What They Said

Pink is the colour of passion - Aerosmith

The Rising Stars and I have had a very complex relationship, as most people do with their jobs. I can't bring myself to send it off with an outpour of love and tears as many fans have. I think that has to do with me never really being a fan of RS. I'd never read an issue before I joined, the first issue I did was because I was printed in it. I will however miss it.
I'll miss it because it gave me a means of distraction and a means of income. I'll miss it because I made some great friends and met some great people through it. I'll miss it for letting me think for a split second, that maybe I am good at something. I've also resented it for changing my writing style the way my editor said I'd have to change it when I joined. My writing had to be toned down- all the offensiveness and vulgarity cut out. It probably did me a favour, but being human, I will despise change.
I'm both grateful and resentful towards RS. And as I bid it adieu, I won't cry for it, but I'll remember it with a certain fondness. Your first job may suck, but it's still something that stays with you. And that's really what RS will be for me: it'll be something that will stay.

Sabrina Fatma Ahmad
"RS was where I started out my career in Features journalism. It was the first time and the first place where I felt that an awkward, geeky kid like me could hang with the Cool people. In fact, I believe Ronny has copyrights for the word 'coolth'. I stayed with it for eleven years, so this feels like a chapter of my life ending. Best of luck, you guys!" Sabrina Fatma Ahmad is currently Junior Lecturer at the Department of Media and Communication, Independent University, Bangladesh and Editor, T-mag & Treehouse.

Shahriar S. Emil
Rising Stars not only helped me master my trade by making me constantly write (while making money) but it also gave me a few best friends to have fun with and make poop jokes around.
"To absent friends and lost gods." - Neil Gaiman
I'm getting my graphics design degree from the third nipple of Canada, Minnesota. I have my eyes on some hot booty, though: California.

Tareqius Primus
"RS was the weekly support group meetings that I attended to deal with the unimaginable horrors of being a completely un-unique teenager. And somehow the place took my mediocrity and told me I was special. Or something along those lines, I forget. I'm currently getting my Economics and Pr-Law degrees from the most inexpensive college in Boston. I only got in because I lied to them about being beautiful."

Shafayat Nazam Rasul
"I came to the party late and didn't stay for long, a flame felt but never seen. Discovered a friend and found an outlet, pretended to have a PhD while indulging in bad literature. I wrote a lot and found the possibility of becoming a better writer at the end of it.
SN Rasul is currently in London, UK studying Literature and Creative Writing and panicking about the future."

Hammad Ali
RS was the first job I had, where I met some of my closest friends. Writing was always a fun thing to do for me, and RS gave me the opportunity to do it on a very large scale. Even today I hear from many people how they remember reading my works. Always a pleasant experience.
Hammad Ali is currently a Lecturer in BRAC University, Dhaka.

Safieh Kabir
You start off a shivering fourteen-year-old, too nervous to even think steady. The bosses stare through you, assign you an article or two, and shrug, unsurprised, at the crap you serve up. You aren't a real person, you're a careful imitation of how you think you should sound; you are your own fumbling attempts to find a voice. Two years later, the bosses turn and tell you to give the new kids a bit of advice about writing. You splutter with shock: “Me?” Yes, you. After all the fun they made of you, they are legitimising your love affair with words.
Later, RS ends. You walk away, still fumbling. But you know what to feel, for now.
Munawar Mobin
I wish I could say RS has took me when I was in my cocoon and gave me birth as a brilliantly colored butterfly, but this isn't a movie. However, RS did teach me a few things, like riding a bus on a hot afternoon to pick up bills and realizing that even though you're sweating a lot, you're spending just five taka, learning to tolerate other human beings and most importantly, that no matter how damn weird you are, there's always a group of people out there in some building where you'd fit right in. RS was my very own asylum- I'll miss the straightjackets.

Jawad Mahmud
Growing up is the sickening realisation that you were the epitome of stupidity just five minutes ago. The way even my five month old articles make me cringe, I am inclined to believe that I am growing up. I spent the last half of my teenage years among the more talented people in that age group, and some amazingly helpful seniors. Being in the same room while they pulled stunning story ideas out of thin air, and asinine remarks, influences a man's thinking process.
Wanted to be one of the RS legends. Did not succeed. That's the regret.

Orin
For the past 3 years, it has been nothing but making friends, having fun at work, cracking potty jokes and just generally reveling in weirdness. I guess it's difficult to express how Rising Stars changed my life, because I've been reading it since as long as I can remember and it was always the friend who cheered me up after a particularly bad day, something to read on the lazy weekends, the most interesting part of Daily Star and if the world wasn't ending, I could count on RS to make me laugh.