The One with the Dreams
Dreams are unbiased. From a beggar to a successful businessman, no one is spared from dreams. They are a part of us. Dreams can be silly and rational at the same time. However, my sister’s dream was nothing short of ambitious. She is from Vrindavan – a small town in Uttar Pradesh, India. Vrindavan is a holy city where lord Krishna grew up and has thousands of temples dedicated to the gods. Back in 2001, my sister saw Vrindavan as a place which did not have good educational opportunities. She wanted to achieve success and heights that would seldom cross the minds of small town girls at those times. She urged our parents to send her away. They did. When she was 11 years old, my parents sent her to Birla Balika Vidyapeeth (a boarding school in Pilani), where she stayed until college. She was one of the first females in my family to get into a boarding school at such a young age. She thrived for excellence and that made her the school topper every year. For her graduation and post-graduation in maths and finance, she joined Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. She was on the right track to her dreams and every bit of money spent on her was worth it.
Now, she has completed her MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in Illinois, US, which is one of the top b-schools of the world. She gives a major credit to her Birla Balika Vidyapeeth School and BITS Pilani which had laid down a firm base for her and had immensely contributed towards her success and personality development.
My sister is my idol and my mentor. She has imparted me the values that she had learned in her school and college. She has shown me that everything is achievable. Going to Birla School was one of the best decisions of her life and that made her what she is today and I could think of no better person than her to be my mentor.
Being An Outlier
All my life I have battled with expectations. Majorly it was the expectation to stand out of the crowd like my sister. After scoring a low 66% in 11
th class, I was expected to get back up and do well in 12
th class so as to join Delhi University for B.com Honours. There were only a handful of students from Vrindavan who had gone to the prestigious Delhi University. For that, I had to devote a lot of time to studies. But that didn’t stop me for pursuing my passion for badminton and I won the national level inter-school badminton competition held at G.L.A. University, Mathura. At the end, I did well in my exams and went to Delhi University for my graduation. After all the constraints, my determination and perseverance brought me to my dream university.
After coming to Delhi, I could witness the growth and the level of intellect the city had to offer. The competition was tough. My parents again expected me to stand out of the crowd and achieve something great. I decided to prepare for CAT (Common Admission Test) to pursue MBA in a premier institution. At my very first attempt, I scored 96.84 percentile and got the option to join many top tier b-schools. I can proudly say that at a young age of 20 years, I have joined Indian Institute of Management Ranchi (IIM Ranchi) for MBA program and fulfilled all the expectations of my parents. My juniors look up to me and ask me for any advice they need. I try to help and inspire them in any way I can.
I have to admit that I have been very fortunate. It wasn’t easy to come this far to IIM Ranchi. But I have a long journey ahead and I am nothing but excited for it.