Forging Bonds Beyond Imagination
Aditya Birla group is an ever-expanding, Indian multinational conglomerate marked by its humility and vision to mark a change and contribute towards overall nation-building. Be it the freedom movement or the post-independence period when India had just begun to take baby steps towards reconstructing herself, Birla group stood firm to extend its support.
Today ABG operates across the seven seas with its stronghold across various sectors viz. fashion and retail, telecom, cement, finance, and whatnot. It has been successful in establishing itself as a home-coming brand in the hearts of millions of Indians. On a personal level, I connect to the values and have experienced moments of my life via various products of the ABG group. Walking down my memory lane, I remember gifting my father, a humble middle-class businessman (cloth merchant), a Peter England shirt out of my first salary. Being a typical Indian father he couldn’t express his happiness in front of me. But the very next day my mother said he had tears in his eyes and was unable to gulp down his emotions. He still wears that shirt with much pride on various occasions. The irony is he himself being a cloth merchant, sells Grasim suitings and shirtings with much fanfare and wears a Peter England shirt. This is how ABG has engulfed my family with its brands.
Another anecdote that stays afresh in my mind is how my mother made it possible in the absence of my father to make the occasion worth remembering. So it was the D-day of my inter-college exams and I was in a nearby internet café to see my results. To my surprise, I had topped in my school. My mother had a pre-hand intuition that I will be performing well. She had planned a surprise and it was the first handset of my life that she gifted me unaware of the fact I can’t get a sim card issued under my name. She rose to the occasion and accompanied me to the nearby vendor. She had this tagline going on her mind and very innocently asked the vendor “Bhaiya, wo sirji wala sim dena”. He read between the lines and handed over an Idea sim card. There she stood, an innocent lady bubbling with the zeal to get her son the first mobile phone of his life. I often tease her with that “sirji” banter till date.
Challenges:-
I was not clear as to what to pursue after my engineering. I was into managing events and conducting workshops at my college but I lacked the guts to pay heed to my inner call for an MBA. Belonging to the mechanical branch, I adhered towards GATE preparation. I was in a constant fight with myself. And by mid-December, I very well knew that it was not my cup of tea. It was a catastrophe as far as my career decision was concerned. I went ahead with the exam and performed as a mediocre.
I joined my family business after my engineering and started working hard to help the revenue go up the ladder. I was in my comfort zone working with strategies to project our offerings as completely different from our competitors. I collaborated with few competent tailors in my locality and started procuring designer clothing kinds of stuff from Surat. Eventually, we started delivering customized dresses to our ladies customers at an affordable price to the likes of lehengas, kurtis, etc. this whole strategy worked wonders for our business and helped us carve a niche for our business.
Amidst all these happenings, I had a dream to be a part of a revered B-school. I started preparing for CAT simultaneously on my own. I secured a decent percentile. But again it was a daunting task to leave my family business and go for an MBA degree. The onus was on me to take the call as has always been the case. It was by far the toughest decision of my life and here, I am at IIM Ranchi, a budding Crow trying to settle down and make this home his own.