PART 1 - The Impact
The most iconic relation that a Civil Engineering Graduate can have with the rising sun logo of the Aditya Birla Group is with the bags of cement in the Concrete Engineering Laboratories of the second year of engineering, and in the Structural Analysis years of the third year. My Alma Mater, IIEST Shibpur, the second oldest engineering college in India, trusted Ultratech Cements for laboratory and research purposes, purely based on the quality of the cement delivered, which also reflects why the public trusts Ultratech Cement for building their dream homes. My relation with Ultratech Cement has been a step ahead - with a few shares of Ultratech Cement to my name, I am one of the "co-owners", if I may say so, of a brand that has seen positive share market feedback even during times of industry-wide low sales, which again goes on to show the trust that people have on the brand.
Going further back, I remember the first time I stepped out of my house in Class 11 to prepare for IITJEE in Kota, in 2009. My father had bought me a new phone. The first SIM that I used was an IDEA SIM. And the one that I am using right now to write and publish this story, belongs to Vodafone-IDEA too. Most of the shirts that I wear daily for my classes and other events at NITIE, Mumbai, have been bought from Peter England by my mother, as I personally do not enjoy shopping. With other brands, she spends an insane amount of time checking, re-checking, and cross-checking for quality and price, her key concern being identifying that one shirt for her son. But with Peter England, she poses me with a new challenge - to choose from a plethora of her choices, as she finds almost half the available items suitable for me. That is the type of quality and relevance Peter England has on my mother, who might not even be aware of its parent company, but very aware of the promise of quality that the company provides.
PART 2 – The Challenge
Life would have been monotonous without challenges. Like thousands of others in India, I wanted to study engineering at one of the IITs. The first roadblock came in the form of IITJEE 2011, where I failed to forecast the possible cut-offs in each subject and did not get a rank even though I scored almost 90 marks more than the total cut-off. It was a huge blow to my confidence and morale, and even after joining IIEST, it felt like I was not able to cope up. The challenge was not just to improve my grades, but also to improve my confidence and soft skills. So, I took up teaching. I started to provide private tuition to students of Classes 8-10. This stint helped me immensely as I regained my lost confidence while teaching and reformed my personality for the positives. My academic performance turned around immensely, and that confidence is something which I have brought with me to NITIE, Mumbai and plan to carry with me in future endeavours too.