After almost 3 years since I had left writing for AG (Avant Garde), annual e-magazine of MBA@IITK, I came up with an article that truely reflects my feelings for AG that are still alive and rising...
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“I can still write for AG”
Completely unaware of the fact that it was raining heavily outside, the meeting room was filled with a faction of consultants discussing a solution that needed to be delivered next week. Everyone was enthusiastic about outshining others so as to get the maximum footage in front of superiors, including me. In the middle of the meeting, suddenly I got the message from one of my juniors on my laptop. I gazed at the message pop-up with disinterested look and started thinking about what could be the reason behind this. He invited me to write an article for AG, preferably for Flights that need to be published for December edition. Casually I agreed to accept his offer but simultaneously was thinking of good reasons to avoid this extra effort. I joined back the meeting’s proceedings professionally but couldn’t resist getting back to the past, almost 3 years.
Summer of 2005...
It was the first time when we were introduced to our seniors where I heard this name ‘Avant Garde’, known as AG. I was associated with similar kind of college magazine during my engineering days, so the idea of joining this team didn’t sound pretty cool at once. Middle of that night I browsed its website on my newly bought laptop and free-of-cost internet connection, and started reading the articles. There was something in me that felt that there is some scope for me to add value to this newsletter. Later, I joined the team and asked about the logic behind each section of AG. It went like this: ‘Centre stage’ is the section meant for in-depth analysis of current happenings that involve extensive research. ‘Infocus’ is the section meant for latest news updates that are relevant in business arena. ‘Flights’ is the section that is meant to be used to express oneself in any form as wished. ‘Bone-of-contention’ is used to present an argument and counter argument on a given topic. Being excited with the conversations, I recommended adding one business cartoon section to the magazine which was later named as ‘Biztoons’.
“Take charge of AG”...
It was late in the winters when we were given full charge of the band wagon. ‘We’: It was decided that this team doesn’t require a leader to be called as editor-in-chief and thus it was preferred to have a flat team with no hierarchy and henceforth ‘We’ replaced ‘I’. We were faced with a challenge to not just continue AG, but to invigorate the newsletter and stand up to the expectations of the readers. We were totally ignorant about the effectiveness of AG in terms of its visibility in the corporate sector and the enthusiasm it generated among the readers. I realized the importance of AG when I first met with an alumnus who was one of the founding members of AG. He made me aware of the expectations various readers had from AG. Thrilled with the responses, we formulated various strategies to spread this word like a fire in the corporate sector. We made contacts with every B-school present, invited every alumni and corporate biggies to write for AG, increased its visibility during the placement season and continued pouring fresh flavors to the articles we wrote.
It wasn’t simple anyways...
Taking charge of this newsletter was not as simple as black and white. We were faced with all time dread evil called ‘motivation’ to write for AG. Often we had to beg people to write something for AG, sometimes due to lack of time and sometimes to avoid predictability of the article’s content when written by same writer month after month. We were often accused by publishers who had to put in lot of efforts to publish the magazine on time, and the only reason that could delay the process was the non-availability of articles on time. We had spent endless nights writing the articles and publishing those. The best part for me was to draw a cartoon within an hour before uploading that to website. Thinking of a humor and translating that in form of a cartoon and that too in 1 hour was beyond my imagination. But it was the passion for AG that could make all of that possible.
Learnings from AG...
It was not just writing an article, getting it published and feeling proud of watching your name with your article on the AG website. It was much more than that. It made me learn the lesson of taking charge of a big institution (and certainly not an assignment). It made me learn the value of time management that is very relevant when your offering is expected on time by huge number of people across globe and across various hierarchies. Another important lesson I had learnt from AG is to deal with different people and convince them to do something they are unaware of. On the other hand, it strengthened my patience to hear all sorts of criticisms and accusations that could simply break a person. Most importantly, never under estimate your responsibilities. I am sure, apart from me, many more teammates share similar lessons. And this is the reason why this has become such a significant part of my life, our life.
Today...
As I am writing this article, I still haven’t informed my junior about the same. Maybe I was too skeptical and less confident to write again for AG ever. It took me more than a day to decide about the topic for the article (forget about making a cartoon...!). The generations have changed, the ideas may have differed and the attitude towards AG may have changed. But still when I glance back to the days I spent with AG, I feel concerned. We have lost that passion, the dedicated energy to write self thoughts and the motivation to spend some time with self for AG. It seems that every era has an end….!!!!
It’s not an article but a piece of thought, but still, in the end I could feel only one thing, “I can still feel for AG... I can still write for AG..!”
-----------------------------
“I can still write for AG”
Completely unaware of the fact that it was raining heavily outside, the meeting room was filled with a faction of consultants discussing a solution that needed to be delivered next week. Everyone was enthusiastic about outshining others so as to get the maximum footage in front of superiors, including me. In the middle of the meeting, suddenly I got the message from one of my juniors on my laptop. I gazed at the message pop-up with disinterested look and started thinking about what could be the reason behind this. He invited me to write an article for AG, preferably for Flights that need to be published for December edition. Casually I agreed to accept his offer but simultaneously was thinking of good reasons to avoid this extra effort. I joined back the meeting’s proceedings professionally but couldn’t resist getting back to the past, almost 3 years.
Summer of 2005...
It was the first time when we were introduced to our seniors where I heard this name ‘Avant Garde’, known as AG. I was associated with similar kind of college magazine during my engineering days, so the idea of joining this team didn’t sound pretty cool at once. Middle of that night I browsed its website on my newly bought laptop and free-of-cost internet connection, and started reading the articles. There was something in me that felt that there is some scope for me to add value to this newsletter. Later, I joined the team and asked about the logic behind each section of AG. It went like this: ‘Centre stage’ is the section meant for in-depth analysis of current happenings that involve extensive research. ‘Infocus’ is the section meant for latest news updates that are relevant in business arena. ‘Flights’ is the section that is meant to be used to express oneself in any form as wished. ‘Bone-of-contention’ is used to present an argument and counter argument on a given topic. Being excited with the conversations, I recommended adding one business cartoon section to the magazine which was later named as ‘Biztoons’.
“Take charge of AG”...
It was late in the winters when we were given full charge of the band wagon. ‘We’: It was decided that this team doesn’t require a leader to be called as editor-in-chief and thus it was preferred to have a flat team with no hierarchy and henceforth ‘We’ replaced ‘I’. We were faced with a challenge to not just continue AG, but to invigorate the newsletter and stand up to the expectations of the readers. We were totally ignorant about the effectiveness of AG in terms of its visibility in the corporate sector and the enthusiasm it generated among the readers. I realized the importance of AG when I first met with an alumnus who was one of the founding members of AG. He made me aware of the expectations various readers had from AG. Thrilled with the responses, we formulated various strategies to spread this word like a fire in the corporate sector. We made contacts with every B-school present, invited every alumni and corporate biggies to write for AG, increased its visibility during the placement season and continued pouring fresh flavors to the articles we wrote.
It wasn’t simple anyways...
Taking charge of this newsletter was not as simple as black and white. We were faced with all time dread evil called ‘motivation’ to write for AG. Often we had to beg people to write something for AG, sometimes due to lack of time and sometimes to avoid predictability of the article’s content when written by same writer month after month. We were often accused by publishers who had to put in lot of efforts to publish the magazine on time, and the only reason that could delay the process was the non-availability of articles on time. We had spent endless nights writing the articles and publishing those. The best part for me was to draw a cartoon within an hour before uploading that to website. Thinking of a humor and translating that in form of a cartoon and that too in 1 hour was beyond my imagination. But it was the passion for AG that could make all of that possible.
Learnings from AG...
It was not just writing an article, getting it published and feeling proud of watching your name with your article on the AG website. It was much more than that. It made me learn the lesson of taking charge of a big institution (and certainly not an assignment). It made me learn the value of time management that is very relevant when your offering is expected on time by huge number of people across globe and across various hierarchies. Another important lesson I had learnt from AG is to deal with different people and convince them to do something they are unaware of. On the other hand, it strengthened my patience to hear all sorts of criticisms and accusations that could simply break a person. Most importantly, never under estimate your responsibilities. I am sure, apart from me, many more teammates share similar lessons. And this is the reason why this has become such a significant part of my life, our life.
Today...
As I am writing this article, I still haven’t informed my junior about the same. Maybe I was too skeptical and less confident to write again for AG ever. It took me more than a day to decide about the topic for the article (forget about making a cartoon...!). The generations have changed, the ideas may have differed and the attitude towards AG may have changed. But still when I glance back to the days I spent with AG, I feel concerned. We have lost that passion, the dedicated energy to write self thoughts and the motivation to spend some time with self for AG. It seems that every era has an end….!!!!
It’s not an article but a piece of thought, but still, in the end I could feel only one thing, “I can still feel for AG... I can still write for AG..!”
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