Udaan and Us

Four seagulls stumbled upon a somewhat hidden, less-known island. Here, the laws of time seemed to have taken an extended vacation. Lured in by the promises of fun discussions, writing and editing articles, roasting people and, ofcourse, the ice creams, they never realised it was time to bid the place goodbye. Join us as we delve into the chronicles of these three seagulls (the fourth one was too lazy to write.)

Sathya : 

To me, Udaan is a safe space; it's a comfort place. Not just the magazine but the team too. Udaan is like where the cool kids hangout. From my very first year, when I first heard about udaan, I just knew I wanted to be a part of it and it has been one of the best decisions of my life. Udaan is a space where you can freely talk about anything, and have productive and proactive discussions on various topics in the most positive nurturing way ever. No matter what clubs I may have been a part of, Team Udaan never ceases to amaze me. With the most fun meetings ever, and the most exciting work ever, and of course the best treats and celebrations, Udaan is where you let your creativity take shape. I especially love how Udaan has always found a way to make the craziest of ideas work, and nurture talents on the way. Since its conception, Udaan has come a long way, and I am proud of what udaan has become and is constantly becoming. As a beacon of growth and innovation, Udaan is more than just a magazine or a team, it is the most homely part of college life to me. 

Krithi:

To me, Udaan has been a journey. It’s seen several stages in my college life and is one thing that I’ve stuck to since the beginning of college. Of course, it was introduced to me by one of the Udaan CEOs, Prabot, who was then also a newbie poet with the most random rhyme scheme. This poet initially recruited a writes when he’s in the feels poet, who happened to be my classmate and one of my close friends.  Seeing this, I then decided to join Udaan and approached Prabot with a “Hey, this might be awkward, but I write too!”  and then got an exclusive interview for 2 hours with a total of 5 minutes of relevant questions. The rest, I have no idea how time flew by. From 2 AM online sessions with the team brainstorming ideas, getting work done, not getting work done, and talking about the most random stuff to cute little ice cream Udaan hoodies, it has been a wild ride. We’ve expanded heavily along the way, and I’m sure our vision is different from the initial stages, and it will be different as time goes by. Despite hectic work schedules and the most random things life has thrown my way, I guess the one thing I have always chosen not to give up on is Udaan (Please don’t ask my friends how much I’ve ranted about it, though). Well, I know it’s a lot of work for a magazine that’s still a toddler, but I guess toddlers take the most work to maintain. I’m definitely proud that someday, looking back, I’m going to be among the first people to adopt this cute little Udaan baby (I’m gonna hope it doesn’t die, pls keep it going). Taking up the Chief Editor role in my final year, I’m trying to throw in a little of my sparkle around here and there so there’s something that I can keep coming back to. 

With such a wonderful team of people who can pull in last-minute work, stay up late, contact the most random people, and pester everyone for information just to help get out an article, I’m sure Udaan has the potential to reach great heights. To all the upcoming Chief Editors, yes it still requires that push, that oomph, that ugh, let’s just get this done with, but going back and seeing your articles out there is pure happiness. Keep it going, brainstorm new ideas, help it reach more places, and always encourage people to keep writing. To all the editors, the tech team, the art team, and whatever new teams come up, treat Udaan as your canvas. Sometimes, it gets hectic, and it might look like it’s a little too much to take in, but as long as you’ve got a good team and a picture, you can paint anything you want. Don’t limit yourself to the trends we’ve been following; make new ones, push boundaries, expand, and keep pushing out fun content for people to read! 

Lastly, for the readers and all those who’ve asked me, “Do people even read Udaan?” You’re the people. We write for you, we write about you, and we write to represent you. I know many of you are not used to reading heavily worded articles, but you can simply tell us what you’re looking for. I’m sure the team will love to include stuff that you want to read. Give us your feedback instead of treating it like another email that goes unread. It is a student newsletter, after all. We’ve received some very positive feedback from people who are usually interested in reading, but the goal is to reach a larger audience, it is to push the Harry Potter movie watchers to read at least one book. The goal is to make reading a friendly and approachable experience for people who are not exposed to it, and only you can help us with that. Okay, I’ll stop my Ted Talk now, Have fun guys, Signing out. xD

Sneha:

The first thing that comes to my mind is that Udaan is a team of major procrastinators. There are very few on the team who don’t fall under this bucket. But most of us push things to the last minute as much as we can. We thrive on the thrill of racing against deadlines, and miraculously, by God’s grace, we have four editions out annually, albeit with little delays here and there. And trust me when I say this: coordinating with such an erratic team is not an easy task. After a lot of learning and many failed attempts, I guess I can say we are faring a little better.

Udaan has been a home to me at IITT. Being here has been a wholesome experience - discussions, writing, editing, roasting, continuous learning, and, above all, pure enjoyment. These are all etched in my memory, and I am sure I will reminisce about them fondly. The first time I realised this would be somewhere I should be was after loading the 404 page. That was it. I knew this was something I had to be a part of.

It’s funny how we have been recruiting people to Udaan. Although we have tried a hundred times to go with the form-interview format, most of our team today is here because of that one informal ‘hey, do you wanna be part of Udaan?’ question someone or the other presented them with, Morpheus Style,  at the most random of times. The poor person on the other side is flanked by this prospect out of the blue and has no option but to say yes.

From someone who was sewing a button for the jacket, I eventually took over as one of the parents. It wasn't easy; it was always a race against time, work delegation, bullying/blackmailing and pestering people to contribute content for student experience articles. There were smiles and a lot of unshown tantrums. There were times I wanted to pull out my hair and shout at people; But there were also times where I wanted to hug everyone and say, thank you, we successfully made our little toddler take two more steps. Believe or not, this emotional rollercoaster has kept me sane. And it has been awesome working alongside Debeshee and Krithi.

The more I think about this, the more it feels like a eulogy. Please don’t let this be a eulogy; The toddler has a long way to go. I really wanna come back ten years later and be proud of all its achievements.

I am extremely grateful to Prabhat, Shreyansh, Noble, Debeshee, and Keerthana; the founding team who onboarded four eager, wide-eyed seagulls onto the team. And then Udaan grew; Krithi, Sathya, and Anant; it has been wonderful working with you all. All the discussions and brainstorming sessions with you all have been anything but boring. Preethi, Mohith, and Sachin, the next wave of recruits, some of whom had to be introduced to one of the seagulls over and over again. Mathew, Chaitali, Saurabh, Swathi, Sneha, and Keshav, the next wave, added a new dimension to the content on Udaan. With all of the OG Udaan team finally graduating, we had to get a Tech Team to replace our one Tech dude. Ganesh, Sirish, Siddartha, and Ansh were then on the team to help Sachin sort out the tech things. Another wave of recruits - Bineeth, Akhil, Tarun, Arvind, Neerav, and Sreenivason soon joined the team. And this is Team Udaan today. And it will keep on growing.

Then came the prospect of about half the team graduating, and we had to scout for new faces who would be interested in raising this toddler. There are a bunch of first-years, who could potentially do this, but this definitely needs a lot of learning from their end. And this, we leave to the next team. All the very best!! There is a lot of potential and you all have the potential to take this forward. We have all left a little of us and sculpted Udaan into what it is today. This perhaps was not what our predecessors had in mind, but here we are. And we leave this legacy to you to take it forward and mould it to what you see fit. Discover and embrace all that the new realms offer!! All the very, very best!
PS: Udaan isn't just a flight of fancy; it's like a Horcrux, containing bits of all of us! It's practically a living entity of its own. Neglect it, and it'll haunt you like a persistent poltergeist!

One person I cannot thank enough is my sister - Udaan's unofficial proofreader. Let me quote her: "Since you have adopted it, I am obligated to help you take care of it." You truly are not, but the whole team owes you one. Thank you for your support!

A big thanks to all the authors who contribute articles religiously to our editions; Udaan wouldn’t have been what it is today without all your love and support. We have come a long way from sending students reminder emails to submit their entries to actually pushing articles to the next and next editions, due to the overwhelming number of content we are receiving - both named and anonymous. And this all because of you.

And our dear readers, every click, every read, every share brings us joy. We write for us but also for you. All this appreciation keeps us motivated. We truly hope the reading experience has been fun.

Before I end, I want to quote everyone’s favourite wise old green dude: "Do or do not. There is no try." Well, we may have tried a lot, but hey, look where we are now! So, here's to many more adventures, mishaps and ofcourse more growth. May the procrastination be with us, always.

Adios! Seagulls Out!!