As a Velcro, I stick,
As a bamboo, I stretch,
And I know that I am obsessed,
And here I narrate a tale of sentiments that will fill you with zest!
I always wanted to be Superman who would save the world from the so-called bad people. The good trumps the evil, doesn’t it? My parents told me that superheroes are for boys. Dolls are for girls. Also, born in a family of doctors, I had naturally been programmed to strive to be a go-getter. Those English lessons on the usage of plurals were scary, with my mother thrashing me for every mistake I committed and slapping me again for having got the question right the second time! I still remember those days when I, as a 6-year old kid, saw my father burning the midnight oil in our bedroom and spending the nights away with his long texts on paediatrics. I used to ask my mother, “Why is Papa studying so much? Grown-ups don’t study. Is he still in school?” And she chuckled saying,” Your dad is preparing for his M.D. exams. He is a grown-up but learning never stops.” A reflective child as I was, never did I realize that my mother’s statements would turn out to be so prophetic.
‘The Greatest battles are the ones fought with one’s own self and triumphing them transforms us completely.’
I had always been the maverick in the house, the trouble-maker, the obsessed one and yes, I actually was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in 2006. I was obsessed with cleanliness and maintaining a perfect symmetry of things. (To be honest, traces of OCD are still an inherent part of my personality.) But then, all of us have some quirky habits that we can laugh about, don’t we? But, my case was different. While embattling OCD during my formative years, I had a rendezvous with the monumental size of my problem when in the middle of my Class 8
th Mathematics Exam, I felt a need to go to the washroom, only to be gripped by the pangs of anxiety and ending up washing my hands vigorously for the next one hour. Needless to say, but still childishly embarrassed to admit, I flunked. How does it feel when you jump into the waters of the deep Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a cold wintry night with thousands of needles pricking your body? You don’t die instantly. You bleed and mourn. You call for help but the water surrounding you dissolves your voice in its own expanse. I felt exactly the same, finished, sabotaged. Life reached a junction when all I could recall were my drawing classes in which my teacher taught me how to paint a still life as my own life had come to a standstill
Life has its own ways of teaching you and breaking you in order to shape you. You struggle, you bleed, you cry, you curse, but by the time you realize that your agonies have ended, you have already become a different person. The incident left an indelible impact on my mind. My struggles with OCD made me introspect and helped me become more self-aware in the process. I mocked at my own obsessions, developed interests for singing, polished my communication skills and became an orator.
‘The moment you feel that you have achieved enough to boast about, life gives you a reality check to step back and reflect.’
I had always felt that I had very high EQ and IQ and that I was a perfectionist. My academics were great, my OCD was in control and those college days; who doesn’t love them and long for them? I had joined the Red Cross Club and my life changed when I visited a young girls’ orphanage as part of our routine visits. While most of the members were senior citizens and I seemed to be the only young member out there, I whiskered away and met a few girls in the orphanage. Soon we struck a conversation in which they opened up about their life’s dreams and aspirations. A few more girls joined and I realized how being cut off from the society made them long for the same society that had failed to accept them. Their aspirations reverberated the dingy walls of the sitting area in which we sat and had turned into an unrealized reality that was far beyond their reach. A beautiful girl came up to me and said,” Didi, mai Jeans pehen na chahti hun.”( Didi, I want to wear Jeans). I was wearing Jeans at that point and she looked at me as if she were looking at some princess who could buy everything she could lay her hands on. Another one came running to me and said,” Didi, mujhe aur padhna hai aur fir doctor bann na hai.” (Didi, I want to study more and then become a doctor).
The tenderness of their longing, their dreams infinitely prolonging, the realization of their current belonging, and the hope for the reversal of the wronging, everything made me wonder whether I had probably chosen to gaze only at the beautiful reflections in the lake without realizing how deep those lakes were.
With those newly found realizations, I joined an NGO in 2016 and was driven to effectuate change. My efforts included looping the same orphanage I had once visited and facilitating one to one interactions, basic reading and numeracy lessons, and taking up Mathematics (Ironically, the subject I had flunked during my Class 8
th exams) and English Classes for them. I even went on to become a Team Head of the Education Wing of the NGO as an appreciation of efforts.
But how do I measure what impact I seem to have created? With time and by the virtue of gaining maturity, I have realized one thing:
If you are able to sleep peacefully every night the moment you close your eyes, it means you are working in the right direction. When you ask your conscience, “Have I made a difference?” and all that flashes in your mind is the image of you having done something that has left a mark on someone else, you have made an IMPACT, my friend! And I have been fortunate enough to have experienced that state of bliss.
‘Lifting people from gory past to glorious days,
Bringing revolution through its products in a number of ways,
Rendering services and keeping doubts at bay,
ABG has the charisma that can make even the strongest sway.’
How is ABG big in everyone’s life? A big brand name, products and services that have pervaded every household, bright career for employees, growth avenues and many more. There is the latest fashion on the platter with brands such as Allen Solly, Louise Philippe redefining apparels, financial services, cement etc. None seems to have been missed by the giant conglomerate and clearly, even the sky and the seven seas are no limits.
But,
Why is big ABG in my life?
I choose to differ in the way I perceive the brand. Back as a kid, had I known as to what Aditya Birla Group was, I would have known what ‘Superman’ really means. Today when I look at it, ABG transcends all mental, physical and miscellaneous boundaries that a human faces in his or her lifetime. Every single product brought out by the company is not just a tangible good that would bring transitory happiness. Those products are emotions and aspirations, a kind of projection of millions of dreams that have been assorted and metamorphosed into concrete deliverables. Every product talks to me and tells a proud story of its capacity to change the lives of millions of people in the country. The Birla cement is not some material that is required to build households. To me, the cement exemplifies familial bond and a shield that protects every head from the rough weather. Fashion does not just remind me of some style statement and an ostentatious display of clothes by people from the upper echelons of the society; it reminds me of the hope of the girls I once met in the orphanage who wished they could be as fortunate as the girls out there to try out new clothes and look their best. Every product is not just a good, but a leap of faith and hope that once we acquire that product, life will be more beautiful.