I still remember the day I was having this conversation with my grandfather. I had just finished my summer internship as a mechanical engineering intern with RINL Visakhapatnam. Having been awed by the sheer size of the thermal power plant at RINL, I asked him,” Which is the largest powerplant in Odisha ?”, to which my grandfather replied,” The Hirakud captive power plant , of course.” He further told me that it’s located in Sambalpur and is operated by Hindalco Industries. That night I looked up for Hindalco Industries over the internet and eventually got to know that they are a part of The Aditya Birla Group. Soon I became aware of the fact that I have actually come across different brands of AGB without even realising they belong to ABG.
It was just a year before the aforementioned conversation, when I was roaming all over Bhubaneswar in search of formals to attend a leadership talk scheduled the next day, that I came across the Pantaloons store . As soon as I stepped into the men’s section I realised that this is going to be my go to store for all my future purchases of formal wear. They had it all, Van Heusen, Peter England, Louis Philippe, Allen Solly to name a few. I was even more surprised to know that these individual brands were in fact ABG’s in-house brands.
The very same year, as our house was under construction, I along with my father, was at the site supervising the construction. That was when I saw UltraTech cement being poured out of it’s sack and used. I am pretty sure my father must have told me back then that this was a product of ABG, but well, it must have slipped out of my mind.
Coming back to the day I went on the internet to look up ABG, all this recent past memories came flooding back to me and made me realise that Indeed, ABG is big in my life.
Challenges at every twist and turn in life
Challenges knock your door at every step in your life. Mine began the day I entered the exam hall to appear for the most coveted entrance exam of all time for all aspiring engineers, JEE Mains. Belonging to an upper middle class family, has it’s own pros and cons. In my case, the pros being a childhood full of comfort and good food and the cons being , not realising that I am growing up and need to decide my future career choice. As usual, like most, I decided engineering was the way to go. During the three hours that I sat for Jee Mains, I realised that engineering was not the way to go.
Now that I think about it, it was not too late then, but the fear of losing a year led me to join a private engineering college in Bhubaneswar. My biggest challenge was that I was a confused guy. I had no idea what I wanted to do moving ahead. Persuing a degree I didn’t want to, made matters worse.
It was during the beginning of my third year, when I had the opportunity to meet one of my father’s closest friends , an XIMB alumnus, based in Canada. After an enriching one hour conversation with him, I decided persuing MBA was the way to go. Never once did he or anyone else tell me, “You must persue an MBA.” It was his personality and intellect which drew me towards this career path.
My final challenge began during the fourth year of my engineering days. As I was busy preparing for the entrance exams, my friends and classmates were slowly getting placed with various organisations. As disheartening as that was, I was no longer a confused guy. My goal was clear. The only thing remaining was the journey to be mapped. And I must say it wasn’t exactly an easy mapping. But, the support of my mentors and parents helped me big time and I will forever be indebted to them.
Today, I am a proud first year student of XIMB, and ready to face further challenges that might come my way in the coming two years.
#ABGLP #ABGWOOME #XIMB