The Pilot

Hey there, reader.

They gave us access to the TSG blogs.
Big mistake? We’ll find out soon.

Yes, it's that time of the year again, the intro blog of Editors has arrived. Freshly written, mildly self-aware, and just chaotic enough to hopefully make you keep reading. You can take it as a soft launch of our personalities.

Instead of introducing ourselves like normal people, here are our diaries accidentally left open. Two editors, writing in parallel, sometimes harmonizing, sometimes arguing, but always keeping it interesting.

Tuhina’s Diary, Day 1
Apparently, we’re supposed to write an “intro blog.” The problem is, no one ever tells you what an intro is supposed to achieve, a résumé in disguise? A personality quiz? A subtle flex? Well, let’s see.

So, Hi, I’m Tuhina Rai, a third-year undergrad studying Exploration Geophysics, a field that involves a lot of digging, both literally and otherwise, also occasionally confuses my relatives, but somehow fits my obsession with looking beneath the surface of things. I love to write satire because I like to say serious things without sounding too serious. It’s how I cope with the absurdity of everyday life (and the syllabus of course). When I’m not dealing with geophysical data or procrastinating on assignments, I’m reading books with morally questionable characters, overthinking my music taste, or curating playlists that feel like emotional damage in 12 tracks or less. A fun fact about me before I overshare more: in high school, I picked up air pistol shooting, and to my surprise, I was pretty good at it. So, I hope you now know who not to pick a fight with. (Not a threat. Just a fun fact. Mostly.)

Luckily, I’m not in this alone. Adway, my co-editor, brings calm to my chaos and a voice that can carry both music and meaning. And now I wonder if Adway’s diary sounds as composed as he does in person.

Adway’s Diary, Day 1
Note to self: keep Tuhina from turning this into satire-only territory. Also, do not hum in meetings.

Well, now it’s me, Adway Jha, and while I debate whether it is cooler to have a grounded persona in your own diary, I have a thing for stories and can draw one out of anyone, whether it’s over a cup of chai or in the middle of a random corridor conversation. You will often find me with a tune, humming so softly you won't even notice, and other times loud enough for the entire Gymkhana badminton court to know, “Yup, those are Adway’s songs.” There's something about the "raw emotion in ghazals and the rule-bending rules of experimental rock" that mirrors what I seek in the words I listen to. Apart from music, my affinity for my Architecture lab courses is so deep that even when there’s no submission due for weeks, you'll see it in my eyes. As much as I grumble about them, I am also the kind of person who can get genuinely excited by a well-curated museum or a theory lecture on the Renaissance.

Well, I just hope Tuhina doesn’t trick me into making this entry a part of the blog. After all, this was supposed to be my diary. In case you come across this somewhere, you’ll know Tuhina won.

(Yes, I did trick him. No regrets.)

Now that you’ve survived our diaries, here’s the part where we stop talking about ourselves and start talking as ourselves.

Instead of listing down our roles in a paragraph you might skim through, let’s walk you through the places where you might run into us. You’ll bump into us on the TSG blog, making sure campus conversations don’t fade away. Flip through Illumination or the Annual Gymkhana Magazine, and you’ll see our fingerprints all over the pages (don’t worry, metaphorically). Somewhere between committee meetings and Constitution clauses, we’re also the ones bridging conversations between students and the Institute. And yes, every once in a while, a survey will find its way to you and that’s us too, asking the questions so your voice makes it into the bigger picture. Oh, and about the mess (yes we are also part of the Food and Mess Management Committees): yes, we hear your complaints, and no, we don’t run the mess. Talking of committees, let us mention some others we’re a part of: the Journal Subcommittee and the Institute Newsletter Committee. Well, now that we hear you complaining about being bored with reading through our responsibilities, give us a moment to think about how we could end this blog.

(We’re blank, let’s just go ahead)

By the time this year comes to a close, we hope to have added something meaningful to the legacy of this role, blogs that feel alive, magazines that capture not just events but emotions, and conversations that don’t vanish into thin air. Sure, along the way we’ll still be the people who send out announcements, wrangle with surveys, and juggle way too many drafts. But what we’re really aiming for is a campus where creativity sits alongside academics, where stories don’t get lost in drafts, and where expression feels like a part of everyday life. That’s the version of editorship we’re chasing. And we hope, by the end of this year, it feels like something we’ve built together.

And with that in mind, here we are, armed with words, slightly overambitious plans, and just enough caffeine to make it through. This was just our awkward hello, the first of many conversations we hope to have with you this year.

Stay tuned with us.
Tuhina and Adway
Editors, Technology Students’ Gymkhana