You know how sultry the weather can get right after a heavy downpour? Well, it was the same that evening. We had just entered the classroom for another session after a long day and the air conditioner hadn’t kicked in yet. I sat there, sweating like a pig, with a vine of thoughts entangled inside my brain, each shoot trying to be the one I water.
I finally put aside my hesitance and left my seat to go and talk to one of them. I approached the one with the least intimidating look and asked, “Hi XXXX! May I have a word with you?” He nodded with an inaudible okay and I told him, “I haven’t slept for more than 30 minutes in the past 34 hours, I don’t feel weird from the inside but I’ve never kept myself awake this long and I think you may have a better idea; should I continue?” Things changed a lot after this. I’ll tell you how.
I was always a very timid person throughout my childhood and even in the early adulthood, maybe because of the stammer I had all along. All I needed was a pinch of confidence here and there. The bachelors was a stage where I could have gained some but I admit I was lazy enough to just focus on academics and hobbies. There’s one more thing apart from these, the art of talking to people, which, you can easily guess by now, I didn’t have. So, the plan to go for an MBA was not just to augment my career prospects but also to get that one thing left which can complete my quest for confidence.
I prepared for CAT while working, cracked it to some extent and finally was able to get into one of the new IIMs. That day in June, with loads of excitement inside which obviously I wasn’t showing to the outside world, I entered the arena. True to the word, it was actually an ‘arena’ where, as expected, my academics and hobbies were not going to be enough as every other person was good in academics and had some unique hobby.
The very next day, a rigorous induction process started and the bunch of seniors handling us was Insite, the adcom of IIM Kashipur. The shift to the IIM culture was overwhelming but exciting at the same time. Preparatory classes started at 8:30 in the morning and went on till almost 7 in the evening. As soon as we used to finish our dinner, Insite used to call us for night sessions which mostly ran till 3 in the morning followed by the assignments.
A point came where I hadn’t slept for more than a whole day which was way too unusual for me. I had realized that I wasn’t having any issues with it but never really pondered over why this was happening. Coming straight to the moment where I left you, the senior answered, “Listen intently to what I say now! I’ve noticed you being active in a lot of events in the past few days and this is bound to happen if you go to that level. Just put a smile to that face of yours, speak your heart out whenever you get a chance and don’t let that level of participation fade away. You’ll go places!”
A year later I stood at that very place where he was standing, in the same classroom and addressed a batch full of 200+ people with ease. I may have participated a lot in different events throughout the year but the pinch of confidence I was looking for came in that one moment during induction!
The Aditya Birla Group Company I’d love to work for
I’ve worked for about a year at a carbon black manufacturing firm before starting my management education, therefore I’d be able to relate easily with the business at the Aditya Birla Group carbon black giant, Birla Carbon. Though, being a finance major, I’d be more inclined towards working at Aditya Birla Capital Limited, the holding company for all the financial service businesses at ABG. I’ve had some experience with a facet of SME finance, i.e. Invoice discounting, while working as a financial supply chain intern at a medical devices manufacturing startup and would love to learn more about the variety of financial products ABCL provides to its customers, augment my knowledge base and contribute to the success story of ABCL.
-Ankur Bajpai