The 'Idea' That Saved Me|Nikita Tayal, IIFT

Part A- The day an “idea” saved me It was 2017. I still remember that day. It was my first day in Delhi. I was here for the first time all alone. I had come to Delhi for coaching and the classes which were supposed to end by 6 in the evening  continued till 8 in the night. Just imagine a girl roaming alone on the crowded roads of Delhi when she is in Delhi for the first time. I was that girl. In order to calm myself down, I thoight of calling my parents. I thought talking to them will reduce my anxiety. I took out my mobile phone with this hope and saw that there was already a call going on with a wrong number. I was perplexed. I hadn’t dialled any number. I disconnected that call and tried to contact my parents. To my utter shock, there was no balance left in the SIM card. I checked what had gone wrong and saw that the previous call had been going on for around an hour and all my balance in SIM had vanished due to that. My anxiety doubled. Now, I was an alone girl on the roads of Delhi without a working SIM card. My anxiety doubled. How would I contact my parents? How would I tell them that I am safe? How would I call someone if I needed to make a call? There was no recharge shop nearby and the internet would not work without balance. Then a message came that gave me the biggest relief of my life. A message to avail talk time loan from Idea as my balance had gone down. That message was the messenger of biggest relief in my life. I was smiling and I was proud to be an “idea” user. My “idea” had given me a way to contact my parents. I took the talk time loan. I contacted my father and he did the recharge online.  One service of “idea” saved my world from slipping beneath my feet. My “idea” made a huge difference by that one service that no other telecommunication provider gives.

Part B- Challenges faced make you stronger!! “I’ve had many ups and downs before, and I think it’s always darkest before dawn.”

Angelique Kerber

This quote sums up my journey in life so far. I had always listened from others that life teaches by giving us tests and learning comes from those tests. This line that I had listened in my childhood soon became true in my life. I got tested by life and I learned from it. I was in Class 9. I was just 15 when my father suffered huge losses in business. Everything was going down. My father was trying to bring things under control but we reached the situation where we didn’t have money to buy anything, My elder brother had just entered his college. I don’t know how I understood the gravity of the situation and I said that I can start taking tuitions to earn a few bucks. I love teaching and I can do so. I just wanted to contribute to my family somehow At class 9, I started teaching to earn money. I taught for 5 hrs. a day to earn as much as I could. By class 11, things looked a little upside but my family still needed my financial support. However, there was a change in my perspective now. I had understood that it was because of my education that I was able to keep my family afloat during crisis. I knew that if I educate others, I can make a difference in their life. I can help them make it big in life. I continued teaching and taught many underprivileged children and helped them get admission in schools like “Navodya”. I was earning money with a self-satisfaction now.  College also went like this- teaching and helping others and earning money to contribute to my family. I had decided to do an MBA when I had begun to pursue B.Com but I could not sit for any MBA entrance exam in my final year as I knew that my family still needed my financial support and there were other family issues as well. I took a drop knowing that this drop will downgrade my profile and it will be difficult to justify. But I took the drop and looked for productive activities for this time period of about 6 months between graduating and sitting for MBA entrance exams. I got online internships. I did multiple internships along with my teaching. I also became an educator at “Unacademy” to reach and help a wider audience. Another year went and this time I sat for MBA entrance exams. The knowledge that I had gained while teaching others helped me a lot in the long run. These challenges made me stronger and more determined to achieve my goal. I performed decent to well in CAT (96.1) XAT (99.139) and IIFT (99.43) I got calls for interviews but I had set my eyes at IIFT given it being the only college for “trade” in India and I received a call for interview at IIFT as well!! It seemed like my dream was finally near me and all I had to do was to grasp the opportunity. On the d-day of my interview, there was this commotion of emotions. I knew how important this interview was for me and I wanted to ace it. I still remember how perplexed I was when I had a 5 minutes interview at IIFT. It was a feeling like they didn’t really like me. But the result spoke differently and I got admission in the very first list. And now, here I am at IIFT, Delhi-living my dream!! The tests are still going on and so is the learning!!