I never considered the impact of Aditya Birla group in my life. The first time I realized using its product was during my engineering days. But it took me a whole lot grit to get there.
I was always identified as a reserved teenager. Did not speak much or rather could not speak much at a stretch. It would take me 90 seconds to communicate an idea which a fellow schoolmate would do in 20 seconds. Yes, I stammered. A lot. As a result, my sentences would follow up with much enthusiastic imitations and giggles. Some would make fun of the chubby short stuttering ardar and some would sympathize, often protecting from such ridicules. Honestly, I hated the latter. At home, I would be told the stories of Sikh warriors who led the army of thousands against the Mughals and how Sikhs played an important part in the history. I would listen with rapt attention, imagining myself leading and setting an example. It would not take me long to come back to reality when apparently I had to play with the other kids outside.
I am curious though. Maybe that’s my superpower. I would see, listen, analyze, interpret and wrote like a demon possessed. I remember an advertisement intriguing me of
numbers floating in the air. I tried to make a sense of the number pattern but they were random. Somehow, people in that Ad were
smiling, nobody spoke a thing but their eyes communicated a spirit. They were definitely more confident than I was. A constant pestering my father would reveal of it being an Idea Ad. Frankly, this did not make things very clear. We were introduced to mobile phones much later in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Idea billboards around the national highway had similar smiling people, somehow feeling empowered. Maybe, this what you experience when you are able to communicate properly. A lot of sobbing would follow in the coming days because a 13-year-old boy wanted a mobile phone and had less than 3 friends who lived nearby. I would not get one until
6 years later when I went outside home to study Engineering.
Apparently, parents had known all the smart tricks I could use to my benefit. I could not get the device, but the idea stayed in my head. I wanted to be like those people. Maybe, I would be on one of those posters someday.
The next step was somewhat similar to a
SWOT analysis I’ve been reading these days at
MDI. I could work on any task for hours at a stretch followed by a diary entry of what I did today. That was definitely my strength. Brevity and communication were my Achilles heel. Sadly, that was a major weakness. The merciless outside world with the ridicule was a threat. My English teacher, Kaushal mam, was an opportunity. She forced us to write and remember a character sketch from the English textbook which we were supposed to present in the class. So, all I had to do was keep my strengths intact, overcome my weaknesses, ignore the threats and grab the opportunities before it was too late. I started spending much time in front of the mirror and read for hours at a stretch reprimanding myself every time I stammered. That exercise continued for another 3 months. At that time, I did not know where this idea would take me.
A couple of years later in the
heart of India, Madhya Pradesh, I was performing
street plays. Acting, singing and appealing to the audience of the issues that mattered. We managed to get 200+ eye donation registrations in a single day. We managed to evoke a sense of responsibility to the idea of clean India.
In retrospect, it would not have happened if it not for that hope for the things that are and that could be. Making big in business is not always targeting to the most number of people, maybe it’s about making the life of a small town boy a bit better.
An Idea that changed my life.