I first learned about Aditya Birla group via movies wherein I heard the famous dialogue “Apan koi Birla, Ambani, Tata ke bacche nahi hai.” This made me think why people say so. As I grew up, I started to realize the impact the Aditya Birla group has on my life. My family & I live in a house which is built using Ultratech cement, being in an earthquake-prone zone, we entrust our life to the deep & innovative research through which Ultratech cement is made. I have my life & motor insurance taken from Aditya Birla capital, thereby entrusting them with the responsibility for taking care of my family or anyone else’s family in case something wrong happens. I have invested a large portion of my savings in MF’s promoted by Aditya Birla capital which has made me & several millions of others like me, alpha Moghuls, even though we knew a little about securities market. This also helped me to live a life; I dreamt off. From my parents earning, we save a little in the NPS scheme promoted by Aditya Birla Capital, thus ensuring the pressure of retirement is never felt on the family. From my past savings, I took the baby steps of savings & investing them in high return low-risk markets through the financial planning tools. My majority of the formal, as well as the casual cloth portfolio, belongs to Madura fashion & its private labels. Balancing between cost & looks, it helps me make sure that I have the right kind of clothes for all events.
Sometimes you need to run before you can walk
The dialogue told by Tony Stark in Iron Man 2 is one of the aptest statement to describe me. Born in a modest Gujarati family who had a very little business background (an irony), business fascinated me from the day, and I started to understand the world & how it functioned. This created a fire like that in Jharia coal mines of Jharkhand, in my heart to leap into the business world. I learned through experiences that even though not necessary, it is always desirable to learn business theoretically before you jumped into it. I also knew my father’s desire to see me as a chartered accountant which he after enough trials,, lost his hope. I knew doing an MBA & CA would both require a dedicated effort with a very low possibility of pursuing them both together. Doing them in tandem would have meant that I would miss the competition train. I thought of & came with a unique idea that I would pursue an integrated MBA course at a state university giving me a base for an MBA from top B schools of the country & it would also help me ensure that I would be able to dedicate albeit not fully but majorly towards CA studies.
The most difficult time came when I reached the 3
rd year of MBA (last year of BBA) & together with that 2
nd year of my internship. An insider might know what I meant. For those who might not be aware, 3
rd year is full of real-life business projects like term projects in MBA. The 2
nd year of internship is the time when you have mature enough to understand CA work & there is also a surety that you would stay with the firm & teach others as you still have one year before you might leave the organization. This required me to stretch my work hours for more than 14 hours just to ensure that I don’t miss out any major practical learnings. This period stretched for almost a year, but it was that eternal flame which kept me going.
But as truly said, the stone which is roughly polished shines the best. I came out as the most reliable intern of my firm sometimes even entrusted to work for a 4-5-year experienced CA & also the most admired student in the state university B-School. After successful completion, I joined IIM Rohtak wherein I became a proud member of STORE, a business enterprise started by senior students within IIM Rohtak campus, to cater to the daily demands of campus students living 15 Kms from city limits. I spearheaded the business development department & successfully brought various fast food chain retailers to serve students on a fortnight basis while also managing to remain among the top 2 students based on academics. Upon becoming the senior member, I have proudly managed to expand the product portfolio & developing metrics to drive footfall at STORE. All of this was carried out with very technical but highly emotional support of the two most important people of my life, my dearest mom & dad.
A lot more would come when I would start running in the business world while walking through my professional life.