From the walls of my room, to apparels in my wardrobe, to network connection in my mobile phone, to the foil paper in my tiffin and to one full service digital bank, Aditya Birla Group is a big part of my day. And for that matter, it reaches out to around 7.5 million people like me annually. For instance, 1 lac metric tonne of Ultra tech cement was used in Mumbai’s Bandra-Worli sealink, Grasim industries being the fourth largest producer of insulators, Birla Copper owning large share of copper requirement of Indian railways are to name a few examples.
Aditya Birla group not only works in around 500 villages and focuses on areas like Healthcare, Education, Livelihood programmes and Infrastructure but it truly believes in “MAKING A DIFFERENCE”. Aditya Birla group’s strong dedication in serving the environment and its people as well as focusing on diversifying its product portfolio and outperforming is setting an example to the organisations in the world. Seeing its presence in every aspect of my life is itself BIG IN MY LIFE.
Not only nationally but also internationally Aditya Birla group has a very good presence. Almost 50% of the group’s revenue flow from the overseas operations and this comes from more than 30 countries worldwide. Globally it is ranked number one in aluminium rolling, carbon black, cement, insulators and many more. With more than 150 years of coming in the business, Aditya Birla group has made us proud nationally as well as internationally and this makes ABG BIG IN MY LIFE.
Run, rabbit, run
Dig that hole, forget the sun
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down, it's time to dig another one
Getting into an MBA college was my holy grail for a couple of years and when I finally entered, I felt that the toughest part was done, and life ahead would not be easy but certainly not as hard as my preparation days.
Silly me was in for a big surprise. The session commenced and the immediate task at hand was to get into the topmost societies in the college. Your company defines who you are and what you eventually become, and the topmost societies is where the crème de la crème of the batch will end up.
I thought of myself as an extrovert and one who can express her feelings and raise her point in an expressive manner but in my very first group discussion, I was dumbstruck with the amount of talent people around me possessed and how effective there were. Suddenly no words could come out of my mouth and after silently observing everyone for 15 minutes I headed for the exit.
It is disappointing when you are not good at something and someone else beats you, but it is devastating when you have the false sense of security that you excel at something but end up at the bottom.
Next was the round of interviews - the questions asked, the tasks given were so rigorous and demanded a level of commitment and dedication that I was simply not prepared for. I could see everyone around me spending sleepless nights perfecting their case studies and pitches and all I could do at that time was question my decision of an MBA being the correct decision for my future.
Slowly the breakdown started to happen. The pressure of all these rigorous activities started to get to me and my nights were spent crying rather than preparing.
I have been tough throughout my life under all circumstances but this was getting to my nerve and as I was about to snap , I got a call from my best friend whom I had encouraged to study on and she had just got her admission letter to her dream college and the way she thanked me - making me remember those turning points where she was about to give up on his dream but I insisted her and scolded her to carry on. This made me think hard on my present situation – that life has never been easy for me; I’m used to hardships so why am I being so pessimistic this time.
Slowly I started picked up those assignments, started showing up for group discussions where I knew I did not belong , started giving interviews to test out my limits and started talking to seniors about how they handled the pressure – oh it was hard, the questioning was rigorous but in a few days things started to fall in place and I cracked a society’s interview process.
And yes, this all happened in a span of two weeks and now as I write this article, I’m a senior year, also member, stirring up the same storm for the new batch which I barely waded through. Hopefully they will realize in a few months that it was all worth it and they will learn skills in these two weeks which will stay with them for the lifetime to come.