“One feels blessed to have been born into a family like the Birla family, which is a household name in India, which stands for tradition, is yet contemporary, stands for trust” – Kumar Mangalam Birla. As rightly quoted by the chairman, Aditya Birla group has been a household name for years together. Divulging into various sectors ( as many as 14!) like telecommunications, fashion and apparel, educational institutions etc and yet managing to mark a presence in every field has been a trait of the Aditya Birla Group which leaves me spellbound.
Talking about the ways in which Aditya Birla has influenced my life, one such way is in the field of fashion. For a shopaholic like me, Pantaloons has always been the one stop destination for fashion. The variety and collection that they offer will always make a person buy more. When it comes to buying traditional wear, I always go for their inhouse brands like Akkriti , Srishti and many more. In the segment of western wear Forever 21 and Liva have been my favourites because of the designs that they offer keeping the quality and price in check. Me and my father have always resorted to Louis Phillip and Van Heusen when it comes to formal wear because of the classy look that they give.
The Aditya Birla Group recently merged Vodafone with Idea thereby expanding their telecommunications services nationally as well as globally. They provide good internet connectivity and calling services at quite a reasonable rate. Recently my state, Odisha, was hit by a severe cyclonic storm , Fani and the amount of damage that it did is quite known to everyone. With the electric poles and phone towers damaged, it became difficult to contact our near and dear ones. But within 2 days the only network which started its service full fledged was, Vodafone- Idea. This act of the service provider increased my trust and faith in it.
ABG’s Essel Mining in Barbil, Odisha has also contributed in large towards infrastructure development of Keonjhar, a town in Odisha.
Holistically, ABG has been influencing our lives in a million ways possible. It has influenced my buying patterns. It has been providing quality services to its customers which has made it one of the largest and most trusted conglomerates.
HARDSHIPS DON'T BREAK YOU. THEY MAKE YOU - STRONGER AND BETTER
‘ I know it’s not an easy time,
But what’s the use crying day and night?
It’s just a play of THE ALMIGHTY GOD
Forget the worries and plan a move on’
Well, that was a stanza from a poem written by me, which keeps me going each time I fall down and also has a little relevance to how I overcame a challenge in my life.
It was the final year of my graduation when I decided to sit for MBA entrance examinations. I had sufficient time to prepare well for it. Like any other MBA aspirant, I too had the wish to grab a seat in a top b- school. The first step towards it was enrolling myself into a coaching institute and start with my preparations as soon as possible. Within a week or two I started off with my classes. With the goal in my mind I started putting in all the efforts I could. Soon the D- day arrived and I was quite confident about my preparation until I saw the questions which made me go blank. God only knows ‘how’ but I failed to answer even the easiest of the questions. Dejected, I came out quite assured that I wouldn’t be making it up to any of the good institutions. The next few days went by in analysing as to what went wrong. Soon I made up my mind to forget about what’s gone and thought about giving another attempt. However, somewhere at the back of my mind, I did not want to take the risk of dropping a year for my preparation. With a lot of advices and chalking out of the pros and cons of various other alternatives, I set my mind on taking it up for one last time. It was difficult because with my results were attached many hopes and expectations of my near and dear ones.
Right when I geared up with my studies, I started having this unusual back ache. Like any other person I brushed it off taking it to be a normal thing. With time it worsened. This followed various tests and every doctor I went to, shunned it considering it to be something very normal, until one of them ( probably he was my last hope!!) actually found the issue. Apparently I had twisted the end bone of my spinal cord. It had no medication and I was told that this may go away with age ( or may be not too). I was asked to not to sit for more than 10 mins at one place making it difficult for me to study, especially giving mocks. The hindrances grew day by day and I could do absolutely nothing about it. The thought of an year going waste kept bugging me and threw me into a zone of overthinking. But there was this voice from within which kept telling me “ Do not give up, it will all be okay”. Hence, with that slightest hope that I had , I decided to go for it, come what may. I appeared for the exams and performed fairly well and here I am writing this article from the hostel room of my b-school.
A learning that I take away from this challenge that I faced was, no matter how big a problem comes in your way, have the ability to overcome it because the life beyond that, will definitely be worth it!
