Part A
This is not a fashion article. It is not a complaint rant. It is not another cliched confession of a shopaholic either. This is the story of how I became an adult.
There is an Allen Solly outlet a little far away from my place in Bangalore. For those who do not know, Allen Solly is a fashion retail store, owned by the Aditya Birla Group. It is my favourite place when it comes to shopping for shirts for my father, mainly due to the convenience and variety it offers. When I talk about my father, he is someone who doesn’t like to shop for himself. But a shirt from Allen Solly always does the trick. He is picky when it comes to clothes but has always been pleased with the variety that this place has to offer.
But the real trouble came, when I left home for college and wanted to pick a shirt for my father. With the overthinking person I am, it was a very difficult decision to make. It was always easy to shop for him when he was with me but very different when I have to do it on my own. I even thought of trying out few other retail stores to find something different that he would personally prefer. I was faced with the challenge that these stores only had summer collection based on the month when I had gone to shop. This was stressful given the fact that those colours were not to my liking. They just did not give me the kind of varieties that I was looking for.
Once again, I turned towards my trusted brand, Allen Solly. Firstly, the staff was so helpful and the collection was obviously to my liking. They understood my requirements and did not stop showing me the different collections in store till I found the right shirt for my father. The picky person that I was, it was difficult to make a quick decision. But Allen Solly never fails to impress me and every time my father wears that shirt, it gives me the proud feeling that I have chosen it for him from my favourite store.
Part B
I have been blessed to be one of the very few privileged ones of the world. Life has been good to me in general, and where it has not, I have been blessed with a loving family that maybe a little too overprotective sometimes.
One of the major challenges I’ve faced in life is trying to be independent and being able to stand on my own. All my life I have been living with my parents, so there were a lot of restrictions imposed even when I started working. Though these were due to genuine concern they had, it was not quite what I had in my mind about how my life should be. The very fact that I was at home made me a very nerdy person while in school and college. It was maybe because of the fact that my parents were more focused on academics. I was not part of any extracurricular activities in Graduation College even though I had my interests in sports and music.
But everything changed when I had to leave home and come to Bangalore for my MBA. For the first time, I was living in a hostel and I had to take care of myself. Being far away from home taught me a lot of things, but most importantly I learned to be independent and take decisions on my own. I first realized that MBA was different from graduation. It is an experience and just studies and books would not give me the right exposure. Hence, I decided to participate in all events possible. I gave interviews and managed to get into one of the committees of the college. Apart from this, I have tried my luck in music and other events as well. This definitely impacted my academics a little but I as a person was happy to know that I have atleast tried to get maximum out of these two years in college in terms of experience, exposure, networking, and learning and above all, have made some good friends that are now more like family. Adding to that, I know that I will make my parents proud after this course as they have realized that their little girl has actually started to fly on her own.