Here's to the 'crazy' ones...

Yeah, this has been the longest break that I have ever given to my blog writing. You might ask why. Well, a weird, impractical and just-for-fun idea is the sole reason as to why my last blog entry was more than a month ago.

The university fest kept me busy for the first four days of February. Although I couldn’t perform well in the Creative Writing Contest there, I knew somewhere that it was my blog-writing style that had got me to the finals. Next, I was busy planning to volunteer at the Comic Con India at Dilli Haat from 17^th-19^th February. I got selected. But, I pulled out at the last moment. I got my class’s group-assignments done by my team members without any contribution from me, something which is a first time in my entire college life. I had my internal semester exams last week. I appeared for them without studying at all, a first time for me! Appearing for exams without studying at all- something I couldn’t have ever dreamed of. But yes, I did all this! All because of one single crazy idea that I had on the 6^th of February 2012!

February 27, 2012 3.15 PM, Sri Ram Centre, Mandi House, New Delhi: It is the Annual Day of my college. This is the big day I have been waiting for since the crazy idea I had 20 days ago. The stage is set. The programme is on. It is the big moment next! My name is announced. “Antarik Anwesan, Editor and Manager of Jhankaar 2012” There is the broadest smile on my face. One after the other, names of my team members are announced by the Director of my institute. We walk up the stage. Yeah, we are felicitated for daring and achieving a seemingly ‘impossible’ goal. We made the entire annual college magazine from scratch in less than 20 days!

“Maam, can we launch Jhankaar on 27th at the Annual Day?” I had asked my faculty. Considering the fact that we had received hardly four articles in the previous three weeks, it was a crazy idea, literally. Even I had not given a serious thought to it before asking this question. I knew this was ‘impractical’. It would require 24x7 hours work for full 20 days. Success was not guaranteed even after that. But if implemented successfully, it had the potential to set records!

Work was on immediately. Posters were pinned to the bulletin boards. Facebook statuses were updated. It was decided that all editorial work would be done ‘online’- strictly! February 12^th was set as the deadline for contributions. Lo and behold! 98 articles and over a 100 original photographs and artwork- all received from my college students in just 5 days! Wow!

The work of the editorial board had commenced the moment the first article was received. Within two days of the deadline, all editing work was complete! What remained was the material for the special pages. By the coming Saturday, i.e. 18^th, all written material was ready.

The designing of the magazine was on simultaneously. With the first draft pages approved on 10^th, my designer friend had a huge challenge before himself- how was he going to design 60 full-scale pages in a matter of two weeks? Patience and persistence were the keys. By 18^th, all article-pages were ready and final! The designing speed of my ‘chair-sutra’ friend left us bewildered!

The last week, from 18^th to 24^th were spent by the entire team together. ‘What’s on your mind?’ facebook asked us on all those rare visits to the site. The only thing that was on our minds was Jhankaar! Exams, assignments, family and everything else were secondary! Sleep was hard to come. We were tired, but the excitement to complete the work on time drove us to the climax with hardly 2-3 hours of sleep each day. Our sole intention- complete Jhankaar in the best way possible so as to get it approved, printed and launched on the Annual Day!

Having worked on the magazine the previous year, I was aware of the problems that are faced if things are not planned well. And so, along with the editorial job, I took up the task of managing the entire work and scale the progress. (Managing Editor- isn’t that what this post is called?) The entire team was already so motivated and driven for the cause that keeping each member in high spirits turned out to be an easy task. There were some really low moments including once when I cursed myself for taking up this Herculean task. But the presence of a source of motivation always had the power to keep us going and daring to achieve the impossible.

Yeah, making this magazine has been the most endearing endeavour in my entire lifetime. Take a look at the journey of 20 days, that we took:

Camera, editing and direction: Ankit Goyla


The magazine is now launched. The entire college has seen the efforts that went into making this possible. The planned 60-pages reached 76 by the time the designing was complete. There are a lot of unique and first-timers in this issue. The magazine hasn’t reached the people yet. It would be out from the press soon. Our hands are craving to hold the final printed copy of the magazine and show our work to the world. Yes, we are the crazy ones. Crazy to work on a completely crazy idea. Crazy to make work fun. Crazy to take up the immense pressure and not fall under it. Crazy to bring out the best edition of the college’s annual printed literature in 12 years in the shortest time duration- 20 days!

Sahil, Tanvi, Sakshi, Ankit and Sushant- that’s my team who made the crazy idea see the light of the day. With too much said we have our fingers crossed now. It’s time for you to decide how well things have been said.

And yeah, don’t worry, I am now going to be back and actively blogging in the coming days. Tada!