Aditya Birla Group - An Education, An Experience - Prateek Chandrasekara, NMIMS, Mumbai

Q1. Why is Aditya Birla Group big in your life?

"Knowledge for the sake of knowledge without benefiting fellow beings is a dead end and only leads to the blind alley of frustration. Education is a meaningless ritual, unless it molds the character of students and imparts in them a strong sense of values." These are the thoughts of an eminent educationist, the grandmother of Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Dr. Sarala Birla. Her brain child was the temple of my education for three years, the Sarala Birla Academy where I spent the most formative years of my adolescent life. These are the thoughts with which I have come today to NMIMS. Needless to say, Aditya Birla Group has been bigger than big in my life. The school exemplifies the thought process of Dr. Sarala Birla and the education imparted to me at Sarala Birla Academy has served as a moral and an emotional cornerstone of my development. The holistic education experience was par excellence where curricular and extra-curricular were given equal importance and their attitude to a wholesome life has helped me establish a healthy lifestyle mind, body and soul. In addition, one of the most impressive facts about the way the academy is run by Aditya Birla Group is their ability to hire the right people and bring like minded professors and staff to the same platform. I am to this day inspired by my principal at Sarala Birla Academy, Dr. Shantanu Das. He exemplified all the quality that a man should possess and taught me a great deal about handling responsibility and has played a gigantic role in helping me become the man I am today. Such hiring practices reflect brilliantly on the Aditya Birla Group and is an indicator of the respect placed on culture, values and ethics. I certainly would love to be a part of the Aditya Birla Group some time in my life because I am a product of Aditya Birla Group and represent the value system that they stand for. We all are aware of the big things that Aditya Birla Group does, cement for Bandra-Worli Sea Link, one of the world’s largest telecom company to name a few but I believe that it is the small actions that add up to a significant change in the world and Sarala Birla Academy is one of the those places where there are small actions by Aditya Birla Group which have an immense impact on the lives of the students studying there. I consider it an absolute privilege to have been lucky enough to have Aditya Birla Group so big in my life so early on. Their principles and values have been imprinted on me and I will forever hold high the flag of Sarala Birla Academy and the Aditya Birla Group.

Q2. How you overcame challenges to achieve your ambitions in life so far?

            I have led a privileged life and I recognize the fact that I am very lucky to be surrounded such comfort and luxury. But my time at Sarala Birla Academy and their outreach programs have taught me to be grateful and empathetic to those I encounter who are not as lucky. This value system inculcated in me at Sarala Birla Academy created a huge interest to pursue a career of social service and using my skills for the benefit of all and has imbibed with the necessary drive to make an impact irrespective of what challenges lay ahead. This drive was put to the test when I conveyed my intentions to my family and friends. Coming from an orthodox family where the end goal of a good education is a cushy job with a fat paycheck, the notion of me giving it all up in the name of social service seemed all too blasphemous to my father who instantly forbid me from pursuing such a line of thought any further. My friends too did not understand why I would choose a life, they presumed, of poverty and hard work when a much better alternative was right in front of me.             Nonetheless I did not budge. My father wouldn’t talk to me and he asked literally everyone he knew to talk some good sense in to me. Those were very trying times and had it not been the value system and the metal strength inculcated in me at Sarala Birla Academy, I would have given up all too easily. Many a nights during such trying times, I have taken solace in my principles and the fact that no matter how big and powerful Aditya Birla Group became, they always stayed connected to the ground conducting and supporting philanthropic efforts all-round the year. And I am ecstatic that I stuck to my guns. I may have had to experience a cold shoulder from my friends and family but the impact I have made on the life of students as a teacher at a government school and the smiles in the lives I have been responsible for just fills me with warmth and contentment. Surely the path I had chosen was not as bad as it was being portrayed by the people closest to me. I am very proud to have been a part of Aditya Birla group who have given me the courage and the mental faculties to take on the world and come out standing tall and proud.