There’s hardly any person who has not been touched by Aditya Birla Group products in their life. My first brush with the company was through its retail brand, PETER ENGLAND, which has and will always be a significant influence in my life.
So like any daughter would admit, the first love of my life will always be my father who has always been so loving and so supportive of me and my sister's dreams. He had two fundamental principles in life which he passed onto us since our early childhood, and they were, 'Let go of what has happened, learn from the mistakes and always be ready for new beginnings for the sun still shines after a cold and dark night', and 'ABG- Always Be Genuine'.
For me, Peter England shall always be very nostalgic as that is my father’s most preferred and cherished brand, and even the mere sound of the name brings back so many memories. And coincidentally the tagline of Peter England is also ‘beginning of good things’ that is quite similar to what my father always believes in and which has played such a significant role in my life. Indeed, the ideology of Peter England shall always keep reminding me of my trying days and keep inspiring me to be hopeful about all the good things that are coming my way.
Reminding me about two most important lessons in life, firstly to have faith and keep believing in myself for it is my world and with determination and dedication, I can achieve my dreams and secondly to learn from the past mistakes but also make it a point to let go of it and wait patiently for the new beginnings.
Similar to most CAT aspirants, the most challenging and trying phase of my life was during the few months between appearing for CAT and the interview phase. But these past few months taught me a lot.
I was always this shy and introvert kind of person who used to have jitters before facing a crowd. The first time I faced a B-school interview, the pressure of performing well in the interview and the group discussion got to me, and I felt so under confident among the other candidates. Even though I did get selected, I knew it wasn’t the place where I wanted to be. The second time I appeared CAT, I got calls from some of the premier Business schools. I knew I had to get rid of the fear that I had and work hard on improving my self-confidence. Thus, my struggle began, and with the help of my father, I soon overcame that fear and started appearing for the interviews with confidence.
But as fate would have it, just before my results were due to be announced, both of my parents met with an accident and were hospitalized. That hit me so hard. However strong you might be, nobody can bear seeing both parents hurt. It took a toll on me emotionally seeing my father, who is my pillar of strength, in so much pain. However, he is such a firm believer of the saying that even through the pain he always used to keep repeating that there will be sunshine at the end of this long tunnel and we all had to keep believing in God and have faith, for the nights don’t last long. It was just a few days after the accident that I got an admission offer from IIM Ranchi, and it also happened to be the same day that my parents also got discharged from the hospital. My father’s words again came to be true and made me a firm believer of his principles which shall stay forever with me till the end and keep inspiring me.