A week in the life of a 16-year-old student editor in India — Assembly

(Courtesy of Bhagyashree Prabhutendolkar)

Bhagyashree Prabhutendolkar takes us through a week in her life as she edits submissions for her student publication, Youth Magazine.

Monday, 14 December 2020

It’s morning and to my surprise, it’s drizzling in December! I wake up to the chilly winds and the ringing alarm and look forward to a productive Monday. With help from my mum, I cook some onion omelette with salad for breakfast and reply to Youth Magazine’s emails and DMs. Youth Magazine is a monthly publication aimed at empowering young people to advocate for education, environment, equality and international cooperation. We work to provide a platform for those whose voices aren’t usually heard and to all those who dare to dream. Youth Magazine has a team of 25 young people aged 13–22 from different parts of the world. We have published five issues since we launched in August 2020 and our reach spans 2,500+ readers from 16+ countries around the world. My mum helps with the graphic design of our magazine and also registers new submissions in our monthly registry for our upcoming issue.

After working on Youth Magazine, my mum tells me that she is going to cook one of my favourite desserts, gulab jamun, which is an Indian sweet consisting of a ball of deep-fried paneer boiled in a sugar syrup. Yay! I hug her with delight.

After freshening up a bit, I skim the news of the day, water the plants and begin my studies. Generally, I study with light instrumental music in the background. Currently, I am hooked to studying by Pomodoro Technique, which means breaking the activity into 25-minute blocks of time. In most parts of India, high schools are divided into two parts: Freshmen and sophomores are a part of secondary school (fifth–10th grades) and after the board/national examination in the 10th grade, students get admitted in junior colleges for their junior and senior year. This admission cycle takes 50–60 days max. However, this year in my state of Maharashtra, admissions were postponed by over five months due protests happening here. In admissions, the constitution allows the government to reserve certain seats in employment and education for historically disadvantaged castes or races, one of which is the Maratha caste. Marathas were given reservations of 12% and 13% in employment and education respectively under the SEBC Act 2018, which is currently being contested in court. This has delayed the admissions process in colleges. In addition to that, there are protests in favour of the reservations and due to this entire chaos, admissions have been halted till the courts make a final decision. This has impacted our mental health on a large scale. It felt horrible to not receive education at all because of political disputes as this, in the long term, affects the futures of students. From March 2020 (when my sophomore year ended) till now, education has been halted for all high school juniors in our state. Now, I am only hoping that it resumes soon, at least online, because it’s high time for the government to do so.

However, I have been keeping myself busy all the time — managing Youth Magazine, various extracurriculars and self-studying. I had already known which subjects I was going to take up in my junior year and I easily found free PDFs of the textbooks online. I try to read a little every day, practise some language and solve some math, too. In difficult times, you have to take matters into your own hands. I solve some math problems and have lunch accompanied by a television session of “Man Vs. Wild.”

In the evening, I assign some tasks to my magazine’s team members and post the writing prompts on social media, which include “All I want for Christmas is a ___,” “Describe winter in all five senses” and “A goodbye letter to this year.” I publish our latest blog post on the website after editing and proofreading it and sneak some gulab jamuns from the refrigerator every now and then.

Night arrives, and after finishing an essay for a competition and doing some more self-study, I go for a night stroll with mum and oh, it’s chilly outside! I regret not wearing a cardigan but perhaps, on the coldest day in the city, I just spread my arms and breathe in the fresh, cold air of the season (with a mask). The roads are still damp with the unusual December drizzle and the moonlit, foggy sky sparks a pleasing sense of serenity. How I wish we could light up a bonfire and have steaming bowls of noodle soup and grilled fish! No sooner have I expressed this to my mum than she delightfully reminds me that I have just had dinner. Oh, I am such a glutton!

We sanitise ourselves after returning home and I complete my favourite and the last chore of the day before tucking ourselves in the bed: (re)reading Harry Potter under the fairy lights on the comfortable couch! Yes, that’s exactly how I end my day — with magic and lights and a cool breeze. Accio blanket! Here I go to my imaginary four-poster bed!

Tuesday, 15 December 2020

I wake up slightly late and get down to checking and replying to emails directly before breakfast. I water the plants and gaze at the beauty of nature. I think that one must start the day among calm and peace rather than on your laptop or any other gadget.

For the next three hours, my mum and I do some cleaning and tidying of the house. We sort out some old wares and arrange the newer ones. Tired and exhausted, even the modest lunch seems heavenly. After a sumptuous meal, something special happens: I find the courage to defeat procrastination.

Since the last 10 days, I have been procrastinating my artwork that needs to be submitted for the Illustrators of the Future Contest by 30 December. The L. Ron Hubbard’s Illustrators of the Future Contest is an opportunity for new science fiction and fantasy artists around the world to submit their work to be judged by some of the masters in the field. I know where my procrastination came from: fear of not doing good enough. But perhaps, not doing good enough is better than not doing anything at all. So I get straight to painting, and not so surprisingly, I feel overjoyed as I pick up the brush and start merging the colours. I get that sense of peace and joy when I start painting — joy that can’t be found anywhere else. I realise that real joy is in the process, not the result.

Later that day, I study for some time and get some magazine-related work done. I assign tasks to team members, give out reminders about submissions and deadlines, compile the ready pieces in the magazine and so on. I then look forward to a good night’s sleep after a tiring yet enjoyable day.

Bhagyashree’s painting in progress. (Courtesy of Bhagyashree Prabhutendolkar)

Wednesday, 16 December 2020

Today I have to attend online classes in the morning — the government of Maharashtra has decided to conduct free online classes for students whose high schools haven’t started yet. So, for the next two to three hours, I am all pens and paper and notes.

Then, I check my college website to see if there is any update about the start of the school year, but to no avail, there’s no update yet. I divert my mind to other tasks and compile the received materials for the magazine, post new writing and art prompts, edit articles, review team applications and so on. Although these tasks seem overwhelming at times, things get a lot easier when you have a team of purpose-driven young people. As an editor, I look for pieces that spark originality and creative expression, something that can engage the reader and make him/her empathise with the content. Content should generally be concise, entertaining and meaningful in order to stand out.

After lunch, I get back to my artwork and the next two and a half hours seem heavenly! Evening passes by like a flash of lightning. I study for high school study as well as for competitive exams. Time passes very slowly, especially when you are studying, but some light Christmas jazz makes it a jolly time. I go for a night stroll with my mum after dinner and read some Harry Potter again before bed.

Thursday, 17 December 2020

Online classes again in the morning! I woke up at 8:30 a.m. because my very loud alarm woke me up. I was slightly sleepy when I was watching the online classes but my eyes stopped drooping after an hour or so. When the classes ended, I realised that I had a lot of magazine-related tasks to do. I had to release a blog post, create and share a Zoom meeting link for our design workshop tomorrow, send out reminders and assign tasks to one of our designers, Naurin Abubaker. The concept of the design workshop is to bring together our team of designers to demonstrate their best designs and help share new ideas, tips and tricks! However, I have to send final reminders to designers and re-check the assigned timings because we all hail from far, far flung time zones; we have team members from Canada, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, the U.S and more. Even my mum is participating in the workshop, because she works as a graphic designer at the magazine. I am very proud of the fact that we are a truly global team. I quickly complete all these tasks, by which time noon arrives and I make some lemon sherbet for me and my mum. We also do some light cleaning with the vacuum cleaner, which hardly takes 10 minutes.

The rest of the day, I do some painting, writing, studying — of course — and record my mum’s workshop on magazine page design and layouts for the next day’s design meeting. I enjoy some eggplant and potato crisps with mushroom soup at dinner which seem tastier because I am watching season nine of “MasterChef Australia” along with it. Oh, I am so in love with the programme! And, I forgot to mention, I also ordered 500 grams of cleaned shrimps — my favourite — online and am eagerly waiting for them to arrive tomorrow!

Friday, 18 December 2020

There aren’t any online classes today because my subjects aren’t listed on their timetable. I wake up by 9:30 a.m. and my shrimp order has already arrived! Oh, there are a lot of shrimps in the order! I help mum in marinating them and solve some maths in the morning, which takes me two hours.

There’s no magazine work today, except for the design workshop in the late evening, so I just do some painting and studying, again. As I turn on some Christmas music while reading, something gets into me and I start dancing in my mind. Oh, I simply love Christmas! For the next half an hour, I trouble my mum with countless questions about Christmas dinner, my Christmas gifts and Christmas decorations. Although Christmas isn’t widely celebrated in India, I do celebrate Christmas Eve by cutting cakes, having a sumptuous dinner, opening gifts, hanging fairy lights and singing Christmas carols. And a rum pudding never goes wrong! I am totally enthusiastic about celebrating all kinds of festivals, be it Ganesh Utsav or Christmas! These festivities just help create a sense of unity and positivity and help to keep away a monotonous life. Also, I love wearing Christmas caps.

After a nice afternoon nap, I do some self-study and have dinner early. I watch “Expedition Unknown with Josh Gates” on Discovery that shows a remarkable expedition about discovering aliens. They even show some huge skeletal remains which they presume to belong to aliens, and I get so hooked to it that I have to rush dinner because the design workshop is in 10 minutes.

Finally, the workshop commences at 9:00 p.m. IST and it’s a success! We learn a lot of new tips and tricks from each designer. We all make notes, share ideas and perform our demonstrations before wrapping up at 10:20 p.m.!

I skip “MasterChef Australia” (unwillingly) and choose a night stroll over television. As I reach home after the chilly walk, I directly jump to my comfy bed (snores).

Saturday, 19 December 2020

There aren’t any online classes today because it’s the weekend but I still have a lot to do. I compile the recorded workshop, edit it and save it to archives so that any new team members can watch it in the future. I send out final reminders for submissions as 20 December is the deadline for submitting to Issue V of Youth Magazine. And the not-so-surprising fact is that most submissions generally come in the last two days before the deadline only. I think this common habit comes out of procrastination, rather than lack of enough time. It’s just that you keep on procrastinating the task for some or the other reason for 15 days, and then only on the 16th day, when you realise that the deadline is nearing and that you have to do it at any cost, you rush and submit your work. This saves you from missing the deadline many times, but it comes with a lot of harmful stress and anxiety.

At noon, when mum expresses the urge for some craving, I jump with excitement and take my chance to plead, do some flattery and make a cute puppy face to order my favourite and longed-for crab lollipops. This delicious starter is made with boneless crab flesh and made into a lollipop by shaping the crab into ovals, marinating it with tasty spices and finally deep frying it with a crispy batter. Since the last ten months, I have been longing to eat it, partly because my Board Examinations (SSC) exams, which are held at the end of the sophomore year of high school to secure admission into junior college, were held in March and mum had put up a strict “no” to any outside food (is that even a word?) in the months of February and March because my parents felt that risking your health by consuming junk food is unwise during important times like this. I lasted these two months only with a ray of hope that after March, I would be able to fulfil all my cravings to the fullest after a year of sweat and tears. But alas! It’s a deceit! The pandemic comes in and takes away all our dear holiday plans. So, for the next nine months, as restaurants remain closed, my cravings stay imprisoned, away from me!

Bhagyashree with a tray of uncooked gulab jamun, an Indian sweet consisting of a ball of deep-fried paneer boiled in a sugar syrup. (Courtesy of Bhagyashree Prabhutendolkar)

However, luck favoured me today — mum finally agreed to order crab lollipops, and I literally danced and kissed her twice because food means everything to me (hyperbole intended!). Later that day, I do some self-study, solve 45 quadratic equation problems, paint and do the same tasks as every other day. I lazy up in my bed, reading Harry Potter with some Gryffindor common room ASMR music as I lay excited for a very exciting Sunday!

Sunday, 20 December 2020

First thing in the morning, I delightfully remind my parents that exactly one month is left until my birthday and they say that they know it already, of course (my birthday is on 20 January). Although I am not a birthday person myself, I am generally excited for the delicious birthday lunch, grateful for finishing my previous year’s goals and looking forward to the upcoming year. I am usually more excited for other people’s birthdays because I like making others happy, especially making their special days even more special.

So, I ask mum about the day’s menu and I kiss her once more because she says that she’s going to cook shrimp today! Yay! And there’s something more to today — something that I have been waiting for for months on end.

Today, my Yale Young Global Scholars’ (YYGS) early action results are going to be declared! YYGS is an academic enrichment programme for outstanding high school students from around the world. Each summer, students from over 130 countries (including all 50 U.S. states) participate in one interdisciplinary, two-week session at Yale’s historic campus. Being a YYGS has been a much-coveted dream for me. I have been working on my application for months — essays, recommendations, grades, transcripts and so much more. Although the summer programme generally happens in the majestic Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, this year the programme has been shifted online due to the pandemic. This news had saddened me and most other applicants initially, but then I remembered that at least I have the opportunity to attend (if selected) this amazing programme even in these difficult times. And our health should be the topmost priority over everything else, of course. Although the results will not be released until midnight, I am still very anxious. The acceptance rate is really low and the programme is truly, very competitive. Fingers crossed; I have given my best efforts.

I spend the rest of the Sunday being anxious and full of tasty shrimps, reading my favourite books and cosying up a bit. I also complete some magazine-related tasks like registering new submissions, forwarding edited articles to designers and more. I also do a lot of painting!

As night unfolds and midnight comes closer, anxiety rises to another level. I enjoy dinner, watch my favourite shows on television, read Harry Potter before bed and eagerly wait for my YYGS results.

(very early) Monday, 21 December 2021

Guess what, I am accepted to YYGS! Yay!!! After hours of anxiety, shivering, overthinking and long waiting, I finally embraced that moment when I closed my eyes and clutched my hands together for a silent prayer before clicking on “view result.” And guess what, my heart literally skipped a beat as I watched without blinking a “Yale yes” and happy confetti.

Oh my god, I feel so blessed to live my dreams each day!