Why Aditya Birla Group is big in my life
Numerous brands come under the umbrella of the Aditya Birla group, which has impacted me at different junctures of my life. However, there is one brand that reverberates in my heart and has done so since I was a ten-year-old and that brand is Pantaloons. The reasons for a brand aggregator in the Fashion and Retail space being held in such high regard by me are deeply personal and I will try to walk you through my experience and unique connection with the brand.
Despite being born to a Bengali family in Kolkata, I spent the major chunk of my life in a remotely located colony in Dhanbad, Jharkhand with very little exposure to life in the city. Even the rapid urbanization of India made visible by the glitter of shopping malls and foreign brands flooding the market, brought about by the liberalization of the economy didn't quite percolate into the rural recesses of Dhanbad. However, television and media were expanding, and exposure to it made a pre-teen develop an affinity towards changing styles and brands. He no longer wanted his Durga Puja shopping to be done in small neighbourhood markets of Dhanbad. Fortuitously, my liaison with Pantaloons began as I was gifted what was probably my favourite apparel for years by my uncle and it came in a green packet with Pantaloons written over it. I was amazed by the look and feel of the product and my mother was kind enough to take me to the store on one of our trips to Kolkata. Both mother and son were amazed by the quality and variety of options on offer. The pricing of the products was an issue for the prudent middle-income family but we strategized that we need to get our shopping done during the special discount season that came around two months before Durga Puja celebrations. I remember making a sojourn to Kolkata which coincided with the start of the discount season at Pantaloons year on year to get the clothes we wanted at prices that didn't quite pinch our pockets. We used to fret over the fact that there was no Pantaloons outlet at Dhanbad and traveling to Kolkata for shopping got irksome at times. Thankfully, we got an outlet open up in Durgapur which was a couple of hours away when I was prepping for my standard tenth examinations and it was followed up by a store in Dhanbad itself when I was in my final year of school! Though, my time in Dhanbad was coming to an end, seeing the store open up in my city, watching its steady construction and finally visiting the store made me feel emotional. At the risk of sounding narcissistic, It felt as if it was I and my love for the store that had brought the brand right here to my city.
Having since relocated to Kolkata and lived briefly in cities like Hyderabad, Pune, and Bhubaneswar but the connect with Pantaloons stays the same. I still get much of my shopping done in the discount season that precedes Durga Puja, just like thirteen years ago. Disruptions brought about by the "Online Shopping Site", hasn't changed anything about my relationship with Pantaloons and I hope it stays that way.
Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.
"Against the rising waves,
your boat is helpless and tired,
Living one gasp at a time,
Your boat is helpless and tired,
Though the currents are against you,
It's time to make a difference…
Hoist the sail with courage,
This is all about your pride,
Shout ahoy and push ahead,
This is all about your pride…
Powerful storms will shake you,
But If you surrender to a whirlpool,
What good is your might?"
~ Amitabh Bhattacharya, English translation for an excerpt from ‘Naav', a song from Udaan(2010)
This underheard, underappreciated song was my anthem during those solitary nights when the odds seemed stacked against me and all else seemed hopeless. Naturally, whenever I am expected to talk or write about challenges and overcoming them, the movie and the song creeps right into my consciousness.
"Ambition", to be honest, is something I had always lacked during my late teenage years, I did not possess the maturity to pursue targets to achieve ambitious ‘goals'. Naturally, such an approach led me into a graduate program in engineering and a job as a software engineer in an IT multinational corporation, in line with popular trends. None of these were goals I had planned for with deliberation and thought but were consequences of simply allowing time to take its course.
However, my job took me outside the comfort of my home and the nature of work made me realize that this is not something I was made to do or something I wanted to do for the rest of my working life. I felt my talents were being grossly suppressed by the nature of my work as there was no outlet for them. After much thought, I decided that only an MBA from a premier institute can provide me the opportunities I have been looking for, albeit passively, for so very long. I felt that this might be the only way to rouse myself from my slumber and make me go out and do justice to myself.
The realization took time but the work towards this dream had to begin amidst hostile circumstances and had to begin quickly. The pressures of work made it difficult for me to concentrate my efforts on the preparation for competitive entrances. That I had to prepare for the tests meant that I had to close myself off to leisure activities that working professionals generally take on the weekends and their time after office. This made me feel even more alienated and isolated in a foreign city with no close friends or relatives. The only companions who made me keep my sanity where my books and films, but even they couldn't always keep the alienation and hopelessness at bay.
Despite all this, I persisted, just like the lyrics of the song quoted above, I did poorly in many tests but I salvaged my pride in others, there were interviews where I cracked under pressure and interviews where I shone through. The entire process with the pressures of work projects was debilitating physically and psychologically at times, but I am proud I got through it and achieved a goal, which I had set for myself. I envision that this is only the beginning of a newer, reenergized, motivated version of me.
#ABGLP #ABGWOOME #XIMB