Q. Why Aditya Birla Group is big in my life?
As a conglomerate, Aditya Birla Group has always been around our lives for the most of the time. I still remember the time when we first shifted to Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand, from a small town Chaibasa. We shifted to a rented house in one of the prominent and posh area of the city. As we settled, I used to see my father travel throughout the city to look for a decent place to build our house but couldn’t find any. After twelve years, we finally got to have our own house near Hatia Station. The cement that was used to build the house and give its foundation was UltraTech Cement. Little did I know that it is a part of Aditya Birla Group. It was during my graduation days that I came to know UltraTech belonged to Aditya Birla Group. I feel thankful to ABG for being a part of our much-awaited dream house.
This is just a part of my life. Aditya Birla Group has also been there in my family in other aspects too. Everyone loves dressing up. Everyone in my family does too. The one stop shops for all our clothing: Planet Fashion. A roof under which we get to have branded clothes from Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England and Louis Philippe. The outlets belong to Aditya Birla Group and the brands mentioned above too. For me, ABG has always been a part of my celebrations, be it the school farewell, college freshers and farewell, festivals and the best part, I wore a Louis Philippe suit to my CAP process, and I don’t know how, but the kind of clothes I wear, it gives me confidence, and the CAP interview at Kolkata landed me at IIM Kashipur. It gives me jitters of happiness writing this article and remembering how Aditya Birla Group has been a part of so many things of my life.
Q. How I overcame challenges to achieve my ambitions in life so far?
I don’t know the exact time but it was during my first year of graduation, 2014, that I first held a DSLR camera in my hand. Clicking with point and shoot cameras have been there since ages but then using a DSLR camera was different. There were so many controls, balancing the ISO, aperture, shutter speed and everything else was a task. As I continued clicking pictures, I started loving it. Seeing my love for photography, one of my brother’s friend gave me his camera to use and I had it with me for like forever. He didn’t say a word. Later on, he said, I was happy seeing my little brother happy. It took a lot of time, exactly 2 years to convince my parents to get me my own camera but then I guess they too felt my love for photography and got me a professional DSLR camera. On the way to the shop, buying the camera, returning back home, I didn’t do anything but smile. Now that I had my own camera, I used to escape from my home and go for photography, be it Street, Wildlife or Abstract Photography. My parents used to get furious whenever I returned. It was somewhere in June 2017 that I got my first professional opportunity. It was a Tribal Calendar photoshoot. I was among the other three photographers, and they were renowned photographers of the state. Every morning of the shoot, before leaving home my mother scolded me a lot. It felt bad to listen to those harsh words but then I couldn’t leave that one thing that I loved. The shoot was over in a month and by the next three months, the calendars were out. All the members of the team received the copies, and so did I. It was my mother and father whom I first showed the pictures. Out of 12 months, pictures of 7 months were selected from my gallery. My parents were awestruck. My mother had tears in her eyes. She came to me, hugged me and said that she felt sorry for scolding me and that she was proud of me. No matter who came to our house, my mother used to show them the calendar, and especially show them the pictures that I clicked. Post that, my parents never said no to my photography. I’ve been into several other calendar, portfolio, band photoshoots and have won a few awards too. I’d like to say that the only challenge that one can have is convincing their parents to let them pursue their ambitions, and once they are convinced, with your hard work, you can win anything and everything.