An experience to cherish for a lifetime

Till my graduation I had never gone for a study tour. Reason being there were no tours organized by the institutes. All of that changed with me getting into Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) . It was after I joined the course that I got a chance to go on a study tour. I was as excited as one could be with the thought of on going to a study tour.

My first study tour and the first place for me to go on a study tour was Kerala, Gods own country. What more could I ask for? The Gods of Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) had been kind to me. It was one of the best trips I had ever been to. The time I spent with my batch mates and seniors, the amount of fun we had. It was on this tour that made me feel that I belonged in the course, in the University and amongst the people.

Well it was a study tour so there had to be some studying involved. Fortunately it was not the usual format of studying and assignments. The professors taking care of the Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) course made sure that we did not regret coming on the tour just because of the assignment. They made sure we enjoyed and had fun doing the assignments. While we were busy having a good time the faculty did not just sit on one side with their serious face on, even they joined in and made merry with us. I wish I could talk more in detail about the study tour but then that would take pages and pages plus there’re things which if remain with us only is better.

It’s not been even a couple of months since we came back and I am already wondering where we’re gonna go next.

A Nightmare called Exams

A friend’s dad once told me,’ never fear anything because the thing you fear the most will come true no matter how hard you try.’ I have to say that he was right. Like every student I have an exam phobia and as it happens the nightmare called exams inevitably comes to haunt me in every six months. I had hoped that once I joined Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) at the University of Mumbai, I might not fear the exams as much as I did in my school and college life till now. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be.

It was childish of me to think that I might not be scared of exams when I join the Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) because after all it is an academic course and no academic course is complete without exams. It’s said that exams are the only yardstick with the help of which a student’s performance can be gauged.  I should not and I will not argue with that anymore because I consider myself to have outgrown that phase when I questioned the very concept of exams.

The management at the department of communication and journalism which conducts the Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) course also have tried to move away from the cliché that exams are the only way a student’s performance can be measured. This is the reason why they do not solely rely on exams to judge a student but also give equal importance to the way a student performs in the class and in the assignments given. For them exams is just a means to see how well a student has understood the concepts taught to him/her in the class and how well he/she is able to communicate it. For them assignments is a way to judge how well a student can apply the concepts and exams is a way to find out how the concepts are communicated.

It is a good thing because this is the reason why I don’t fear exams as much as I used to before. That said, it does not mean that I no longer think of exams as a nightmare. Exams have and will continue to give me sleepless nights because I guess one of the main objectives of exams is to scare the hell out of the students.

 

What’s the need to do Masters in PR?

Public Relations is a still an evolving industry in India. This is the reason why there’re not many specialized courses in it. If we look at the people who’re in the industry we’ll find that majority of them come from varied academic backgrounds. Industry people believe that to enter Public Relations and to grow in the industry, all one needs is good communication skills and should know how to handle people. These are some of the reasons why not many have heard of the Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) course offered by the University of Mumbai in its Kalina campus.

Industry wallahs understand if someone tells them that he/she is doing a one year diploma in Public Relations. The moment they hear that someone is doing a two years full time Masters in Public Relations (MAPR), they say,” Two years Masters? In PR it’s not needed. Are you sure you want to spend two years doing a Masters in PR?” Well you can’t blame the industry people to think that way because the trend in the industry has been such. For them it’s always been how well you’re able to talk to the media and get the news story out. It has always been an instinctive and natural thing for them, which is why they think that a proper education in it is not needed.

Though there’s a different school of people in the industry as well. People who actually think that always going on the instinct is not the best thing and the industry needs a well structured thought process to achieve the standards set by the counterparts in countries like US, UK, etc. This is the reason why they’re glad that University of Mumbai is offering a proper full time Masters in Public Relations (MAPR). A course which just doesn’t teach the students to write press releases also makes sure that they develop a lateral thinking.

As it’s often said that ‘Change is the only constant thing’, change in the way the PR industry functions is also inevitable. It is going to take some time for everyone to lap up to it but it’s surely going to happen one day.

Start of a memorable journey

Many of my friends ask me about what made me quit my job and join the Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) course of the Mumbai University. Well, before I had actually joined the course I couldn’t really tell them why I had taken that decision, I used to just say because I wanted to continue studying. That was the truth but not the complete truth.

Now that I’m a part of the current batch of Masters in Public Relations (MAPR), I can say confidently that I’ve the answer to their questions. I still remember the day when I first went to the Department of Communication & Journalism at the Kalina Campus of University of Mumbai. I had gone to meet the professor heading the course, to talk about my admission. It was the first time I was going to the Kalina campus and the campus bowled me over, there were trees all around and the campus was huge and for once I didn’t feel I had entered a concrete jungle.

After admiring the campus for a few minutes I walked towards the building where the lectures for Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) are conducted. Still having some doubts in my mind about whether what I had decided to do was the right thing or not, I entered the department. In the department I saw students in a couple of classrooms having a discussion with a professor, some students sitting on the stairs and working (an assumption) on their laptops, some just involved in a friendly banter. The scene in the department reinfused that little bit of faith I had lost in my decision, it made me feel that, ‘this is where I belong, this is where I want to be.’ That is one day I can never forget because it was the start of a journey of a lifetime for me.

Not to forget the statement or a question my HOD made/asked when I asked him where I could find the professor who handles MAPR. He exclaimed and I quote:

 “You’re a student!!!”

Damn!! I better get used to this reaction I get from people when they realise that I’m just a 22 year old and not some guy in his late 20s. 

Assignment submissions tomorrow at 11!!!

The words dreaded the most by the students of Masters in Public Relations (MAPR). Assignments play an important role in the whole education process. It’s through assignments only which helps a professor to judge how well the student can apply the theoretical knowledge he/she has gained in the lectures. Well, the assignments aren’t just something professors dole out because they want to but even the University of Mumbai officially uses internal/assignments as a yardstick to measure a student’s performance.

There’s a general perception amongst everyone be it the professors or the parents that students hate assignments. Well, being a student of Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) myself, I would say that the students of MAPR break that perception. We, here at the Kalina campus of University of Mumbai like doing these assignments because they aren’t in the mould of those boring homework activities we used to get when we were in school and junior college. The assignments here are fun to do and they push us to the limit to give our best. It’s not just that I’ve good things to say about the concept of assignments or the assignments that we get but it’s just out of habit that I like to talk about the positives. Assignments obviously come with deadlines and that means it’s a race with time.

Trust me when I say this, the professors conducting the Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) course in the Kalina campus of University of Mumbai take assignments and the deadlines seriously more than anything in the world. So, it’s but obvious that we students get anxious when the deadline nears. The anxiety is not just because we haven’t been able to finish off the assignment when there’s only like two hours left for the deadline, well, the anxiety levels are high because we need that stamp of approval from the professor. We need to know whether our hard work has paid off. It’s not just about the marks or score we get on a particular assignment but it’s about how well we’ve done it, how much we’ve improved from the last time and how much room we’ve for bettering ourselves.

To conclude I would just tweak a tagline of a washing powder

“Assignments acche hai”

It’s a Bloody Madhouse!!!

Yea trust me that is what it is a freaking madhouse. That is how I sum up the experience I’ve had while doing Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) from Mumbai University. When I joined the course I thought it’s going to be like a very graveyard kind of atmosphere, everyone serious and all but I was wrong.

It’s a Masters degree after all so I wasn’t wrong in assuming that the professors, seniors and the batch mates are all gonna be serious and very uptight. It’s not just the people doing Masters in Public Relations (MAPR), everyone in the department of communication and journalism is mad in their own unique way. There are professors who’re mad about assignments, there’re some who’re going mad doing their research but they’re all mad.

Coming to the students, like every other college or university or course Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) has a mixed bag of students. There’re some students who’re mad about studies and think because they’re very sincere and studious they’re the only normal creatures but dude breaking news even you’re mad. Then there’re some who’re just plain crazy like me and call the studious ones mad and think that they’re normal. Anyone who doesn’t have even a pinch of madness in him/her shouldn’t come here because dude you’ll go Maddddddddd. For the alumni and the current batch this madness is what gets them going. So, the madness isn’t a bane but a boon here in the department. On a serious note, even though we’re mad you can’t take away the fact that we’re an intellectual and creative lot.

One day when someone asked me about whether I’m happy to be where I’m, I looked at him and said,” Are you mad, of course I’m happy. I’m finally with my kind.”

A piece of advice for all those who’re thinking about joining the department,” Come here only if you’re mad or ever were because we don’t want anyone to blame us saying that we drove him/her mad.”

What is it standing on???

Legs?? Nah!!! It’s standing on its pillars dumbass. Confused? Well that’s what my Civics professor told me when he asked me about the Indian Democracy. So yeah moving on from the kind of stuff I got to hear from my school teachers, every institution or concept is able to stand or work because of certain important aspects or people or other supporting concepts and they can be called the “Pillars” of it. Just like any other course or university Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) also has certain principles or pillars on which it’s standing.

Well the other day during one of the chai sessions with friends and our HOD and another professor, God knows from where but the topic of what are the pillars of Masters in Public Relations (MAPR). Everyone were at their flattering best and told the Profs that they’re the pillars, amused as they were by the response of their students they did notice that I didn’t say anything. On the other hand I was hoping that after hearing flattering words from others they wouldn’t notice my silence, but they did, damn wish the discussion had taken place in the classroom where I could’ve hidden behind the voices of the other batch mates. So, the HOD fixed his eyes at me and asked,” You don’t agree with your friends or you don’t have an opinion on the topic at all?”

Woah!!! Did he just say I don’t have an opinion? Of course I have an opinion, I’m a PR guy I’ve an opinion on everything and anything. So with a very serious and straight face I said,” Sir, I do have an opinion but it’s just that I did not want to voice my opinion because that would’ve made it very clear that I don’t completely agree with what my friends have said. I don’t agree with them that each professor is one pillar of Masters in Public Relations (MAPR). For me the faculty is one of the pillars, the seniors definitely are the second pillar because they hand over their legacy to the juniors and tell them how to conduct themselves over the duration of the course and the trend continues.” I looked at the professor and he smiled and said,” Dude, work on it a little more and then maybe you’ll be able to completely work your PR magic on me.”

Damn!!! One day Mr.HOD, one day…..

Nothing is Perfect!!!

Is it nothing’s perfect or nobody is perfect??? Who cares? At least I don’t, it doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in the old adage about perfection. I agree that it’s like next to impossible to be perfect for anyone or anything and the same goes for Masters in Public Relations (MAPR), the course I’m in currently.

When I told my friends that I’m gonna do my Masters from Mumbai University, Kalina all of them went like,” Dude!!! Mumbai University seriously?” I don’t blame them for reacting the way they did because it’s no secret that the government universities have got some bad press in recent years.  Bad press usually doesn’t mean the institution is like a devil’s den. For me going to the Kalina Campus of Mumbai University everyday for my Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) course is the best thing I do in the whole day. The discussions with the professors and batch mates on topics ranging from politics to movies is something I look forward to and not to forget the pranks we friends we pull on each other. But it’s not a bed full of roses that I can assure you.

Like everything in the world the course (Masters in Public Relations) also has certain things it can work on and improve on. For me personally, it would be the assignments we get, it’s not that I’ve issues with the whole concept of assignments but it’s just that there are times when every professor shoves assignments down our throat at the same time that we sometimes are scared that we might choke and die. Assignments are good but to do three- four assignments at the same time is a bit too much and it also affects the quality of work we are able to put in them. It’s like you try to think on three different lines at the same time and end up creating a chaos in your head. So, personally if the timing of the assignments is taken care of then the kind of output we students give will have a drastic improvement and will also help us enjoy that rush the deadlines give even more.

Dude how can people be the USP??? I say Why not???

It always happens that whenever you undertake a new venture or start doing something new, people go on a questioning rampage. The same thing happened with me when I decided to join Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) offered by Mumbai University in their Kalina Campus. I managed to answer some questions but there were some questions for which I had no answer like,”What is the USP of the course you’re joining?”

People surely are unreasonable sometimes, I mean I hadn’t even joined the course and people had already started asking me stuff about the course as if I had designed it.  Even though the interfering or to be subtle inquisitive nature of the people did get on my nerves, I should still be thankful to them for putting those questions in my head. After I quit my job and joined Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) , I had certain parameters in my mind based on which I was going to decide whether it was worth leaving my job. To be honest in the first couple of weeks I did doubt my decision but as time passed and I gelled with my classmates and professors whatever doubts I had vanished.

The answers that I didn’t have in the beginning came rushing to me as time passed. I wanted to meet all those people who questioned me and my decision so that I could go all guns blazing on them with the answers that I’d found. As luck would have it, I met this friend of mine on a weekend for coffee and during the discussion I somehow took the conversation towards my course. She fell for the bait and popped the question again and asked me,” So, dude it’s been six months into your Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) now do you know what’s the USP of it?”  And I went in my head like,” Hell yeahh!! Witch.” So I told her that for me the USP is the people I’ve come across. “Dude, how can people be the USP???” I’m like here she goes again. So I say why not? I mean USP doesn’t necessarily mean things even people can be the USP of a company or a course. At least for me the people I’ve met in the university are the USP of the course. The professors are one hell of a bunch of intellects. The batch mates and seniors are a varied group of people from different parts of the country and fun to be with. Interacting with them and hanging out with them brought out the fun loving guy in me, the guy who got lost somewhere in his struggle to figure out what he wanted from life. So for me the people I’ve met are certainly the USP of the course.

What??? Why??? Are you sure??? Have you thought about the future???

Woah!!! Take it easy mom, that’s all I could say to my mom for the first two minutes after she got all hyper because I’d just dropped a bomb on her saying that I don’t want to be a Chartered Accountant(CA). It was very natural on her part to react the way she did, for a parent the kid’s future is like the most important thing in life and when they find out that their kid doesn’t wanna pursue a course in which he/she has already invested 2-3 years of his/her life it makes their blood-pressure go on a roller coaster ride. That phase somehow passed and came the time when I again thought that I’m gonna drop a bomb on my mom once again by telling her that I’m quitting my job to pursue Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) offered by Mumbai University, Kalina Campus.

To my surprise this time, she didn’t get all hyper and paranoid. Was she alright? Should I take her to the doctor? These were the kind of thoughts that ran through my mind when she was saying something to me very calmly which I obviously didn’t hear because I was in a shock myself.  “Hitesh!!! Say something, I’m asking you something,” she screamed and I heaved a sigh of relief because she was fine, she just screamed at me Yayyyyyy!!!!  The only thing she asked me was whether I knew what this Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) thing is going to give me, whether I knew where it’ll take me two years down the line.

For the first time in my lifetime I had an answer to one of her questions about my future, in fact even she was amused that for the first time in my 22years of existence I had an answer about the future. So what did I tell her??? I made her sit down on the couch looked her in the eyes and not trying to be too dramatic told her “Ma, I want to quit my job and do Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) because this degree will help me get rid of the tag of a field switcher. This degree will give me the finishing touches I need to excel in Public Relations and two years down the line it will put me on my path to success, it will give me that edge I need to edge out the competition, to reach that position where I won’t be just another guy working in the industry but I’ll be one of the bigwigs, one of the frigging thought leaders of the Indian PR industry.”

“I hope you are not doing that PR thing of yours on me to just convince me and you’re not going all melodramatic on me just to tell me after a few months that you’re bored of the course and want to do something else. Believe you me if I hear anything of that sort you’ll have to book a block for yourself on the footpath,” she said in her typical fashion. Man!!! she certainly knows how to bring me back to reality.

Draught of hardcore PR courses in India

As mentioned in my earlier post for any industry to grow the people entering it should be qualified enough and have the skill set required for the industry. When it comes to Public Relations (PR) in India there seems to be a draught in the number of courses available. Many colleges in India have started courses in PR but they are mostly post graduation diploma courses except the one offered by Mumbai University, Kalina Campus which is a proper Masters in Public Relations (MAPR).

Many people who are already in the industry are of the opinion that to be successful in PR one just has to be a people’s person, I personally do not agree completely with this. Agreed being a people’s person is one of the most important traits one should’ve to succeed in PR but that is not the only thing. To ensure the prospective entrants of the industry do not have the same line of thinking and have a global view of the industry with respect to how it functions, where it’s headed to, what more is left to explore in it, we need courses that do not just talk about media relations when it comes to PR but we need courses like Masters in Public Relations (MAPR).The course offered by  Mumbai University, Kalina Campus delves deep into the history of Public Relations and also tries to make its students develop a mindset where they don’t just want to be another person working in the industry but actually want to change the field in their own unique way. In short the course tries to build Thought Leaders.

With an increase in the number of students opting for mass media courses nowadays, the awareness level about Public Relations as a field has also gone up, a good omen indeed, but then again just the student being aware of something is not everything. Unless and until a course or field is well known, parents don’t usually take a liking to the course their ward has chosen and try to convince their kid to give it a second thought and consider some other career choice which if not the parents themselves but at least their office buddies have heard of and approved off. For this to happen, the industry needs to do a little bit of PR for itself. The first step in the PR campaign for PR would be to convince other universities need to take a leaf out of Mumbai University’s book and give a serious thought to a Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) as a potential course in their curricula. Let’s see how the elders in the community (PR) take to this suggestion by a youngling like me.

Public Relations going through adolescence in India

Even though the first dedicated department or agency for public relations (PR) in India was started in the 1940s by the Tata group, PR as an industry still finds itself in an adolescent stage in India. It’s said that PR in India started evolving as an industry in the 1990s, even after almost two decades it seems that the industry or rather the agencies in India have a long way to go before they can compete with the agencies across the globe.

So, instead of getting too much into the history of the sector in India let’s directly jump to where the industry finds itself today. ASSOCHAM has given an estimate that there’re roundabout 1000-2000 agencies in India which boasts of a manpower of almost 30,000-40,000 employees in all. Sounds like a good set of numbers doesn’t it?  But as the cliché goes numbers usually don’t tell the whole story, the same applies here.

For most of the people working in the industry in India PR is just media relations, which in a way has resulted in the slow growth of the sector. Though the silver lining here is that the professionals and the agencies have opened their eyes to the fact that PR isn’t just about co-ordinating between the clients be it your corporates or individual and the media. One of the reasons for this change of attitude of the agencies is the awareness level going up amongst the clients and the advent of new media like social networking sites has made companies and individuals to go full throttle on building and enhancing their brand image. As people have accepted that PR isn’t just about media relations the growth prospects of the industry has increased manifold.

If we go back to some of the statistics it’s found that the industry is growing at an annual rate of 32%, which is a piece of statistic to be proud of. It’s this growth rate which has made many International PR companies/agencies to look at India as a goldmine ready to be exploited. To reiterate this point it can be observed that many big agencies in India have been taken over by the Big Boys of the west, for e.g. Hanmer & Partners acquired by Publicis Groupe and Ketchum acquiring Sampark PR. So does this trend of acquisitions by foreign companies spell doom for the Indian agencies, maybe or maybe not, let’s dedicate a separate post for this.

Moving forward, for any industry to grow the people entering the industry have to be well qualified and apt for the profession, when it comes to PR the people entering at the executive level are either graduates or post graduate diploma holders who’ve done their studies in fields which had nothing about PR in their curriculum. Thus, giving the entrants a myopic view of the industry, this in turn hampers their growth as a professional and the growth of the industry as well. So, if PR has to grow at a much more rapid pace in India, the education system of the country has to look at it in a big way because just post graduate diploma courses teaching the students about how to write a press release won’t help neither the students nor the industry.

Not to make my first post a drag let me stop here and keep the other points that need some discussion for another time.