Why is Aditya Birla Group big in your life?
There hasn’t been a day when I wouldn’t have used and instilled the feeling of an Aditya Birla Group product in my life. Be it the Ultratech Cement that went into building the Bandra-Worli Sealink which recently completed 10 sturdy years, the world-class piece of infrastructure on which traveling feels like you are in the ‘Khaabon Ke Parinday’ song from the movie ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’. Or be it the Birla Carbon which goes into the tyres of my car, making my rides safe. The uninterrupted power supply which we enjoy in Mumbai, all thanks to the Grasim Industries insulators used in the T&D lines and substations. I have also worked with the Indian Railways & Metros, where the insulators are used for their traction systems. Being brought up in a family with a strong Railways service background and with my own experience in Metro Rail, I’m familiar with equipment such as the OHE, pantographs and signaling systems in which the copper division of Hindalco has a huge role to play. My smartphone would have been in pieces by now, had it not been for its glass cover made by the Hindalco aluminum. And what is a phone, without its network services? Thank you Vodafone-Idea Limited, for your fast network speeds and data, to help me connect to my family of four, now in three different places across India! And lastly, the confidence I get after wearing the smart formals from Allen Solly for the interviews, and the pretty t-shirts from Pantaloons for outings with friends is unmatchable. The Aditya Birla Group has indeed touched my life in all its aspects.
How did you overcome challenges to achieve your ambitions in life so far?
With a ‘Best Intern’ award and a Pre Placement Offer in hand from a reputed organization, I had to repeat my first year of MBA, because I wasn’t able to perform well in my academics, the way I had performed during my summer internship. The disbelief and horror of losing some of my close friends and a year of my career pushed me into guilt and burnout, and I plummeted into the unending pit of depression. My health deteriorated, and I started falling sick frequently. This was a turning point in my life, when I realized that I’m much stronger and capable than I had thought, and I did not give up. I enrolled for the course again, talking to unknown people who were already a month into the new trimester, and I simply lived one day at a time. Highlighting short, yet frequent successes, not only in one’s life but even in organizations, is important. I got the strength to push myself with every class test when I scored well and with every colleague I interacted with in the new batch. I resumed playing badminton, and my health got better, which was another green tick on my checklist I had made for myself when I started the year afresh. Each trimester, I scored better marks than the previous. I was able to intern with one of the Big 4 companies, which helped give a major boost to my career. I might not have been able to make an impact across a lot of people today, but if I’m able to be an inspiration for even one student, who is struggling with his or her career, wanting to give up everything, I believe I would have done something substantial with my life. As Alfred Pennyworth rightfully said in the movie Batman Begins, “Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
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