Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication M.A Review By Tushar Sharma

From Mumbai to Pune, it wasn’t far as far was Lavale from Pune. In terms of distance, it wasn’t but in terms of civilization it was. Pune is as good as suburbs of Mumbai but Lavale was a pure village with a population of just 6k people. Symbiosis International University Pune population doesn’t count though otherwise there are around 4k students in our campus itself. I think over 5k but let’s move on from the figures and as my journey at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communications Pune was so that I will remember every ounce of it till my last breath. Along with MA, SIMC MBA program in Mass Communication also there but for that SNAP is mandatory and that too with a percentile of over 90. I wish I was that brilliant but because I wasn’t, I was happy to be containing with MA in Journalism. If one wants to know what journalism is all about that then I bet there’s no better place than SIMC Pune as the college has the expert faculty from journalism business. All the facilities that are required for journalism were there at SIMC building of the campus which was perhaps the best block of the campus.

Forget the books and get on the road is how the academics was done here. No book can teach journalism until we are on road sweating it out with our seniors and media people. Classes were just a formality as on days, we had nothing to do, we attended lectures. Out of 120 students in our batch, one will only find 40 students at a class. Everyone was assigned their tasks and the people with whom we had to work from the second year. The first year was a learning curve at the campus and the second year was an action-packed film where we survived to live every day thrill.

Well as the old adage says that absolute power corrupts absolutely and that is why faculties were just a few and every week, many prominent personalities were called to take lectures. It indeed put us in a catch 22 situation because some of my idols like Rajat Sharma, and Vikrant Gupta have come and taken lectures here. Vikrant Gupta is my hero as my elective was sports and he is sports anchor. When I learned that he himself was a cricketer I got disappointed as I thought only, they are the ones who qualify for such jobs. Well, I got the opportunity to have one on one interaction with him and he assured me that if I have it in me, it doesn’t matter where I belong to, I can still make my mark in the field. So, some wise words from some wise people is how the faculties of SIMC looked like.

As my title says that SIMC is a universe where no one can get hurt and during college life one get hurt the most when they are not placed even after doing their best. Well, at SIMC placements there’s no chance of not getting job as MA students too gets an equal opportunity for placements like the MBA students. Of course, they were paid hire as they carry much other acumen too with them. Companies like Essel Group, Endeamol, Star Network and others under whom we learned the art of journalism were the ones who came to hire us. Many of us were recommended by the people we worked under and therefore we were called upon for interviews. Our knowledge and confidence was checked as journalism is more about confidence than anything else. The college made us confident and therefore more than my personal hard work, I will give that credit to my college.

The campus has many hostels but SIMC hostel was again the best. Though small in size as just 60 rooms in all with some four-seater rooms too. The university is clean as a whistle and the hostel was clean as blue waters because the rooms were checked and if they don’t get their rooms cleaned on time, they had to face consequences. The hostel timings were not there for SIMC students as we had no timings. The food was exceptional because the village doesn’t have any proper food outlet so, mess were maintained and they prepared the best food for us.

SIMC campus infrastructure doesn’t count for me as we were occupied with our block. Our block had a studio and a media room where all edits and all were done. There was a photo shoot room too and a printing press as well. Now to call it a college block won’t be fair because it looked like an auxiliary media house. Centrally air-conditioned building surrounded by the best views and some of the most notable colleges of the country around was enough for us to praise the infrastructure.

Campus Life for me was again my block because there are so many cafes and food outlets at the campus and yet I hardly went there. The refreshment stall of our block gave snacks and mess food was enough for me to not go there. We were heading the organizing committee of small or big events of the university so SIMC students had the leverage to live the best campus life at the campus.