Aditya Birla Group has always been very close to my heart since my childhood. My first encounter with the brand was through Freshwrapp Aluminium Foil when my mother used to cook lunch for me during my school days. And the same aluminium foil was later used to make balls for our sports period. I have been emotionally connected to the brand as I had my first shopping experience at Pantaloons when I got my twelfth standard’s results. Since then I’m a regular customer of Pantaloons as they regularly offer sale and discounts in their stores. Also, when I got my first job, I had to buy formals for office. Peter England was my first choice since it was a tried and tested brand by my father for many years.
Louise Phillipe is another ABG brand that I’m attached to, the day I received my first salary. I gifted a shirt to my father. Since it’s a luxury brand, my father never tried the brand so I wanted to him to have that experience.
I belong to a middleclass family and having a house of our own was a big dream. Only Ultratech cement was used in the construction. That’s the trust my family had in the brand.
Also our trust was reassured when we got to know that Ultratech cement was used in the construction of iconic Bandra-Worli sea link in Mumbai.
There are many CSR initiatives which have been taken by the group, which strengthens my belief in the brand.
So all in all my life events are very much connected to this brand. And I’m proud to have this association with Aditya Birla Group.
About challenges I think they have been the real teachers for me in my life. I have grown a lot after facing the challenges. I was never an academically bright student till my eleventh standard. Later I realised the importance of education for my career. I vowed to score good in twelfth standard and worked really hard for it. I was able to secure 92% for the first time in my latter half of my schooling.
Soon after graduation I had planned to pursue MBA. However not scoring well in CAT was a major setback for me. I had dropped an year for MBA and things didn’t go as planned. It was a very difficult situation to handle and I was clueless about my next step. I gathered courage, I motivated myself and I applied for a job in RBS where I was selected in one go. The job came as a blessing to me as I had no other option at that moment. I thought CAT is not my thing and I won’t be able to compete. I waited for one year. I focussed on my job wherein I got many rewards and recognition from the management. After almost one year I planned to prepare for CAT. I took lessons from my past performance and planned accordingly. I worked really hard towards my goal. I used to work from 8 in the morning to 9 in the evening. After that I had to give at least 2 hours to my preparation. It was a challenging year but I didn’t give up. And finally after going several processes I was able to make it to several reputed B schools of which I chose Goa Institute of Management.
For me challenges are part and parcel of life and they are never going to be over in our lives. I take my motivation from MS Dhoni, as he always says that process in the main thing and success is just a byproduct. I try to be realistic and focus more on the process not the results.