Blog entry!

Blogging is still a fairly new activity for me. As long as I don’t write I am happy person but when I read what others have to say I start thinking I also need to add my bit.

You have already read Sariga’s post on ‘Reflections’. I am going add a little more, NO, quiet a bit more on the same. It was a two day orientation programme, well attended by the entire team. The main contributors were Vivek Govil, Alok Rai Chaudhary, our esteemed ELT Author Vijaya Subramaniam,G Balasubramaniam, Finance expert Sanjeev, Sumita and Sharmilee, Angshuman, Dr Prahlad, Naveen, Sudipta and last but the important cog in the editorial wheel Rohit.

I would like to begin from the last that is the comment sent by Rema (Chennai team member).

‘Reflections' for me was more than just an orientation to editing. It was a chance to attach faces to astral voices and to realise that I was part of such a vibrant and vivacious team. I no longer feel like the significant 'other'!

And take you back to the inaugural session. There was a party after the orientation programme which was absolutely A-class. 482 FIE terrace was the venue and in winters evening with lights and Angithis on, the perfect place to be in after two day of sitting down. The food, drinks (both hard and soft) were aplenty. Kundan kept everybody in splits with his stand up acts and few of us even have nicknames like Dahi Mata (Shobhna), Non veg baba (Rohit), ELT baba (Dr Prahlad), Aloo baba (Ashish) and few more names. The party went on till late in the night.

The session before this was with Rohit in which he gave us few tips of yore for good solid type of editing. To quote him, ‘Try reading the Manuscript backwards for punctuation errors’, ‘ Look for one type of mistakes at a time’, ‘Circle all commas and then read the script to see if they are needed at all’ to name a few precious gems from his collection. Brain storming prior to this was literally brains being stormed for a unanimous and a comprehensive style of editing which school editorial should follow. Sudipta lead the entire team, minutes were taken care of by Soumitri and Diyasree to formulate a comprehensive style sheet.

Naveen’s session was short and sweet. He talked about what a great team we were. The friction between the marketing and editorial is healthy. He asked about experiences of the editors in their travels to different cities. But the most important thing was we are doing great but we can do greater. I mean as always we should give our work the best we can.

Lunch break, Hema took care that we were all well fed. Inspite of protests that there’s too much of food, I don’t think any one of us actually skimmed on the food.

Dr Prahlad’s session, one has to attend it to believe what all of us had to say subsequent to the session and post the orientation programme. He is MA, PGDTE, MLitt, PhD. His talk was like floating on a calm river. One wants to go back to classroom learning after listening to him. He theoretically held us by the hand and helped us wade through the deep end of editing step by step. I had written to him asking for his comment on the Orientation programme. He responded, ‘Well-organized, taken seriously by the participants, atmosphere very professional! I found the total ambience very inspiring. Very happy to have been associated with the event.’

Day 1, Angshuman, the guy to look out for where TMS is concerned and making of PNLs. Sometimes seeing him in action makes one think, hats off to him. He is so very patient with everyone about PNLs and TMS doubts. He never gets agitated answering colleagues. Everytime there’s a session, he goes through it like packing sand grains in a plastic, sorry paper bag (environmentally conscious). When the session is in swing, it feels we know PNLs and TMS like the back of our hands but when put into execution, there are hurdles which only Angshuman can help in crossing. Thanks Angshuman.

Sumita and Sharmilee, the Rights Department - Technically speaking it’s a very appropriate name because they assign ISBN codes to the projects which give the projects identity. The Rights department does let not any Wrong thing happen. Copyright issues, royalty payments to Authors and Adaptation rights, all make our lives so much easier.

Sanjeev, ah! the number guy in the office. Money which we feel is an extremely precious commodity, he makes sure it’s their in our salary accounts by a certain date. On a serious note, he talked to us about the scary big global meltdown happening in the rest of the world whereas we were still untouched by it. The reason being we are working for a fantastic organisation which is taking care of its employees.

Mr G Balasubramaniam, referred to as Bala Sir by most people in the office. He shared with us, from his unfathomable bank of wisdom, about teaching psychology. The contribution of the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere of our brains in our respective fields. As always a very informative session.

Vijaya Subramaniam, Vice Principal, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, looks are deceptive where Mrs Subramaniam is concerned. She comes across as a quiet and reserved person but she is a strong and a knowledgeable speaker. She talked about relationship between teachers, students, publishers and books. Her session gave us food for thought that we need to be more conscientious about what goes into the books.

Alok Rai Chaudhary, everyone who has been in the publishing industry for even less than three years would have heard of him. He is heading DC books at present. He was Publishing Manager, School Division, Oxford University Press for better part of his career. He spoke casually but very eloquently. There was a feeling of camaraderie in his conversation. He talked about his experiences in publishing industry. He is still on a look out for a good Author. He has come across only three, no make that four really good ones. People you can actually write home about.

Coming to an end, the session was inaugurated by Vivek Govil, CEO, Pearson Education. If we talk about change, modernisaton, comfort and a sense of security in the office, who better than him to wear the laurels of praise. The economic meltdown and how it is affecting the rest of the world was brought home to us by him. He said, ‘We are still untouched by it. But not to take it for granted. Our shares are also good. But we should be prepared for surprises in the coming year. We have done good but we need to do better.’

To conclude the blog writing, the post is a bit delayed but nevertheless it’s there.

Manisha