Why Aditya Birla Group is big in my life.
The Aditya Birla Group has always had a close connection with people from across the country, but a special connect of this huge conglomerate lies with the people of my city, Kolkata, having notable ties to the story of how a man, Shiv Narayan Birla, with his business venture of cotton trading in Rajasthan back in 1857 ended up creating a dynasty which captured the hearts and markets across the nation. Being from Kolkata, I have always been surrounded by monuments and memoirs of the Birla family. The Birla planetarium, G. D. Birla Memorial School and other multitude of monuments remind us how big an influence the largest multinational company in India has had on the city of Joy. I remember the time when we first started construction of the building which I call home now. I was a tiny, young boy, not more than 8 years old. I didn’t even understand the implication of what saying “my home” was, let alone understand the joy of having it. I was just happy to see my family stand there and smile looking up at the structure. I remember the bags of UltraTech Cement being laid out and cut open for use. It was not until much later that I understood the amount of trust my parents had in the brand for why else would they put their trust and that too regarding something like our home, which had even more of a symbolic significance as a structure of solidarity for the years to come. Recently my father entered the construction business sector as an entrepreneur in his own right and at times even I accompanied him to the construction sites. It always puts a smile on my face thinking that while a lot of things have changed, the bags of UltraTech Cement have not. It’s been a relationship with the brand for as long as I can remember, and that very relationship is an instance that cements how and why Aditya Birla Group has been a massive presence in our lives.
How I overcame challenges to achieve my ambitions so far.
Challenges are part of a daily process for everyone but referring to the famous words from Rocky Balboa “Life's not about how hard of a hit you can give, it's about how many you can take and still keep moving forward.” Instances have propped up far and often in my life when I felt that it might have been the end of the road, that I have hit a wall but I would like to refer to a quote from yet another one of my favorite movies, Tintin, which says that when you hit a wall, you push through it. Being the grandson of a colonel of the Indian Army, resilience and determination have always been my strong suit but there have been times when I have faltered too. Taking up one such instance, I would like to highlight that my results in the 12th board exams were terrible. Not because I was not prepared for the exam but because I wasn’t prepared mentally for the circumstances that I was put in. About a week before the start of the exams, I was diagnosed and admitted in a hospital with a severe case of Dengue. I was discharged a couple of days before my examinations started but the break of flow provided to be disastrous for my mental state and I completely broke down during the exams. This coupled with the results that followed dented my self-esteem and self-belief for years to come although I did manage to do amicably in my engineering entrance exams. I lost faith in myself and my capabilities. But I have always been blessed to have found the best of mentors at the best of times and also the trust of my family that no matter what, I would come through. It took me years to figure out that my belief lay not in my marks or results, but in my abilities which I trusted myself to have. It was with this newfound outlook that I could excel in my internship at Aricent, when the offer letter got delayed; my eLitmus exam and then my MBA entrance exams. Looking back at it, if given a chance, I would like to rectify my mistakes back then for sure, but even that chapter of my life taught me a valuable lesson and maybe I wouldn’t be as positive and vibrant in any situation today if I had not faced those tough times back then.
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