Dear readers,
Being an editor, running a newsletter, organizing get-togethers and meetings and supervising the building of a website from scratch was never on our to do list. Our passion was writing, just writing, that’s all. And if we had to do all of the above just to further that passion and help others build up theirs too, we thought – why not?
Our aim for starting this was incredibly simple – to get people to write. That’s it. We didn’t expect – we still don’t, and won’t for the foreseeable future – EPW level articles, or articles that would make Dr. Shashi Tharoor pick up a dictionary. We just want every student in the Bachelor’s programme to write. About whatever they want to, in whatever style they’re comfortable with, at whatever time they want (preferably before the deadline, though). Every person’s thoughts are vivid, different, contrasting, yet sharply colorful, starkly important and glaringly original in their own ways. And that is why we feel that it is important to provide a platform – a safe, intelligent, articulate platform – for every person to speak what’s on their mind and in their hearts. Writing is a powerful tool that everyone should harness – there’s a reason why AK Sir is everyone’s favorite prof; he’s a mean writer as well.
And for the lost ones who seek their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in the form of their gradesheet, the 8:10 helps you write better. This in turn ensures that you churn out fact-driven, hard-hitting and effective essays that impress your teachers and give you what you want – a great score.
Every person has the right to voice their opinion, but in today’s 240-character driven world, we feel that it has become increasingly imperative that one voices opinions driven by fact, logic and research. And we strive to become such a place for you.
The first edition was launched amid much fanfare and pomp, with its fair share of confetti emoticons and exclamations of “we’ve launched!” However, we would really like to come to the whole reason why we decided to put in a letter from the editors in the first place – to acknowledge the immense efforts of the teams. It’s taken the collective efforts of a massive team of people working tirelessly behind the scenes to bring this to you. The website team, the design team, the social media team, the content teams, the Faculty Advisory Board – all of them have worked so incredibly hard to bring this to you. They’ve dealt with us – ever-present on their heels, constantly asking for changes, for improvements, reassuring us not once, not twice, but three times that yes, everything is going according to plan. We’ve overreacted and we’ve come close to scolding them, we’ve drowned them in praises and sent them millions of virtual hugs, and they’ve stood by our side – doing this work along with exams, assignments, schedules, busy (sometimes messy) private lives. We can’t thank them enough, and we as writers would know this best – no words will ever come close to expressing how grateful we are to each and every member of the team.
We’ve had to deal with our fair share of snarky side remarks and casually cruel comments – sometimes from members of the teams themselves – especially as editors, and even more so as people who’ve worked incredibly hard to breathe life into this endeavour and mould it into something alive, something magical, something tangible. We’ve had people leave, we’ve had to deal with self-doubt, with regret, with questions that didn’t have easy answers and sometimes, didn’t have answers at all. We’ve dealt with a lot of things and we know the road ahead isn’t easy. It’s littered with stones and thorns and pieces of broken glass and we know that the soles of our shoes may give out at any point in time. But we also know that as long our teams are with us, and you – our beloved readers – are still here, we know that we will be able to walk without fear, our heads held high, warm and determined to make it to the end where the 8:10 becomes a platform that everyone is a part of and is equally proud of. We know that the compliments in the form of flowers by the sides of the road are sparse and bloom very rarely; but we treasure each one like our very first and we remember it during the hard times when a thorn pierces our feet.
We hope that you enjoy writing as well as reading what your fellow students have to say in equal measure. We hope that this becomes a platform for you to show to the world your hidden potential and your true talent. Above all, we hope this becomes a platform for you that makes you happy and makes you proud of being yourself.
With nothing but the most sincere thanks coming from the very depths of our hearts,
The Editors-in-Chief,
The 8:10.