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.