Growing up seeing fashion on television and being attracted to the clothes is something we can all relate with. I also found fashion as it entered my life with my mom’s encouragement in choosing designs that suited me and getting them stitched from the local boutiques. With Aditya Birla Group’s entry into the Indian fashion space with their highly inclusive and affordable brand Pantaloons, it brought into my life an opportunity to have access to better and lasting fashion with my own pocket money. It developed a sense of decision making and a renewed sense of confidence in my choices.
As I grew up, my fashion sense changed and I moved on to another brand, Forever21. With its huge range in apparels for every occasion, I developed a habit of strategizing my choices as I shopped in Delhi or Mumbai.
Fashion, moreover the importance of wearing event appropriate clothing and putting your best foot forward, can inspire confidence in one’s self. You feel assured that you can achieve your dreams and enter into an interview believing in yourself to deliver your best. ABG’s Allen Solly and Van Heusen with their corporate attires and formal suits ensured that I was prepared for my MBA interviews and improved my personality.
Aditya Birla’s influence has not been limited to its multiple fashion ventures but has ensured connectivity in a way never conceived of earlier. Becoming one of the largest telecom retailers in a short period, they have brought strength, connectivity, information and fashion together as an organic whole. My life and that of numerous others have benefitted, learning from their core values of cementing relationships on the foundation of reliability, strength and connectivity and ensuring beauty through longevity.
Every day is a lesson that can either make or break our ambitions and the passion that can lead to achievements. But, growing up in an average middle-class family meant two things for me, my parents were not short of money, and they had aspirations for any stable job, preferably government, from their kids. It is average, a usual scenario which led to little or no instances that would inspire me to do something great with my life and I felt content until I realised the excruciating pain of this passionless, ambitionless monotony that my life had become and saw my peers working hard towards set goals.
I grew up isolated and struggling to come to terms with various aspects of my complicated personality. I did not have anyone to share the burdens and how slowly I was being lulled into depression. A person who has it all (in the eyes of the outsider) also suffers from bouts of anxiety and feels pressured by a lack of zest and hope. Add to that a medical condition that made me question relationships, self-confidence and the unforeseeable future. But I found my interest in the lowest hours of my life, when I thought I was being overwhelmed by darkness an urgency to fight and make my life happen on my terms and lead it into the direction I made for myself became my motivational factor. I dreamt of being enrolled in the business management program at the finest Indian Institute and worked hard in all aspects of life. I paid heed to my health and gave time to healing myself inside out, using education not just of the mind but of the spiritual self, one day at a time; encouraging myself to break the shackles of the mind that restricted me from realising my true potentials.
I see the difference today, in my physical and mental health with rebuilt confidence, motivated, and most importantly, I have broken the flow of monotony from my life that had pushed me to a mundane existence. I stand today enrolled in a program I worked hard for and am looking toward to a world of possibilities, overcoming self-inflicted challenges and continue to strive every day for the best version of myself.