It must have been a restless day of October 1995, for the thousands of employees of the then Grasim Industries and their families, having learned of the news of heavenly abode of Mr. Aditya Vikram Birla. My father was one of the countless of those faces who were provided a form of livelihood by the chairman of the group. The number of people who revered the great industrialist ran into millions.
A month and half after that, I was born into the family of one of the engineers working for the then Vikram Cement, Jawad. My parents still reminisce the fact that thousands of newborns were being named after the chairman as show of their profound faith and respect, and therefore I was to be called Aditya.
Having started my life’s day one, I was and am expected to shine like the Sun, or in humanly form, like Aditya Vikram Birla. Days passed and as I became a 24 year old and found this question, I couldn’t stop smiling from the fact that almost a decade of my lived life has been within the AB Group’s premises.
I remember spending my mornings and afternoons in the Aditya Birla Public School and evenings by the beautiful temple standing tall amidst the vast gardens of the township. Having learned my basics of life from there, I moved on to other towns and cities having in some way or another, a touch of the Aditya Birla Group.
The Aditya Birla Group remains one of the oldest industrialist entity globally. Having establishing businesses in the crucial sectors of cement, textiles and aluminium during the early 20th century to diversifying and globalising at humongous levels, ABG has come a long way from where it all began, Rajasthan. It would not be an overstatement to state that both I and the ABG started their journeys from Rajasthan, though at different times.
From having used an aluminium soft drink can to wearing jeans and shirt bought from Pantaloons, I graduated. As I write this from the desk of my post graduation college, a Van Heusen business suit hangs still on the wall to be worn the next day. From day one to present, the ABG group has had a Midas effect to whoever it has touched.
How I overcame challenges to achieve my ambitions in life so far.
I belong to just another middle class family that India houses. I was told from the beginning that life if too unfair if one doesn’t make way for themselves. I was told that life should have a goal, and an ambition that’d help you reach that. I was told, everything of this should lead yourself into being a better version from yesterday as well as better human.
I have been one of those numerous teenagers who left home towards the goal of getting a better education. This object of my ambition was to culminate in form of graduating from the premier IITs. I spent two of my mid-teenage years putting an effort to secure a seat in one of those. However, I failed. I ended in a government college for the slight merit that I had hopes upon, but it felt empty.
Recalling those days of staying away from home, talking once or twice a day at home, having food at the cheapest outside eateries and rejecting the luxury and appeal my kind was enjoying, I once again decided to set a goal. This time, with improved rigour, strategy, thoughts and better equipped with knowledge, I desired to get into the premier IIMs.
There were still the repeat of the same old days, the pull of the luxury that my kind was enjoying again, yet I hooked myself to the schedules I set for myself. The pleasant idea of a care free lives that my fellow quarter-lifers were having was, without a doubt, convincing and attractive. Yet I stuck on, guided by my parents and brother, to the thin rope of perseverance; and finally, took the CAT.
This time the confidence was surely noticeable and demeanour quite visible. The results were out, and I cleared the various stages one after another. This had been a challenge that I am glad I accepted and overcame.
Now that it's done, I have set a new goal, and the itch to overcome it has gone manifold, yet again.
#ABGLPWooMe #IIMBG