Part A

Today, it’s unlikely to come across a facet of our life which is not impacted by ABG. There are many brands which come under the umbrella of the Aditya Birla Group. It operates in the financial service sector as Aditya Birla MyUniverse; major apparel brands as Forever 21, Allen Solly, Van Heusen, and Pantaloons; cement manufactures like UltraTech and many more.

If I have a look at my daily schedule, I live in a house that is made from UltraTech cement and we travel on roads that are made from the same. A normal day starts with me getting ready for College. I am supposed to get dressed for the day in corporate attire which is captured by various brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, and Allen Solly. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that college students have all shopped clothes from Pantaloons. We use our phones to communicate and use the internet. I personally use Vodafone Idea Limited Network and I love it because everywhere I go I get excellent network coverage along with better internet facility. If we purchase something or wish to send or receive the money we use BHIM UPI. Yet again I feel the presence of ABG. Now let us consider a situation wherein we want to borrow money in the form of a loan or buy a credit card we again find Aditya Birla MyUniverse Limited at our service.

So, it is easy to conclude that ABG touches millions of lives. It is next to impossible to imagine that a person hasn’t used ABG products and services directly or indirectly. ABG has contributed to our life in some or the other way and its impacts are huge. It is spread across various domains and has made our life much simpler.

Part B

A seventeen-year-old naive and innocent girl stepped out of her city for the first time to go to the city of dreams, “Mumbai” for her graduation. Moving to a metropolitan city came with its own challenges. Today when I look back Mumbai feels like home, local trains sleeping sessions seem amazing and the rains are missed. But the journey till here wasn’t easy. Right from searching for flats in the rainy season, to traveling by train for an hour daily to reach college, to living on a budget in such a big city all were difficult experiences. I was also doing CA along with my graduation so juggling the two was a task. Attending 10-hour lectures after college and then going home at night to find out that there is no food was such a disappointment. But after some time all this seemed normal and life back at home felt really slow.

All the working members of my family are CA’s. Somehow, I felt that doing CA wasn’t working for me. Since childhood, we were told we shouldn’t quit and we should try till we succeed, and so opting out wasn’t easy. Also, there was a certain level of pressure and expectations from my family which had to be taken care of. But before finally leaving the field I decided to clear IPCC (second level) and then I worked under all the sectors like Income Tax, Audit and GST. After I became absolutely sure I had “the talk” with my family. They understood how I wanted to change gears but still remain in the same domain. I finally decided to give CAT for which I was scared because I had 3 months to prepare for it. The rest is in the past because here I am in IIM Raipur one of the best colleges in the country, writing this amazing article for ABG.

#IIMRaipur #ABGLPWooMe

aashikhandelwal

ABG Changing Our Lives, IIM Raipur