No, this ain't my third editorial

It’s a warm September evening and it’s starting to grow dark. I wave goodbye to my friends at the Uttarakhand Dhaba and start walking back home as they walk in the opposite direction to catch an auto. With just a few steps taken I turn back and look at them, half-expecting them to do the same. They are walking away. I am back on my track but my frame-of-mind and thought process has changed in those few moments of ‘looking back’. I am wondering, is ‘looking back’ and cherishing moments such an important part of my life?

With my college mates. Taken at the last-leg of our college trip. Picture dated 08-January-2013. 

I climb down the steps of the citi-fi complex and head straight into Madangir, my home since the past two years. I pass the now demolished ‘Ramu tea-stall’, the one spot where all my smoker friends at MBICEM can be found during the lunch hour. Ramu had been the one, two years ago, who my father and I had enquired about MBICEM from, when we first came to look for the ‘Madhubala Institute’. We had been directed to a pale-yellow building at the far end. I had told my father, “However good the college might be, after DPS, I am not coming to a place like this.”

I continue my walk; take the first left at the end of the road and pass by my college. It’s not difficult to miss this ‘building’ if one is here for the first time. I had missed it and it’s the same with everyone. On that eventful day, when I had first stepped into this college, I had no idea that the famous quote, ‘A book shouldn’t be judged by its cover’ was so true. An unexpectedly good CET rank (23, if you are wondering!) had opened my doors to all the BJ(MC) institutes in the university, but this one institute had made the impression on me. When I had left the building, I said to my father, “If I am doing BJ(MC) then I am doing it from here and no where else.” There was one big thing apart from my first opportunity of seeing movie cameras, track trolley and other film making equipments that had influenced my thinking- This College has its own international students’ film festival and I can boast about it!

Within two weeks of joining college, two major things happened- One, I was part of the Organising Committee for the ‘Bloggers’ Day Contest’ and that was the beginning of my involvement in college activities. Two, thanks to a senior, who happened to be the editor of the college newsletter and my temporary roommate, my article was published in it and for the first time I was made to realize, I write well.

This was also the time when I was introduced to Jhankaar, the annual college magazine. For me, one who had no idea what the media was all about apart from the newspapers and news channels, something as simple and intricate as the drafts of the printed pages of Jhankaar 2010 had a huge and fascinating impact on my intellect. I saw that second page with the editorial on it and somehow I knew it there and then- Two years from now, I want my name on that page as the ‘editor’ of Jhankaar 2012. No wonder, when one of my faculty members remarked, “I can see my upcoming team of Jhankaar in you”, I, a three-week old at MBICEM, was on top of the world. It’s been long since then.

I smile as I continue my walk home, reminiscing the times gone. Last February, I had just recently discovered the genius that the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had been. His ideas had been crazy, out-of-the-world but had somehow worked all the time and had brought about the most successful company in the history of technology. After more than 7 years of Harry Potter obsession, finally I had somebody else to talk about and preach. And with that, I had smiled and asked a seemingly impossible question, ‘Can we make Jhankaar in 20 days?’ From article collection and editing to designing and typesetting, my team and I did achieve the impossible and Jhankaar 2012 was out in exact 20 days! Suddenly everyone knew about the magazine and everyone wanted to see how the impossible was achieved. We knew we had created something big.

I smirk as all these memories walk by me.

I had been the one who had written the editorial-pieces for Jhankaar 2011 and 2012. When she had asked me if I wanted to be a part of Jhankaar 2013, I had told my in-charge faculty, “The to-be-written lines for my 3^rd editorial are already forming in my mind…”

Today, a classmate asked me some details regarding Jhankaar 2013. Yet again, as has happened many times over the past month, I smiled and let her know that I was not a part of the ‘new’ team. Passing on the baton hadn’t been easy. It was required so as to give an opportunity to fresh talent to spill their blood and who knows, when you read this, you might be reading it out of the newest marvel produced in MBICEM.

As I reach home and open the lock, I know what ingredients are going to be part of my article in Jhankaar 2013, the first one, when I wouldn’t be ‘editor’. Looking back and cherishing memories does help me in producing some good written material. I press Ctrl + S on the word document as I smile, realise and reassure myself, ‘No, this ain’t my third editorial’.

This article was written in September 2012 and originally published in my college magazine (Jhankaar 2013).