Making of The ‘VIVELEON’
I published “VIVELEON” as a student in a military school in 1988. Today, I look back and cherish the real events and the real characters.
I surely had a nonconformist and atypical attitude in my school days. Was I thinking beyond my age or it was a typical teenage rebel mind? But being rebellious in a residential military school can only be in thoughts. It’s never easy to practice or demonstrate in any manner. Did I get somewhere? May be to some extent.
I was in my eleventh standard and was a house appointment. One among many and in a sought after position for sure. But, with that adolescent maturity and military school echelons, how much progress I could make? Moreover, you require appropriate company for your ideas to take shape.
PD was there to complement my thoughts as a friend and companion. Yes, he was more than a friend to me. Rather a brother with whom I never hesitated to share stupidest of my thoughts. Though PD was staying in a different house and was in different section, but we shared lot of our thoughts and beliefs — mostly during afternoons and post dinner times. There were many commons between us. However, our ideas on bringing changes to existing ways and questioning the questions were obvious of all. Besides, we both loved reading biographies and used to discuss the characters thread bear. I had just finished reading a book on Napoleon and very much impressed with his life story. Napoleon’s schooling in a military school at a young age, his subsequent training in a prestigious French military academy and rising through the cadre to rule France fascinated my young mind like nothing. As if I was living through his life story. More so, it was Napoleon’s short height of impressed me the most me being short myself. A Napoleon in making! I passed on the book to PD and got a copy of writings of Vivekananda. PD was a Vivekananda fan and I, without a doubt that of Napoleon.
In one of the post dinner session, PD mentioned me about a young boy getting troubled by his senior in my house and asked my intervention. It was an opportunity for me to not only to resolve the issue but also to limit the menace which was very much prevalent in all houses. This small incident however was a trigger for us to think something big. Why cannot we have representatives in all houses and from all segments to inform us about such incidents which were not noticed by school authorities? They can be comfortably eased out by the appointment holders like me. So, we discreetly identified some boys and made a team who would bring out various issues to our notice. This continued for couple of months and this group of six boys started meeting up regularly either in sports fields or in dinning hall courtyard. Beside informing about various unwanted issues we started discussing things from self development to motivating each other for any upcoming events.
With passage of time, the group became more organised, coherent and started demonstrating its aspirations in areas concerning their talents and intentions. PD and me were really very proud of ourselves as we not only commanded respect of these young boys but also had their complete allegiance towards us. We mentored them and tried to groom them as far as feasible. To formalise our group, we wanted to give it a unique name. We had a long session on ensuing Sunday with some ‘mixture and laddoo’ from school shopping complex ‘Mohanty shop’. The legendary ‘Mohanty shop’ was not owned by any body with Mohanty name but by a person named Nayak. He was a typical businessman who would not mind being addressed as Mr Mohanty in order to keep his shop running and to continue the legendary name of the shop. In middle of our discussions, I came up with this great idea of naming our group as ‘VIVE-LEON’. ‘Vive’ from Swami Vivekananda and ‘Leon’ from Napoleon. We all consensually agreed for this name. More research on this unique name revealed that ‘Vive’ in French means ‘long life’ or ‘long live’ and ‘Leon’ indicates to ‘lion’ or ‘brave’. Therefore, in our parlance, ‘Viveleon’ could be safely meant as ‘Long live the Braves’. ‘VIVELEON’ was born and we were henceforth the proud ‘Viveleons’.
During those informal meetings and discussions on self development and many other tit bits, we realised that, getting article published in the school magazine was a big concern for many creative minds. This was purely a subject of my interest as I was the Student Editor of our annual school magazine Bal Sainik. Mr BPC, our English teacher was the Chief Editor who was known for not only his writing skills but also for his unique virtuosity of knowing contents of a new book by smelling its pages. Somehow I managed this coveted portfolio through my consistent contribution to the school magazine over the years and providing my unopened English books to Mr Chakraborty in the class. But considering limitations on number of pages of the school magazine, it was not feasible to give space to all publication materials. We deliberated the issue in hand and somehow wanted contributions of the ingenious minds to get a deserving publicity. Why can’t we publish a magazine of our own? How do we go about it? Will this be possible in a military school where such freedoms are uncommon?
I sat with Mr BPC and collected all articles and anecdotes which were no longer required for publication. It was a great experience going through all those wonderful penmanship of young minds. Most of them were really good and few of them were worth the salt of credible writers. More over, we had a good sum of articles which would suffice for five to six magazines. I selected few of them and started writing down them in a notebook. Some personal anecdotes and interactive sections like quizzes and word puzzles were also got added to make it more interesting. My long time in school arts club came to help when I inserted some of my drawings to the notebook to make it more lively. In a months time we almost had a manuscript of the magazine in form of a notebook ready for publication.
How do we publish it? What are the ingredients required for a magazine? Articles, editor, designer and money to print. We had first three elements and wanted money and one more very important element i.e. permission from school to publish the magazine. Mr PKM, our young house master always had a soft corner for me because of my sober background and writing aspirations. He was always an inspiration to me for his helpful and warmhearted nature. I approached him with the magazine manuscript and requested him to get permission from the school authorities to have it published by us. Mr PKM inspite being a Physics teacher had a weakness for literary talents. He went through the notebook and made a small appreciation of the contents after going through it. I was expecting some kind of comments on the concept but was taken aback when he asked me some physics formulas. I left the magazine manuscript with him as per his wish and returned back to my room with a heavy heart. However, knowing his nature and his interest on my notebook, I was hoping that he could enable permission for us. A couple of weeks later we had the routine monthly interaction session by our headmaster with appointment holders and house masters. Our headmaster Major SKS was a stickler who always used to don a marooned beret to drive home the point that he was an elite Para Commando. However, with our limited military exposure we knew that he is from education cadre who did some mandatory para jumps entailing him the maroon beret. Mr PKM brought out the issue of publishing the magazine to him while he was narrating his bravado. Headmaster thought it to be a trivial and unfeasible thing and made a passing remarks that ‘if you can, you must’. I just smiled and didn’t discuss anything more on the subject considering his remarks as go ahead permission.
Now, the only thing which bothered us was arranging funds required for printing. Money was that the only thing at that point between we the Viveleons and Viveleon the magazine. How much one can save from forty rupees we used to get per moth as pocket money? Things were somewhat cheaper in those times. One could watch a movie for five rupees and have couple of ‘samosas’ and a cold drink at Swapnapuri restaurant for the same amount. The occasional visit of some pretty faces from the nearby college was free. A modest ‘Roti and Egg Tadka Dal’ dinner at Hotel Trishakti was around twelve and by adding another couple of rupees one could experience a Chinese outing at Shaolin restaurant. In spite of the presumed cheap cost of outing, we were almost like church mice by twentieth of the month.
Not withstanding all these, I had some additional sources of incomes other than the regular pocket money. My uncle who was my local guardian worked in state bureaucracy visited me often with loads of home made eatables. He somehow changed this practice to currency for convenience. His regular donation of fifty rupee currency and occasional hundred rupees in my pocket were real treasure for me. Another regular income was from my maternal uncle who would send two hundred rupees every year on an auspicious day of the year when I was supposed to wear new clothes being the eldest child as per the local tradition. Besides these, my father would give some additional sum other than the travel fare while coming back from leave as a parting gesture. Being from a modest background, I understood value of these sporadic affluences and saved them in the school bank behind the old stable. Those incidental incomes amounted to an astounding fourteen hundred rupees as my bank balance. PD could manage six hundred and the other six members of our group could generate another thirteen hundred for the purpose. We were ready to go full ahead with three thousand thee hundred rupees as corpus in hand for publishing our magazine. Was it enough? Certainly not.
Being part of the school editorial team, I knew a printer who printed our school magazine and we realised that the charges of that printing press were much beyond our means. However, one of the type cast setter gave us address of a printing press where he worked in past. It was little difficult to find out Jagannath Printing press as the press was located in one of the by-lanes near busy Master Canteen area. The press was operating from a dull room with just three workers. The owner of the press was a man in his fifties who looked very amicable behind his thick pair of spectacles. PD was at his wits best. Instantly a relationship of uncle and nephew was established and he agreed to print our magazine at half the regular price. However, only after spending few more hours we understood nuance of printing and costing. We wanted all our students and teachers to have one copy of our magazine which was amounting to six hundred copies. PD somehow persuaded the owner to agree for six thousand rupees with a caveat of fifty percent as advance and balance during the time of delivery. To some extent the concern was under control as we had the finance to begin the process.
We reviewed our manuscript and started designing the front cover of our magazine. I could make some design but approached our art teacher Mr SKG for some inspiration. Voila! the cover page was designed in a day. A lions face in front of crossed pair of swords with name ‘VIVELEON’ written on the top. All our printing materials were ready within a week and we handed over them to the printing press with a promise to complete the work within a month. Our target date was 5 September, the Teachers day.
We started working on our plan on advertising the magazine and generating some funds. With limited amount to spend on advertisement, we bought some cheap delicate coloured papers which were generally crafted to flowery designs and used for decorating puja pandals. These papers were cut to rectangular shapes stamped with our uniquely designed rubber stamp with our magazines name on it. In a weeks time, every person in school campus knew about Viveleon.
There were no headways in arranging finance for the event and we were getting desperate. We couldn’t ask our parents and helps from any other source were not in the horizon. Then came this school event where old boys visited the school for a day and participated in numerous social functions. As part of the celebration, a fete was organised and students were also involved in making various arrangements. We didn’t want this opportunity to go waste. A lucky draw was immediately organised and with help of some motivated volunteers and random advertisements, we could sell some good number of coupons. To top it up, we had a meticulous plan in hand to manoeuvre few draws in favour of some boys who would donate the amount to our corpus. The draw was scheduled in my house ante room with lot of fanfare added couple of thousands to our kitty.
We planned inauguration of the magazine on fourth of September, a day before Teachers day being a Sunday. Two events were planned for the inaugural ceremony — release of the magazine over a small tea function followed by a musical evening by our in-house talents. Various activities associated with our plan were drawn out and all members of our team were on the tasks in full zest. A generous parent promised us with some lighting arrangement and few musical instruments from his orchestra company. A pool of hidden talents were traced from various houses through our grass root members and practice for ‘Viveleon Nite’ was went on in full swing. Things were appearing to be under control and we all were eagerly working and waiting for the moment.
It was Saturday, a day prior to inauguration. We obtained some special out-passes from school and managed a bicycle from our mess waiter. PD with two of our boys went to the printing press in the afternoon to collect the magazines as he was had to convince his ‘uncle’ for a lesser sum. I was busy looking at various arrangements on site. By around six o’clock in the evening, PD came back huffing and dropped the bombshell. Magazines were not ready and even the cover page design block has not reached the press from the subcontractor. We had visited the press previous week and handed over the final draft after proof reading. The cover page design was sent a couple of weeks earlier to the sub contractor for making the printing block. It was not possible for us to follow up the progress on a daily basis considering our limitations in movements outside the school campus and inaccessibility to phones. We were like deadpans and didn’t know how to deal with the situation. Minds were running blank and outside was getting darker.
We needed to do something and do immediately. We mustered our wits and made some immediate plans. Two more hefty boys were mustered and we all dressed up in jeans and loose shirts. Under the shirt I carried a nunchaku, PD carried a broken bat and other two carried a hockey stick each. We managed one more bicycle from mess and reached the press by around nine o’clock. We pleaded the owner for starting the printing job and after long coaxing and mild threatening he agreed to prepare at least hundred copies. We took address of the person who had to give the cover page block and started looking for him. The person lived somewhere in the outskirt of the town. We could reach his locality almost an hour later only to find his house locked.
Problem appeared to be far from over. Anxiety was replacing our teenage josh and anger was overtaking our hope. It was closer to midnight and the place was almost deserted. From the neighbour we came to know that he has gone for a marriage locally and likely to come back in couple of hours. We could do nothing but wait sitting on culverts of a small bridge. So many things were running in the mind except any definite solution to the situation in hand. Everything else were in place. Invitation cards have been distributed to all teachers and Principal would be releasing the magazine as chief guest. ‘Mohanty shop’ had been given a special order to provide snacks and arrangement had ben made for some special cutlets from a local favourite. All preparation towards lighting, decoration, stage setup and practice for the evening musical function were ready. Every student and teachers of the school were going to attend. But, here in the bereft outskirt of the town, at middle of the night we were stuck up for the primary element for which all these paraphernalia activities were to happen.
Our thoughts were interrupted with sound of a scooter and we all rushed to his house. Before he could close the door from inside, we were right in front of him wielding our weapons. The man was totally taken aback. As luck would have it, the man appeared to be a timid person and agreed to give the block by next day afternoon as it would take around three hours to prepare. However, our requirement was immediate. We had to push him a little to start the work immediately and barged into his processing room. It was a tedious process where a photo of the design is first taken and projected on a chemical coated zinc plate of appropriate size. The plate needed to be dipped and washed repeatedly in number of chemical solutions till the impression of the design got etched on it. The activity took more than two hours and after collecting the block from him we rushed back to the printing press and woke up the workers who were sleeping outside in open. PD along with a boy stayed back for the night there so that he could get the magazine some time before noon and pick up the special cutlets with minimum detour. By the time I reached school, it the eastern sky had started appearing pink.
It was Sunday. Final preparation for the evening function was on. I went to the school auditorium to have a look at the arrangements and met the entertainment team. All were in place. We had a pretty grass lawn amidst our house garden and the inaugural function was scheduled there. Amongst all hustles and bustles, my eyes were impatiently looking for PD’s arrival. The inaugural time was fast approaching and mind was continuously feeding negative thoughts. But my confidence on PD’s capability kept my patients in place.
PD came with two hundred copies of the magazine and the cutlet packet just an hour before time. Mr PKM was not able to believe his eyes and expectations, and was certainly a very proud man receiving all guests including the headmaster and principal. Between the chattering, eating and few words of encouragement, the Viveleon, our child of labour and aspirations was released.
Our sponsoring parent gave us generous support with his lights and music hardwares. He was very eager as his both sons were performing on the stage. The leading road and the school auditorium was decorated with lights like never before. For the first time in the school, talents from entire school were performing on one stage unlike inter-house competitions. Additional musical instruments and sound systems added that extra sparkle to the programmes. The dance and songs of AKR brothers and DKR were the show stealers. The encouraging applauds in the auditorium and animated chatters and laughters of the students while returning were affirming signs of the show which many would have remembered for a long time.
We made a mark in history of the school. Viveleon gave us a second life. It was the most memorable milestone in each of our lives. Our self confidence and self belief reached new levels. Our acceptance among friends and schoolmates was friendlier like never before. Performance in academics as well as extracurricular activities was overwhelming. We stood up shining to the expectations of our teachers and parents. We just rocked. And it was one event in my life that I will remember beyond my living.
