Article for Article 19

My department at IIT Madras-the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences- has a peculiar way of allotting the streams of specialization starting from the third year of the five-year course I am enrolled in. The performance of the first three semesters in terms of the CGPA will be taken into account while deciding the stream to be allotted to a student. 

There are only two streams available: Development Studies and English Studies. Having studied English courses for the first two semesters gave me a clear image that English is not for me. I could not risk getting into English Studies. Therefore, I had to make sure that the grades in other courses compensate for the not-so-okay grades in English. This meant that only studies, studies and studies for the two years. Any other activity that could prove to be detrimental to studies were cut off immediately. This meant no Positions of Responsibility or PoRs for two years. 

That strategy paid off, and I was allotted the Development Studies stream. Now that the stream is assured, I thought, why not take up some PoRs?

Hmm... Maybe that's a good idea!

At that time, Article 19, the department newsletter, called for applications for the post of Correspondent and Editor (Content) among others. I first filled up the form of Editor (Content) and then a thought struck me, why will they give such a high position to me, who had no experience with how Article 19 works?

Then I deleted the application and filled the application for the post of Correspondent, which is the beginner level PoR at Article 19. Though we should aim for the stars, that principle does not work in the working hierarchy, and definitely not when a newbie applies to be the Editor (Content). How I go from Mr. Nobody to Editor in an instant? NEVER!!!! Start from the basics. 

I applied for the post and got selected. My first assignment was to write something about Pride Month and about the LGBTQI+ community. I wrote an article about India's economic loss due to LGBTQI+ discrimination. 

Writing according to someone else's standards is a new experience in itself. When I write my blogs, be it this one or the one about books, I do one write-up, check for grammar and publish it. Now, my editor said this is incomplete, that needs more elaboration, etc. 

After multiple trials and errors, the article was ready for publication. It was published on the official website of our Department newsletter somewhere in the afternoon but not formally announced. Once I realized the article was published, I rushed to publicize it. 

Then I went, 

Whoa! This is not my blog, this is someone else's site. You can't do what you regularly do. So I had to wait for the Editorial team to announce the publication of my article before I started publicizing it. 

I realize, one cannot become a good writer by writing on one's own. It happens when one writes for someone else. Only then will we be shaped by objective criticism than subjective encouragement.