My Story
This topic makes me go down the memory lane and mention some instances where the ABG group had their presence felt in my life.
I remember as a small kid going to school, the most awaited part of the day for me used to be the recess. The thought what mom must have packed always helped me sail through the long lectures, the menu each day for lunch would change but the only thing constant was “Freshwrapp” aluminium foil in which my mother used to pack my lunch daily.
When I finished school Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani was one of my dream institutes, since I hail from Rajasthan the respect people have for BITS is even more. I visited BITS campus for the entrance exam, although I could not get through but the entire experience of going around the beautiful campus and the enigma of BITS is still fresh in my mind.
My father has always been a shopaholic and someone who had keen interest in dressing well, his wardrobe has always consisted of clothes from-
- Louis Philippe
- Allen Solly
- Van Heusan
- Peter England
He is an ardent “Louis Philippe” fan and has an immense collection of shirts from the brand in his closet.
When I grew up and started working the first store that I visited was “Pantaloons”, their ethnic wear is the best part of the entire store and I thoroughly enjoy shopping at that store. I clearly remember the first formal pair of trousers I bought was from “Van Heusan Woman” right before I joined my MBA college.
Hence, for my retail therapy ABG has always been a keen companion, the “Liva” fabric is extremely comfortable to wear specially during summers also I was very fond of “Abof” for the variety they offered in terms of apparel and fashion advice. ABG has also made it possible to access brand like Forever21 which my current favourite and I don’t miss a single opportunity to shop at their stores.
Ever since I was a kid I struggled with mathematics, no matter how much I tried I never really scored as much as I did in the other subjects my father who is extremely good with numbers did not understand my problem. As I reached class X and the board exams were approaching I had to do something to score decent enough. This time I prepared differently and much before others, I borrowed books from seniors and started my preparations before session began this gave me confidence to attend maths lectures which never happened before. Finally, when the results came I had scored 99/100, my hard work had paid off and I received 2 awards for my overall performance in exams.
I come from a conservative family where girls are married early. However, I had always dreamt of working and having my career in good shape and not just be restricted to household chores. For fulfilling this ambition, I wanted to pursue MBA after almost 3 years of work experience as the IT industry was not looking exciting to me anymore with respect to work I was doing.
I used to observe how managers worked and that really intrigued me to explore how they work, gradually I also decided my stream for management studies and that was human resources. The HRs are the first people you get in touch with when you join an organization during my 3 years of work I realized that their jobs are interesting and challenging as well because human behaviour is complex and it’s difficult to keep all the employees happy.
It did not come as a surprise to me that I was discouraged at home for leaving a well cushioned job and pursue MBA in HR as it’s something that people look down upon with a perception that they don’t work. I somehow managed to convince my parents that at least let me attempt CAT entrance, the only condition they had for me was to not resign till I get a decent score.
I began my preparation with office during the day and preparation at night, I could not join any coaching institute, so I sourced preparation material from online coaching centres. When the results came out I had manged to get 87 percentiles in CAT, I did not get through TISS which was disappointing as it was a dream institute. Since my CAT score was decent I started prepping for other institutes that had good HR programs and converted IMI, New Delhi and joined their HR batch in 2018.