I was staring at my engineering college leaving certificate, as it glared right
back at me with contempt. “So, that’s it then. Now you are on your own”, The
certificate said. “Yes, I suppose I wanted this freedom. I want to make films and
I want to tell stories and this is the first step”, I replied. The certificate smirked.
In an almost mocking tone, he scornfully said, “And how are you going to do
that?” Well, at that point in time I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t
know if dropping out was a good decision or not. As a ray of hope, just like in
every underdog story, or in every hero’s journey there is a moment where the
protagonist meets his mentor. In this story UPG has been the biggest mentor
for me.
Now, some of my friends reading this might feel like I am making things up. To
them I say- there’s an external journey and there’s an internal journey of a
character. I’ll try to articulate the internal journey here. Meeting your mentor
so easily in your story might not create the drama it needs to create for the
audience. So, the writer of my life decided to add a few dramatic blocks in
order to keep the audiences hooked. At this point the audience is my
engineering friends who envied me, my relatives who needed the gossip and
the rest of society who had no faith in me. Hence, the struggle began and I
started going from college to college with my documents looking for a course
which would help me achieve my dreams of becoming a filmmaker.
After foraging multiple colleges, I finally found UPG. On the first day of classes,
Ashish sir welcomed me with the warmest smile as a buzz of excitement rang
through the air. He gave us a sheet of paper and asked us to create something
out of the paper which describes you the best. This is the point where the title
track of “Taare Zameen Par” begins playing in the background. I felt a sense of
belonging- my journey of becoming a filmmaker has finally begun. The best
part about the college is that it taught me way more than just filmmaking. I
grew as a person and I started exploring myself as a human being. Major key
players in helping me become the person I am today are the B.A. Faculty and
everyone who came into our class and taught me something I didn’t know.
The faculty have immense amounts of knowledge and it was my responsibility
to inherit that. To be honest, being a part of the education system in India, you
don’t usually fall in love with the institute you’re studying in. I am lucky to say
that I fell deeply in love with my college. From the cheerful chatter in the
foyers, to the engrossing lectures and high-spirited college committees, UPG
has provided me with so much more than an education. The life lessons are
irreplaceable, the friendships are lifelong and the memories are forever
pleasant. You’ll always find your crowd and your platform to shine through;
UPG does that for you.
At this point I feel like I’ve rambled on for a while; I want you guys to
experience it yourself. Let’s approach the climax. The same guy outside his
engineering college staring at his leaving certificate was staring at the script of
his first feature film which he was about to shoot. This journey was not
possible if it wasn’t for UPG.
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