Whenever I hear someone mention Aditya Birla Group, a special person comes to my mind. In 2015, a naive girl ventured out of her sheltered upbringing and moved to a new city. I was oblivious to the harsh world I was about to step into. Fortunately, a pure soul with a keen sense of judgement turned out to be my roommate. Having lived in various cities around the country, she was a breath of fresh air which helped me navigate breezily through the transition period. She hailed from Nagda, her father worked in Grasim Industries Limited. She was born and brought up in various colonies while I was from a small town. Her frankness was a quality which I admired the most. We were two strongly opinionated people but she had the courage to adhere by them. I looked up to her. She helped me shape myself into the person that I am today.
We both used to volunteer at an NGO during weekends. As a part of it, we used to teach the basic operation of computers to young women in a village nearby. Listening to their tales of woe and hardships, often times I thought of giving up the work. Being an emotional person, it used to take a toll on me. It was during these times that she consoled me and helped me come to terms with the ugly truths of the world we live in. She provided me strength and confidence. She embodied the roles of all my dear ones, whom I missed, poured in a single soul.
Though our personalities were poles apart, we shared some common likes and dislikes. One of them was our incessant need to buy new clothes and accessories. While small shops and street markets dominated our shopping sprees, we always looked with envy at the many branded stores located in malls. We both shared the same zodiac sign, Taurus, who are famously known to be materialistic. Even after parting ways after our graduation, I am ever indebted to her for her unequivocal support. Many personalities enter your life but very few leave a profound mark. I hope to reunite with her soon after completing my post graduation at IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade), with our Ralph Lauren bags dangling over our shoulders and the same as before optimism brightening our faces.
It must be a little evident that I had a bad habit of giving up too easily. Over the years, I have tried my hand at different ventures and fields. I have undertaken various tasks in fields like sports, dance, music etc but ended up abandoning most of them midway. I couldn’t stick to a particular activity for more than a few years. At that time, I tried to reason with myself saying that I had lost interest in the said activity. But upon self-introspection, I have come to the realization that the true reason is my fear of failing and the fear of not being able to excel in that field. The fear of failing and not being able to perform my optimum, held me back every time. This attitude hampered my growth and I have missed quite a lot of opportunities because of it. I couldn’t let it go on any longer and I took it as a challenge to rise above my fear of failing. I tried to maintain a positive attitude. I started reading autobiographies and biographies of many famous personalities. Their stories of failures and how they still persevered after many setbacks instilled in me a new perspective. I found my irrational need to excel at a particular field to be illogical. I made it a point to complete any task I took up to the end, ever since. The original saying which has been distorted over the years actually goes like, "Jack of all trades, master of none but often times better than a master of one." Specializing in a particular field has undeniable benefits but it is not necessarily the only way to find success in life. As rightly said by Mr. Kumar Mangalam, "Failure is not fatal, failure is inevitable."