It's been another hectic week. Actually only 2 weeks have gone by & we are already staring at the mid term exams due next weekend. The general response to a "How are you dude?" elicits either of the following responses:
a) "I am NOT good"
b) "Fati pari hai yaar"

- It's not been a smooth sailing. In between my last post & today we have been neck deep in Eco assigments & Marketing case studies. The Gillette case study gave me more agony than very few other things have ever given me in my life. Our team spent close to 200 man hours to come up with a solution & write a meaningful report. Somewhere in this, I feel we need to realise that at one point we just need to let go. More you analyse, the more you will find new things and more will be the debate that follows. So, the idea should be that once you reach a sort of consensus on something you just move ahead.

- Sadly, I have nothing rosy to report on Eco & Stats also. Prof B who teaches Eco says that there are 4 possible answers to a situation - Yes/No/Don't know/Don't care. I am rapidly moving to the "Don't care" scheme of things and don't really think that it's going to get much better in the short term. We started with the notion of doing all the pre-reads, progressed to just about managing post reads....and now, have given up altogether. Not that we are lazy/inefficient/stupid. I guess we all had some notions on how to crack this before the term started and all that has been blown off. So it's back to the drawing board for most of us so as to find the best way forward. I guess everybody has to find out his or her best fit to the circumstances.....and hopefully by the end of mid terms all of us will find out their own study patterns.

- My team for the accounting project met for the first time last night. This being a cross section team I met a couple of guys for the first time. There was a very high degree of enthusiasm. Carbon credits is a topic which interest a lot of people and our preliminary research has thrown up a huge amount of data. I do hope we come out with decent grades out of this. Most of my friends, who have been doing accounts for maybe the last 2 weeks, have got 95 or 100 out of 100 in the 1st accounts quiz. Probably the regular class was the easy way out. But I generally never look back on my decisions, however illogical or spur of the moment they may be, and think...what if? So now that I have taken the plunge....I am sure I'll reach the other bank.

- One of the most important things you need in a new place is to build up a support group quickly. A small circle where you can be you, where there are no pretensions, no artificial smiles. A group with whom you can just chill out and talk nonsense. This is what DD & I were talking about last night and he also was of the same opinion.

- Thursday nights as usual were full of parties. This & Friday are actually the weekends at ISB. I played some basketball last evening. All the sports activities I undertake reminds me that I am in woeful shape. Anyways, I played for about 30 minutes and then decided to play snooker. Now, this is a game which suits my physical & mental state of affairs. You take a shot & then keep walking around the table as if you understand everything that's going on. I have played pool in the past and trust me snooker is much more complicated. For one, the table is much much larger. The rules are also somewhat more stringent.

- The "Calcutta Chimneys" had planned for a dunking session at around 10 in the night. This is probably the only city specific group which has sprung up in the campus till date. Thank God it's unofficial. It just throws the diversity angle out of the window. Thanks to PA who suggested the idea to have a blast & leave the frustration of the assignments back in the pool. All the members turned up & AM & CM were also invited over. CM was actually extremely sporting and agreed to get dunked even though she was the only girl around...

- We also dunked Sidharth last night on his birthday....Happy Birthday, dude....have a great year.

- We have got a new mailing list exclusively for spams. After a lot of hue & cry over the spam levels in the first 2 weeks (totally unwarranted, in my opinion), somebody took the initiative to arrange the mailing list. And man....do we love spam. Every 5 minutes we seem to get a stupid mail from someone. Actually, I find these mails a nice diversion....specially when you are sitting at 12 at night & staring like a zombie at your laptop.

- We have a inter-section basketball tournament later in the evening. Also there is the regular weekly footie match today. Also, somebody has taken the initiative of getting a movie screened sometime later during the night.

So all in all, we are having a pretty good time here. If only there were no studies......