Part A- Why ABG is important in my life?
“In love with life, In love with Fashion” – is not just a tagline but also what describes Pantaloons the best. The story of this relationship between me and Pantaloons goes way back. The most important thing for a customer is to build a connection, a trust with the brand they buy fro
m, and this beautiful division of the Aditya Birla Group has earned that over the years, and also maintained it by their principal approach of customer satisfaction.
What Pantaloons have done greatly is to have one-stop fashion outlets in various parts of the country, where customers can get products of nearly 200 brands under one roof. For customers, it eases shopping, and at the same time provides hundreds of choices to make the best-informed decision.
Yes, I am a fan of Pantaloons, because what pantaloons brought to me was more than just satisfaction. Coming from Kolkata, it’s a trend or you may call it tradition that parents buy you new clothes before Durga Puja, and Pantaloons was our got to place to do shopping. At the time when I was a kid, it was always the anticipation and joyfulness to get new clothes you would love to wear on the 5 days of the Puja excited me. And Pantaloons never disappointed me!! I developed love for certain brands like UMM. For a 12-year-old kid at that time, it didn’t matter what customer satisfaction is, he just wanted new clothes, but to Pantaloons it did matter, and that’s the best part.
In Pantaloons there is something for everybody, from people for the age group of 5 or less to people over 60 years old, Pantaloons caters to every group, because inclusiveness and diversity is what Pantaloons has always been about.
From my childhood when I was a kid to a time when I am in my mid-20s, Pantaloons has always been there to take care of my needs and wishes, and I hope they’ll always be in future.
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Part B- How I overcame my hardships to achieve my ambitions in life so far.
Every successful person in this world has a story that is “behind the scenes” and majorly undisclosed to common public, a story filled with hardships they faced in their journey to success.
Now the best part is that challenges is not exclusive to certain people, every person has their own journey and challenges, but the question is- How you approach it?
Myself, not a being a special case, have faced my own hardships in life.
I was bullied in school, deprived of friends for the latter part of my school life because for some people it was fun to cast me out of the group.
I was bullied through 8th to 10th standard, and the worst part was in 11th standard when I was casted out and I had no friends. A time of life when a student needs a support system (mostly friends) around him to help him through this rigorous education system of getting selected in a good engineering college, I did not have any.
I was abused, pushed around, laughed at and underestimated at every point in my life, which affected me mentally and I failed in all 3 subjects in Mid-terms of class 11(Maths, Physics, Chemistry), the teachers could not believe it because I was among the top 20 students in my school. That day in parents-teachers meeting I saw my mother cry for the first time, and even though she kept asking “Why? How?”, I could not say it, because boys are supposed to be strong, right? No weaknesses? Even if you do, you might as well shut up or else more humiliation is about to follow.
So, I kept it to myself, and decided in my head that I have to overcome it, so I trained myself to have a bullet-proof mind, have a smile on my face always as that helps to face challenges even if it makes me nervous sometimes, but it came at a cost of numerous barriers in my mind and that I did not need friends anymore. A cost I was okay to pay that time.
1 and a half years fast forward- I scored 90.71% in ISC exams, ranked 1690 in WBJEE and 23000 in AIEEE, but the best part was that my mother was the happiest person in the world that day, the smile on her face was back and at that point I knew I succeeded at what I desired. Today, I am studying in one the best B-schools in the country, IMI ,Delhi, so things worked out for me in the end. Now, do I believe I succeeded in life? Maybe to some extent, but mostly not, because the better part of my life is about to come, so time will tell.
Now looking at the bigger picture, I don’t think people in this country address the problem of bullying in schools, how it can change a person both mentally and physically, I was lucky to find the extra self-motivation to see my mother smile, that kept me going. Many might not find the self-motivation and it might end in a mishap. I just have a message for those people- “you are not alone, you need to regroup and find the extra incentive that gives you direction, motivates you and helps you push through”.
The question remains- Are we doing enough to address this? Shouldn’t we do more?
P.S- In college I found friends that are my family now, so the walls in my head did fall down. So it is a happy ending after all!!
#ABGPLWooMe