ABG ingrains positivity into my life, one way or another. The colours of its logos, the vibrant advertisements, the fine quality products – everything about it is simply amazing. I surmise I am a cheerful person intrinsically and ABG’s “Big on Smiles” CSR tagline is something I completely associate myself with. However, there has a been a fair share of highs and lows in my life and I believe I have tackled to the best of my capabilities so far.
Every challenge one faces makes one stronger and that’s what I firmly believe in, when tough times impend. The month of November in 2018 was one such time for me.
My father complained of breathing problems and he was diagnosed with a severe blockage in arteries. He was posted in a town 450 km away from my home. He came home the very night he was diagnosed and he underwent his operation the next day. Those were dire times, emotional chaos and instability surmounted us. I played a strong person in those perilous times and took charge.
My father returned home on the auspicious day of Diwali and all my family took good care of all him. But there were tougher times awaiting. My grandmother passed away a month later and my parents had to travel to my native place. I and my brother stayed back home and focused on our semester exams. Meanwhile, I learnt to cook and manage all other household chores on my own, something I had never done before. I wrote the IIFT exam in this period and qualified the written stage. My parents returned a month later and my father had to join back his office. He needed intensive care after the operation, so we decided that my mother would stay with him. In no time, all 4 of us went to my father’s place and got everything in place for them.
Soon after, I and my brother returned home and we had no clue as to how to manage our lives. We were scared on that journey back home; we didn’t know how to proceed with our lives thereon. But we learnt.
I had my final year project and IIFT 2nd stage processes (WAT-GD-PI) lined up, which required tremendous efforts from my side. I used to be someone who was never bothered about any household chore but post-haste, I became someone who would wake up at 6 am in the morning to get breakfast ready for my younger brother and drop him off to college on my scooty in the blistering cold mornings. I even attended my college and toiled day and night to finish my project. There were a lot of sacrifices I made but I never compromised on my priorities which were IIFT and my family’s health and well-being. I indulged myself into healthy eating habits and exercised every day without fail and encouraged all my family to do the same. In this duration of 6 months, I got through IIFT, wrote the last 2 semester exams of my Under graduation and passed with flying colours, lost the extra weight that I always wanted to, took good care of myself and my brother and a did a lot of other little things. '
Around the same time that I joined IIFT, my father was transferred back to my hometown and it was the biggest respite of my life. I felt like a winner when I met the unstated expectations that I and my family had from me. I felt accomplished when I handled the situation with the utmost courage and diligence. There were times when I felt like giving up since the pressure building up was humongous. But hard times are when you get tested and emerging victorious out of such situations is pure ecstasy.
How ABG Has Been Big In My Life
I distinctly remember the 12-year old cute little chubby me and the summer of 2009. It was when Idea’s “Walk and Talk” campaign took the media by storm. The kid in me was deeply exhilarated, her eyes shone brightly when a voice in the advertisement said: “my size went XL from XXL”. Luckily, my mother had an Idea sim and so began my walk and talk mission. Being the loquacious person that I’m, I took to calling my cousins and friends for an hour every day and this was how ABG found an irreplaceable place in my life for the first time and gave me some happy memories that I still cherish upon.
Thereafter, as I stepped into the teenage phase, I was stumped by the marvellous clothing range of ABG. My cousin took me to Pantaloons on the new year and bought me a top, that I still hold so dear. It was the first time he had gifted me something and it definitely has a special place in my closet and my heart. Soon, he got married and I remember him, suited up neatly in Grasim. I met the bride later, and she was no less than a diva, ravishingly dressed in Liva.
The vibrant “People” logo always catches my attention. I have some beautiful memories associated with “People” outlet closest to my home. Its logo made it easy recognizable and I and my friends used it as a meeting point and had the times of our lives right outside the store. Whenever I walk past that place, it fills me with nostalgia. In my under-graduation days, my wardrobe extended beyond Pantaloons to include Forever 21, Liva and PlanetFashion. I pursued Civil Engineering and UltraTech Cement kept recurring in my life for those four years. My final year project required me to use cement and UltraTech was my obvious choice. Needless to say, I was awarded decent marks for the project. I bid a farewell to my college, dressed in a Forever 21 and the compliments I received kept me smiling ear to ear throughout.
In no time, I embarked upon my MBA journey. It goes without saying that formal clothes are the second skin of an MBA student. Without a second thought, I resorted to Allen Solly and Van Heusen to rummage through and as one would expect, I got the exact clothes I wanted. These amazing formal clothes instilled an exceptional amount of confidence in me and helped me sail through the Group Discussion and Personal Interview processes with utmost grace. Walking into the sacred corridors of IIFT, dressed up in Allen Solly, was sheer bliss. The kind of happy and confident I felt can’t be woven into words.
My whole life can be neatly knitted around the memories that Aditya Birla Group has gifted me with. My first and only sim that I use till date is a Vodafone Idea Limited sim and it’s nearly impossible to recall and count the plethora of bitter-sweet memories associated with it. ABG has made me feel happy, overwhelmed, pretty and confident at different stages of my life and has an invaluable position in my life now. Its contribution in my life is unparalleled and it is so prominent that even Big is a small word to justify the part it plays in my life.
