The third Semester of Civil Engineering had just begun at Goa Engineering College, and students were asked to dress in formals for Mix Design workshop by Ultratech Cement. The naïve person inside me had no idea about what relevance mix design played in day-to-day life until I attended the workshop. This is where my first interaction with the ABG group started. The workshop was certainly very engaging as it educated us on existing design mixes used in India and across the globe. After the workshop, on why way back, there was traffic jam as usual. Yes, the Atal Setu, this bridge was the reason why I always fantasized about teleportation. Lost in my daydreams, back in traffic I saw RMC trucks of Ultratech. Not sure if it was just me or if the Aditya Birla Group was all over the place that day.
A year passed by and then came the time of recruitment drive and suddenly Pantaloons seemed like the right option to buy formals. A new journey had just started, I had relocated to Pune. Somehow Big cities always appear enchanting to a person hailing from a small town and being a shopaholic how can ‘People’ ever go unnoticed? This big city had so much to offer and ABG had a big stake in it. From Aluminium foil to Mutual funds, from More supermarket to Forever21, from every third tyre which contained Birla Carbon to every Xtralite in high rise building, ABG is omnipresent and is an integral part of our lives.
Killer Instinct: The driving force, Pooja Thally, XIMB
Just like the Electrocardiogram of my heart, there have been ups and downs in my life too. A few ups followed by a series of downs. But the downs were critical points of inflection. I have struggled, fallen and then dared to rise with the killer instinct. It all depends on how you take it, whether you decide to face the challenge or succumb to it. Those who decide to face it should constantly remind themselves that there will come a time when you will be put to test, but the killer instinct should not evaporate no matter what.
I have evolved through the whole process of facing challenges but the only thing that remains constant is ‘The Challenge’ itself. Throughout my life, I have come across challenges at various levels. As a child, I have struggled to keep up with my health. The number of medical clinics visited were more than the number of children parks visited. This is where my family did not give up on my health and this was my first lesson to face a challenge as it comes and overcome it by giving your best. As we all know competitive exams in India are comparable to the rat race. Being a student with average grades throughout, facing the various competitive exams to finally get admission into XIMB was not less challenging.
If you notice carefully, there is one common element in all the challenges I have mentioned so far, that is not giving up on the challenge. It takes great courage to accept failures and will to convert them into success. Once this thought process is inculcated, half of the battle is won. The remaining strategy may vary from challenge to challenge. Bottom line being, don't let the killer instinct extinguish no matter what. That is the sole driving force and apparently, this is applicable in all the situations.