The Den

The file I picked out from the drawer happened to be one of relevance. The first official document I had received from the committee lay under the plastic cover of the green bind. I stared at it for a few seconds. Flashback.

Sitting in a room on the 2^nd floor & skittish as my peers were, we shot glances at each other. A huddle of student members crowded the front end of the room near the blackboard and scanned the array of chairs. Eleven rookies stared back. I swallowed and leaned forward in excitement. My biggest learning to date was about to unfold.

We got going on our tasks soon enough, and the group was split into specific heads of operation. Being part of the publications team was an honour and a challenge. A target audience of 3700, with a scattered demography, meant that much more when it came to producing blue-pencilled & distinguished articles. The important thing was to learn and implement along the way. And I know we gave it a substantial heave in the right direction. In due course, the publication received uplifts in the form of new columns including design & interface enhancements. I recall people sending in feedback, complimenting the revised look.

Mentorship by our seniors played a vital role in the know-how of the committee working - filling gaps overlooked or discounted by the juniors were ever so frequent in the beginning, as I realised later, after stepping into a senior role. An altruistic trio, forever endeavouring to boost the committee’s output, guided us in many activities throughout their tenure. The more I involved myself in the work, the more passionate I felt about being a part of the system.

Nostalgia, an annual alumni meet which is our flagship event was unfortunately & incorrectly perceived as the sole activity that the committee executed or was associated with. I can understand why the image was such. It was a front end activity that created plenty of awareness in comparison to the rest of things we did. And it was important to make a difference in this regard.

Branding & awareness of exciting new prospects into successful execution ventures was on our to-do list. In the first two months of 2007, a highly productive brainstorming session bore fruit. After tweaking words and gathering numerous synonyms for likely labels we came to Alumniscence – a platform for inviting alumni as part of a multitude of events and engaging our students with the same. We built around it, an exclusive logo to lend it character and appeal. The initiative received a warm response from people. Tough times lay ahead though.

In any working body, several opinions & demands are shared to contend with. At times, there is also a marked difference in the allegiance towards the goal. Owing to this, an inconsistency in efforts or commitment develops an unhealthy operative environment. Some suffered while a few used it as a reason to work harder. Others remained part of the relaxed crowd. This situation was one of the best simulations of a work environment for me, having had no prior formal work experience. Initially, it left me bitter towards the whole setup and its constituents. Had it not been for a couple of neutralising agents, things would’ve only gotten worse. So in a way, I found like minds in this process. There you go. A positive gained from a negative.

And this is how it went for the most part. Our successors came along and the select few went about business, inducting them into the various functions in as smooth & comfortable a manner as possible.

As we exited the last door, a sense of achievement diffused selectively among us all. Kudos.

I shot back to the present & my eyes zoomed back into focus, the green file. I flipped through the various documents inside it.

How time flies I thought to myself. And so much learned from all this.