“Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth,
‘You owe me.’
Look what happens
With a love like that.
It lights up the whole sky!”
Hafiz had spoken and left but the words have stayed true even today. The following are a few anecdotes on slice of our lives that we all pretty much relate to.
Flashback to 2007.
She grins ear to ear the moment she hears the bell ring. Her stomach grumbles a little and it was a happy kind of grumble, unlike other days. People gathered around her and she took out the box from her bag.
Okay, moment of truth that was.
She took off the lid of her most coveted pooh bear shaped box and waited with bated breath. The room went silent and she could hear her heart beat in anticipation. After a pregnant pause, she heard the first gasp of surprise. Then came another and then the other. She smiled and felt her heart filling up with pride. She looked at the awestruck faces of her friends and looked back into her big yellow pooh-bear lunch box.
There remained her food, freshwrapped in the silver coloured foil that everyone coveted to have. She was one of the elite ones now.
Flash-forward to 2009
She saw that dress in Pantaloons when she had gone with her mother and secretly wished she could buy one for herself. It was obvious that her mother wasn’t as entertaining as everyone else’s or that’s what she thought until it was her birthday and her mother presented her with a gift with a nice Pantaloon-y wrapping.
She quickly tore open the pack only to find the same dress that she had always wished for. Being on the higher side of the weighing scale had always been a blow to her morale. But this time, she was genuinely happy. Mothers know the best.
And so does Pantaloons!!!
Flash-forward to 2013
His first cell phone demanded attention and so did his crush. With a long and tedious discussion with his friends, the two 15-year old love-birds decided to zero down on Idea network for their late-night conversations and chit-chats.
He recharged his phone and his girl-friend’s phone with the free-messaging pack and thanked the stars for this one feature that could help them avoid the scrutinizing eyes of their parents.
What an Idea, Sirji!
Flash-forward to 2018
IIFT exam- Done and Dusted.
Interviews – Cracked
Orientation Begins.
She suits up in her finest Van Heusen’s shirt, trousers and blazer. He checks on his Louis Phillipe blazer cuffs, straightens up his tie and laces his shoes. The time had finally arrived!
Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth,
‘You owe me.’
Hafiz would have never thought in his dreams that some day, Aditya Birla Group will stand true to these lines. The sun never says and so does Aditya Birla Group, that has remained a sun in our daily lives since 1857. It just stays, every single day, every time and everywhere, making its presence felt and not making it very obvious at the same time. People always talk about the smaller things that matter, the things that are with us every day and are an indispensable part of our lives. Aditya Birla Group does just that. Operating in 35 countries with over 120,000 employees worldwide, it continuously strives to give its best in every place it ventures, be it catering to the copper needs of Indian railways, the world’s largest network or helping families build their dream houses with its cement industry or be it making men and women happy through their chains of clothing. The group has also made its presence felt in the fertilizers industry with its sterling product lines of fertilizers and catering to the needs of people of every niche of the society.
Look what happens
With a love like that.
It lights up the whole sky!”
Aditya Birla group does not only work on massive levels like its clothing retail or the cement industry but it also plays a crucial role in the microscopic level that many of us don’t realize. The Birla Carbon nanoparticles are one of the reasons that the tyres are safe on the roads.
The presence of this group is so indispensable in our lives that we never realize when it has made a silent impact on our decisions and choices. It is only the love for the people of this country and abroad that this institution has undertaken such a massive effort to shoulder our day to day needs. The weight of expectations and hopes are the heaviest in the world and this group has taken it all on itself and is making our lives easier than ever before, without any self-indulgent aspirations. This is the kind of love the sufi poet Hafiz talks about, it brightens up the days of the people.
Aditya Birla Group is not just a conglomerate right now. It is like our go-to person; anything we want, ABG has it. It is like the most trusted person in our lives; anything we are in need of, ABG fulfils it. It is like a box of memories for the influencers; with its ads and jingles and the pride of having a parantha ‘freshwrapped’ to school!
Flash-forward to 2019,
Somewhere in India
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
She placed the knife well on her wrist. There wasn’t going to be a second time. This was her only chance. Her alter-ego looked at her from the other side and smirked. She had achieved her goal. Kavya looked at her alter-ego who nodded in affirmation.
Swish!!!
One strike.
One moment.
One life.
Blood gushed out like a river falling down a cliff and she waited for the darkness to consume her….slowly, cruelly and pathetically.
In front of the huge burdens of hopes, aspirations and expectations, a life crumbled and perished. Depression and Helplessness won another battle yet again. Happiness and Positivity cried in a corner.
I, and I believe a lot of us, have been in Kavya’s shoes some day or the other. It was sheer luck that we survived to see this day, sitting at IIFT and writing this article. Many of us, aren’t that lucky. We live in a society that measures pride and prestige in terms of college brand and salary. Very few institutes are respected. The rest are subjects of memes on twitter and Facebook. It makes me wonder of the value of life has remained confined to the name of the college or the marks we have ‘achieved’ in our careers.
I had once run a marathon too, to remain in the good books of the neighbouring aunty and my relatives. (Un)fortunately, I failed. I failed in all. I wanted to screamed out so loud, tell everyone what went through me all this time when I let everyone down; when I let my parents downs. I wanted to wail out like a baby and beg the world not to force me into something I cannot do. Yet, those screams went un-heard; un-heard to an extent that I had stopped even the idea of letting it out. Depression knocked and I had given in…almost.
Almost.
The most influential word in the English dictionary.
I almost did what Kavya did.
I almost gave up.
I almost decided to remain the black sheep of my family.
Almost.
But human needs are unlimited. The more I held on to the notion of life, the more I wanted to meet people like me. The more people I met, the more I wanted to explore. The more I wanted to explore, the harder I pushed.
IIFT Delhi.
Depression was out of the door. So was anxiety and the sense of “failure” I had to prove myself one last time… I am NOT a failure.
One last time, I knew I had to try.
One last time I knew I could do it.
The journey to IIFT wasn’t an easy one. But I held on. Because I didn’t want to remain a failure.
The decision was enough to push me to my limits. The sheer determination pushed me to work harder. The simple idea of giving myself one last chance was all that was needed to make a difference. It does not matter whether we stand at the bottom of the ladder but what matters the most is giving ourselves one more chance to prove ourselves that we aren’t weak; convince ourselves that our past is gone and that it shouldn’t matter much from here on. Good days or bad, we must strive and that should be end of all thoughts.
Our time will come.
It wouldn’t take long.
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
(Poem by Maya Angelou.)