Zubiya Athavani
Millions of students every year start fretting about which college to join and which course to pursue. My destiny led me to Symbiosis Centre for Media and Communication. Though I had my apprehensions, I can surely say destiny had all valid reasons for leading me here. Happiness, nervousness and exhilaration, this journey had a lot in store for me
The roller coaster begins
The first day was a reality check in every way. Waking up on my own with no parents to negate the snooze or even the ‘dismiss’ button on my alarm, it was as soon as I was in the class room for my Media Content Review documentary that I realized; Dependency is no more affordable.
Many things have changed from 11th July, 2016 (the first day) and today but there is one thing that has never been changed and that Symbiosis Centre for Media and Communication still provides. It has never stopped giving perspectives. It has never stopped widening my horizons. In simple words, it has opened my eyes to so many things that it dawned on me how ridiculous it was of me to think that the world I knew was all there was. Be it in movies, opinions, people or experiences, SCMC never fails to surprise me.
The Screenings’ Influence
Luckily, my parents made sure that even in the main stream and commercial movies that the majority of the population has access to; I develop a good taste and not just consider anything and everything that comes along the way as good cinema. Many a times, I would find myself going over the scenes that I had seen in the movies and think about the impact it would have on people. I believed I had seen most of the great movies that Indian film industry had made. But, undoubtedly, my opinion was changed when I began to sit for both mandatory and optional screenings in SCMC. I admit that initially I would sit for the additional screenings only for the extra attendance, but that immediately changed after a couple of screenings and I even began to sit for those screenings no one else would be interested in attending. I love the movies that are screened for us and love the following discussions even more. Here is where the SCMC’s provision of perspectives is at its peaks. The way different people see a movie is always different and no one discusses a good movie past the phrases “That was a fine movie” and “Good cinematography/direction/execution”. But understanding the way good movies are to be seen and respected is a very crucial lesson for me. Having one of the classes where Mr. Anupam Siddhartha (Director) himself taught us the spectrum of cinemas ranging from Art films to Realistic cinema really drew me to respect this form of communication way more than before. Now I try and find movies that classify as some of the best movies in the history of cinema and put them in my ‘Movie Bucket List’. I cannot emphasize enough the appreciation for cinema that I have developed.
Peoples’ Influence
I have met some of the most fantastic people I have ever met in SCMC. And not just in teachers, but my classmates as well. One of the people who have influenced me in SCMC is my aesthetics professor Mrs. Milinda Natu. I couldn’t have imagined that people like her exist. She is one of reasons I found my confidence to speak my mind out. Apart from her, Professor Amitabh Dasgupta has inspired me immensely when it comes to knowing the facts about the world. Not just knowing, but having opinions. That is another thing SCMC has taught through Amitabh Sir, the importance of having an opinion on current issues as a citizen.
Lastly…
…I feel that SCMC is the perfect college any media student could dream of. It has been a key influencer and had opened up my eyes to a lot of things. I am thinking about happenings in a much broader light and would have no hesitations giving credits to SCMC in any way. Frankly, six hundred words aren’t enough to emphasize how eternally grateful I am to all the factors that brought me here. Or I would have been a frog in the pond forever.
