that we carry with us into all the games, we entered the Sikandar Football with hopes high of doing well. Last year, we were considered underdogs (and they were proven wrong on multiple occasions). This year, they didn't repeat that mistake and right from our first game, our team showed everyone that we were tough opponents to face. We understood that too, and our confidence showed. We started Sikandar ...

The first game was against Hostel 11, a good and balanced team. We were black jerseys. We played beautifully although missed a lot of chances and unfortunately conceded a goal due to a penalty. We soon equalised the game and ended with a drawn first match. We knew that we had a lot of chances but we didn't convert. We went into the next match determined to make good the mistakes of the previous games. Hostel 13 was a good team too and the result was the same. Only that this time, we scored first (again missing a lot of shots) and then conceded one. Luck was just not in our favour, we played good games and one mistake in each game cost us the win. Due to point distributions, we had to win our remaining matches to stay alive in the tournament. Hostel 9 was proving to be a weak team this year. Their first match, they lost 3-1 to H10. Their second match they lost 4-0. We knew that this one we had in our hands. We changed our Jerseys to whites for a change of luck. The match turned the tides. We thrashed H9 8-1. We knew that we had the capability, it was just the luck that we had to have on our sides. But it was time we stopped waiting for luck to help us and take reigns and this was perhaps the match that would begin to see our rise.

The next match against H10 proved to be harder than expected. The two teams battled on till half time with no result. Then in the beginning of the second half, they scored. It wasn't a nice time at all. We didn't want to lose it after coming so far. We needed a spark to set us in motion. H 10 helped, the crowd (as is in the case of H 9) started shouting un-pleasantries at our players. This coupled with the rough game that they were exhibiting in the first half, the few minutes remaining (About 15 minutes) and the desperation to win this game pushed Ankush (our captain) over the limits. He started playing their style, giving it back to them when they did. They started falling, quite literally. Things started changing. People could sense the desperation that was creeping in. Ankush became far more aggressive a player and showed them rough. And then came their collapse. Ankush took an awesome shot from far left of their part of the field straight into the goal. The shot was simply stunning and gave us the much needed equilizer. Then the spirits picked up even more radically. We couldn't be satisfied with a draw. A win was what we required to move ahead. Everyone started playing with renewed vigour. The fruits soon followed, when our attacking pressure and Harman's potential header forced them to make a blunder and score a self goal during a corner. The H 14 supporters as well as the players went crazy. Our spirit was unstoppable after that. We knew we had pulled off something incredible and there was nothing they could manage in those remaining 5 minutes to change their destiny! We had reached the semis!!!

The win however was too close for comfort (although the feeling after the match was unfathomable). We were facing Hostel 12 next, a formidable opponent with a very well balanced team and some good strikers of the ball. We had to win this one to be in the Finals. We started the match with high hopes and soon they started playing very well. Their attack in the first half was arguably better than ours. We tried our best to score and as had been the case with all our previous matches, we took a lot of shots at the goal but rarely converted. Their goal keeper was also competent and stopped almost everything that could be. Then it happened, Ray dada, their captain infiltrated our defense and scored a great goal. The H12 crowd started shouting H12 slogans and soon it was half time. We again needed an equalizer to bring us and our spirit back to the game. We played on trying our best and finally Abhinav scored ! We went crazy after that ... everyone came back to the same mode that they had displayed in the last match. We started trying with full force to score another goal and win it. Their goalkeeper was deflecting almost everything, but he goofed up at a place he never expected. Amit Kohar was till then playing on the right wing and rarely took a shot at the goal. He just passed around the ball to our main strikers Ankush and Saurabh. Suddenly without any warning, he unleashed his full force upon the ball, which fortunately was accurately directed. The goalkeeper couldnt reach it before it crashed into the goal. He never expected such a shot at the goal from that direction. We'd done it again, we'd scored twice after being one down. After that, their defense was almost useless. We got a couple of more chances which we didnt convert and finished the game at 2-1. White jerseys were doing the trick and we reached the finals!

There was a very slight probability after the initial drawn matches of going into the semifinals, forget about finals. But we'd made it, against all odds with the same spirit burning inside that had been characteristic of our hostel right from the last year. We started sniffing the football trophy and our opponents were Hostel 4,5,6 (Yeah three against one; actually those hostels have one third capacity of ours, so there, fair game!). They were not known as a great team but had defeated strong teams like 13 and 11. So we had to be careful about them. We started the game well with many chances coming our way (and continuing with the trend) converting none of them. Every now and then, Gaurav (their captain and a good player) would slip into our defense and take a shot, but our defense was good enough for him. The first half went by without anyone getting lucky. We needed to convert the chances we were getting. The ball was consistently in their side of the field and they were giving away a lot of corners for us to score. It was only a matter of time before we converted (or they got lucky like the initial matches). We converted first. Saurabh scored! And what a moment it was...he being one of our main strikers was without a goal for quite some matches and what a moment it was to get a goal. The match never changed course after that. We kept on attacking and putting tremendous pressure on their defense. They succumbed to the pressure with a self goal as there were 15 mins left. And if we didn't have the match sealed already, we had it when one of their defenders scored a very stupid looking own goal under pressure. We were up 3-0 and were on our way to win the Sikandar Football. Nothing changed, we won and boy were we elated. My voice's all heavy now, shouted so much. And then came Ankush's mail to our hostel ...

"In all,
We scored 17 goals....
We saved 100s.....
Winning is not a habit.....
Quitting is....
Winning is a passion...a passion which we once taste, we never want to look back....but it demands hard work, sweat, blood, fight......
We won and never once quit! Quitting is what losers do....
Maybe we lost in TT this year but we didn't quit......we lost last year's football Sikander but we didn't quit....We came back with the same spirit with which we won Basketball last year.....
And here we are "Winners of Football Sikander"!
3 Cheers for Hostel 14! We should get the trophy this time!
-Ankush
"
What a fitting end to the long fight for the trophy!!! and we are still waiting...with the same spirit, with the same rigour. We'll fight and keep on fighting ... until we win ... or we force our opponents to lose. We ain't gonna stay down. It won't be easy to keep that cup away from us for long ! Hell, here we come ..............

Finally . . . Summer's over for me. Day before yesterday, I saw my name in ITC's shortlist. Unlike most of the shorlists, there were only 28 people in this shortlist which meant that I had comparitively less competition here. I gave the news to Abhinav (My senior and a good friend in Randomwalk) and he told me that this is one opportunity I shouldn't miss. He knows the person I am (he knew I wouldn't work) and told me to work hard for this company. He told me about the great brand ITC is and the way it's growing in India. He asked me to contact Santhosh (a senior who had interned and got a PPO from ITC last year). I was also supposed to fill up the ITC application form and post it on our Placement Portal. I thought I'd complete it the next day and went to my room after the placement process for that day and slept. The next day, I didn't have a single shortlist (all were finance companies and my resume fits a marketing job only). So I had the whole day to myself. I sat at my usual place - Class Room 105 and was playing games and watching movies the whole day. Fortunately I met Abhinav towards the end of the day and he was a little angry cuz I hadn't met Santhosh yet. So I finally called him up and he asked me to meet at Fauji.

I sometimes get amazed by the helpful nature of my seniors. They'd leave all their job aside as long as possible just to help us with any problem we might be having. Just meet any senior and ask him to help and there won't be a negative response unless he's too busy. When I went to Fauji, Santhosh told me about the whole process and the questions that were asked to him last year. He told me about his project and what all to read about ITC. I went back to my room that night and downloaded the form. The careless person I am, I slept before answering even one question. I was woken up by Ritika (Will write about her later) at around 12:15 and I realized that one more mistake like this might cost me my chance. But then have I ever learnt from anything ? I slept again while filling up the form. Fortunately, I suddenly somehow woke up at 4 am and then reality struck me. I started filling up the form immediately. I managed to complete it by 6:45 am. I was supposed to report to the waiting rooms by 6:30 but made it by 7:15.

Before I had time to breathe, I was taken to the GSK GD. After coming back, I started reading about ITC, Its brands, CSR initiatives, values etc. I had forgotten completely about GSK and was soon informed that I'd been (fortunately) rejected in the GD process. I don't know why I was happy at hearing that. I focussed my attention completely to ITC thereafter. Somehow after reading more about it, my desire to join increased manifold. For the first time, I was serious about getting into a company. It was a great company, a good marketing profile and a great place to learn. I was called in for Bharati Retail GD process then. Came back from there and continued reading about e-Choupal and other initiatives from ITC.

As luck would have it, on the same morning, the shortlist (which already was short) had reduced further to 18. This was an awesome opportunity and I didn't wanna let it go. I was called in for the GD and again luckily this was just the type of GD I like. There was a story with some 7 characters playing various roles. We had to rank them on who was the most objectionable to least objectionable, then discuss as a group and then come to a conclusion. I love these kinda GDs, need no current affairs knowledge, no functional knowledge and no thinking. All that is to be done is have a good discussion and soft skills rule here. I had an awesome GD. I was able to coordinate it well and make my presence felt besides putting some nice points forward. I came back and told my friends that if the process was anywhere near to logical, I must be shortlisted to the second round. I entered my classroom and was just starting to read more about the company (now that I had a good chance of an interview, knowing as much as possible was very important). However, as soon as I entered my classroom, I was called back for the interview. Guess they were interested in interviewing me first. I came to know on the way that only 5 students were shortlisted for the interview round.

I went to the interview room and had a long interview (30+ minutes). They asked me about marketing and sales, how to launch a product, where and how should ITC enter the magazine market, some manufacturing and trade margins of pens and toothpastes, about my schooling and college, my home place, some subjects of Term I, why I was interested in ITC and marketing etc. I was able to convince them that I was deeply interested in ITC and that I was looking forward for a long term relationship with the company. Nilangshu was waiting outside the room and proceeded for the interview. I was almost sure that I had got it. But there was no telling till 10:00 pm batch meet where the results were to be announced. On coming back to the waiting room, I came to know that I had also been shortlisted for the second round of Bharati retail. Soon after when the ITC interviews were over, I heard that only 4 people were interviewed as one had already got placed somewhere else. So I had a great chance. The batch meet confirmed my (and Nilanshu's) placement . So I got a company I really wanted to get into and one which fits me and my choice perfectly. We will celebrate after summers get over and everybody is placed. Nilangshu will enjoy the experience much more. He shares a much more personal liking for ITC (if u know what I mean). He wakes up with ITC and sleeps with ITC. They couldn't have let such a loyal customer go. We'll surely have fun there. Well, this was my experience of summers. Will write more soon. Ciao !

Well, talking about those last two Mid Term Papers, I managed to perform very well in the QAM-II paper while managed to screw the MANAC paper. Anyways, I am one guy who believes in forgetting such bad days and moving on. But then, it's sad that they remind you of those bad days by giving you something called the Grade Sheet. I got mine a couple of days back. In the starting term, I got a 5.75 CGPA. Well not good by most of the standards but really satisfying for me. It may seem like a 57% to the outside world, which is very incorrect. Actually if you get 97% and most of the class gets 99%, you may get a very low grade. 'RG' (Relative Grading) is one of the most hated things here. You remain at one place but the enlightened batch rises up and you get screwed. Well, I was expecting anywhere from a 4 to a 6. I'm happy that I got it on the higher side. I am determined to take this thing up in this term. The seniors say that once you get a grade here, you don't change that by much in the consequent terms. Well, I am not gonna stick around with this grade. Anything less than a 6.5 is not okay with me. Actually, everyone thinks alike once they get the grade sheet. Very few are satisfied and most dream about getting better the next time. If everyone goes up, No one goes up. But the fact is, very few go up at all. The enthusiasm begins to die down as time passes. I'll try to keep the fire burning. Well, on to more important things...

The summers are here finally. No, not the weather. The weather has started turning freezing cold nowadays and it's just November yet. In this part of India, we have extreme temperatures and I am sure it's gonna be very cold in the coming months. Will talk about it later. The summers I was mentioning is The Summer Placements. The process starts tomorrow. Thankfully, got a shortlist from Nokia and unfortunately didn't get a shortlist from two others I really wanted to join. But hey, that's just day 0. Many more days and many more shortlists are still to follow. I'm sure I will get placed in a good company. Maybe being a fresher in a batch with such a skewed batch profile (40 Odd Freshers in 330 Students) helps. Anyways, the policy bars me from talking much about summers. So I'll restrain myself. I will write when I get placed. One thing I can tell you is that The Placement Process is a big event here. It's an amazing event with everything managed beautifully by the students. The training for organizing summers starts one and a half months prior to the process. The seniors have been training for that long. We'll return the favor during their placements. With the situation the market is in, nobody here is without apprehensions. I too am worried about my placements, Isn't everybody ? Well, Am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. After all, this institute is not what it is for nothing ! Off to preps now. Ciao !

Yet another day with 2 papers comes to an end. I wonder what they think we are, first they keep mid terms on the day next to Diwali and then to make us feel more at home, they keep 2 papers on the same day ! Well, we had DWO (Designing Work Organizations) and OM-II (Operations Management today. Just for the sake of records, I can mention one stupid thing I did today. I didnot care to even open the book or the polycopy of DWO before the exam. I went there totally unaware of what DWO is. Some risk it was...thankfully, the paper was too easy. Globing is my forte and i put it to good use today. The paper had 8 multiple choice questions, 2 short answer questions and a case having 3 short answer questions. Overall, I am happy I didnot waste my time reading ! On the contrary, I read quite a bit in the 2 hour break we got between the exams. I was prepared for OM. The paper was really puzzling and it required us to apply a lot of brains which I did but sadly commited the most fundamental error that we are taught not to commit in CAT. The paper was of 60 marks, and the last question of 20 marks. I started the question when there were ten minutes remaining. Let me tell you this, it is a really bad feeling when you see a question which is worth one-third the weightage of the paper and which can be quite easily done, slip away from right under you just because you wasted time in other non important stuff. I managed to somehow solve about one third of the question. But I was really mad at myself to allow such a stupid thing to happen. When I came out from the exam hall, I found that most of the people were cursing the paper. I felt a little better to know that I wasn't alone in having a bad time solving that paper.

Well, tomorrow we have QAM-II (Quantitative Analysis For Management). Haven't started studying yet but I am sure that if I repeat the heroic act I did with DWO, I am sure to flunk this paper. QAM is no globe and studying is probably the only way out. Am feeling sleepy already, but can't afford to sleep now. Paper's at 2:00 pm tomorrow. Will try to stay awake as long as possible. Gonna study now . . . Ciao !

There is something in the exam time that makes you wanna write. Anything to keep you outta reach of books. Well, its been a really long time since I've posted. A lot of events are bound to get missed from being posted here, cuz the past one month have been equivalent to one year. So much happening with time moving so fast, life's never the same anywhere else. We had Varshasva - A sports event for the first time in IIML. It was a grand success. We had Jashn '08 and I got to participate in a group dance competition as a part of Randomwalk - the choreo club of IIML. We won the second prize. It was an amazing experience with late night practises (and by late night I mean 8:00 pm to 4:00 am) and lot of fun. Unfortunately I could not be a part of an event 3.4 (the music band of IIML of which I am a part too) participated in. They performed at the Genesis Club in Lucknow. It was a huge success and the proceeds of the event will be donated. I really wished be a part of it but had my own reasons for not doing so. Now I'm waiting eagerly for one of the biggest management festivals of India - Manfest in January, where I'll finally get to perform as a part of both the clubs. It sure will be an amazing time.

That's where the fun part ends. Nowadays, we are really busy filling up forms to companies. So many forms with so many essay type questions, its hard to not get mad filling up all of them. Well, I'll talk more about them in later posts. For now, our midterms are going on. Yesterday we had two papers - Economics II and Marketing Management I. I hardly studied for them but fortunately managed to give a decent paper. The Eco paper was not very good for most of the people save the question that came repeated from the last year's paper. The people who hadn't studied the last year's paper were really angry at having lost such a golden opportunity. Makes me think of the engg. days where previous question papers used to be THE course. Anything which was not asked earlier was considered out of course. Some days they were. Today we had the Financial Management Paper and what a paper it was too. Most of the students could be seen calculating their quiz, assignment, CP and project marks in order to get the amount of marks they needed to get in this paper to pass (not get a D or an F). Many were very dejected and kept yelling about how stupid the paper was. To let out a little secret, complaining is our favourite hobby here. We got so many things to complain about that there exists no other passtime as effective in both entertainment as well as stress relief as complaining about everything that exists in this place. Well, I can only wait and watch to see how bad or worse I've done my paper (yeah, this time there ain't no good). Tomorrow, we again have two papers - Designing Work Organizations and Operations Management II. Haven't started anything yet. Will start at around midnight and study till 6:00 am (if everything goes as planned). Otherwise I'm done for. Okay, I'm gonna start cuz it's midnight already ! Hope I'll write soon again !

Here it is . . . My first end term exams start on 11th (tomorrow). And I haven't studied a thing in any of the subjects. Moreover, I made that fatal mistake today. Today was my third absent in ITC. It being a half credit subject, and a 1.5 hr lecture, a third absent means Grade Drop. So this is official now, I am getting a grade drop in ITC. How fortunate I am to experience this magical sensation right in the first term of my MBA. On a more serious note, this means I'll have to work very hard to get good grades so as to mitigate the effect of the grade drop in one subject. As far as the story till now goes, I am having a real chill time on campus. I dont work even half as hard as most of the people here do. I take everything easy and I am very happy I do that. I finish most of the assignments in the shortest time possible and find a lot of time for other things ( which include watching movies, playing games, chatting, jogging, or just pure time pass). I wonder for how long I'll be able to continue this style of work. I may have to work just a little bit harder for things to work better. Right now, in most of the assignments, quizzes etc, I have been able to score just above the median, which is not bad per se. But I gotta improve this to make my points better. But I feel very happy when I compare myself with the (very) tense people around me running to and fro.

There's one thing I forgot to mention in all my posts. I am the third youngest person on campus right now. This time, our batch profile is heavily skewed towards people with work-ex. The average work-ex is above 3 years. Many of them are married. Out of the 330 people in our batch, only 30 are freshers. Lucky me !!! So having some extra energy is not very unusual. And I am putting it to good use too. I'll keep updating the blog with my exam experiences. Till then, Ciao !

Just finished off with my mid-terms a couple of days back. My first view is that I didn't find it too difficult. I think my engineering mid-sems were tougher than this. Had 6 papers in 6 days (yeah Sunday too). Just stayed till 3:00 am everyday studying (sometimes 5:00). But what was the difference? We stay awake till 2:00 am everyday anyways. And I absolutely loved the exam time, not because I love studying, but because exam time is the chillest time on campus. You no longer have a lot of things to do. The only thing to do is Prepare for the next day's exam, which is pretty good considering the fact that your mind no longer has to wonder or worry about any new meeting, presentation, extra class, submission or interaction events that might pop up out of nowhere the very next moment. Surviving without looking at your mail is impossible here. You might get a mail at 2:00 am which will say about an extra class the very next morning 8:00 am! You miss the mail, and you miss the class. Well although I enjoyed the exams, getting good marks is a completely different thing. "RG" giri is a common slang used here. We are "Relatively Graded". So a few people scoring way up will make us go way down ! This is RGgiri. Well, I can just wait and watch...

Well, about exams, since they are over now, life's become a lot busy suddenly. We have given three submissions ever since exams are over. Have a submission tomorrow. On top of it all, there's an Insti party tomorrow and I and some friends are supposed to perform a group dance, which will be our auditions for Random Walk (The dance and choreo club here).So will have to practice the whole night (they just let us know day before yesterday). Meanwhile Team Disha (A team of seniors who teach us and enlighten us about CV preparation for summer internship and loads of other important stuff) has asked us to submit our completed CVs by 10th. We also have a lot of project submission thats nearing us, so gotta work on that. There’s a lot more to do. Will write more tomorrow. Ciao !