Raising the bar:


Musings which turns four this year, brings with it an aura and captivation that hath bound us, the student editors, enthrall. Musings was started by a group of 'bugged' individuals driven by gusto with the main notion of deciphering the talent around and paint a true picture of an MGITian.
With each passing day as the deadline for bringing out the mag nears a question nags us (kay Kay n Me) "Should we raise or lower the bar ?"
Raise the bar in the sense setting stircter norms for the articles to be selected.
The first issue of the mag was the thickest of the lot with many ccp (cut, copy, paste) articles; which had a telling effect on the responses for the second edition.The zine team of Musings'04 grappling with the dearth of printable contributions did an awesome job of coming out with an edition which till today is a benchmark for meaningful content. This set the 'bar' for the future editions also.
The million dollar question is "can we compromise on quality?" Should we lower the bar ??? Should we accept more stuff to just make the mag more thick?

The 'Summit' is an imaginary frontier which we at the edi-board try to reach every year with our whole hearted commitment and efforts. It's hard to describe this frontier in words. It is an enigma, a feeling of joy and satisfaction that our hard work has not gone in vain. Every one of the edi board of the previous editions know how great it feels when your hard work is being unwrapped before your very own eyes in full grandeur and pomp. The applause from the junta says it all (I'm getting nostalgic here :-} )

The major criterion for selection of any work is originality and excellent expression of creativity. Both these qualities compliment each other. Like every year this time also we get a plethora of contributions from every nook and cranny as a response to our flamboyant posters and zestful campaigning. As we go through each an every contribution patiently with an editor’s mindset, we try to gauge the readability from the audience point of view. We don't expect Pulitzer winning contributions; all we are looking for is the true reflections of the ethos of a collegian.

As the part of preparing the final draft we eventually have to chuck out some contributions which do not conform to the 'bar'. It is nothing less than tackling a 'Gordian knot' when trying to select the better from the best. Some art. are original but are not well written they are what we term 'school-standard'. Some of the ‘non-school’ standard stuff deal with off-beat topics which may not interest many readers. Every article that makes to the mag is given a thorough dressing down i.e. it's strong and weak points are thoroughly debated and a final decision is reached. There is zero chance for recommendations and backdoor entries.

It's the 'school-standard' arts. on which I would like to concentrate this year. Basically these are by writers 'in the wings'. People who come up with them are very honest in their efforts. They try to express what's on their minds; only their language and style need a little 'tweaking' ;-)

The other day in an informal discussion between a staff editor and myself the 'thinness' and 'standard' of musings|05 came up in which I had played a pivotal role. Musings05 was 'thin' because the bar was out of reach for the mango people (aam junta.) If we raise it a few more inches this year the mag will be like a news paper supplement (plus point: less cost-> we can go for a fully colored edition)

We walk the tight rope every year during selection/editing. The content has to be catchy is the main funda. This time for M'06 all the 'school-standard' contributions are being put under the creative shocker scanner i.e. If they conform to some pre requisites they will be altered by us (with due consent from the author) to make them more appealing and publishable so that we end up with a good, healthy collection of presentable contributions. For people who want to write but don't know what to write upon we have the 'ed-board projects' wherein we suggest the topics to be written. These (topics) will be a mixed bag. You can at least go under the 'bar' if not over it.
We at M'06 are obsessed with ‘quality of quantity’. We don't want a thin mag like the India Today or The Week which people can easily roll and tuck in the back pockets of their jeans. Musings|06 means a lot to us (plummeting acads and attendance perc.) and with the time on our hands we will give you a masterpiece to awwwwwwwwwww at!!!