And each day, I came back home and wondered “what am I doing with my life?”
Symbiosis Centre for Media & Communication was, is and will always be a dream for people who want to do something great in media. Journalism, Film-making, Advertising or Public Relations, the centre has four specialisations to offer. I, being a Communication Management student, have a different approach towards many things in life than of a student aspiring to specialise in Mass Communication. In the third semester, we had a module which hadn’t started till the very end. Finally, we came to know that an entire week from 9:45 to 4:30 we’d only have classes with one professor. No matter how interesting the teacher might be, there always remains the question of information overload.
To my surprise, a brilliant professor from IIM Kozhikode, Mr. A.F. Mathew came to teach us something that none of us can ever forget. He covered issues which had crossed our minds and even vaguely discussed but his classes made us realise that all the information that we knew was not accurate. He made us realize that opinion must be something in our heads but it cannot stand anywhere close to a fact. A fact remains a fact; opinion can be where it wants to be.
I remember waking up early for his class and looking forward to it every day. Most of us used to stay for extra screenings post lectures and these were beautiful! He covered some major issues like- gender, caste, religion, patriarchy, the Kashmir issue, LGBTQ rights, prostitution etc.
I believe every teacher has his or her own way of teaching but this man had something else. This man had not gotten married just because the rights are not equal for everyone in this country. He was an example for us and after each day, I came back home and wondered “what am I doing with my life?”
To let the change happen, we have to believe in the fact that change will happen. Having such a beautiful man for 6 days, 7 hours a day and still craving more of his teaching- what can be a better experience?
Article by: Urvashi Razdan (Batch of 2018)
Photograph by: Nairika Lodhi (Batch of 2019)
