Aditya Birla group has been a part of everyone’s life at some point in time. As for me, it started with Pantaloons. For most of the years of my life, I have lived in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh and whenever I am driving past the Rama Magneto Mall in Bilaspur, one store that still fancies my eyeballs is the lavish, extravagant store of Pantaloons. When Pantaloons came to the Bilaspur, at that time the city stood at the crossroads of being a modern developing center of trade and urbanization and a conservative, traditional town of a slow pace. Pantaloons initially played an important nexus in bringing about this transition to urbanization. Besides, it facilitated the change in the fashion landscape of the town. To cater to the growing demand and cash-in on the opportunity, the merchants earlier used to source the clothing from different places which was time-consuming and involved greater effort. Hence, the people had to grapple with the situation of compromising on the brands of clothes they wanted to don. The idea of wearing an Allen Solly polo t-shirt, putting on a pair of Lewis Phillipe denim, or flaunting classy, sleek and above all, comfortable yet value for money Van Heusen suits seemed like a distant dream. But Aditya Birla Group which is known for its brilliant marketing surveys to understand the jugular of customers changed the scenario, and it was a huge success. Factoring in the aspirational value of the customers and striving to build a broader customer base, various offers and discounts are fielded strategically by Pantaloons which results in a win-win situation for both parties so.
I had been an average student during my life, who focused more on other activities than studies. Due to this carelessness, I failed in one of the subjects of half-yearly examinations in the 10th standard. This incident acted as an eye-opener and I started to study. I did recover a bit and scored average marks in 10th and 12th standard, but could not score well in the JEE mains examination. I was underprepared for the competition and secured a rank of around 1.5 lakh. However, after the JEE mains examination, I prepared 2 months for the CGPET exam (state-level engineering entrance exam of Chhattisgarh) and performed well in it. This proved fruitful and I got admission in Government Engineering College - Bilaspur, one of the top engineering colleges of Chhattisgarh. But I wasn’t satisfied, I wanted more. I decided that I would pursue a post-graduation program from one of the best institutes in the country. I also wanted to contribute to society by delivering value to people who were deprived of it. Hence, right after finishing my graduation, I started studying for CAT 2017 and scored an acceptable 95 percentile in CAT 2017, but I chose not to go into one of the colleges offered to me as I had set my aim higher. Next year, I studied harder than I ever had and prepared for CAT 2018. The seeds of my hard work reaped me the reward of 99.74 percentile in the examination. Due to this, I got many interview calls, but I lacked the confidence to be able to crack them. It was in those times that a suit of Peter England was my strongest companion. It filled the void in my personality, giving me a boost and making me believe I can do what I fear the most. It paid dividends and enabled me to enter into one of the most prestigious MBA institutes of the nation – MDI Gurgaon, thus getting me one step closer to the dream that I had set years before.
