I was talking to my mom a few days back, I took a trip down memory lane. When I started earning, I had a wish. I wanted to buy something for my father. He bought numerous things for me since I was born, this was the least I wanted to do.
Part A: Why Aditya Birla group is big in my life?
While a lot of things are woven into the tapestry of life, one thread that stands out and holds the whole delicate thread work together is challenges. One may ask, “Really? How in the world do challenges hold our life together? They pull us apart!” I might have nodded my head enthusiastically in the affirmative and went along with what you said – had this been a few years earlier. Challenges hold us together, because they introduce us to ourselves – help us identify our flaws, make us hate ourselves, then enable us to introspect and finally, teach us to fall in love with ourselves all over again. In essence, challenges mould us into the fine specimens of creation we aim to be. I have had my fair share of challenges, but I am proud to say that I have overcome each and every one of them. One of the challenges I have faced was a situation that I was in when I was in the second year of my engineering. I have been a professional Bharatnatyam dancer for quite some time now, and I used to give performances all around the state of Tamil Nadu. A golden opportunity presented itself when I was offered the chance to perform at a prestigious dance festival in the temple town of Karaikal. I was overjoyed. A few days later, I realized that this performance would coincide with a very important exam in college – I was the top student of my department (Genetic Engineering) and a regular recipient of merit scholarships – I was not someone who took any test lightly, let alone an exam such as this one which carried high weightage. But I refused to back out of the performance and decided to look at this as a chance to prove myself. The performance was outside Chennai, which where I lived at the time and it was late at night – on the day before the exam. But I had already made up my mind and I was not going to give up. I gave one of the best performances of my life that night but the performance ended much later than we thought because it was an overnight festival – it was midnight by the time the performance ended. We rushed through dinner and got into the car where I could catch very little sleep during the journey because a lot of us were cramped together and the driver was driving at a very high speed. Finally, we reached home at 5 in the morning – I hadn’t studied one bit and my college was an hour and a half away. When everybody around me had already started saying “It’s okay. Make up for it on the next test”, I had found my characteristic, iron resolve to hold onto. I studied with great determination for this highly technical subject that my peers had been preparing for many days for – which I couldn’t due to the physical rigors of travelling 3-4 hours every day to and from college and orchestra rehearsals that went well into the night. I gave the exam in a frenzy of grit and almost adamant refusal to give up or compromise. Right after the exam, all the sleep deprivation set in, and I finally breathed a sigh of relief and contentment – I had, at the very least, given the best I could from my end. The next thing I know, something totally Bollywood-esque happened. I scored top marks yet again, and my GPA was unaffected. Two years later, I was awarded the gold medal. This incident instilled in me confidence and the belief that everything can be achieved – with grit, determination and the courage to embrace your challenges.
US $41 billion conglomerate, the Aditya Birla Group is in the League of Fortune 500. The Group is anchored by an extraordinary force of over 1,20,000 employees, belonging to 42 nationalities, spanning 36 countries. Over 50 per cent of the group's revenues flow from its overseas operations.
ABGLP-SIBM BENGALURU
No matter how much you acquaint yourself with something, the connection can never even come close to attaining the status of something that has been a part of your life since before you learnt to read a book, speak in complete sentences, or form your own thoughts. The very name “Birla” is something that belongs to such a category of special, unforgettable relationships. My earliest memory of the name, brings with it, all things beautiful, pristine and nostalgic – the gentle dance of my mother’s pallu on a pleasant winter evening, the smell of home cooked food maturing its way to completion, a soothing, 90’s melody being hummed somewhere down the street by a rickshaw driver – his voice intercepted by the gleeful peals of laughter of the children playing down the road of our colony – the memories conjured up are endless, and the love for the brand that was a part of it all – even more deep. My mother would often speak of the Birlas with great awe – anything at all that seemed like a big feat for me to achieve, my mother would say “You need to be the Birlas to achieve that!” Hence, it came to be that not only have I used ABG’s products, but they have also been an integral part of my life, growing up. I, therefore, decided to outline in this article, the impact that a seemingly mundane product has had on my life – Freshwrapp. Yes, you read that right! Although I have used many other products by ABG – from twirling around in pretty skirts from Pantaloons to charging ahead towards my dream job in a chic Van Heusen blazer – I feel nothing sums up the value that the brand has for me, like Freshwrapp does. Every day, as I got ready for school without a care in the world, my mother would be working tirelessly in the kitchen, cooking my lunch. I didn’t understand then, but every time my mother used to wrap my food in that shiny aluminium foil, it wasn’t a mechanical ritual, it was a sign of her love and care. Now, years later, living away from home and fending for myself rather awkwardly, I realize the value and deep meaning of this simple gesture. My mother used to never settle for any other brand of aluminium foil but Freshwrapp. I still remember, when I was in my sixth grade, we went grocery shopping. My mother was actively looking for aluminium foil rolls on the shelves. The well meaning shop assistant was trying to push another brand of aluminium foil, which had an offer going on – two rolls for the price of one. But my mother refused and stuck to Freshwrapp. When I later asked my mother what the difference was – after all, it was just aluminium foil – she replied saying: “It’s all about the brand. Aluminium foil is something that is in direct contact with my child’s food. A child’s food is paramount to her health. How can I trust any random brand with something so important?” That’s when I realized that, often the things that we dismiss as mundane and ordinary end up having the greatest value. It got me thinking of the benchmarks that help us assess a brand and it dawned on me that there is nothing more trustworthy than a mother’s trust. If a mother trusts a brand so deeply for her child, the brand needs no further validation.
I was talking to my mom a few days back, I took a trip down memory lane. When I started earning, I had a wish. I wanted to buy something for my father. He bought numerous things for me since I was born, this was the least I wanted to do.
Part A: Why Aditya Birla group is big in my life?
While a lot of things are woven into the tapestry of life, one thread that stands out and holds the whole delicate thread work together is challenges. One may ask, “Really? How in the world do challenges hold our life together? They pull us apart!” I might have nodded my head enthusiastically in the affirmative and went along with what you said – had this been a few years earlier. Challenges hold us together, because they introduce us to ourselves – help us identify our flaws, make us hate ourselves, then enable us to introspect and finally, teach us to fall in love with ourselves all over again. In essence, challenges mould us into the fine specimens of creation we aim to be. I have had my fair share of challenges, but I am proud to say that I have overcome each and every one of them. One of the challenges I have faced was a situation that I was in when I was in the second year of my engineering. I have been a professional Bharatnatyam dancer for quite some time now, and I used to give performances all around the state of Tamil Nadu. A golden opportunity presented itself when I was offered the chance to perform at a prestigious dance festival in the temple town of Karaikal. I was overjoyed. A few days later, I realized that this performance would coincide with a very important exam in college – I was the top student of my department (Genetic Engineering) and a regular recipient of merit scholarships – I was not someone who took any test lightly, let alone an exam such as this one which carried high weightage. But I refused to back out of the performance and decided to look at this as a chance to prove myself. The performance was outside Chennai, which where I lived at the time and it was late at night – on the day before the exam. But I had already made up my mind and I was not going to give up. I gave one of the best performances of my life that night but the performance ended much later than we thought because it was an overnight festival – it was midnight by the time the performance ended. We rushed through dinner and got into the car where I could catch very little sleep during the journey because a lot of us were cramped together and the driver was driving at a very high speed. Finally, we reached home at 5 in the morning – I hadn’t studied one bit and my college was an hour and a half away. When everybody around me had already started saying “It’s okay. Make up for it on the next test”, I had found my characteristic, iron resolve to hold onto. I studied with great determination for this highly technical subject that my peers had been preparing for many days for – which I couldn’t due to the physical rigors of travelling 3-4 hours every day to and from college and orchestra rehearsals that went well into the night. I gave the exam in a frenzy of grit and almost adamant refusal to give up or compromise. Right after the exam, all the sleep deprivation set in, and I finally breathed a sigh of relief and contentment – I had, at the very least, given the best I could from my end. The next thing I know, something totally Bollywood-esque happened. I scored top marks yet again, and my GPA was unaffected. Two years later, I was awarded the gold medal. This incident instilled in me confidence and the belief that everything can be achieved – with grit, determination and the courage to embrace your challenges.
US $41 billion conglomerate, the Aditya Birla Group is in the League of Fortune 500. The Group is anchored by an extraordinary force of over 1,20,000 employees, belonging to 42 nationalities, spanning 36 countries. Over 50 per cent of the group's revenues flow from its overseas operations.
ABGLP-SIBM BENGALURU
No matter how much you acquaint yourself with something, the connection can never even come close to attaining the status of something that has been a part of your life since before you learnt to read a book, speak in complete sentences, or form your own thoughts. The very name “Birla” is something that belongs to such a category of special, unforgettable relationships. My earliest memory of the name, brings with it, all things beautiful, pristine and nostalgic – the gentle dance of my mother’s pallu on a pleasant winter evening, the smell of home cooked food maturing its way to completion, a soothing, 90’s melody being hummed somewhere down the street by a rickshaw driver – his voice intercepted by the gleeful peals of laughter of the children playing down the road of our colony – the memories conjured up are endless, and the love for the brand that was a part of it all – even more deep. My mother would often speak of the Birlas with great awe – anything at all that seemed like a big feat for me to achieve, my mother would say “You need to be the Birlas to achieve that!” Hence, it came to be that not only have I used ABG’s products, but they have also been an integral part of my life, growing up. I, therefore, decided to outline in this article, the impact that a seemingly mundane product has had on my life – Freshwrapp. Yes, you read that right! Although I have used many other products by ABG – from twirling around in pretty skirts from Pantaloons to charging ahead towards my dream job in a chic Van Heusen blazer – I feel nothing sums up the value that the brand has for me, like Freshwrapp does. Every day, as I got ready for school without a care in the world, my mother would be working tirelessly in the kitchen, cooking my lunch. I didn’t understand then, but every time my mother used to wrap my food in that shiny aluminium foil, it wasn’t a mechanical ritual, it was a sign of her love and care. Now, years later, living away from home and fending for myself rather awkwardly, I realize the value and deep meaning of this simple gesture. My mother used to never settle for any other brand of aluminium foil but Freshwrapp. I still remember, when I was in my sixth grade, we went grocery shopping. My mother was actively looking for aluminium foil rolls on the shelves. The well meaning shop assistant was trying to push another brand of aluminium foil, which had an offer going on – two rolls for the price of one. But my mother refused and stuck to Freshwrapp. When I later asked my mother what the difference was – after all, it was just aluminium foil – she replied saying: “It’s all about the brand. Aluminium foil is something that is in direct contact with my child’s food. A child’s food is paramount to her health. How can I trust any random brand with something so important?” That’s when I realized that, often the things that we dismiss as mundane and ordinary end up having the greatest value. It got me thinking of the benchmarks that help us assess a brand and it dawned on me that there is nothing more trustworthy than a mother’s trust. If a mother trusts a brand so deeply for her child, the brand needs no further validation.
