Why is ABG is big in my life
A family’s first home is always quite special.
My family and I, for the longest time, have been used to living in rented residences. That given, it was a momentous occasion for us to open the doors of our new home to family and friends, for the house warming ceremony that follows completion of construction.
The day was a joyous one. The new house sparkled and shown, standing out from all the other older properties on the street. Passer-by’s looked on with equal parts curiosity and admiration. The newspaperman smiled as he cycled past, watching the family scurry around making last minute arrangements. I remember the looks on my father and mother’s faces – the look of satisfaction and accomplishment, for having crossed this milestone. For creating a permanent home for them and their children. My younger sister’s glee and excitement, running through rooms that still smelled faintly of fresh paint and lacquer. The guests arriving, all dressed up, to celebrate our new abode. The fun, happy confusion of a family get-together.
If you had asked me at that point of time if I was aware of the existence of a corporate entity, woven through the midst of all the festivities, I would have been confused. A common thread? An entity, with which the foundations of our happiness had been literally built? Another guest in the gathering, one responsible for a lot of the smiles? Who or what could it be?
But then, if you had told me of a brand - an iconic name, one that we read of in the newspapers but would never imagine to be touching our lives – I would start to see the light. A brand that the supplied the structure to our new home. A brand worn by almost every visitor. A brand that was as thoroughly embedded at the centre of the event, as much as my family and I ourselves.
I would see that this brand didn’t come by a single name, at first. I would remember the bags of Ultratech cement, that had been recycled during the final clean-up of the property. Bags that had held grey powder, now turned into strong walls that shielded a family. I would remember the bits of Everlast roofing, left over from the brightly coloured roof that now kept the rain off our heads. My father’s freshly laundered Van Heusen blazer, that he wore while proudly welcoming the guests. Our grandfather arriving in his old trusty Fiat, the AURA alloy wheels still shining. My sister and our young cousins chasing each other through the building, streaks of colour, dressed in the latest summer trends from Pantaloons. My mother on her phone, using her Idea connection to scold the organizing staff and thank well-wishers in equal parts. The snacks arriving hot and ready to eat under Freshwrapp aluminium foil.
A seemingly random collection of observations? Perhaps. But today, I stand looking forward to working with organizations that bring people security and joy and makes their dreams come true. And looking back to that special day, I know of one that has done the same for me – the Aditya Birla Group.
Overcoming challenges to achieve ambitions
TL,DR:
The Ambition: Transform myself with an MBA from a top Indian B-School.
The Challenge: My self
The long version:
This isn’t a glamorous overcoming-challenges story in the truest sense. It may compare very poorly to what others have accomplished to meet their goals. But it is my story and I’m proud of it.
My story, like many, many others, travels along a familiar path. Middle school. An interest in how things work. A realisation that I like tinkering. A choice of higher education made. Then off it was to college, to pursue mechanical engineering. Academically speaking, the four years that followed ticked some of the boxes that my middle school-self had set for me to achieve, but left many empty. What the years did achieve however, was me breaking out of my shell and understanding myself. I made big progress into identifying my core strengths - things that worked for me and things that didn’t. I built up soft skills and matched them with personality traits that I was discovering, side-by-side. Each year that went past served as milestones for personal growth.
College ended, and there began a honeymoon period that would go on for the next four years. I call it a honeymoon because that’s exactly what it was - I had the good fortune of joining a firm that had relaxed working policies, good people and was located in my home city. Living at home meant saving on rent and more money to burn on various fancies and follies.
As I sat at my office desk with the sole focus of finishing the work placed in front of me to earn my salary, my peers, in other circumstances, were out exploring, gaining experience, developing hard skills and progressing up the career ladder. I did observe these happenings and dismissed them. Questions from family and friends were fended off with excuses such as it not being the right time, that work was being rewarding, etc. The cash registers were ringing, the music was playing and I didn’t want to step off this ride.
The waking call came in mid-2018. Standing in the cafeteria of my workplace, it struck me that I was the third last person left in the company, from our large campus induction batch of 2015. Despite all the years spent in the company, the faces around me were those of strangers. The keys I pushed on my laptop everyday were worn - different versions of the same code being run or reports being created. My juniors from college were putting up stories on social media about accomplishments at work and higher education, levels that I had yet to reach. And that’s when it hit me – I was well and truly behind the curve, in my professional life.
The process to do something about the problem, now that I had finally acknowledged it, progressed painfully for the following months. A complete change in lifestyle was required. A conscious effort had to be made to set aside time for this effort, to give up on comforts - comforts that over the course of the years, had sunk me into a nice comfortable rut in my career track. The gears of the mind that had grown rusty had to oiled and set back in motion. I eased myself back into academics, balancing work schedules with those of the preparation process. It would be dishonest to say that I gave it my 100% from Day 1 – in fact, it took a half-baked GMAT attempt followed by multiple college rejections to finally introduce the missing element. That missing element was desperation. It wouldn’t be wrong to call it fear as well – fear of not breaking out of the routine, fear of letting things slide again only to realise that another four years had gone past, fear of not figuring out where my life was headed.
With all the ingredients added, the remainder of the preparation process flew by and in no time at all the CAT examination came and went, followed by the interview season. Day after day, I wrestled with inner demons who whispered that I hadn’t given the process my everything. But finally, deliverance came in the form of an email from MDI Gurgaon.
Yes, I still haven’t accomplished my ambition stated at the start of this piece. But I’ve got my foot in the door, cleared the first hurdle – and I now look forward eagerly to the rest of the journey.