Aditya Birla Group is a brand known and used by every family in India and like everyone else; the brand has a profound involvement in my life. Previously Big Bazaar was the retail store where me and my family would go to satisfy our shopping needs however they were usually placed slightly farther from home which would be a bit inconvenient. Now with the arrival of More retail stores everywhere we turn getting food items at cheap price has never been more easier.
For clothing needs Pantaloons has often been my primary choice. They have a wide selection of brands. The discounts and offers are good as well. They create products keeping comfort in mind which is something of a priority for me. For example John Miller formal pants are very comfortable and long lasting as well.
Not just Pantaloons but Allen Solly is another great option for Apparel for different reasons. Allen Solly is one of the largest and fastest growing apparel brands belonging to the premium lifestyle sector. It specializes in offering a plethora of western wear options for men, women, as well as children. They also have an eclectic range of accessories, such as shrugs, clutches, bags and wallets. Items from Allen Solly can be quite good for gifting purposes as well. They offer a host of stylish garments which would be the perfect gifts for any fashion conscious individual. You can easily purchase an Allen Solly gift card from any reliable website offering such items, and subsequently gift it to your loved one. Using this gift card, a person can easily buy items as per their personal style and need from this brand, and thereby cherish your gift for lifetime. For Formal clothes especially Shirts no one can deny the credibility of Van Heusen. Or Peter England for that matter when it comes to shirts.
Of course talking about Aditya Birla one shouldn’t forget one of their most well-known brands in Ultra tech cement. It has become a house hold name as an extremely reliable brand with great range of products. Being the Engineers Choice has made the brand the preferred brand for large infrastructure projects. The Kolkata Metro for example which is a preferred commute amongst many people in Kolkata including my father was built using this brand.
As such I cannot emphasize enough how important Aditya Birla Group brand is to not just me but for most people in my State and Country if not all.
Engineering was a for lack of a better word…..confusing phase of my life. The confusion wasn’t in my studies much; it was more of a lack of purpose. I was a decently smart individual and liked Maths and Physics a bit. So the obvious choice for a boy like me was to study Science, hopefully get into an IIT and then the high life would start for me……Well that was the expectation.
I didn’t get into IIT but I did get to study IT in a Private College. I had asked for a Desktop from my parents in Class X saying it would help me study more. I loved my PC but it wasn’t much used for studying. So naturally I wasn’t exactly a good programmer. Anyway IT Industry was booming and so being an IT Engineer was a good career path and off to college I went.
Surprisingly the kid who hated programming in school turned out to like it in College. I just loved Java and was good at it. However my inter-personal skills were a bit rusty. So even despite my technical and analytical skills in programming language I was failing in placement because of the dreaded HR Round. One time I was interviewed by a company at 2 o clock at night and rejected at 5 in the morning. It was a pool campus so I wasn’t the only who didn’t get placed but staying a whole day and night cracking aptitude tests, GDs and Interviews only to fail in the last stage isn’t a good experience. Anyway I kept cracking at it until my speaking skills evolved enough to finally crack Infosys.
I had made it……….or so I thought.
The months of training were some of the best of my life and when I was trained in Java which was selected to be my stream I was incredibly happy.
However after my placement post training I was put into a Support role. Initially it did somewhat dampen my spirits but work was work and I pushed through. The issue came when I found that I was learning the technical aspects o the business well but I didn’t know why I was doing what I was doing.
I mean what is the point of this file. What was NAV supposed to be? These things were mostly unknown to me. Speaking to my managers did get me some bits of data but my overall thirst for knowledge was unsatisfied (I am a questioning Individual. Sometimes too much).
I needed to learn the Business aspects and to do that I needed to do an MBA. However there were few main challenges. One was being in support role from Monday to Saturday hardly gives you time to do much else. Ah well video classes would suffice hopefully.
Second I hated reading Newspapers and my knowledge of the outside world was limited. Also time issue as stated above. Third personal skills were much more important in MBA than in Engineering.
Overall I felt maybe I shouldn’t try something which just wasn’t for me. But being on support day to day slogging was tiring me out. Also I had 3 years of experience meaning if I failed this time I would be too old from next year.
So……..I decided to give it a shot. And then it started………support in the morning, classes at night with a bit of exam preparation whenever possible.
Going to test centers on Sunday.
And finally the day of CAT came. Exam was good even though I was fearing the DI Section since I attempted only 8. It was the tough section that year.
Anyway I got a good percentile and now came the hard part, the interviews.
The interviewers were often relentless……asking series of question, one more stranger/tougher than the last.
And by the end my hopes were not high.
Amazingly the Institute where I felt I had the worst interview is the one from which I am writing this report today. Life is very very strange.
So I got thorough some obstacles on my way to a search for knowledge. Many obstacles remain but I am confident I will make something of them and my life eventually. Hopefully MBA will provide me the fulfillment I need. If not, we’ll see. There’s a whole world waiting………
