UNTANGLING LIFE, SIBM Pune

                                                                                 “An IDEA can change your life”

“Ek IDEA jo badal de apki duniya.”

“What an IDEA Sirji.”

Millennials have grown up listening these lines and hence are embedded in my head. I still remember the advertisement starring Abhishek Bachan which highlighted the power of Mobile telephony to address the socially relevant theme of education. When challenged by the traditional, physically bound classroom methodology that prevents reaching out to many more who are in need of education, he uses mobile telephony to overcome the barrier. IDEA has been the most viable network and a fast internet provider. After the Idea Cellular merger with Vodafone India on 31 August, 2018 it has become the largest telecom company in terms of subscribers and revenue.

According to the Maslow’s hierarchy needs pyramid, he places food, shelter and clothing at the bottom of the pyramid. To no surprise, Aditya Birla Group caters to these basic necessities of life except food. UltraTech Cement and Hindalco Industries are the forerunners when it comes to cement and alloys made of aluminum and copper. I was astounded to see the beauty of Bandra - Worli sealink when I first visited Mumbai in 2017 and was more flabbergasted when I got to know that 0.1 million mt of UltraTech Cement went into its construction. Also, a large share of the copper requirement of Indian Railways is fulfilled by Birla Copper. Hindalco aluminium is used to make cover glass for smartphones. Needless to state that Aditya Birla Group justifies the tagline they carry, ‘Taking India to the World’ and touches all the sectors including Agribusiness, Cement, Clothing, Carbon Black (used in making tyres), Finance, Mining, Telecommunication, Textile, Wind Power.

“Life is a game, play it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a sacrifice, offer it.
Life is love, enjoy it.”

  Source: Bhagwad Gita

It’s been more than a year, already? A year of corporate slavery successfully completed.

Looking back on how I felt exactly 2 years ago, the feelings that I can decipher are of excitement, euphoria, jubilation and a tinge of turbulence, all at once.

The ‘Millennium City’(Gurgaon), as it is called, became my new home. The city, full of superstructures, made me expect another level of madness. I had a concocted definition of ‘corporate’ in my mind, which was far from what I have been living since the last 12 months, thanks to the folks that I’m blessed to work with. Lately, life has been a vicious circle of surviving for 5 days and living for 2 days. But it’s always the people around that make me pull through the consuming 5 days, turning around my blues to bliss.

It’s a mundane but not a colorless routine of getting ready and getting late for office, EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Looking outside the window in my 12 minutes office ride with earphones plugged in my ears, a question crosses my mind. Did I really want to come this far? Did my childhood hunger of being an independent woman get accomplished? The thought of the girl that entered this city and the independent woman that she has become, has me in jitters, but as I look outside, a euphonious voice of Kishore Da whispers in my ears “Ruk Jaana Nahin, tu kahin haar ke, Kaanto pe chalke milenge saaye bahar ke.”

A voice within me questions again, would I trade anything to be the person that entered this city 365 days ago? I momentarily pause and think of all the bittersweet moments that make me, ME. And I know I wouldn’t trade that for anything. The stringent yet generous person that I have now become is the one that I was always supposed to be. From always having a shell around to wearing our own armour, I think we all grew up.

What is with this monotonicity of life? Days pass by, feeling a whirlwind of emotions inside, but, still, there’s a fire inside, a fire which no amount of rain can douse. A fire with a desire to live life happily.

It all started of as a life in a city hustling with randomness, it finally sets in, like lost pieces of a puzzle. Because eventually, the universe falls back into place, always (just to prepare for another commotion yet again).