Just like a lot of other girls, my interest in fashion began at a very young age, when I was first gifted with a Barbie doll. Again, like a lot of other girls, my interest only increased as I grew up and soon took over my wardrobe. With both my parents being government employees and a little sister who shared my interest in fashion, it was often difficult for my parents to satiate our increasing demands when it came to clothing. Soon, they were at a loss on where to shop so that the cost of clothes did not exceed their budget. It was around this time that we, upon the recommendations of one of my mother’s friends, discovered the wonder that is Pantaloons. With affordable and fashionable clothing, it was here that we bought most of our clothes throughout our adolescent and teenage years. Apart from Pantaloons, Peter England was my father’s favorite shop to shop in and the brand ‘Freshwrapp’ has always been integral to all my memories of family outings and/or family road-trips wherein my mother would pack the food we were going to carry in Freshwrapp aluminum foil. In recent times, however, my association with the Aditya Birla Group has been more special than any other because it was through their Van Heusen women brand that I acquired my first formal blazer in order to begin my foray into the MBA life here at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. The Aditya Birla Group had its humble beginnings during the mid-1960s when, Aditya Vikram Birla joined his father B.K.Birla in their family business which then consisted of Grasim, Hindalco, and Indian Rayon. By the end of the decade, Aditya Birla, then 24 years old, was placed in charge of these companies, which formed the basis of the Aditya Birla Group. Being a visionary, Aditya Birla, led the company’s development from an India-focused industrial group to India's first and largest internationally operating conglomerate. Birla launched its first subsidiary the Indo Thai Synthetics in 1969, to produce and export synthetic yarns in Thailand. Birla's success in Thailand encouraged the group to extend its operations elsewhere in the region and thus began their journey of being an internationally operating conglomerate. Currently, they have their presence in over 30 countries.
‘Failure is not fatal. It is inevitable. We all fail. We all make mistakes. The key is to not be oblivious to the mistake. When you make a mistake, you have three choices: You can be in denial, you can let it cripple you or you can acknowledge the error, take swift corrective action and learn from it’.
-Kumar Mangalam Birla.
These words of Kumar Mangalam Birla are something I identify with immensely. In my 24 years of being on this planet, I feel I have failed and challenged in a major way twice and have successfully learnt from my mistakes and overcome these failures. The last time I failed, I was 18 years old and was enrolled in Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University and was well on my way to earning my Bachelors in Statistics. But unfortunately, I did not take well to living without my parents for the first time and ultimately, my mental health was affected and I quit and went back home. This failure of not having graduated from LSR affected me in a huge way and I have since then vowed to persevere no matter what life throws in front of me. The first time I failed at something, happened when I was younger than 18 years of age. Although not a failure in the conventional sense, this challenge which came my way was something I struggled with and now, have successfully overcome- till my 6thstandard in school, I had learned Tamil as my second language (being from Chennai). In 7thstandard however, my parents got transferred and I had to move to Kendriya Vidyalaya wherein I had to learn Hindi and Sanskrit at a 7thstandard level from scratch. This particular challenge took many tears, sweat and failed exams before I overcame it and by the end of two years, I had started scoring 85% + in my exams, which I considered to be a success and now I have no qualms in conversing in Hindi with people whose native language is Hindi.