Part A

On a cold winter morning of December, I woke up to a juggernaut of thoughts in my head. The year 2015 was coming to an end, but my life had just started to open up to a whole new realm of possibilities. I was in my final year of engineering, at the cusp of being the most qualified person in the entire history of my family, staring down at the most significant part of my journey – The Placement Season. A lot was at stake for me, but most important were the hopes of my family. Coming from a humble background, my parents desperately wanted me to have a much better life than they did. They saw this placement season as my ticket to the life they wished but never had.

With this vortex of thoughts swirling in my still sleepy mind, I got ready for my interview. As I was about to leave the house, my mother handed me the ‘roti-sabzi’ she had prepared first thing in the morning, neatly wrapped in a Freshwrapp, as if she had wrapped all her dreams in the foil and passed them on to me. The previous day, my father took me to shopping as I needed formal attire. We went to a nearby shopping mall and finished our shopping from a Pantaloons outlet. On our way out, we passed a Louis Philippe outlet. I noticed my dad’s gaze wandering towards the premium shirts that were on display but ignoring his desires he continued our exit out of the shopping mall. This is only a glimpse of the amount of sacrifices that my parents have done for me, to help me fulfill my dream and become successful in life, and I had made a mental note to never forget them.

Fast forward to July 2016, I had bagged a decent job and received my first salary. On my way back home that day, I made a slight detour. I went to the same shopping mall, but instead of Pantaloons I entered Louis Philippe that day. I bought a nice shirt for my dad, went home and gifted it to him. The smile that appeared on his face is still the best moment of my life.

Part B

Growing up, I have always had a curious mind which inclined me towards taking up science and eventually, engineering. However, I was never good at studying with the objective of scoring marks. I was always average in my class. Eventually, this led to poor grades in my engineering college.

Fortunately, I bagged a decent job in a digital marketing firm. This was where I found my true calling. I fell in love with every aspect of digital marketing. During my stint at the organization, I quickly grasped a lot of the fundamentals about my field and coupled with a strong logical and analytical mind-set, my role evolved fast into a leadership one, where eventually I was leading and mentoring a team of 4 people. Fueled by my desire to excel in life and my interest in marketing, I decided to pursue MBA. I knew this was going to be tough for me as I was never good at studies. However, I decided to let go of my inhibitions and learn from my past mistakes. My hard work paid off, I finished in the top 5 percentile students who appeared for CAT. This confidence also helped me clear my interview and here I am, pursuing MBA from one of the best Indian B-schools for marketing – IMT Ghaziabad.

Rohan Sawant

The Repayment Of Belief - IMT Ghaziabad