The story of Aditya Birla Group being incorporated in my life starts right from the time I remember identifying myself as an adult.
There comes a time in every teenager’s life when he/she no longer wants to be identified as a kid, rather wants the society to accept him/her as a responsible, accountable ‘adult’. He/she wants parents to trust him/her, ask for his/her opinion in important things in life and respect it. And back in those times, the first step to achieving that feeling of ‘independent, responsible adult’ would come when the parents would buy us our very own personal cell phone. As a kid, it would help us believe that now they trust us. And, for me, this happened after my board results of class X.
I am from a small city in Uttar Pradesh. I lived there with my family. My father was posted in Mumbai and we went there after my board exams for vacations. While we were in Mumbai, the results were announced and I had scored 94%. Oh my! I cannot forget the feeling. Everyone was literally dancing with joy. It was such a happy day! My parents were proud of me. Everyone was calling and congratulating them. There have been very few moments till date when I have seen them so excited. That day, their eyes were shining with joy and pride.
After all the happy wishes, it was time to party. We went to this amazing mall in South Bombay. Apparently, it was one of the largest malls in Asia. After having dinner, we were window shopping, when we saw a Pantaloons outlet. We went in and my parents bought this amazing outfit for me – it was a black top and a sky-blue denim. I was so happy. It was the first time I has shopped from such a huge mall, since there were none back in my hometown during those days, and it felt amazing!
Before leaving the place, I saw a cell phone store and immediately asked my parents to buy me one. It is then that I saw reluctance on their faces. I regretted asking them for it. But then, my father sensed my confusion and asked me to pick the phone of my choice. I liked Nokia 7210 Supernova headset, and that was my very first personal phone. My first SIM was Idea Cellular that I bought with the phone. And not only this, the very first pair of formals I bought for myself was from Allen Solly. I hadn’t realized it back then, bot now when I think about it, Aditya Birla Group is big in my life since it has always been a part of happy moments in my life.
The story of my life was all smooth and happy (at least that’s what I remember now) till I completed my class X. After that, I faced a lot of challenges, a lot of them entirely due to emotional outburst resulting from adolescence. The class XI especially for me was full of a lot of extra-curricular stuff. When puberty hits, hormones kick-in, and things do not make a lot of sense. It is all bliss in paradise, which later we realize was no bliss but utter stupidity.
So, after wasting an ‘important’ year of my life on stupid stuff, when I landed in class XII, four months down the lane I realized I was way behind my peers in knowledge. On top of it, my city got hit by floods, and my locality was badly impacted. It led to physical and emotional turbulence for at least a fortnight, after which things were gradually getting back to normal. A few days after I coped up, I met with an accident (thanks to the muddy deposits from the floods) and got my right hand fractured. It took a month and a half to recover, all this while I was losing the tempo and momentum with which I should otherwise be studying and preparing for boards and life.
When December neared and I realized I am pretty much lagging behind where I should have ideally been, I had a nervous breakdown. Being good at studies till class X, my brain could not really process this ‘failure’ and gave up. The next 1.5 months were entirely dark. I had counselling sessions, was put on anti-depressants, and was taken miles away from books, coaching and studies. My family decided they wanted me healthy first, and were not really bothered about my boards.
It was when one day I realized it is already January and I should be preparing and appearing for my pre-boards that I picked up my books back. I convinced my family that I wanted to give it a shot. They were too scared. But I appeared for my pre-boards with just overnight studies and barely passed the subjects. I had realized I did not know anything, and needed to give in a lot of efforts.
After pre-boards, I gave the board practical exams with similar amount of preparation. I hardly had ten days before board exams to study, but I gave it my best shot. Seeing my condition in December, it was very unlikely for anyone to imagine I would be able to be out of bed in the next six months, but when I realized I cannot let a small fear take a toll on my ambitions, I decided I’ll fight. It was definitely the most difficult battle I have ever fought, with all the fear and anxiety creeping in at all times, but I knew I had to.
I appeared for engineering entrance exams after board exams with all the preparation I could do, took an admission in an engineering college, graduated with Hons and got placed in a Rank 14 company on Fortune 500 list, with the profile of my interest. Worked for approx. three years with the same company, got promoted during my stint, and now, here I am, pursuing PGDM at International Management Institute, New Delhi.
I have realized that there will always be challenges in life. But what you need is an end goal to stay focussed upon, a sense of direction and enough motivation to keep going, no matter what life throws at you!
#ABGLP #ABGLPWooMe