-Neha Prusti, XIMB
Integrity, Commitment, Passion, Seamlessness, and Speed. The five core values that have the power to drive your wings so you soar high to the zenith of a successful life. With this “Power of Five” being the very mantra adopted by the Aditya Birla Group, it is no big surprise why ABG holds such a huge place of respect and influence in my life. I was brought up in an average middle class family in Bhubaneswar with my father, a medical officer being the sole bread earner of the family. Despite the level of commitment that the job of a doctor demands, my father always made it a point to put in adequate time into raising me up. Amidst his hectic schedules and several night shifts, he did manage to instil in me the principles that run through the veins of the strong independent woman who I am today. This always came with a frosting of immense pampering from his side as well. And in all this, there was a Product of ABG always involved, like a part of our very own family. Be it a new dress from Pantaloons Retail, when I topped my class for the first time in sixth grade, or my first persona phone with a simcard from Vodafone , or the first time I gifted my father a ‘Louis Philippe’ shirt from my own money I earned from a scholarship stipend, or my first formal shirt from Allen Solly that I wore to my campus placement in final year of my grad school; Aditya Birla Group products have been a part and parcel of every tiny little milestone in my life. However life, as they say, is never a cakewalk. No matter how hard I had braced myself for the inevitable pressure and workload that a grad school offers you, it was inevitably not enough for the rude shock of culture I found myself in, four years back, in a reputed Engineering college that I had managed to crack into. Staying in hostel for the first time, away from the cocoon of home, amidst a new crowd of peers and professors who were poles apart in nature from my bunch of considerate school friends and spoon-feeding school teachers; I pretty much got lost like Alice falling into the rabbit’s hole. The dry climate of the area worsened my already neglected health, and I was frail and sick every other day. Needless to mention, this affected both my grades and my social life adversely. Before I could realise I was suddenly shelled up in the corner of my hostel room, whining about the mess food and my lagging back in academics. No matter how much I tried to hustle enough to overcome those hurdles and regain back my lost stature, it sadly was never enough. It was on one such day, when I was feeling too dejected to take up a task and actually complete it, I absentmindedly clicked open an interview of Mr.Pranab Barua, the Managing Director of Pantaloons Retails. He said something, which resonates in my ears till date. “There is no elevator to success , you have to take the stairs.” He talked how getting out of his comfort zone was the only way that drives him to be better every day. It was not that I hadn’t resorted to motivational talks before. But maybe it was the way Mr.Barua delivered his virtues, more with an intent to inspire than preach, or maybe it was the personal connect Pantaloon Retails already had in my life, I was suddenly a changed human, more like a charged up human. I realised brooding over the past be it my early achievements or my recent failures would not take me any further in the game of life. I sat down with a fresh sheet of paper and an open mind and decided to take things into my reign and chalk out a plan. There was a vision board drawn and my long term and short term goals listed. I decided to give in all my sweat and brains into my preparation for a B-School. To have that, I needed to tackle my major issue: my low immunity and health. I started eating healthy, exercising without fail and being consistent in my healthcare routine which included having meals and medicines on time and carving out at least some time out of my schedule to go out and mingle with people and be happy in general. Then came my final year of graduation when, I had to sit for placements and I secured myself a job in the IT sector with the very first company itself that was visiting our campus. However I did not let this safety net push me into having a rather laid back attitude towards my B School prep. But as luck would have it, two days prior to CAT, I suffered an accident that terribly injured my left knee. No matter how proficiently I had prepared beforehand, the injury and my subsequent difficulty in walking my way even to the washroom, hurt my morale negatively. The injury persisted for more than three months, and that pretty much lasted through the entire season of B School entrance examinations and interviews. With a job offer already in my hands ,my natural response was to let go of all examinations for the present year and attempt the subsequent years with a work experience in hand. But I was not willing to give away all my previous preparations and hard work all in one go and thus decided to give it a shot this year itself. The process was tough. At time I had to limp my way painfully into examination halls, sometimes using staircases as well. But I could do anything but give up. Finally I managed to convert my call from Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar, one of the premier Business management institutes of the country. Today, as I write this article, reflecting back on my journey, I can’t help but feel thankful for all the thorns that dared to sprout my way. It was that extra push from my end then, that not only helped me secure a seat in a B school, but also continues to help me cope up with the rigour that XIMB offers on an everyday basis.
I sure did fall into a rabbit hole like Alice, but it helped me to land in my Wonderland.
#abglp #ximb