Drishti - My Vision

Perhaps this is one topic where I can write for pages and pages together. Drishti; to a normal college going student, would mean some beautiful girl, but for me it was the most elevating experiences of my college life. And it still continues to be one.

From the very First Year my perceptions have changed towards the magazine, what it offers and what can you offer back. The changes are not drastic, yet inside the tranquillity lies the vigour that enhances change. For some this urge to change would convert in the form of attaining personal fame, which I confess is the case to a certain extent. But we’ll get to that later.

In the First Year, what did Drishti mean to me? My opinion about the magazine was like any other normal B Grade student would think like. It’s a management institute’s magazine. People come to do BBA so that they can do an MBA. So what should Drishti contain? All about getting into a good MBA school!! But obvious! And of course if we add only things related to management, it would bore the reader. So add in the regular frills and viola! It’s ready!

This perception held things together for one year. Come Second Year and the thoughts change. People don’t want only management. And people don’t want only gossip. But they want a blend of those. Something that you find in Economic Times. Lets say, during the budget sessions, ET asks celebrities about their expectations from the budget. Some answers are nonsensical as expected, yet some are even sensible. The idea was to lure the reader into a trial. If he liked it, he would read it again. But the matter of fact is that no one wants to read. They are tired of it. The urge to hold a book in their hands is lost since the era of television. Watching Discovery Channel and reading a book on Egyptian History possess vast differences in the experience they provide.

And until there is an inner drive within them, to improve, to do something better, to excel Drishti can never be successful. The Editorial Team is doing a fruitless activity in one sense. But if you look at it the other way around, the activity is certainly yielding some results for the Editorial Committee if not for the other students. If you say that providing the best of articles, giving the best of value addition, will eventually lead to the identification of Drishti as a class magazine, its all gas. Humbug.

One cannot change another’s habits. He can try to make the other person realise the results of his current actions. I fail to understand one simple logic; can you develop interest for external reading only when you are preparing for an MBA? Then in actual sense I wouldn’t call it developing interest, its more like persuading yourself to get a book in your hands and then after reading a book or two you suddenly realise how enjoyable this activity is! Bottomline, these days even to make a person read books he has to be pressurised, especially for students from Gujarat.

And that’s where The Mega Edition comes into the picture. Since the students don’t come and read your magazine, you go to the students and make them read the magazine. More, in the next chapter.