It was the end of May 2005, I was around 8 years of age. Suddenly all the sacks that were outside the house in the site were lined up to the wall in our small house because it had started raining. Between all this, there was a sort of different scent filled the house. My father was constructing his dream-his first house.
The next morning the workers had arrived and the construction was going on, then I went up to my father with a lot of curiosity and asked: “How can we build a strong house?”
He explained to me that to construct a house one has to mix 2 parts of gravel to 3 parts of sand to 2 parts of Birla Cement. Now I become nostalgic when I recall the cement sacks stacked up in my tiny house. This way Birla Cement has made a middle-class man’s dream of constructing a house come true. After that house, my dad has built many more houses but has never had an emotional connection with any of them as he had for the first one. To this day he tells me about the struggle he went through to complete the house in with limited resources and estimated time and reminisces his tears of joy. Birla cement has not only helped to construct strong buildings but also has created a strong bond among the father, daughter and the house.
With all his hard work my father has been an example or a role model showing that struggle gets you what you want to achieve in life but it sometimes might take time.
Hailing from a background of parents not being well educated, it has always been a hard career option to choose from. But my parents have always wanted me to be different from them so they have been very supportive in and have faith in the decisions I make to achieve my dreams. To add to this, on every step of my education, I have put my best efforts to outperform the others and being a better self.
After all the hard work now I am here at Indian Institute of Foreign trade-one of the top B-schools in India living my dream of an MBA. It’s time for me to prove myself to the world that every girl with determination and perseverance can still survive to achieve big things in life. I motivate myself by saying that the path I have chosen is hard and the results are going to be as fruitful as the efforts I put in.
Every time I see the bag of cement on road or get the scent of it, I think of my struggles that have taken me so far with my dad who was my support system standing strong like a pillar letting me live my dreams and encouraging me to strive beyond my abilities.
This is not just a story; it’s the life of a simple girl living her dream at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
