Part A
Aditya Birla Group, who, in this country, wouldn’t have heard the name? The third largest Indian conglomerate employing over 120K people and making us proud in 35 other countries. From metals to cement to textiles to fashion and many more, the company affect millions of people daily. I, belonging to those million Indians, was also impacted by the company.
My first encounter was with UltraTech cement. My dad being in the construction industry, how can I not be familiar with the yellow coloured cement bags used to build some amazing buildings. Even though other brands of cement were available in the market, no one inspired as much trust as UltraTech. It has a fitting tagline,
“The Engineer’s choice”. Another instance where the company reached me is by its product – Freshwrapp. Mom’s food is not the same without Freshwrapp. The aluminium foil keeps it fresh and prevents moisture, thus capturing that
“magic” to be unveiled when I want to have the meal. Moreover, with Van Heusen formal on the first day of my MBA, I really felt professional and
“in-place”. If that was not enough, the company provided me with support with the assurance of term insurance. Something which no human could control, the company provide assurance even for those unforeseen event.
These instances reflect the impact on just a single individual. When scaled to a level of billions of people, the happiness that the company generate is humongous and I would really like to be a part of this family and bring happiness in the lives of people.
Part B
Challenges! Well, how do you define a challenge? According to Cambridge English dictionary, challenge is defined as,
“the situation of being faced with something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person’s ability.” A trivial thing for some may be an arduous task for others and impossible for some. Therefore, I believe, no challenge is big or small, it depends on how we overcome it, what we learn from it and move forward with that experience. Let me illustrate this with something I faced.
I come from a small town in the North-East part of India. It used to be a very disturbed area infested with militancy, which negatively affected my education. There were frequent bandhs which prevented the normal functioning of the educational institutes. That is when my father took the dreadful decision of sending me to a boarding school to a far-off location whose new name (which was 13 years old at that time) was still unknown to many in my neighbourhood. Yes, a boy of tender age from extreme east had come to Chennai where everything from the place to people to food was alien to him. I was lonely in the sea of people I was in. I wanted to go. I didn’t belong to this alien city. But how could I disappoint my hero? How could I say that I was not able to handle a single task he ever gave me? How could I face myself after disappointing him?
A decision was made and I embraced the change. I started seeing things as they were. I met some wonderful people out there, and I found order in the chaotic city. As time progressed, I made friends for life, grew a special affinity for my new “home” and most importantly, I learnt how to survive among strangers and convert those strangers into friends. After the end of five years, which seemed like days, I left the city with tears in my eyes. It is still the most beautiful part of my life.
So folks, learn to face challenges, take the bull by its horn and when you overcome the problem, you will have a wonderful experience and even more beautiful memories to cherish for the rest of your life.