A]
Being a 90’s kid, I was a part of one of the most exciting eras wherein many innovations unfolded for our generation. May it be the first telephone in our house for which I used to run every time to pick up the call, the hand-held video game consoles, video games to be played on television, Toby Maguire’s Spiderman and many more. Whenever I think of those things, I just can’t overcome the nostalgia! But one of the priceless memories were the advertisements that I used to enjoy on Television. ABG was unknowingly a part of it in the form of Idea Cellular. Idea Cellular ads were surely one of those that drew my attention. The campaigns which idea featured in the ads with Abhishek Bachchan like ‘Walk and Talk’ – which focused on the message of talking while speaking and making people health conscious. Also, cannot forget the ‘Honey Bunny’ song campaign on which we used to jingle every time our group met. The ‘language barrier’ campaign advertisement was something I still remember. The ads served their purpose, what it did was it made me convince my father to buy idea card for my mother when Idea 3G was launched and he bought it because we had good reception of Idea cellular in our locality. Also, as my name is Aditya, as a child I always felt special seeing Aditya Birla Group advertisement on Television, but was always clueless about what it actually was! Keeping nostalgic memories aside and coming to the time when I came to know what ABG is and what its products are, another inclusion of ABG in my life was during the inauguration of the new building in my work organization Epiroc Mining India Ltd. We had decided the dress code to be a white shirt and a pair black trousers for the inauguration day and 2 of us were given the responsibility of arranging the white shirts with the logo of company woven on the shirt and were supposed to be distributed a day prior to the inauguration day. I visited 3-4 outlets of different brands and received their quotations. It was a big event and shirts were to be distributed from workers to top senior executives, so we needed to choose diligently. We were in need of about 250 shirts within a period of 1 month. We had contacted well-known brand outlets but the deal was not getting finalized due to the budget issue while others couldn’t weave the logo and deliver it on time. But it was finally Van Heusen which came to the rescue. The executive of the outlet agreed to meet our demands as well as deliver the shirts on time. I also visited the store twice to check the status and they provided us utmost courtesy and hospitality. Also, most importantly we received quick feedback and responses from them and at the end, the outlet was also able to meet the deadline. We both were praised for the work and I give the complete credit to Van Heusen. Another instance when ABG became a part of my life was when I started to shop from People store. One of my friends had suggested me about it and I planned to give a visit for shopping of some casual clothes before my birthday 2 years back. Since then I frequently visit People because I always find the right clothing that I need and suits me and my choices. I had also suggested my sister buy from People and even she loved the collection. I always get what I plan to buy out there and for me I feel it takes less time to shop as I am able to find what I need on less time out there and there’s no need to search for other shops when I get everything I am looking for under one roof. I also now appreciate the customer experience and helpful employees there. In the end, I would say ABG is close to me because it inspires the entrepreneur in me with its history. ABG started from a jute making company and it has now become a multi-product conglomerate. Its journey from start to the industry giant it is now, disrupting many segments including the retail and the difference it makes for our countries economy inspires me and fills me with hope for making my dreams come true.
B]
There are 2 challenges which I faced in my life which might not be very big but gave me learning for life and has made me who I am today.
1. I studied in Gokhale Education High School which was a normal English medium school till my 6th standard in 2006. In 2007 we had to shift to the main Nashik city and I was forcibly made to change school which I did not want as I was going to lose out on my childhood friends. I was an introvert child at that time and preferred to be with my group of friends. The sudden change of school without my intent made it more difficult for me to accept the situation. I was admitted to Rasbihari International School from 7th which involved a completely different culture. The student intake was just around 40 per class which ensured personal attention to each child. It was getting difficult for me to digest everything all at once. My academics were affected and health also got affected, I fainted twice in assembly hall out of nervousness. After 2-3 months, the situation started getting better when I started to accept the truth and made a firm decision to bring myself out of it. I made few good friends and got well known by many others because of my performance in football games. Later I got to know many students and became good friends with them. I participated in almost every Elocution competition of English, Hindi and Marathi language, writing competitions and Olympiads and won a place almost in all of them. I realized thereafter that I wouldn’t have got an opportunity to develop my skills in the previous school which I got here. I also made friends with who will stay with me my entire life. I cherish the decision now and I am happy it helped me to change and made me an ambivert! It helped me to learn how to be an adaptable, social and quick learner.
2. The other challenging situations would be our final year project that we carried out in Sharda Industries Pvt Ltd. Our college had made it compulsory to the students to make the project as an industry-sponsored project only. So, we had reached to many industries to look up for potential projects that we could work on and finally, we approached Sharda Industries which is a major vendor of Mahindra and TATA Industries that produces mufflers and silencers for Xylo, Verito, Tiago etc. Our project was to avoid operator error of forgetting to insert glass wool in the muffler assembly in the hydraulic press machine and make the operation full proof. We provided a solution using laser sensors which involved using adding additional AND gates and giving additional inputs to the existing PLC ladder diagram of the machine so that if glass wool is not inserted, the press machine will not work and there would be no defective mufflers produced with zero rejection. Initially it was approved by our project guides which involved selection of proper sensors, creating 3D model in modelling software, fabricating supports for mounting sensors, taking trials and deciding optimized position of sensors for a particular muffler setup, testing new PLC inputs in PLC simulation software, changing the actual PLC inputs, creating maintenance sheet and troubleshooting for the setup. The project got completed well in time but just 1.5 months prior to the project vivas, our guide said it was not enough as there must be stress/ load calculations involved in your project and thesis as per the university guidelines. We had already completed our project and were in the Manufacturing process of making the thesis and now we had to find a way to make a project which involved mechanical load and stress calculations as the existing project wasn't purely mechanical but Mechatronics based which involved design and load calculations of only the sensor supports and major part was PLC. There was nothing that we could do to include stress calculations in the existing project and so we were in a difficult situation. After a week of brainstorming in the company, we came up with an idea, instead of this project we could work on the scrap pneumatic press machine which we used to see every day in the scrap yard every time we had visited the company and make it functional for stuffing that would involve design calculation as well as a pneumatic circuit. We took permission from our guide in the company to work on the machine to make it functional and he got us permission to work on it to make it operational for Tiago muffler. We took the inputs and design drawings of the Tiago muffler and designed the ram, supporting columns, calculation, and selection of pneumatic cylinder, base plate, and selection of DCV. It involved the design of the base plate, ram, and columns based on the force required to punch the muffler assembly cover. We had to work late in the company but managed to make it functional just a week before the project viva. It was quite challenging for us to find an alternate solution and complete it on time. But it was all worth it when we were appreciated by the external invigilator in our project viva. I learned the importance of critical thinking, teamwork, delegation and hard work.
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