Through all the sessions and insights provided, I found my calling and it gave me time to introspect.
Stepping out of your bubble, i.e. your comfort zone and the luxuries of home can be one of the hardest tasks in life and stepping out for the first time is, in my opinion, the most difficult one.
As excited as I was, I was also terrified because it was not only a new college, the best Mass Communication College in India, Symbiosis Centre for Media & Communication, but also a new country. I had grown up in Kuwait in a very sheltered environment and India was not that familiar. But now I’m in my fourth semester and looking back on the three semesters, the worry seems funny as the journey so far has been full of adventures and has given me memories to last a lifetime. Of them all, my favorite would definitely be the Panchgani Study Tour. It was after our first semester examinations and all of us were thrilled to go for it, for our seniors had told us so much about it.
For most of my batch mates, it was just a funded trip with friends but, for me, it was so much more than that. Through all the sessions and insights provided, I found my calling and it gave me time to introspect. Panchgani gave a sense of clarity and it was during the Hour of Silence that I decided I wanted to be a writer.
The tour also made me appreciate the little things and respect silence. There are practices that I still follow on a daily basis like sitting under the stars in absolute silence and reflecting on the day. Of course, we made bonds there, which will prolong for this lifetime, at least. Most of all, the sessions at Panchgani explained that everything has to be achieved through steps and one cannot just leap to the final point. Through that I understood that the various lectures that I thought were not related to the field of media were important to learn as they were the stepping stones to life in general. Panchgani was surreal for me and also, a sort of rehab that was much needed to remove the toxicity. That study tour, hence, has been my best experience.
Article by: Suhani Lakhotia (Batch of 2018)
Photograph by: Nairika Lodhi (Batch of 2019)
