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