I remember the first time I went to Pantaloons; I was in my tenth standard. Board examinations were looming on the horizon and as much tensed as I was with my pre-boards, I was also excited. Excited about Durga Puja. Being a true-blue Bengali, Durga Puja has always been more than a festival for me. Durga Puja for me is a rollercoaster of emotions, an excuse to dine out every day, a masquerade of colourful pandals and an ocean of people queuing up to appreciate the artwork that took months to create. Yet till one week before the Puja I was still missing the most important aspect of Durga Puja, that is, new clothes. It is quite irrelevant to state how important brand-new clothes are to a Bengali who is about to celebrate Durga Puja. It is imperative for each and every Bengali to at least have a pair of new shirts and trousers to wear on the days of the Puja, yet I had none. I was so caught up with my midterms that I had forgotten to buy even a single piece of dress for the Pujas. Visibly upset as I was, considering I would have to wear old clothes for Puja, my mom took me to this fashion retail shop called ‘Pantaloons’. I remember buying myself a nice striped ‘Peter England’ shirt and a beige ‘Louis Philippe’ trousers. I did the rest of my shopping from other stores as I was quite apprehensive about trying out new brands, but did Aditya Birla Group prove me wrong and how. Eight years down the line, I still have the pair of shirt and trousers and they haven’t aged a bit. Pantaloons soon became my go-to store for all my fashion needs and I have become a sworn admirer of Louis Philippe, to the extent that all my trousers have a small ‘LP’ inscribed on the back.
Challenges are always welcome. Challenges help us grow as a person and also help us prepare for the harsh realities of life. I have never been a person to shy away from challenges yet the last challenge or I should say, string of challenges, that I faced had me pushed to my limits. It all started when I was transferred back to my hometown of Kolkata after having a wonderful time at my previous job location of Pune. Coming back to my city was a sigh of relief, I knew I would invariably miss Pune and all the happy memories that it gave me, but the prospect of mom’s hand made dishes after so many months made the erstwhile sudden transfer a happy one. Little did I know that Kolkata had a lot more in store for me than some lip-smacking homemade dishes. The first signs of impending challenges came in the form of work culture. I was completely accustomed to the work culture of Pune and did not anticipate the drastic change in work culture between that of Kolkata and Pune. Just as I was acclimatizing with my new workplace, another challenge cropped up. I was then working as the secretary of a community service-based club and I was approached by a hospital to gather 100 units of blood for Thalassemia patients within a span of a month. Adding on to my list of challenges, the month was November. The D-day for all MBA aspiring students was looming precariously at the fag end of the month. For the first time in my life I started feeling claustrophobic in wide open spaces. The first thing I did was prioritizing. I decided to restrict my CAT preparation to after office hours. The extra time and uneven project timing started affecting my CAT preparation, so I started to solve quant questions while in transit from my home to office. I and my club mates along with a few sister organisations arranged three consecutive blood donation camps stretching over three weeks and raised the required amount of blood and donated it to the concerned hospital. Finally, on the fourth week, the D-day arrived and I gave my best in the examination hall. It all culminated into a grand success when I joined XIMB in June next year. Now it all feels like a distant memory, the choices that I had to make, the struggle that I had to endure, it all ended up making me more prepared for the grilling B school life that I was about to undergo.
#ABGLP #ABGWOOME #XIMB