PART A: Role of Aditya Birla Group in my day-to-day activities.
It is a usual day in my life. I am an MBA student, 23 years of age. I quickly get ready. For a formal presentation that I have to give today, I put on my new formal blazers which I recently bought from PETER ENGLAND. I club it with a briefcase bag from VAN HEUSEN which has been useful to me for quite some-time now. For breakfast, I grab a quick croissant from a nearby imported bakery shop probably processed using the customized phosphates supplied by DELICE. I want to start my day with an extra layer of cheese on my croissant, which has been mostly processed by CORINO. I realize that I don’t have enough cash with me. Luckily for me, the store accepts UPI payments, so I pay via my BHIM ABPB UPI app. On the way to the academic block, I notice a renovation work going on in front of the Auditorium area. The college is making provisions for a new canteen for the ease of the residential students. I see bags of ULTRA TECH CEMENT lying around and the laborers getting ready to start their days work. The presentation goes nicely, and I have to submit my final assignment within an hour. With some changes needing to be made, I get my lunch packed from the Bistro to have it later. I notice the staff packing the lunch with FRESHWRAPP to prevent spillage before putting it in a tiffin. After the college is over, I go out for a friend’s birthday party. Oh wait! I forgot to buy them a gift. I stop by at the Infinity mall on the way and buy them a dress from FOREVER 21. On the way to the party, I read up news on what’s happening around the world and get to know that farmers around the country are endorsing the very popular fertilizer, ‘BIRLA BALWAN’. After dinner, I discuss with my friends about different Health Insurances and the name of Aditya Birla HEALTH INSURANCE comes up more than once in the conversation. After returning back to my home, I go to sleep oblivious of the role that Aditya Birla plays in my day-to-day life.
PART B: The biggest Fear of my life and how I overcame it.
Here’s the thing. Growing up, I never had the clarity about who I wanted to be when I grew up. One moment, I wanted to be a detective, the next time you ask me, I wanted to become a pilot. I never had the fortune of enlightenment dawning upon me, the kind which wakes one up in the middle of the night and says, “Yes, I was made to do this!” Having said that, I have always associated myself with being an independent person. No matter whatever career I wanted to pursue in life, one thing had always been clear. I wanted to see myself as a strong-headed, self-made independent woman, who knows what she wants for herself from life. I had to be in control of my life, to be the one steer-driving it. Speaking of the word, ‘driving’, I took the word in a more literal non-metaphorical manner. It was then that I decided, I had to learn driving. Period.
Hence began the driving lessons at the age of 16. I had just finished my 10th Boards, and was over-enthusiastically ready to embark on the new journey that lay ahead. Early in the evening, in the busy streets of Delhi, my lessons began. Days passed, and within a week, I was beaming with confidence because I had managed to successfully maneuver around Dhaula Kuan from Naraina Vihar and back home. Little had I known that my trainer was handling the controls from his side and hence I was not to take credit for the whole success story. The following day, riding high on my achievement, I decided to take the car out for a spin. I had my younger sister sit on the back-seat and my mom sit beside me. Again, taking the literal sense of the phrase, ‘the road less travelled’, I decided that I was ready to show off my driving skills to the actual city. And then, everything happened so quickly, it still seems surreal. So, I forgot to put the gear on neutral, and BAM! The car ripped into our neighbor’s home crushing their boundary wall and our car alike. Not to mention the landslide defeat of my self-confidence. I was told that I was lucky not to be in jail as I was a minor, and nobody got hurt. It came as a blow to me. For months after that it sent a shiver down my spine whenever I even thought about the incident. I did not get hurt physically, but reflecting back on it, it had definitely taken a toll on my mental health. I had come to revere people around me who knew driving. It was something which I could never try again.
I tried to move on to better things. I got out of home, studied engineering, made new friends, travelled around the country. However, at the back of my mind, I always had a nagging realization, a reminder of an inadequacy that I had. I would never be able to drive again. No matter how much independent I become, I would always have to depend on a chauffeur or a friend. This string of self-doubt was something, I could never seem to overcome. It took me nearly 5 years to sit on the driving seat again. Taking baby-steps at a time, I started taking the car out again. At first, I would do little things, like take the car out of the garage. Sometimes, on road-trips with friends, I would take over driving from my friends when the road ahead was straight and sparsely populated. Hence slowly, with the passage of time, I regained my broken confidence, and re-learnt to stand on my own legs again. Even till date, it makes me nervous when I am about to start driving and it gives me immense happiness and confidence boost when at the end of it I park my vehicle in the corner. It might seem like a trivial thing to some, but I believe that this experience has taught me something which books and theory could never have done. I would consider that moment, when I decided to sit behind the wheels the second time, plug the keys inside, and take control of the steering as me overcoming my biggest obstacle.
