Lights. . .camera. . .action !!!

By Suleman Saadat Khan.

I had known that I would like to be a journalist since the day I was born. Watching reporters traveling and speaking in every part of the world was no less than a fantasy to me. So the day the intermediate result came, I broke this auspicious piece of news to my parents. “I’m going to take admission in mass communication department”, I said smiling ear to ear. Unfortunately the reaction was not what I had anticipated. “Beta tum ne pre-engineering men itnay achay marks liay hain, to NED me admission lo na…journalist bun kar kya karo gay?”, but I was hard to be convinced. “But mujhe shuru se journalist bunnay ka shouq hai…mera dil wahen lagay ga” I said. After a big argumentative discussion I was able to convince my parents and make them believe that mass communication department in KU will be able to offer me a great deal of practical work, reporting equipments, critical ability to analyze current affairs and eventually wealth!..

My poor parents believed every word I said. My mother thought that I would be a big name and would be offered a fat salary job the moment I do my graduation. My father thought under the sagacious guidance of KU staff and with such well equipped news labs I’ll be the most confident human being in front of camera, thrashing all big celebrities who’ll come in my way. Or a confident programme director shouting “lights, camera…action!” I don’t blame them. It was all my 15 days argumentative discussion that was showing colors.

The truth turned out to be somewhat different. The very first day we were introduced to our faculty members with praise-worthy academic records. We were told our compulsories would be subjects like Everyday Science, Math, Islamiat, Urdu etc. I thought “ok we’ll manage, after all the major is communications”. Minutes, days and months passed but I couldn’t even see what news lab was like from inside. All I could see was PG, Soofi ka Dhaaba, Qasim kay Samosay …and obviously, not forgetting, the great seminar library!. The compulsory subjects which seemed utterly irrelevant to me became troubles. The teachers were unforgiving and wanted all attention towards THEIR subjects. The time that we were supposed to be spending in libraries or reading newspapers was spent in reading Ribosomes, DNA, Ghalib kay mazameen, Probability, Integration, Differentiation and what not!.

“So what if we’re not doing journalistic stuff this year, next year I would be practicing in front of camera and writing error-free reports Inshallah!” I thought. When parents asked me how it was going, my answer would always be “Bohat hi achi chal rahi hai, inshAllah jald he ap mujhe newspaper aur channels per dekhen gay”. And they did. They did see my name in newspapers but always in “letter to the editorial” column. It was not that I wasn’t trying. I was writing, but the huge amount of time that was being consumed by blood-sucking compulsories obviously diverting my attention from communication studies.

Next year was no improvement for me. The compulsories continued and so did my bragging. I showed my parents the documentaries I had made on movie maker, the power point presentations and other pieces of work and continued giving credit to my university and “well chosen field”. They believed and appreciated. All they didn’t know was that the movies I had shown were learned and made on poor home-computer and our dear departmental heads don’t even easily hand-over the computer lab keys without having detailed-explanations.

The department gave me a lot. Talented teachers, helpful friends, communication books and theories. All it couldn’t give me was practical exposure which I had bragged about since day one.

After spending a year and a half in this field I’ve seriously begun to think if I had made the right decision leaving all other choices after intermediate. Only God knows!.