The name ‘Aditya Birla’ carries a legacy of its own. The company has existed from last 162 years and carries the same legacy. Being one of the oldest business conglomerates, the group has a diversified portfolio of products ranging from agribusiness to wind power, finance, chemicals etc. Personally, there are many brands I have used which fall under the Aditya Birla Group. The foremost example being Aditya Birla Group’s cellular network Idea. The brand has a lot of significance in the state of Gujarat, from where I belong. Another brand which comes to my mind is Pantaloons. It was acquired by Aditya Birla Group from the future group. I remember my parents shopping for me in pantaloons showroom, and since then Pantaloons have been my first priority for shopping. Thus, I have been closely associated with the brand. Since the independence, the group has evolved and diversified its portfolio in various ways. Aditya Birla Group also won AON Best Employer Award in 2018. This surely indicates that Aditya Birla Group is one of the best employers in the country. Pantaloons also won IMAGES ‘Most Admired Retailer of the Year’ award in Enterprise retail solution. Pantaloons was also recognized as the India’s most trusted fashion retailer in the brand equity survey by The Economic Timer in the year 2016-2017. This clearly shows the market presence and the brand value of Pantaloons and Aditya Birla Group as a whole. Thus, right from cellular network to fashion retail, Aditya Birla Group has impacted my life and choices in various ways.
My largest achievement was when I qualified for the prestigious Association of Computer Machinery - International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM-ICPC) and represented my college at an international level. I was always passionate about problem solving and this was the reason I liked competitive programming. Being from a college with no significant competitive programming background, it was very tough for me to learn and excel in the same. In my first year itself, I decided to crack the ACM-ICPC Asia regionals. The goal was tough. But I was ready to face the challenge and work on it. I started learning competitive programming concepts online. Soon the result started to show. I won 2 regional and state level competitive programming contest in my first year itself. In the 2
ndyear, I realised that I can’t do it alone, I need a team to represent my college at ACM-ICPC. I joined with some seniors and started serious preparation for ACM-ICPC 2016. Then comes the D-Day – The online qualification round for ACM-ICPC regionals. But luck decided to go against. I had my internal exams on the same day as the qualification round. But that didn’t let me and my team down. Soon after the internals, we ran to our PCs to solve the first problem listed in the competition. And finally when the results came, we were among the top 100 teams which qualified for the ACM ICPC Asia regionals (Kolkata). There was a good 2 month gap between the qualification results and the Asia regional which will be held at Kolkata. We prepared rigorously this time as we knew we would be competing with the finest of the finest coders of the country. For me, representing at the Asia region was a dream come true. Then there was no looking back. I cracked google code jam, secured an all India rank of 73 in TCS codevita and won numerous regional level programming contests. This success made me believe that ‘Dreams do come true’ if you have the patience and rigour to achieve it. I also learn not to take significant decisions when I feel low or depressed. Being a competitive coder, I faced a lot of rejections while trying to submit a solution for a problem statement. Many a times, I thought of quitting. But soon I figured out that this would be temporary and my hard work would pay off. I became patient and self-confident. All this made me a better person. I consider this as my biggest achievement because no other situation in my life has inspired me and made me work hard at this level. And the belief of ‘dreaming’ and making it work also led to my admission in the ‘Red Building of Dreams’.