ADITYA BIRLA GROUP- India’s Choice |IIM KASHIPUR

Part B

I am a great believer of the following lines uttered by Heath Ledger in the movie 10 Things I hate about you, “You deserve what you want when you’re trying your best to fight for it, no one can take that right from you.” I belong to the Middle-working class, and like every other middle-class family in India, my parents too wanted me to realize the Big Indian Dream- good percentage in Boards, good intermediate college and then an IIT Engineer. But all of their aspirations and dreams were shattered when they found out that I had a problem with writing and reading. The words, sentences and phrases hardly made any sense to me. I couldn’t keep up with my classmates and I struggled. And my academic performance affected my social life as well. We never consulted any doctor because my parents thought it’s just a phase which will eventually pass. But it didn’t, rather it continued and aggravated with time. I hardly ever completed any exam paper. I was unhappy, as my parents were unhappy. I struggled at socializing and didn't even have a friend. But then I decided to change and I told my mom the same. She would give me handwriting lessons and I would practice that for hours. I started reading comics and storybooks to increase my vocabulary and get comfortable with the structure. I sketched a lot and my parents encouraged me to take up painting. That helped me psychologically, as now I was doing something that I was good at. It helped me build my confidence. And I slowly improved and everything gradually made sense to me. My academics improved and that small victory infused a lot of confidence in me. I went from being the last in class to the topper in the 10th board exam. And I have been carrying on that momentum ever since. I cracked IIT-JEE advanced and mains, NEST, BITSAT and even earned the INSPIRE-DST fellowship. And now I am in an IIM. If I could say all these to that afraid seven-year-old me, he would dismiss me saying that it’s not possible. That period of my life where I overcame my limitations and fears to become something better will be my single most significant accomplishment. Rest all have or will follow because of that. Even at that tender age, I understood that talent is secondary and nothing is impossible if I can put my mind into it.