Part 1
There are some things that are very constant in life, those which you could see and experience in everything around you and Aditya Birla Group is synonymous to that in our country. From clothing to construction, finance to communications, they're everywhere and in everything.
The founder, Ghanshyam Das Birla was very close to Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle and Aditya Birla himself took participation in Non-cooperation movement and helped fund Indian National Congress. This resonates a lot with me, as ethics for me come before anything. No business can as big as Aditya Birla has without aligning themselves to their beliefs.
Aditya Birla Group has also set themselves as an example about how to keep on with the changes in industry and how to keep on innovating, while managing many sectors and many industries. They expanded their business, not just in industries across country but in other countries across the world as well.
Taking Aditya Vikram Birla's legacy forward, Kumar Mangalam Birla took the conglomerate to soaring heights and set an example for the restructuring of a group as big as ABG. From acquisitions to mergers, he completely changed the dynamics of the group and from which I take a lot of inspiration. It helped me understand that even though you can be doing good and have a name for yourself in the industry, it's still important to keep on innovating yourself to survive and to thrive.
His involvements in the chemical and aluminium industries were something that set a path for businesses to follow that they can venture into completely new markets, which are unknown to them and can come out as winners.
Part 2
When Forrest Gump goes to meet his ailing mother in the hospital and Forrest tells him about how life is going, his mother tells him 'Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get' and that has stuck with me ever since.
In life, this fold and unfold in their own mysterious ways, you can never truly understand how things happen or are supposed to happen, they just do. It's part of you to decide that how you walk through the roads that lay before you.
I had a childhood where I spent most of days at my Grandmother's home in a village where she used to live alone. I learnt a great deal about how to manage life from her. My grandfather passed away when my mother was just 3-years-old and Grandmother had to take care of my mother and her 5 siblings. She did it all on her own and never with a frown on her face. She'll tell me stories and tell me about constellations in the sky.
My mother also raised me and my brother all on her own and from her I learned how to deal with situations and society. All of this has engrained in me one thing so much, that in life there's no problem that is bigger than your will. If you set your sights on something, you can achieve it, no matter what comes your way.
Life is more than what you see and you can do whatever you decide on.