The Story of My Life - Nayab Siddiqui, TAPMI
Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate,The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857.The group has interests in viscose staple fibre,
Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate,The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857.The group has interests in viscose staple fibre,
Seldom you find a product or a solution that aligns with your value system, and even more seldom you find a product or a solution your can sell or advice your clients to purchase with honest conviction. Here is how I was fortunate to have that experience while I was working with my pervious employer Bajaj Capital Ltd.
Everyone is Clapping, I am on stage and about to deliver a speech in front of approximately 1000 people. I open my mouth and nothing come out of it not a single word; it is a complete nightmare, and then it turns out it was actually a nightmare. But why I am telling you all about this? Because I am going to tell you all a story. A story of how I overcome my fear to start working for things I want to achieve in my life. I believe that by now you all guessed what my fear was. Yes, it is Speech Anxiety or Fear of public Speaking or Glossophobia, whatever you want to call it.
From the starting of my adulthood, Aditya Birla Group has been a part of my journey. When I completed my schooling in 2010 and was taking a step towards my new journey to graduation, my father gifted me a phone but selecting a sim with affordable service and 24 hrs connectivity was tough. This problem was resolved by my father when he suggested me to go for IDEA connection whose connectivity was good even in the areas where networks like BSNL, Vodafone or Airtel was not feasible. This is how I got engaged with ABG for the first time in my life. After completion of my graduation, when I got selected in Infosys, I had to suit up for my corporate life journey. Formals wear was going to be my daily basis attire. During that time, there were sales going on in Peter England “buy 3 get 3 free”. I got attracted and found out that Peter England was a brand which is so affordable and best in quality. I did all my shopping for formal wear from Peter England. At that time I realized ABG is a brand that offers products that are not only affordable but also high on quality. ABG is all around me. If I talk about the renovation of my old house, we considered UltraTech Cement as our first priority when it comes to trust. My siblings have their mutual funds with Aditya Birla Mutual Funds, which takes care of their financial health.
As a young Mechanical Engineer, I wanted to work for a manufacturing firm especially iron and steel manufacturing firm. As I graduated, I was selected by major steel manufacturing firm. I was very happy for myself but life without challenge is as bland as a good dish without salt. As I started working for my firm, I was made the In-charge of a shift at a very early stage because the company I was working for was short on manpower. This meant I had to lead a team of 10 operators, some of whom were exactly double my age. However, I was confident about my abilities and was sure I will be able to handle the team efficiently.
Challenges are a part and parcel of the life. One of the biggest challenges I faced to achieve my ambition was when I was a kid. I lived in a small village called Pandhurna, which is in Madhya Pradesh. It was around year 2000 when Chhattisgarh was separated from Madhya Pradesh. As a result most of the power station which supplied power to my and other nearby villages were now in Chhattisgarh .So, we often suffered around 10-12 hours of load shading daily. It made a number of things difficult like studying and other household chores. With time came inverters but still things were not that easy, it was a luxury to watch a television even after having one. Being a village ,getting into a good school was another challenge for me and my sister. Finally, we were admitted to the nearest and a well known school which was around 50-60km from my home. It used to take me around 1.5 hours to travel school . People living in my locality used to question my father that he just has two kids that too girls why is he taking efforts in their education and how is that going to benefit him. But my father who himself was a teacher already had a vision. Irrespective of the economic crisis we faced, he never let my studies affected by anything. I and my sister later shifted to Nagpur city to pursue higher education. Staying away from parents at a very young age was quite difficult. But time teaches everything and now after so many years when I look back, I think challenges actually makes you smarter and teaches you to be persistent.
Being a civil engineer, the cement sector of Aditya Birla Group (ABG) is what grabbed my attention in the beginning. Ultratech is not only the largest manufacturer of concrete in India but also India’s largest exporter of cement. In the process of exploring about the civil engineering related products of ABG, I learnt about its product portfolio and history behind its success. The Group’s heritage can be traced back over 150 years when it had established its first flagship company, Grasim that later became the first Indian business to set up international operations. The term 3 project on Financial Management on Grasim required our group to compare and understand the financial statements of various years to forecast and identify the gaps. This gave me an insight into the performance of the textile sector of ABG. Furthermore, the projects carried out as Community Initiatives and rural development by Aditya Birla Centre added value like providing solar lamps to children, transform lives of underprivileged, train women to become entrepreneurs etc. The Aditya Birla Logo highlights and promotes this story of their change and transformation across different sectors like telecom, cement, insulators, Viscose staple fibre, carbon black, aluminium rolling etc. They have brilliantly made their position by nurturing their biggest asset- people to ensure the passion for work and high ethical standards. As someone had rightly said, “Leadership is a choice not a position”, it is because of the leadership team that ABG has been able to secure its numero uno status in many businesses in alignment to its vision.
The biggest challenge of my life which I overcame recently was improving my continuosly deterioting health condition. Exactly one year ago I had to leave my college because of my health condition. It was a very low point in my life as I worked really hard to get into that college and I had to leave it just within a week of joining it. The feeling of leaving the college was very bad but I felt worse because I thought that I have disappointed my parents. When I came back to my home the first 2-3 months were very depressing for me as I lost confidence in myself and started considering myself as someone who can't do anything in my life. But beacuse of the support of my family and friends I gradually started feeling better. They motivated me to work on my physical as well as my mental health. Around November I decided that I will not let this low point of my life affect my future. I started working out daily and also started following a very strict diet. I also started meditating and even joined art of living for some time. I didn't do it as a task infact I made it my lifestyle. I basically started enjoying it and when the time came to again go to my college I was in my best shape ever and also in a very optimistic mental condition. Now that I look at my past year I feel that it was in a way very good experience for me as it not only changed me physically but it also made me humble and more grateful. Even though at that time I felt it was the worst phase of my life.