Freedom, Your Right.

Imagine a medical college, where students ( read future docs) are taught to treat patients but who have never seen a patient or the illness in real in their lifetimes. Now imagine an automotive engineering college where students (read future engineers) are taught to assemble and dismantle a car but who have never seen or travelled in one before. You must be thinking that institutions like these do not exist. And even if they exist, they are run by thieves and politicians (ooops!!!) But just wait before you make any such comments. We had a similar college in Manipal. We used to. Sadly it vanished in the year 2006. No one talked about it when it “shut down”.

Freedom, Your Right. Nice tagline. But as the saying goes “some of the best melodies in the world are still unheard”, some of the best things in the world are still undone. Article 19 was the first communication fest of the country which created ripples in the still stagnant field of communication that was still advertised as an “offbeat” career in career guidance books. There were a few who dared to take up this field but doing a mass communication course then was as rebellious as sending your kid for a three year DJ’ing course in Australia. But some dared to come up with a communication fest. I do not know what the fest contained but I certainly know they knowingly or unknowingly gave birth to a movement that would in years gain a cult status (by saying cult I mean that there were both positive and negative meanings to it over the years). Several people started swearing by it’s name too.

Now there is this times Article 19, the subject of this blog.  Remember about the “imagine this” and “imagine thats” that was there at the starting of this post. Well the college that I am talking about was none other than MIC. The pre-2006 MIC was one where students were taught about newspapers, radio, tv, internet, films, advertising, marketing, event managment, etc but where no one really had anything but theoritical knowledge about it. Article 19 was one fest that incorporated every single thing of our curriculum and that we could gain practical knowledge of if we were a part of it. So the condition was that we had all the theoritical knowledge in the world but no practical knowledge. So we were as useful as doctors who had never seen a patient in our lives and engineers who had never used or even seen a mechanical object before.

After the first Article 19 in 1998, it did not happen. Somehow the fire died out. But as a phoenix rises from the ashes, Article 19 kicked back in 2006. We had three days of a fest. It had all the qualities of a pioneering event. After all, when the first Article 19 happened most of us were in school still asking our teachers,”May I go to the bathroom Misssss”! Still people were able to pull it off in style. Article 19 ’07 was a two day event that got down some greats like TJS George who are renowned in the journalism world.It went international with an entry from Dubai.

This Article 19 is very different. It is truly the biggest ever Article 19 that has ever happened. With over 100 entries from US, Britain, UAE, Scotland, Phillipines, Egypt and India it is truly international in nature. We also have greats like Rahul Bose and Prahlad Kakkar coming down exclusively for Article 19. Rahul Bose is supporting us for PowerOff , an effort by us to create awareness among the people for saving electricity. Prahlad Kakkar is coming for an advertising workshop. Sandhya Ravishankar is going to talk about  broadcast journalism while Sankalp Meshram will tell us about Magic of Syntax. A workshop on alternative media would be conducted by Third Thought Entertainment, an alternatie media group from Mumbai. MMSC has Kiruba Shankar, Nishindra Verma, Krishna Mariyanka and Girish Ranade who will talk about varied topics related to Media Managment. For more details on Article 19 (or to cross check the info!!) log onto http://www.article-19.com.

There is one more reason why this years Article 19 is very different from others. For the first time we have used all the medias possible . We have used press releases, radio scratches, news package (for visual medium) and online publicity. Hence, this years Article 19 has been the most comprehensive and the biggest that has ever happened. But lets not jinx it by already calling it a success. Or rather, I should not jinx it. So lets wait and watch how the event goes.

Disclaimer: The author is writing this post as an individual and not in any of the roles that he plays either inside or outside the institution. All his views expressed are his personal views purely.

By: Elvin Jacob