The Columban 14-15 | Chapter 1

THE COLUMBAN 2013-14

I remember the awards ceremony when The Columban 2013-14 was to get released. As I waited in anticipation to fill my huge collection of our school magazines with yet another one I hoped deep inside that their magazine would end up being just an average magazine so that the bar would not be set high for us. Sadly luck wasn't on my side. As the magazine unveiled itself on stage a sense of astonishment and as well fear grew in me. Even from meters away I could see their magazine cover, something so simple yet beautiful and elegant I instantly hated it. This was for 2 basic reasons -
1. Now we would have to set up our game a lot and create an amazing cover.
2. I always wanted to have a simple white cover as it had never been done, but then did I realize that their cover was basically COMPLETELY white.

In a few hours I along with our Editorial Board were in the Senior School Library leafing through this magazine of theirs. From an amazing cover to a great contents page, from really cute drawings and an interview with Mr. Najeeb Jung that magazine was full of excellent ideas brilliantly executed. It felt really obligatory to act happy to see the magazine and congratulate their EdBoard and editors for producing a marvelous magazine but deep inside i felt like cursing them. You see the main problem with The Columban 2013-14 was that it felt as if their Editorial Board had just read our minds and our ideas. All the pages that we had seemingly decided in a span of 1 week were all somewhere or the other used by them in their magazine. The worst part was the fact that their magazine was at a large number of places filled with Comic characters and Superheroes which forcefully made us drop our idea of 'Superheroes'. If I can be honest here, their magazine didn't have great designs or anything, it was just that they were very colorful with a lot of pictures that seemingly everyone started falling in love with the magazine. In a few days all the staff members approached us saying how great their magazine was and how it would be tough for us to outdo it. Once as Arnav and I were talking about random pop singers in class I remember how our class teacher exclaimed about the excellent magazine specially referring to some designs like the Contents page and told us that it would be almost impossible for us to cross the bar they set up. 

This open challenge was taken to heart atleast by me if not the complete EdBoard. It was simply that 

 we had to prove to the school that our batch could come out with the greatest magazine in this history of Columbans. Talking about great magazines, if you honestly ask me about which i would consider the greatest magazine of all times, it would be The Columban 2011-12 which was a cauldron full of the best evers - Best Cover, Best artwork, Best EdBoard pages, Best Editors, Best EdBoard. There is a specific reason for why I call them the Best EdBoard (and yes I include by EdBoard as well as I compare it...) and that is because I have never heard about any hierarchy issues in their team. Some may say I don't know how they worked and functioned, but to be honest as any magazine propagates through the school we get to know about who all really worked for the magazine. A great way to understand it is how we recognize the magazine. Majority magazines are referred to or identified by the name of the Editor-In-Chief's name. For example (any previous EdBoard members dont take this to heart if you feel bad your names are being left out) The Columban 2013-14 is commonly referred to as Harshil's magazine (Editor of The Columban 13-14), then there is Sankalp's magazine (Editor of The Columban 12-13). But The Columban 2011-12 is barely known by one name even though it had 2 Editors in Chief. Whenever such an event occurs, normally one Editor looses his importance as the magazine is only recognized by 1 person's name. This wasn't the case for The Columban 2011-12. Some call it as Shrey's magazine while some call it by Gaurav's magazine (both the Editors of The Columban 2011-12) while some like me prefer to call it by the name of some of the members of the magazine like Rabin's magazine (Artist of The Columban 2011-12). This clearly shows the unity of their Editorial Board in making the magazine.

Even though a whole magazine being called by the name of just one person feels unjust, it has the thrill of its own. It is being named after THE EDITOR IN CHIEF after all, isn't he suppose to be the guy that does the maximum amount of work?! These were the thoughts that used to be in my mind before I actually started working for the magazine and understood that The Editor In Chief is just as equal a member of the team as any. There were and always will be people who would have done far more work than anyone else for the magazine but still wouldn't be recognised as they weren't the Editor In Chief. But still during the release of The Columban 2013-14 I wasn't at all aware of how the magazine works but still was very eager to get the spot of being the Editor In Chief. After a few more frequent meetings in the library during every ValueEducation period and Recess Mrs.Pharasi had finally come up with her list of designations for the 16 of us. I was told by Arnav about all the 16 designations which were seemingly very believable.

Shivam  - Editor In Chief
Arnav - Literary Editor
Niranjan - Literary Editor
Paarth - Literary Editor
Bharat - Hindi Editor
Sanchit - Events Editor
Aviral - Events Editor
Vangmay - Sports Editor / Photographer
Animesh - Photographer / Designer
Shreyas - Designer
Ishaan - Designer
Libin - Designer
Jimmy - Designer
Saksham - Artist
Shlok - Artist
Shubhangam - Artist

I completely accepted it as it not only seemed true, but also because I used to believe at that time that Arnav isn't a guy who would play games with me. Shivam was the Editor I had expected the most as I already had vibes to the fact that destiny had his name engraved to be one of the Editors In Chief. As i walked towards the Library, my eyes shifting from one head to the other trying to spot Shivam i heard a voice calling me. I turned to find Vangmay reaching out to me from the Library where the Editorial Board was collected already in the arrangement of an arc around Mrs. Pharasi. I spotted Shivam who stood right beside maam nodding and smiling to everything maam instructed. Beside him stood Aviral and Arnav who looked disappointed deep inside but expressed a sign of comfort knowing that the magazine was in reliable hands of Shivam Parashar. As I stepped in Vangmay sprinted towards me and pulled me into our crowd of 16 people. He shook my hand and exclaimed - "Congrats bhai. Chaud tho dekho bande ki. Editor ban gaya. Ab dekh jo mazze karenge,"  That one statement confused me to the fullest extreme. Editor? Till that point the crowd had moved their eyes to me as Shivam came towards me and patted my back. Mrs. Pharasi looked up , "Niranjan. Congratulations you are the Editor In Chief along with Shivam for your magazine. I hope you wont disappoint me."
You can't imagine how happy, satisfied and excited I was at that moment (ignoring the fact that I really felt sick that day). The Editor In Chief of The Columban 2013-14..... Shivam Parashar and Niranjan R Bharati!!! Honestly I cant at all explain my feelings at that moment, i am literally speechless(wordless in fact). I glared at Arnav for a second who stood right opposite to me who in returned gave me a smiling grin. In reality, I am really glad that Arnav had told me a lie that day because I believe if he hadn't I may not have been the Editor like I was for the whole term, i may have been full of myself with pride and ego. But Arnav made me realise that day that I was still an equal to all there, just a Literary Editor with a fancy designation, I was still the same Niranjan who had to work along with 15 team mates who had earned their spot in the Editorial Board just like me.
But the problem was the next challenge and the greatest challenge - to create The Columban 2014-15. I remember our first meeting after the designations were given, the meeting to decide the theme, the meeting to decide ho we would shape our brainchild.
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Next Post :-
CHAPTER 2 - POTPOURRI

The Columban 14-15 | Prologue

Its here! Its here! Everyone I am proud to announce the release of The Columban 2014-15. For those who don't know what ' The Columban' is, it is St. Columba's School's annual school magazine. Then you may wonder why I am so excited about an annual occurring... Well you see, I was given the privilege to work with a team of my own batch mates and design this brainchild of ours.
I still remember those span of 2 weeks when I would be so worried about all the application submissions to my interviews with Mrs. Pharasi (the magazine coordinator). Then one fine morning a whole bunch of eager students were collected in front of the notice board - many with disappointing faces, some with faces of joy. As my eyes fell on the board I saw a simple white sheet of paper with a few names written on it and the title 'Editorial Board 2014-15'. My heart raced, excitement flowed through my veins but a pinch of fear brewed as well. As soon as the crows cleared I was able to read the list of names -
Aviral
Shlok
Jimmy
Sanchit
Bharat
Saksham
Animesh
Shreyas
Arnav
Shubhangam
Paarth
NIRANJAN
Ishaan
Shivam
Vangmay
Libin

I stood there emotionless as I didn't know how to express my happiness and excitement. I walked back to class still succumbing to the news and hopting it wasn't a horrific dream as people came in to congratulate me. I was finally in the Editorial Board, something I had dreamed of since I got my first magazine right in class 1. Those pages felt magicalto as as I used to leaf around them mainly looking just for my photograph. Then i would stumble upon the last few pages of the magazine which displayed a series of people who looked so cool(sic). I even remember how I came home and asked my brother who these people were and he explained it to me - "They are the bhaiyyas who have put in a lot of effort to make this magazine you are reading. One day your photo should be there as well."

My dream had come true, finally I would be having a role in the making of The Columban. But I had no clue of how tough this journey really would have been.

DISCLAIMER : As this a journey stretching over more than 365 days, it has already been warned that these are going to be a VERY LONG series of posts yet only a very few words compared to the truth. Therefore for convenience of the author and the readers, these posts have been divided into chapters and will be posted separately. This may take time therefore to know about the complete journey through purgatory you would require a lot of patience. Sorry if waiting for chapters is an inconvenience, its just its impractical to post a 30 page long post. Also, this will be a version of the truth hindered in between because of the fact that I can't be completely blunt about some people on an online portal. This is one amongst the 17 perspectives you can have over how the magazine came into making; for the other 16 versions please contact the respective individuals and motivate them to take out time from their bust study schedules to start blog and write a post on the EdBoard. Anyways, the journey begins.


PROLOGUE
This is the time when The Columban 2013-14 was in its process of finalization and the previous EdBoard were on their toes, extending their submission dates and trying to get the magazine of theirs over with. While their magazine was taking shape, our first EdBoard meeting was held. As i met the other 15 partners of mine I thought to myself - 'Where do I fit amongst this crowd? Am I the thinker? Am I the mediator? Am I the brains? Am I the leader? Or am I just one amongst the equal workforce?'
There were many in the EdBoard i knew by name and face but had never got an opportunity to 'properly' converse with and bond well with. Lets take everyone one after the other (you can wish fully skip this part if you feel like it :P )
 1. Aviral - One of those people I knew for a long time but never got an opportunity to work with, not because I wasn't given a chance to work with him, but because he wasn't the kind of person I could work. This was simply because we had very conflicting ideas and interests. We both could always find better people to work with and then compete against.
 2. Shlok - Shlok was a very unique character in our batch but a person I barely knew before the EdBoard. I always knew about him but we never got shuffled into the same section in junior grades and never got an opportunity to talk to. But I was always interested in working with "the Shlok Gupta. Such a popular figure in our batch (for a very different reason ) and a person you could always spot smiling and laughing while he clutched onto one of his friends.
 3. Jimmy - Another person I really wanted to know but never got an opportunity. The only times we talked used to be during football matches and when people started equating all Mallus (yes, I as well as Jimmy are from Kerala if you haven't deciphered it yet). He was one of those whose brother had worked in the EdBoard previously and had a clue of how it all works and thus was really excited to work with him.
 4. Sanchit - A person I used to avoid in the middle school as I equated him to being one of the complete nerds topping in every single subject not realizing that some other classmates equated me to being a nerd as well. Later did  I realize that he was someone completely different from how I had imagined him to be. The first time we properly conversed was I guess during the interviews for Columban Of The Year but that was a conversation between enemies rather than a talk between foes.
 5. Bharat - Bharat was one of those really close friends I had in the 8th, 9th and 10th grade. Such a great and sweet guy by heart and soul, it was always tough to spot a flaw in him. One of those innocent guys who could even make the bullies shut up and apologies to him if he fealt like it. Also the backbone behind Solstice (if you dont know what it is, its better you dont know xD)
 6. Saksham - He used to be one those guys I always saw in the clutches of Shlok. A great dancer, I used to respect him from the very beginning and he has been gaining respect ever since. Unfortunately, never had a proper conversation with him other than giving him duties as a headboy.
 7. Animesh - Animesh, Animesh, Animesh. Where do I begin? I knew this fat cute teddy for such a long time he feels like a brother. I remember how in class 5, the both of us were selected by Mrs. Pandey to be the prefects of our class and later we realized that prefects were onlt there from class 6 and above. From then our friendship strengthened till the time we got shuffled later. But we ended up working in the FilmIt core group later so all was back to square one with our friendship rekindling again. The sad part was that even after knowing him for more than 5-6 years, only when I came to 11th did I get to know that his mom is a teacher in our school and luckily she became my maths teacher.
 8. Shreyas - One of my closest friends who I had met only in class 9. Our batch's prodigy, he was an amazing programmer already having 2 applications of his own in the Google Play Store. Such an innocent guy by his appearance, he is a person who is always ready for some mischief here and there whenever required. Our Batch's greatest computer geek he was one of those people I expected the most in the list of EdBoard members.
 9. Arnav - Hey bestie!!!(Honestly I don't know if you are even reading this xD) To all those people who don't know him well, I'll just give you 1 advice - don't judge him based on his first impression. The cover may be different but the pages inside tell a completely different story. He wasa guy I considered to be one of those 100% nerds who can't think of anything but studies but he was the only guy I knew even a bit when I saw my section of other 52 strangers in class 11. Thus I started talking to him and then did it strike me that this guy was a living gem to be your friend. Such acreative mind and having an amazing sense of humor, he is the perfect blend of a perfect student and an absolute thug. Arnav is one of those people who will be the most entertaining person if he decides to open up to you.
 10. Shubhangam - I only knew him because of our Art teacher Mrs. Dasmana who used to assign the both of us to do various projects and designing the foyer/auditorium boards for various events. Therefore at least I knew the fact of him being an AMAZING artist.
 11. Paarth - An amazing guy with a great sense of understanding and humour it was always enjoyable and fun to stay with him and have a conversation with him. There are so many memories I will always have with me and they at many instances have Paarth in it. I was aware of his great control over his English and language and thus was expecting him to be in the EdBoard. A great artist as well I was curious to see if he had been selected for his artistic skills, literary skills or both.
 12. Ishaan - I don't know what to say about this guy. I'll try being as honest as possible. Ishaan was a complete stranger for me till class 10 when we met in the FilmIt core group but that never functioned therefore we still remained strangers to each other. I had no clue of what kind of a person he is and i didn't want to know but i believe it was a mistake I made trying not to know this tall computer genius (at least that's what i used to believe). I never knew about his traits and about his personality till we worked together in the EdBoard and I changed my school bus to his. From then on I got to know about this guy and I imagine how I used to survive a day without this guy beside me. In a span of barely 2 years, I have become close to him more than anyone I know. An amazing designer, he is the most practical person I have ever seen who can think of things without bringing emotions in between his decision.
 13. Shivam - I don't know what more I can say about this champion. I have basically written a whole blog post about him and he knows I can't express my respect for him in any words possible. The one thing that made working with him great was the fact of our collaboration in Solstice. Our novel, which we wrote together didn't reach the heights we wanted it to as it wasn't published but now we got an opportunity to work together again as a team, a duo and create our brainchild which would be published. I can't think of a single thing in school in which we both haven't together been a part of.
 14. Vangmay - One guy whose selfies have raided over my phone gallery for the past one year. When I first heard about Vangmay in 8th or 9th it was because of how different a person he was and is. After I got to know him did I realize that in many ways we were both similar. The craziest member in the EdBoard he was our source of jokes, amusement and entertainment. I can't imagine our EdBoard WhatsApp group without his presence.
 15. Libin - A lot can't be said about this silent worker who hid behind the shadows and did what he had to do perfectly. I barely knew him as his body language spoke for him more than his voice. Such a nice guy by heart, he always kept to himself and barely spoke in a group. Instead his expressions told us what he felt like. Libin was one of those people who i really was interested in to work with as he was the most different amongst the EdBoard.

The Editorial Board 2014-15 (Aviral Kabra and Arnav Aggarwal missing in photo... really sorry)

With 16 different characters in the same team, this had to be a wild journey and it obviously was. The main aspect to it was also the our coordinator Mrs Pharasi who was at a point very mysterious and scary to all of us.

That first meeting was one where all were at their best, trying to convince Mrs. Pharasi of the fact that they were worthy to be the Editor's In Chief. But as inexperienced as we were, ma'am cared more about deciding on a theme for the magazine. After pondering over different titles and ideas and older magazines we initially came up with cliched themes including "The Columban Life". Our main issue was the fact that the EdBoard 2013-14 weren't disclosing their theme even to us which created the problem of overlapping themes. After a lot of discussion Aviral wrote down all the themes we had short listed but the most prominent and promising amongst the list was "Superhereos/Comics".  With out great Aviral maintaining a diary with all information about our meetings - from the attendance to the points discussed  there was absolutely no job let for us till we got hold of The Columban 2013-14.
Soon came the release of The Columban 2013-14 and the real beginning of the making of The Columban 2014-15.


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Next Post :-
CHAPTER 1 - THE COLUMBAN 2013-14 

Toxic Seasons

With the pain, the sorrow , the grief, the dishonor
All brewed to make a luxurious  poison.
Knowing its effects you drank it all
Now get ready to face the toxic season.


You will drown, will burn, will crumble, will break
And stand back up just to again disintegrate.
Knowing you're helpless but you wont give up
But accept the fact this all was fate.


With cries, with shrieks, with noise and then with silence
The mind morphed into a living hell.
Knowing what it thought you still stayed there
Till this time when u were pushed and fell.


The soul it thought, it spoke, it heard, it fought
But all just fell on a million deaf ears.
Knowing that for them you don't exist
It just made you die in your own  searing fears.


You got cut, got dismembered, got rot, decayed
For your soul to rest in peace none would pray.
Knowing that your soul made its journey to hell
Your skull lay on the barren earth with nothing to say.

The Puppeteer

Scared from the world alone was he;
With no soul inside to rest in peace.
All those around him, none could see,
The anger in him broiled- but he did cease.




He did try to stand up to the rest
But the human indomitable spirit always pushed him back.
Even when his puppet would do its best,
Its the puppeteer whose threads would slack.




The world being a stage as told by many,
He was never in the shining spotlight.
Digging his grave because he didn't have a single penny,
With only a crumbling future of false hopes in sight.




None understood the beast that consumed him,
For it was none other than his own creation.
This beast had waited for this very moment to trim
The aspirations of it's host to build is own domination.




Giving up all hopes he crumbled and rot
The grave diggers already singing their symphony
But this new force he met inside him fought
The beast to save its viscous integrity




"Oh! Who art thou that wish to protect me?
Me -the one who has no future ahead.
Oh! Who art thou that can possibly see through me,
And all my flaws thou help me shed?"




"Don't worry for thy don't deserve such pain,
But what you seek is really love.
And now that I am here to destroy thine everlasting strain
Soon thine soul will be as free as a dove."




Her voice moved his body, changed his soul,
The puppeteer had now regained control.
Her impact on his disintegrated life already took is toll
For now he became a new man with a brand new role.




Was it her presence that changed who he was?
Or the unconditional love he received from this beauty?
Whatever it were it gave him a cause,
To surpass the rest of this indomitable world and do his duty.




He crushed them all and stood at the very pinnacle
And all could just stand and admire his hardship
But it was because of someone else that this became a spectacle
And for the first time the puppeteer started a threadless relationship.