How many of you remember the magazine TARGET- a favourite during our MCC days? Most of us subscribed to it and the magazines arrived by post to the classrooms. I remember the excitement at the sight of the usually colourful coverpage. Many of us would sneak it inside the textbooks to check the latest with Detective Moochwala! Although there were other popular Indian publications like Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha (most of which I borrowed from Arthy – do you still have those neat bound ones ?i loved them!) I think what set TARGET apart from the rest was that it provided wholesome reading—there were stories, comic strips, poetry contests and had a truly Indian flavor about it.And yeah, they did have some of the big names writing and illustrating for them (Manjula Padmanabhan,Ruskin Bond and so on).
Sad to say Target had a premature death (despite being a less celebrated sibling of India Today from the same publishing house)in the Indian print world although I wonder why it should have vanished when a lot of mediocre children's magazines have survived. I understand that the publications was aiming at a much larger crowd and hence decided to do away with Target. Pity! It might be a preposterous suggestion though to resurrect Target in this MTV age !! I happened to remember ‘Target’ recently when I was helping out some students in making an online magazine. I couldn’t show them a copy although I might find some back issues (if I’m lucky!)when I go home and rummage through old bookshelves.
I googled though and came across this wikipedia entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_%28magazine%29
I would also like to mention that Jyoti Nair (class of 88) won a prize in a poetry contest conducted by Target and it was also published in Target. Remarkable indeed and I remember Sr.Patricia inviting her to read it at a morning assembly. Was inspiring for us although I could never come up with anything remotely “poetic” (despite best efforts!)during my school days!!
sabina
Sad to say Target had a premature death (despite being a less celebrated sibling of India Today from the same publishing house)in the Indian print world although I wonder why it should have vanished when a lot of mediocre children's magazines have survived. I understand that the publications was aiming at a much larger crowd and hence decided to do away with Target. Pity! It might be a preposterous suggestion though to resurrect Target in this MTV age !! I happened to remember ‘Target’ recently when I was helping out some students in making an online magazine. I couldn’t show them a copy although I might find some back issues (if I’m lucky!)when I go home and rummage through old bookshelves.
I googled though and came across this wikipedia entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_%28magazine%29
I would also like to mention that Jyoti Nair (class of 88) won a prize in a poetry contest conducted by Target and it was also published in Target. Remarkable indeed and I remember Sr.Patricia inviting her to read it at a morning assembly. Was inspiring for us although I could never come up with anything remotely “poetic” (despite best efforts!)during my school days!!
sabina
3 comments:
Target was a popular Indian children's magazine that was published monthly in English from 1980 to 1995.Rosalind Wilson (1942-1992), a British expatriate educationist settled in Bombay was its Founder-Editor. Target was owned by Living Media India, who also own the India Today Group. After Rosalind Wilson's death in 1992, the magazine continued under Amena Jayal with its successful formula of stories and illustrations.
However, in a move to target a larger age group, India Today Group wound up Target to start the Teens Today magazine. This move was a failure, because, with its orientation on fashion and urban life, Teens Today did not have the wide appeal of the unpretentious Target. Teens Today was edited by Target old-timer Vatsla Kaul.
Excerpted from the Wikipedia)
HI, thank you for mentioning my poem. You are ringth , we all loved Target. BTW awesome website! Way to go Sabina!, love Jyoth, '88
Hey I am sure you all recall the little pamphlet called Soldiers Of God that Sr:Helen, used to sell for 15 paise a piece? The price was then hiked to 25 paise a piece which was still a fairly exorbitant sum in those days to many of us. Also do u guys recall our dear peon Indran selling SIP-UPS for 50.00 paise a piece. I still know a few from our batch who owe the poor man for that- Meera Mani
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