I was 20 going on 21, when I was made to face the decision of
taking up a particular career in life. My father being a senior lawyer offered
to take me under his wings and train me to be a lawyer, but my interest in
taking up law as a career was nil and being a student of Bachelor of Mass Media
which had various numbers of fields, made it difficult to choose any one
particular field. It was then in my 2nd year of B.M.M that Public Relations as
a subject was introduced to the syllabus. I took an instant liking towards the
subject, my professor who taught us that subject had convinced me to go for it
due to my social skills. I soon started looking up courses available in Mumbai
for Public Relations and that’s when I came across one in particular. This Masters Degree in Arts
(Public Relations) MAPR, Mumbai University, Department of Communication
& Journalism, Vidyanagari Campus, Kalina, Mumbai 400-098, who were the only
ones among all institutes in Mumbai offering Masters Degree in Public
Relations.
After I cleared my 3rd year I announced my plans to study
further to my family and friends. My friends backed me in doing this course;
they told me I was made for this, but my family felt I would be better off
following my father’s footsteps as a Lawyer, who would guide me well. The day I
got my results my friend and I rushed to Mumbai University, Kalina to gather
information regarding Masters in Public Relations. When I
first came to the Department of Commmunicaton and Journalism I had met Mangesh
Karandikar Sir who I had heard a lot of good things about. Mangesh sir handed
me a printed copy of the syllabus for the course with the admission form.
The information I got about Masters in Public Relations course was from the Mumbai University’s website.
It had information about the entrance exam, group discussion and the interview.
I applied for the course and within a few days gave the entrance exam with the
GD and personal interview. I felt like I didn't stand a chance because of only
20 seats being available for the course and the number of students applying for
it, but fortunately I was selected. Even now, I proudly boast about being the
student of MAPR, Mumbai
University, Kalina.
