(Continued from last post)
5.3.4 The Launching of the Inaugural Issue: Eventually, the stage for inaugurating the first issue of ‘The Construction Tribune’ came. A humble inaugural ceremony was organized. The small gathering of this ceremony included mostly the persons from the press media based in Jorhat during those days. The special invitee for the occasion was Mr. Trailokya Sarma, a journalist highly respected in the north-east region those days.
The first issue of the construction tribune was inaugurated on 10. 09. 2082. The snipping shot of the top portion of the first page of this issue (marked as Vol. A1) appears in Image 5.4.
The extremely valuable words expressed by respected Sarma while inaugurating the first issue are still remembered and valued at my end. He highly appreciated this venture. However, he clearly dealt with the extent of risks and complexities involved in traversing the path of this journey. In fact, his words strengthened my conviction of pursuing the editorial policy based on absolutely constructive activities within the limits as dictated by the set objectives.
The logo of this news-record could not be arranged for the inaugural issue, since at that stage, the task of designing an appropriate one was given to one of my favourite students of Jorhat Engineering College. It was incorporated at a later stage.
The primary task taken in hand immediately after the launching of the first issue was directed towards the distribution and marketing of the publication. The team taking actions towards this end comprised myself and the two young men newly appointed (as already mentioned). The targeted readers included initially the community of engineers including the family of my ex-students working in responsible positions elsewhere (including many government departments) and others associated with me in technical institutes and research organisations. The response was so encouraging as to provide me with the required strength and determination to continue the tempo of publishing the subsequent issues on a regular basis, though, at times there were slippages over the strict maintenance of fortnightly duration, reasons being primarily attributable to factors such as Issues relating to circulation and financial requirements,arranging appropriate contents and tender notifications and limitations of my own time for playing the editorial role appropriately. These factors are dealt with in a greater detail under the next subhead (5.4).
After the publication of a few more subsequent-issues, the logo was designed by Er. Shyamal Bordoloi, who was my student in JEC. He was then working in Assam PWD as an Assistant Engineer. The log so designed started appearing in the subsequent issues as shown in Image 5.5
I am still grateful to Er. Shyamal Bordoloi (looking presently as in Image 5.6), who has been well known to people in general for his artistic talents and to me in particular as a talented engineer and as one of my beloved ex-students from Jorhat Engineering College, Assam.
5.4 The Challenges dealt with (Figure 5.1)
Many challenges (as mentioned in the preceding subhead) were faced after the publication of the inaugural issue. A brief discussion on the salient ones is presented below.
(a) Issues relating to circulation and financial requirements: The development of circulation network was the first hurdle faced. The targeted readers were distributed in small numbers over different parts of the north eastern region. How to reach them was, indeed a task involving time and expenditure. Our approach was based on the distribution–efforts being focussed on ‘near-to-far’ movement of the members of our team. The team members followed the approach of ‘distributing a complimentary copy of the publication to be followed by an appeal for an annual subscription’. The priority in this approach was deliberately given to the community primarily comprising the engineers and organisations closely known to me professionally or otherwise. In addition to my two employees, I myself started moving for this purpose during my convenient time. Along with this approach of personal movement, the contact with prospective readers was made through letters (via postal service). The response of readers to become regular subscriber to the news-record started flowing in at a slow but encouraging rate. I, even today gratefully remember very well the help and support extended to our drive for collecting regular subscribers by the community of engineers including my ex-students. We had to continue this drive for enlisting subscribers for a long time, while going on publishing the news-record fortnightly as per our editorial policy.
As time passed by, the number of published issues kept on increasing. Simultaneously, the financial strains in meeting the expenditure required for sustaining its publication at regular fortnightly intervals started developing because of the fact that the income generated only by the steady inflow of subscriptions did not suffice the expenditure involved in the whole process. The income from other sources such as tender notifications, advertisements etc. was not available for quite a good number of published issues. Consequently, after the publication of a few issues, I started facing financial crisis. However, I did not lose hope of recovery to a sustainable position. At that stage, I fully realised that the only way left for me was to approach organisations/individuals for assistance in respect of tender notifications for the news-record, since, by then it (the Construction Tribune) came to be known to an appreciable section of people involved in the construction industry of Assam in particular and north east region in general.
(b) Efforts directed towards the arranging of tender notifications and contents for the subsequent issues: I myself, in the capacity of the Editor of the publication started approaching different key-persons of organisations for both the tender notifications and contents (technical news, articles etc.) for the subsequent issues. I met a number of top-ranking officials of different organisations. I cannot but still remember a few of them, who walked an extra mile to help me against the fact that the Construction Tribune was till then not registered with RNI. Those persons, in fact helped me immensely in having eventually a firm footing of this fortnightly news-record within the first two/three years of its (CT’s) age. I gratefully remember a few of them today, while recapitulating the journey of this technical publication.
Er. Tosheswar Sarma: (then Superintending Engineer, Jorhat Circle, Assam PWD (Roads)):
I met Er. Sarma (appearing in Image 5.7) in his office and explained the then-situation of the publication. I earnestly appealed for his help in respect of tender notifications and other technical matters. He was known to the community of civil engineers as a very competent and knowledgeable engineer in his domain of construction activities. I was assured of all possible help from his end.
After a few days, he started sending some tender notifications for publication in our news-record. Apart from the tender notifications, he started writing technical articles (to be briefly dealt with under the subhead 5.5). These contributions from Mr. Sarma did add immense flavour to the subsequent issues of my news-record apart from giving a little relief to the financial crisis faced then.
Er. Prafulla Hazarika (the then-Superintending Engineer of Brahmaputra Board):
The next important person I met during my special drive taken for the promotion of this news-record was Er. Prafulla Hazarika(appearing in Image 5.8), a close friend of mine since my school days. He was then engaged as Superintending Engineer of the Investigation Project of Subansiri Multipurpose Dam at Gerukamukh of Lakhimpur district, Assam. As usual, he was glad to help me in this challenging venture as well. He helped me in all the three areas namely providing tender notifications, collecting subscribers and providing technical information in details about the said project for publication in this news record (to be discussed briefly under subhead 5.5).
Mr. Hazarika has been all-along a ‘friend-in-need’ for me during my journey through life since my school days. I still remember his words spoken on a day of 1985 during my illness (undergoing treatment in a hospital). Those words were—‘Barua, we cannot afford to lose you now, you will be perfectly o.k. to carry on with your good works through the Construction Tribune. We are still in touch with each other.
Mr. Krishna Kant (the then-General Manager of ONGC, Eastern Region, Nazira, Sivasagar, Assam):
I met him on a working day for an interview with him on issues such as ‘Flow Improvers, Welfare Schemes etc.’ as the Editor of the Construction Tribune (Editor’s Interview being the one published in its Vol. A8). At the end of the formal discussion on the points of subject of the Interview, I apprised him of difficulties then faced in my efforts to continue with the regular publication of my news-record. He was so kind as to appreciate my difficulties and straightway assured me to extend his feasible help in respect of technical mattersand tender notifications for publication in my news-record. Mr. Kant (appearing in Image 5.9) sincerely lived up to his assurances.
Till the day on which I met Mr. Kant, the Construction Tribune was not duly registered with RNI, Delhi, though all formalities including the final application for the final registration were completed by then. This specific point was clearly stated to him (Mr. Kant). After a month or so, I started getting many technical matters including articles from the technical officials of ONGC (to be briefly dealt with under subhead 5.5). In addition, the tender notifications too started coming regularly from ONGC for publication in this news-record. The kind of contribution received from ONGC on account of the initiatives taken by Mr. Kant was, in fact one of the major factors leading to the continuation of this news-record. Even today, I am grateful to Mr. Kant for his contribution to this publication.
On account of the efforts made as stated above, the crisis encountered during the initial period of 2/3 years came to an end and the Construction Tribune followed the path of growth in all respects. In the meantime, RNI registration was also achieved.
There were, in fact many more dignitaries coming forward to my help in variable measures. I apologise to them for failing to mention all of them like the ones stated above.
(c) Growth Process up to the Sustainable Position: The situation of financial position started improving gradually with the improving position of subscribers on one hand and on the other, with the regular inflow of tender notifications from organisations including the ones from ONGC, Assam PWD etc. This improved position provided a scope for enhancing the infrastructural facilities of CT’s establishment. The major step taken in this direction included the establishment of CT’s own printing press (letter press of the conventional type—not the offset printing one). The press had an absolutely modest beginning with the minimum facility of composing just two pages of the Construction Tribune. After the printing of the two pages so composed, the next two pages used to be composed and printed. This process was continued till all the pages of a particular issue of CT were complete. The other beneficial aspect was the fact that the new letter-press was set up in an Assam-type building (having a built-up area of only 750 sqm.) constructed hurriedly in our own existing plot of land (lying vacant till then) purchased only a few years back. The expenditure incurred on this account was met from the income generated through the publication of CT by then. This infrastructure, so created straightway led to the saving of the printing cost paid to other presses prior to its development. I kept on developing the press till the reaching of the stage of arranging all the necessary accessories, as required for composing all the pages of CT at a time. The required manpower was also accordingly developed.
Being substantially relieved from the strains of financial hardship faced during the initial few years, the efforts were directed towards the improvement of the qualities of the contents of this news-record on one hand and on the further improvement of other infrastructure such as the further improvement of the printing press on one hand and on the other, the initiating of the development of my own office and residence in the plot of land housing the printing press so developed. In the meantime, the printing press too got registered with the industry department of Govt. of Assam, thereby fulfilling the mandatory requirement of running a printing press. While trying to recapitulate the different activities of those days now by turning
over the pages of different published issues of the Construction Tribune (still preserved through a few bound volumes), my eyes have been caught by an advertisement of my press, that has been reproduced herein through Image 5.10.
The printing press so developed eventually exceeded its production capacity substantially as compared to the one as required for printing the Construction Tribune alone. Therefore, it opened up an opportunity of additional earning through the execution of printing jobs from outside sources. It was truly in this context that the advertisement of Image 5.10 yielded the expected results. On a regular basis, the printing assignments started coming to this press. The assignments executed included varieties of printing works such as question papers, voter lists during election time, magazine from various organisations, printing of different forms from government departments etc. Consequently, the press proved itself to be a very strong source of income-generation for me. This situation of income-generation in addition to those of our official ones encouraged me to immediately take up the construction of my residence and office in the same plot of land that housed this printing press. All these happenings eventually enabled me to quite my job with TES in 1987 to start my own consultancy company for providing consultancy services to the construction industry, thereby converting my long-cherished dream of becoming a consultant into a reality.
After 1987, I started to devote full time to my consultancy works and to the Construction Tribune. However, I had to suspend the publication of this news-record by the end of 1995 primarily for two reasons, as briefly discussed below.
(a). First Reason: By 1995, the time for ordinary printing (with a letter press) came almost to an end. I myself started feeling the inferior quality of printing of my news-record. I had to choose one of the two options left to me at that stage. The first one was to develop an offset-printing set-up and the second one was to suspend the publication of the Construction for a certain period.
(b) Second Reason: During the period of 1990s, my consultancy company (floated in 1988) started growing—many good projects started coming to me. This growth demanded more of my time. As a result, my time sparable to the Construction Tribune got extremely limited. Naturally, I landed in a situation under which I had to make a choice in favour of one only between these two growing ventures I gave birth to.
Eventually, by the end of 1995, I made the decision of suspending the publication of the Construction Tribune with a hope (at that stage) of resuming it at a latter part of my life. However, that hope did not come true. Even then, I still carry on my love and gratitude to all those of the contributors (readers and other participants in providing technical contents) of the Construction Tribune. I loved this news-record so much as to preserve the published issues in a number of bound volumes. While writing this chapter, I have decided to go through these volumes to write a summary of its contributions to the developmental scenario of this region in general, as chosen (Figure 5.1) under the next subhead (5.5).
5.5 The Contribution of C.T. (Figure 5.1): (To be continued in the next Post of this blog).
References:
Old Issues of the Construction Tribune, as referred to in the text.