The journey from Resilience to Everglow
With the rise of War of Independence, rose a magnanimous conglomerate
The year was 1857 and there emerged the fierce Birla magnate.
The empire was built and then on, it spread in sectors like wildfire
They were ready to fight, ready to lead and ready to acquire.
As kids we didn’t know much about the world except for cartoons,
But we surely knew that our mom’s next stop for shopping would be Pantaloons.
And then there was teenage, which was about trends and fashion overrun,
Nothing beats a brand in Vogue, with style and elegance as Forever 21.
Here on, the corporate life has shown us brands that we cannot live without,
The Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Van Heusen is what corporate-wear is all about.
ABG has also conquered the construction sector with its impregnable cement,
UltraTech is after all the Engineer’s choice and the boss of its segment.
The company has its wings spread in providing financial security and assurance,
Who wouldn’t want to get associated with their trustworthy Birla Sun Life Insurance?!
It’s not just about the grandiosity of the brands that the benevolent Group owns,
It’s also about the lives of millions of kids and adults that it supports and hones.
The mid-day meals and immunization drives have made millions smile,
The rural schools and skill-training workshops have changed their life-style.
Aditya Birla Group is among the rare ones that has impacted big in our lives,
It inspires you to dream big and persevere with continuous strives.
The Silver Lining
I think about the converging waves of notes I listened, that sooths my melancholy and desolation. Fancy words as they seem, they did have an impactful stay in my life. It is about the time in college, when I was undergoing severe depression and anxiety. The intensity of it could not be fathomed by anyone- an absolute phase of solitary, when going to family or friends felt like a far-fetched thing. I had to struggle with unwanted thoughts, with horrible things that came to me, like a flash of light, and the force of it still makes me recoil. A state of helplessness when my head was under water but I was breathing fine. And breathing fine until the end of each day felt like a victory towards another passing day. But also realizing that life was much more than just breathing. I wanted to be seen and felt by the by-passers who should have stopped to acknowledge my presence.
In the desperation of that recognition, I walked to the psychologist to vent out my agony. No matter how easy and convenient it looks, it never was. A box crammed with stuff never opens up neatly. My emotions were all over the place while the psychologist sat down patiently, sympathizing with every word I had to say. The overwhelming ambience was set in the backdrop of perplexities of pain and shyness. It took a ton of courage and effort to let those words come out and let that voice rise up. But it felt accomplishing in the end of it, like a long-raised need that had satiated. Maybe that’s when it struck, that every person has a story that needs to be heard. The idea of story-telling and empathizing was planted inside.
Nothing would have worked better than the community groups who would sit together in the wake of helping every seeker. I wanted those, walking alone in the dusk of depression, to come out and share their experiences and anxieties. The process had run through my head, but the implementation was the challenging part. I went to the psychologist with the idea of this personal initiative and he couldn’t have supported me more. With the knowledge of the unpleasant history of a couple of acquaintances, the psychologist help me to summon them to the first meet. It was indeed a fruitful one. Even in the air of strangeness, there was a sense of belonging with each other. It’s not the validation that we were looking for, but the presence of a mind that relates and a heart that feels. We only needed to extend that support to others as well now. We tried to reach out but it took a lot of convincing to get even one more person on-board. In spite of the anxiety-epidemic, people were reluctant. Who can trust strangers with their stories that were locked up tight in a box of fears and apprehensions? But they could trust the psychologist. Consequently, we invited them for a session with the psychologist as the moderator, guaranteeing an absolute confidentiality. The word of mouth was strong but the need of the people was stronger, and there we had our first official session as a community group. It did take efforts and a few more sessions for the aura of reluctance to transform into that of comfort, but as that happened, the sense of solace over-powered the trepidation.
This initiative, about experiencing and sharing, did leave a substantial impression in my life. It taught me how to free the inhibitions that one has and live it up to the fullest. This was our success story, because success is not about reaching a goal in the end, but is about creating an impact on other’s lives. And while we talk about it, the impact that these stories have created upon my life is magnanimous in comparison to the one that my initiative has embarked upon theirs.