I am a 23-year-old student pursuing MBA in HR from SCMHRD Pune now. After I completed engineering, I worked in Kolkata for a while and now I am writing this article, sitting on my bed at my hostel in Hinjewadi, Pune. Quite evidently, my career progression has been very common till now, Engineering-Job-MBA and now, even my college is backing that up with data showing 75% of the batch coming from an engineering background.
As I belong to a middle-class family, life for me has always been an accumulation of some small (yet big for me) and common (yet special to me) things I have come across till now. This very common journey, called ‘Life’, becomes special because of these small things. And it becomes even better, even more special when you get to make your best friend’s day, make him smile. So here comes the description of the incident, when I felt for the first time how big ABG is in my life. I am sure there are crores of more people who are always surrounded by the web of ABG’s products and services, in my case it has mostly been the ABFRL products. So without any further delay, here is my register of the event.
Back to November 2017. It was not long since we had left college. My room-mate for 2 years, my best friend in college and my colleague in office, Sambit had his father’s 50
th birthday coming in the next week. His parents were staying in Bhopal, 1500 kilometres away from him and this time Sambit was planning to give a surprise visit to his parents on his father’s birthday. It was 8 months since he had met his parents and I could literally see the unrest in his eyes to reach Bhopal. Sambit was doing everything to make the day perfect – booked his tickets in advance, packed his bags, pre-ordered a cake, asked me to prepare a 70s playlist for his father and whatnot. All was going well but he forgot to buy something pre-planned for his father.
So, a month ago we had gone to a mall and there they had a Van Heusen outlet. Sambit had chosen a Grey coloured shirt for his father, but it was a little more expensive than we estimated. So he said, “Let’s go back today. I will come back and buy this one after I get my first salary.” The Shirt was fantastic, so good that even I was considering buying that for my father. Days went by after this and by mistake, Sambit forgot to buy the Shirt.
Now the day came and Sambit had his train at 3 AM in the morning and he was just checking if he had taken everything. It was 12.30 AM and he suddenly remembered that he has forgotten to buy that Shirt. He became so upset; he just sat on his chair and started cursing himself. After a while, I came into his room, with THE SHIRT on my hands and I could see tears in his eyes. As I asked him, “what happened?” he rubbed his eyes, looked at me and then looked at the Shirt. He was so surprised. He just stood up and came to me and snatched the shirt from my hands and asked, “Where did you get this Shirt? This is the same shirt no?” I replied very casually, “Yes. I went to the mall that day and was coming out when I saw the Van Heusen store and remembered about the shirt. So I just bought it. Put it in your bag now and book a cab, you are already running late.” Without saying anything he just hugged me and started laughing loudly. Maybe it was the first time in the 4 years when he said thank you to me. He was just overwhelmed with joy and was laughing continuously.
After he left, I started thinking and I realized what actually I had done for him. Maybe I was happier than Sambit at that time. And it was all because of that Van Heusen Shirt. I never knew, or rather realized before this incident that a brand can have such a huge impact on someone’s life. And there are only very few brands, like ABG who are always there beside you silently, always ready to spread smiles and positive vibes, just waiting for the opportunity.
#ABGLP_WooMeSeason2 #ABGLP_Woo_Me #SCMHRD