Whenever there is a column, there will be a beam above it. If the beam is located at any floors but the roof level, it is basically to support the heavy brick wall resting along the beam, the RC floor slab above it and followed by the human and furniture loads. To have it removed without any form of compensation is really a bad idea.

"I am no architect or civil engineer", you said it yourself, hence it is best to stick to "non-structural" comments or suggestions.

The real sifus will be charging you for these consultation, they are known as consultant. The remaining that offers you free advice will be monkeys.

A column is designated to perform load transfers from beam and to the foundation. Removing it without having to compensate anything is like having to sit on a chair with 3 legs instead of 4.

A beam designated for a low rise residential structure usually has a depth between 450mm and 600mm. Imagined having to compensate it with another RC or I-beam side by side of underneath the existing beam will only create a massive structure and also a large mass to be compensated by existing columns. Forget not you are removing a supporting column and compensating it by adding more dead load in the form of RC beam or I beam??

Please engage a professional contractor to perform the task at hand. Having to be pinned down by collapsing structure is not a laughing matter.