Why ABG is big in my life
With a wide presence spanning 34 countries and 14 industry sectors, it is indeed unthinkable that someone could not have been impacted by ABG. For me, it happened very early in my life, and today, when I look back at this memorable association, the words ‘We are #BigInYourLife’ resonates in my ears and the message cannot be any truer. I still vividly remember the lunch breaks in school. Much to my surprise, I would always find the food cooked by my mom fresh under the aluminum foil. The aroma of the tasty food would invite a large number of people at my desk and, I would happily share. This, I believe, was one of the initial associations with ABG and I can only thank FreshWrapp for the joyous experiences that I can savor.
As I grew up, I witnessed ABG’s expansion too. With 26 acquisitions in 17 years, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla’s execution of putting ABG on the world map just fascinates me. The second significant association that I would like to talk about is that with Idea cellular, my first ever sim card. At the time of intense competition in the telecom sector, I decided to go with Idea. “Idea cellular is the sim I want to buy”, I announced to my dad. My eyes lit up when he asked me the reason behind my choice, because I had always wanted to talk about the advertisement that influenced me. The village scenes showing expressions of surprise and awe on finding a little village boy speaking English had a great connect with people. The idea was clearly to use phones to bring literacy to the areas and people that were deprived of it. And I was amazed by Idea’s idea of using its campaign to show how mobile telephony can be used to solve a real, pressing social problem faced by the people of our country . Clearly, “What an idea Sirji”.
ABG made an even bigger presence in my city, Guwahati, with the city’s first pantaloons outlet. It was the first mall of that grandeur to open in my city. The child in me grew wings as I entered the mall; I was astounded to see the variety of different brands and products. In no time, it became my go-to place for all the shopping parades. Then came Forever 21, which introduced me to the latest trending fashion styles. As people say, presenting oneself in the best possible way is important in the professional sphere, and this was primarily taken care of by Van Huesen, the house of my business attire. Besides helping me look like a professional, I felt like one.
The fact that ABG represents the Indian culture around the world as a premier conglomerate gives me sense of immense pride. Also, making a difference by reaching out to about 7.5 million people, working in 5,000 villages, operating schools, running medical camps and hospitals, among others, is a sheer source of inspiration.
Truly, ABG has touched my life very closely, as it has, of many others.
It has made it big not just in terms of numbers and scale but also by making a big presence in the lives of many individuals.
How I overcame the challenges I faced in life so far
During my school days, I was this shy, under confident girl. An innate inhibition made it difficult for me to speak comfortably and express myself freely in public. I would never take part in activities which required being at the center stage and would attract lot of attention. Seeing my friends do amazingly well in these things that I feared, would make me feel little low about myself. I badly wanted to change this, but had no clue where to start and how to proceed.
So, I let things continue as they were, for a long time, until, they became a roadblock and started to prevent me from achieving my goal. The goal was that of studying in one of the top B-schools and I couldn’t afford my weakness to come in my way again.
To work on this, I started looking for possible ways of improving on my communication skills. Every day I practiced speaking on different topics in front of the mirror. I also practiced speaking in front of groups of people. I was doing something that I feared the most. The sheer drive to achieve my goals kept me moving.
Also the support and guidance that I got from my mentor helped me immensely. My mentor enabled me to see the hope I had inside myself but I could not see on my own .
And slowly, I started to feel the change in myself . Now, the girl that I was beginning to see in the mirror was different. She was more comfortable in being herself, she spoke with grace and even though she would fumble at times, she would smile and continue. The change was not drastic, it was slow yet beautiful.