I come from a small village named Kusumi in the district Nabarangpur of Odisha. Nabarangpur constantly features in the top 50 backward districts of India due to tribal as its major population. It also features in one of the poorest towns of the world in surveys. But the land is mostly covered with thick forest along with plenty of water supply from the rivers. The climate is also very much conductive in growing teak, Sal woods. With the mission of transforming the lives of the people from this district by utilizing the natural resources available, a joint venture of the Birla group and Government of Odisha started Mangalam Timber Products (MPTL) in the year 1984. Since then it has established as one of the leading manufactures of medium density fibreboards. As a first in the country, it collaborated with G Siempelkamp, Germany in the year 1987. The products are manufactured mostly using waste wood, plantation timber from the forest, agro wastes. It has been a huge revelation for the backward people of the district and districts nearby. The company has been regularly offering employments for the locals and indulges itself with corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities for the society. Since its inception, the company has planted more than 5 million trees in the barren lands. These employments help my family in having a stable financial condition so that I can avail of higher education. It can be seen in many families as the literacy rate has been skyrocketing of the district by constantly coming in the top five of the state.
Coming from a conservative family and financially weak background, the provision for my higher education was very much restricted. Adding to it the family of five members depends upon sole bread earner, thus the scope for the higher studies was pretty much limited. It was around class five when I lost my father in an unfortunate accident. This was like the last nail in the coffin for my family which was already struggling with financial problems. But my mother defying all the odds rose to the occasion and inspired me to study hard and achieve all the success. Continuous backing and inspiration from my mother encouraged me to pursue higher studies. But after completing higher secondary education the financial problem again crept in. To pursue engineering was way above the financial conditions of my family and getting a loan from a bank was not even an option because of the financial situation of my family. Fortunately, my hard work, capacity to study well landed me in a government engineering college. On top of that, even I managed to grab a scholarship which financed my engineering. After the completion of engineering, I took up a job upfront to give some financial stability to my family and later pursue my MBA dream. Finally, after working for around a year, I started preparing for MBA. The crowning moment came when I got selected for the prestigious XIMB college. All my dream of joining a premier B school and improve the financial condition of my family came true.
#ABGLP #ABGWOOME #XIMB