I am a commerce graduate and one thing which we were told since the very beginning about the companies was “A company is an artificial person” and hence you can not see or touch it. Most of the companies or groups for that matter get limited to this particular statement only. Then there are companies who go beyond the conventional mindset and establish that although you can’t touch or see a company but you surely can “feel” its presence. Aditya Birla Group have been one such enterprise for me. It is a house of various brands which have transformed the face of Indian market in different sectors. It includes all the like of Ultratech cement, Van Heusen, Pantaloons etc. The way Aditya Birla group has forayed into the lives of every Indian at some point of their life or other is commendable.
- From my mother preparing my school tiffin with chapatis rolled in Freshwrapp aluminium foil to the time we decided to rebuilt our house and used Ultratech cement for that purpose.
- From the time when my parents bought my first ever branded clothes from Pantaloons to the time when I gifted my father a Louis Philippe shirt from my first ever earnings.
- From the time I purchased Peter England’s formal shirt for my MBA admission interview to the time I gifted my brother a Forever 21 T-shirt for his birthday.
- From the time I surprised my girlfriend with a Liva outfit to the time I fought my best-friend to borrow his favourite Allen Solly jacket.
- From the time Idea gave us the privilege of mobile number portability to the time Style up gave people of my city (Ayodhya) the experience of connecting with a brand.
Situation and time might have changed over the years but what remained constant was the presence of Aditya Birla Group to make those moments special. No matter what my emotions were, I had ABG helping me express them. Its, rare to see a group or a brand touch so many aspects of an individual’s life and hence therefore it is big in my life.
There are times in life when you are required to take tough decisions to reach your goals. We often form expectations towards particular events but the fact is things are not in our control and hence the ultimate reality might be very different from what we expect. The same happened to me when I started preparing for C.A. As a normal commerce student, the very first option which comes in our mind is appearing for CPT. I have been a scorer and rank holder in my school days and the same strike continued in my graduation too where I went on topping the college every single year. Such achievement made me feel as if I can achieve whatever I want. But I was soon proven wrong. I appeared for CPT thrice but could not clear it once. It was a tight slap on my face. Ultimately, I decided to give up on C.A and pursue MBA as a career option. I have never been interested in Maths and I didn’t study it post class 10th hence for me it was a very daring decision. Moreover, I wasn’t thorough with verbal too hence none of the sections which are asked in CAT exam were my strength. But as-usual I thought that I can do it. Therefore, I began with the preparations. But again, the destiny had different plans. Due to certain personal reasons I could not prepare well and ended up scoring 50 percentile in CAT with 30 percentile in Verbal and 33 percentile in Quants. I was broken to the core that I accepted I am not meant for anything great. I decided to take admission in any random college but just a day before the scheduled admission, I backed out. I thought to myself that I won’t be giving up this easily on my dreams. Although the kind of marks I scored were depressing enough but still I gathered courage to fight back and began preparation for CAT again. During the preparation I went through a lot of emotional and financial distress. The extent was so high that I decided to give up on my MBA dream just 15 days before the CAT exam. But thanks to my best-friend who was there to guide me and imposing faith in me that I can do whatever I want, its just a matter of time. She asked me not to give up at a time when I am this close to my dreams. Hence, I stood up and gave my level best dedication towards the exam. Ultimately, I ended up scoring 91.37 percentile in CAT. My Quants percentile rose from 33 to 89 and my verbal percentile rose from 30 to 86. It may not be a great achievement for many, but for me it was a daring decision and I didn’t let emotional and financial challenges restrict me from achieving my goals.