The Department of English has ever been encouraging the students to exhibit their best and nurtures it at the same time. With the same intention, the academic year of 2010-2011 began with the election of the student council for The English Club and ‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’ under the able guidance of Prof. Rekha Rai and Prof. Veena R. N. respectively.
The combined strength of all the three years elected the following students in the following positions for ‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’- a popular wall magazine managed by the department:
1. Editor-In-Chief - Pankaj A. Desai
[2nd year, B.A. (P.J.O.E.)]
2. Sub-Editor - Sriram Sharma
[1st year, B.A. (P.J.O.E)]
3. Editor - Meghana Shashidhar
[3rd year, B.A. ( P.J.O.E.)]
For the ‘English Club’, the following students were nominated by the congregation:
1. Convenor - Kavya Rao
[3rd year, B.A. (P.J.O.E.) ]
2. Co-ordinator (3rd year) - Hethal Vora
[3rd year, B.A. (P.J.O.E.) ]
3. Co-ordinator (2nd year) - Vivek M.V.
[2nd year, B.A. (P.J.O.E.)]
4. Co-ordinator(1st year) - Ragavi Krishna
[1st year, B.A. (P.J.O.E.)]
‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’ set the ball rolling with the publishing of the 1st edition in the month of September which was a commemorative edition celebrating the 150th Birth Anniversary of the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. The 2nd edition was published in October with the tag line ‘The world as I see it today’ which brought up youth related issues to the fore.
Coming as the 1st edition of the new year 2011, the 3rd edition of ‘The Creative Corner’, spoke of ‘New-year Resolutions’ and of the significance of the Makar Sankranti festival. Also, this edition saw the birth of a new section in ‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’ called as ‘INTIMATE MUSINGS’ which brought forth a revolutionary idea, if when perceived by a sensitive mind, had the potential to spark self-contemplation.
The month of March saw the inter-collegiate poetry writing competition ‘WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW!’ being organized on the 5th of March in our college with more than 40 participants coming together to pen down their original verses for this event. This was a grand success both in its execution as well as the benefit that it reached out to the student community. The winners of the competition were awarded rich cash prizes as well as internship opportunities in a leading youth magazine ‘THE STUDENTS’. Concurrently, the ‘English Club’ organized a lecture by the renowned speaker and writer Dr. Vijaya Subbaraj who spoke on the topic ‘How to bring out the creative writing streak within us?’ The lecture was very well received by the audience who posed insightful queries to the speaker much to the delight of the speaker herself.
The 4th edition of ‘The Creative Corner’ was entirely dedicated to the varied range of poems written by the students in ‘WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW!’ Some of the best poems were published in this edition and in the 5th edition which too quickly followed in the tone set by its predecessor in March. This event was instrumental in providing a platform to budding poets and also showcased extensively the talent that lay dormant in our students. Moving away from the tradition yet again, the 6th edition celebrated the essence of the short story. Providing a platform to potential writers and a wider canvas to display their works on- has been a satisfying experience for me, as the Editor-In-Chief.
The 7th edition was taken up by the entries on the ‘Caption writing competition’ which explored the delicate relation between man and nature. Sharing space with it were essays that contemplated on the emergence of India as a sporting superpower and on the role of the media as a means to social revolution. Ultimately, bringing the curtains down on a year of creative pursuit, the 8th edition was published in April with an array of literary contributions.
In the pursuit of further widening the scope of ‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’ from just being a wall journal to that which actively promotes creative writing amongst the students, I came up with the idea to introduce ‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’ to a wider audience. Thus, the ONLINE EDITION of ‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’ came to be!
www.mescreativecorner.blogspot.com is now where the ONLINE EDITION is hosted with all the editions right from the 1
st to the 8
th edition, along with the publicity posters being archived for times to come. Also, to keep up with the changing times, students were given the option to email their contributions through the email address:
ilovecreativecorner@gmail.com
My tenure as the ‘Editor-In-Chief’ of ‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’ has been a very eventful one and has given me immense satisfaction. I am grateful to all my fellow-students for giving me this opportunity to be in constant touch with creativity and the pursuit of dreams through their varied contributions.
I thank all my fellow-members of The English Club and
‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’ for their insights and support. I will ever remain grateful to the faculty members of The Department of English for their reliable guidance and constant encouragement. I hope that ‘THE CREATIVE CORNER’ under the premises of The Department of English would only scale higher peaks in times to come and will continue to encourage an ever growing population of students to bring out their creative best!
PANKAJ A. DESAI
4TH SEMESTER, B.A. (P.J.O.E.)
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF,
THE CREATIVE CORNER
