Passion for Journalism and Drum — Vikram Swaruup
Story by Jaime Loke
Photo by Harry Heidelmark
Used with permission from Drum Corps World -- www.drumcorpsworld.com.
Click here to see a video clip of Madison Scouts
For three months, Vikram Swaruup was dedicated to the daily 12-hour long rehearsals, country-wide bus tours, nights spent in his sleeping bag in a high school gymnasium, and almost no access to any media outlet.
This is all for the love of the drum and bugle corp.
“A drum and bugle corp is kind of like marching band so there’s drums, horns and there’s the color guard and I’m a color guard member,” said Swaruup.
Swaruup is a second year journalism major who spent the past two summers marching with the Madison Drum and Bugle Corp.
“In high school I was a color guard in the marching band, and a lot of high school marching bands go to drum corp shows,” said Swaruup. “The drum corp is the upper level and they show it to us like ‘the example’ so we would go to these drum corp shows and I was amazed at the level of performance that these people were exhibiting so … the next step for me was to improve myself ,so after high school, I could be a part of a drum corp.”
“There’s over a hundred drum corp groups that come together every summer and it’s a competitive activity,” said Swaruup. “It’s a whole summer-long commitment from about the middle to end of May, till the middle of August, and the first three weeks are just training.”
“You have to adapt very quickly because when we go on tour, we don’t stay in hotels or dorms. We bring our sleeping bags, and depending on which city we’re at, we’ll be sleeping in the high school gym ,” said Swaruup. “So there’s over a hundred of us sleeping in the gym so there’s absolutely no privacy whatsoever.”
‘It’s also very physically demanding because you’re rehearing anywhere from twelve to thirteen hours a day, and you get physically prepared and learn the product, the show that you are going to put on,” said Swaruup. “It’s an eleven and a half minute performance and you spend the rest of the summer after that performing your show around the country.”
“Each drum corp has its own style and I’ve always liked the Madison drum corp the best,” said Swaruup. “It was one of my goals in high school to be able to march with Madison.”
And so he did. Swaruup toured with the Madison Drum and Bugle Corp this whole summer and ended the tour with the final competition in Pasadena, California. Though they did not win, Swaruup had a great time and learned some valuable lessons through this enriching experience.
“I think that so much of who I am is as a result of my drum corp experience because I feel like that’s one of the most formative experiences for me… probably the most valuable lesson I’ve learned is how to get along with people that are very different from me,” said Swaruup. “I learned how to not judge people. There’s so many different kinds of people and you don’t have a choice but to get along with them because you’re in such a confined space with them for so long and I did.”
“I think that learning how to get along with anyone has been very valuable to me, and it’s definitely helped me at the (Daily) Texan,” said Swaruup. “I can work with anyone, and a lot of people can’t work with certain editors because it’s a pain but I have learned how to deal with it and so now I can work with anyone.”
“And another valuable lesson I’ve learned is to work tirelessly with minimal sleep!” said Swaruup. “It’s really helped me in college especially with my (Daily) Texan hours and managing classes and balancing everything else. “
The current design editor for the Daily Texan, Swaruup’s passion for journalism lies in the print design and copy editing portions of producing the newspaper.
“I love design and copy editing. I found that that’s more me. I just never got into reporting. I like the research part but not the interviewing. Writing is okay but the actual interviewing part bores me,” said Swaruup.
“No matter how many classes the journalism department makes me take, I’ll never be a reporter! I’m not a reporter and I’ll never be a reporter, that’s my motto,” said Swaruup,.
Fortunately for Swaruup, there is more than the traditional reporting route to get involved in this broad field and he has found an area of expertise in journalism – designing the print product.
He attributes most of his success in life to the experience he had participating in the drum corp.
“I think everything that I really know is through drum corp,” said Swaruup. “Well, that’s probably an exaggeration but it’s really taught me a lot of valuable lessons.”
As far as Swaruup’s plans after UT, he is contemplating joining Teach For America.
Teach for America is a two-year commitment for college graduates to teach in either urban or rural low-income communities that struggle with providing quality public education.
“I’ve always loved teaching so I may look more into joining Teach For America,” said Swaruup. “It doesn’t matter where I end up, the experience is the more important part.”
Swaruup is also thinking about going to law school but he does not see himself pursing a career in journalism.
“Most of the design is moving towards online so there will soon be no need for print designers,” said Swaruup.
“I don’t know if online designing is for me,” said Swaruup. “Print design came very easy to me. I enjoy it, so I don’t know if it’ll be the same for me in online.”
“I wouldn’t mind copy editing for the web though,” said Swaruup. “I would enjoy that. But for now, I still have time. I’m going to see how this semester goes and then think about what I want to do after graduation later.”