A college magazine opens up a window into its world. It is a nest woven with golden threads, with memories of student life documented every year, a token of love of the junior students for their outgoing seniors. It showcases the creative caliber of the students studying there. And mostly, a great deal of effort does go into conceptualising the mag, choosing articles, editing them and finally bringing it out every year. All of this requires diligence and dedication, which is why the Universities of the state give out the best college magazine awards every year to encourage students.Most college mags are unique, in that the content and treatment differ from magazine to magazine. Flip through the various mags, and you’re bound to notice the influence of the dominant political parties and managements in its pages. “An ideal college magazine should be unbiased and include articles of student irrespective of party afflictions,” says Ajmal A A , Maharaja’s College Chairman. "A magazine should deal with a plethora of subjects and abstract thoughts. The youth voice on various socially relevant topics should be discussed through these magazines. It should be the platform for them to censor what they believe is wrong about our society,” he adds.Though college mags are still alive as an entity, sadly their quality has deteriorated, feel many. “If you compare the articles we got 10 -15 years back to what we receive now, the standard has certainly suffered. There is an overall dearth of topics,” says Aneesh R, magazine editor, Government Law College. “Earlier getting an article published in a college magazine was considered as an achievement as it would be selected from over 400 articles. It was really a strenuous job as magazine editors would be left confused about which ones to chose. Now we get only a handful of articles,” says Akhilesh R, editorial board member, Maharaja’s College. “If you see the kind of poems that are submitted, you will find a redundancy in the usage of words,” says Aneesh. While the fall in quality is certainly bad news, what has improved marginally is that students writing for the mags don’t bring in their political biases, as much as they did earlier. “They are quite neutral in their stand,” adds Akhilesh. Also, many colleges do take up interesting and relevant themes on a yearly basis. Maharaja’s earlier mag named ‘Mmaa’ dealt with attacks and abuse on women. This year’s magazine that will be out in December focuses on the communalism prevailing in society and how people are exploited in the name of religion.Law College has named its magazine for the current year as ‘Fourth Estate’. And as the name suggests, it is an out-an-out news magazine. “It’s design is like a newspaper and many social issues like endosulfan, corruption, paid news and many other issues are discussed. Another highlight this year is that we have dealt with several serious issues in the form of cartoons,” says Vinod K V, subeditor, law college.St Teresa’s College (STC) magazine is called ‘Potpourri’, and rightly, it is the mixture of social issues, philosophical conundrums, musings on faith and friendship. “In the pages of Potpourri, you will find Teresians of every complexion - the sentimentalist and the cynic, the romantic and the realist, the conformist and the maverick,” says Saniya Moopan, STC magazine editor. Obviously, much is changing in the magazine world which in a way reflects society’s changing tastes and priorities. But it’s heartening that a fair number of college have kept it going, taking up relevant issues. Also, the mag will hopefully always be a favourite with that small segment that loves to write.[email protected]
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