Battle Of Life And Death - Himanshu Mandal, IIM Ranchi

Do you know how it feels when you have forgotten all your past memories at the age of 21,

fighting the battle of life and death.

I believe life is like a rollercoaster ride full of ups and downs so just hold tight because I will be taking you through one hell of a ride of my life beyond your imagination.

I am from Navi Mumbai and my dad is an employee of ABG conglomerate's Ultratech Building Product Division (BPD). I have always been active in my extracurricular activities in my school and college days. I had represented my school in various sports activities. In my undergrad days, I was a member of student council. 

6th May 2017

Till this day, ABG was just another group to me as the only thing it did for my family was to provide livelihood. On that day, me and my family were on the way for a summer trip. We just landed at Bagdogra Airport, West Bengal and one of my relatives came to receive us. 

Due to rash driving of the driver we met with a deadly accident. I was sleeping with my headphones on and then our taxi smashed. I don’t know what happened after that because all of us became unconscious. After some time, my relative got his senses back. With the local support, he somehow managed to take us to the nearest hospital Neotia in Siliguri. My dad got cuts on his face,eyelids,ears,neck. The front glass broke into pieces because of the impact of the hit. My mom’s left elbow,left ribs and left knee was fractured.

And you might ask what happened to me. My spine literally broke near the neck and my tendons of my skull and my lower jaw broke. I had lost consciousness before even I could react to this. 

Now comes the role of ABG ! 

They helped us in this critical situation both morally and financially.  My dad received a call from a dealer about the delivery of some BPD materials that by when will it reach and the call was received by a policeman. Hence, he was informed about the devastating accident we went through. The dealer called my dad’s colleague and informed him about this incident. Then ABG team got into action and my uncle is also from ABG group Ultratech Cement, his contribution is immense. 

ABG group visited us in the hospital. The whole of East side came into action even the Regional Manager visited my father personally and professionally. My maternal uncle left to Mumbai for further treatment process. Consulted various hospitals as well as various neurosurgeons. This had to be done because Neotia hospital was not a big hospital. I was kept alive by techostromy on a ventilator for 11 days.

Then sooner with the help of ABG and my uncle, we could finally consult with Asia’s No.1 Neurosurgeon Dr Atul Goyal. Me being  on a ventilator was very critical so an Air Ambulance was booked. Under the clause bed to bed transfer the booking and the entire payment of the bills was taken care by ABG group.

The impact of the accident was so severe that I had lost my past memory. The questions I asked my father - “who are you,who am I,when we met” by scribbling somehow with my left hand. My dominant right side was paralised. I even forgot what is zero.

I graduated in 2017 so now it's a big question that what’s next. As I have survived such a major accident with various surgeries until January 2018. It was very difficult for me to cope up with this rigorous life. I decided to start preparing for CAT because from my graduation days it was my goal to be a manager just like my father and after whatever ABG did for us it became like a dream company for me and I told my father that after completing my MBA I would be working for ABG.

Slowly I started regaining everything with a lot of faith,belief,patience,medications and Gurujee's blessings and blessers of Art of Living  from India and abroad.

I actually had to go through counting the numbers from 1-100 to learning A,B,C,D but then my mind started responding quickly to this, my mental development began slowly and steadily. I learned how to behave in my surroundings. I started adapting to things happening around me. Then I developed my english speaking by watching TV series with subtitles by pausing them to read and understand in various scenes.

I joined CAT coaching classes but I went into depression as I started feeling ashamed of myself because of my scars which I received on my neck and on my collar area. I was not able to move my neck even slightly. I started hiding myself from everyone and started wearing a hoodie zipper to cover myself all the way up while travelling to my classes. 

My first lecture was on equations and after knowing my condition sir told me that (a-b)^2 formula will be used, so by listening to it I recognized it and was about to start solving the problem but then I got stuck because I didn’t know its expansion.

Then one day my conscious gave me a call that if I have survived such a major accident be it with scars and less mobility of my neck, after defeating death I am back for a reason. So I had faith in myself and started my second life with the determination of going to an IIM and then joining ABG.

This scenario of my life actually taught me that you have to accept whatever happens to you, be it good or bad it happens for a reason, you will live happily if you have got supporting family and friends.

At Present

I successfully cracked CAT and secured admission into IIM Ranchi ! And most importantly I am alive and am able to narrate my story to the entire world. If not ABG, none of this would be possible. I and my family are immensely grateful to ABG for all the moral and financial support which we can never repay.