Why Aditya Birla Group is big in your life.
Whenever I talk about “Aditya Birla”, the first thing that I remember is Raghu Chacha. Sometimes, he used to come to pick me up from school on his not-so-cool-super-old cycle. We all are aware of the scenes and aromas as soon as the BELL rings. It is like the school wakes up to its alarm. Amidst the crowd and the rush, it was a herculean task for kindergarten kids to find their chauffeurs. But it was never a tough job for me. From the window of my class, I just had to look across the playground and locate “the YELLOW cap”. Raghu Chacha never forgot to wear it. That was my first touchpoint with “Ultratech” and the Aditya Birla Group. Also, being all “Engineer’s choice”, it was my father’s choice as well to prefer it while we built our house.
Aditya Birla Group, a US $44.3 billion corporation, is India’s third largest private sector conglomerate and is active in 14 industry sectors with a global imprint. The diverse Group has interests in telecom, financial services, metals, cement, chemicals, fertilizers and so on. It also has a significant presence in branded fashion as its Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, which has nearly 2,000 brick & mortar stores, owns India’s largest fashion chain, Pantaloons. The in-house brands such as Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Van Heusen, Peter England suits me up on all of my important occasions. The 162- year-old group has even ventured into online fashion retail through a platform called abof. Abof showcases a curated collection of in-season styles and is my personal favorite to get my daily dose of fashion and style hacks.
This group has constantly tracked megatrends and utilized the opportunities to remain ahead of its league. Based on solid foundation values like “Integrity; Commitment; Passion; Seamlessness; Speed”, it is not just a company that survived liberalization, but also the one that continuously evolved and is touching millions of lives every-day.
How you overcame challenges to achieve your ambitions in life so far.
Life is never easy. But I have always wondered how different an individual I would have been sans the challenges that I had faced. I remember that as a child, my eyes had seen more of tears and less of dreams. I was always worried and jealous of everyone around me. In fact, that feeling was so heavy that I never realized when I had built an invisible shell all around myself. The clock ticked, years passed by, my legs got taller and the SHELL grew stronger. It felt like I was living on a different planet altogether.
The reason for all my worries was just one question: “Why my father?” I have always seen my father with crutches. Once in a while, I would believe that it was temporary and someday he would walk without them. Moreover, I had seen Neha’s father got rid of them in a couple of months. But my wait would not end. Finally, my mother divulged the secret. My father suffered from a rare kind of paralysis and that it might take very long to get him treated. Well, she was giving me hopes and she had said, “Beta, it’s good if you see it like your father is blessed with not two but four legs”. She was true. His legs brought him a long way. And now when I see him walk with his four legs; I feel so proud.
But, then what about the SHELL? It not only grew stronger with time but persistent as well. It had got so used to me that it would not allow me outside. While I was pre-occupied with my own figuring out the answer to the question; I had missed so many things. Now that the question no longer existed, it felt suffocated inside. I needed to get out and when I tried doing so; it was not at all easy. I could not relate to many things with my friends. In fact, I had alienated myself so much that it was tough to just walk and talk to people. Even now, I struggle to do so. But then I try every day to talk to new people, watch the butterflies and most importantly smile every day. This makes it a lot easier.
This has taught me that you should not bother yourself so much with the things you can’t control and to never stop dreaming and loving your life. All you have to do is: “Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.”
#ABGLP #ABGWOOME #XIMB