Have you ever faced failure continuously? Have you asked yourself "why am I not able to achieve anything in life"? A set of incidents in my life made me ask that question too. I was just 13 and had just started to enjoy my vacations by playing tennis, football and watching an endless amount of TV. Man that was life. One day my parents decided that I was wasting my time and joined me in an IIT coaching class.
It was Greek and Latin to me. Every evening I spent 6 hrs in that class. My parents put an end to all my enjoyment and ordered me to devote my time only tostudying. When my friends were busy playing football, basketball, volleyball; I was sitting inside the class and calculating at what speed that ball was traveling. I was angry at my parents for doing this to me.
I thought I was very young to do all this, but then I saw a 10-year-old kid studying Newton's first law, second law and third law. At that age, the only law which I knew was wonder la. I had no other go and I studied. Every day I spent 4 hours in the morning and 6 hours in the evening studying. But whatever effort I put the students were ahead of me by miles. Every doubt I had was considered puny and basic.
The environment created by the teacher did not try to embrace or nurture the students but tried to throw out those who were weak. I felt worthless. I told my parents the problems I faced. My parents were insensitive. They just told me one thing " We are not destined enough to get an intelligent son who could make it into IIT". Every son's dream is to see his parents being proud of him. But my scenario was different. After hearing this I began to work even more hard. I started to lose weight and my marks in school began to get affected. I got thoughts that I am not fit for anything. All this turned me into a person of low confidence.
Even after working hard for 4 years I couldn’t get into IIT or any other good college. I got into some local engineering college. All my friends were happy that they finished 12th and got into engineering. But I was not happy. I was still thinking about my failure and was brooding. I was so low in confidence that if a person passed by me I would invite him to come and bully me. I took up electronics and communication engineering. Only the name was ECE, nothing was easy. My low confidence soon turned into a depression and I started to keep backlogs. The ghost of my past haunted me and told me" you are not fit for engineering". The ghost of my past haunted me and told me "you are worthless". Only a couple of semesters later I found that people who were less talented than me were getting better marks, better percentages. Why couldn’t I achieve that?
At the same time, I joined engineering, my uncle took me to this strange club with a strange name with strange people who loved to talk. Yes, that was toastmasters. Toastmasters changed me from an introvert to an extrovert. I started giving speeches and people said humour occurred naturally to me. When the club elections were conducted in 2013 many toastmasters encouraged me to contest for the sergeantat arms role. The ghost of my past haunted me and told me" you are worthless". I decided that I am not fit for this kindof leadership position.
After 2 months the club conducted humorous and evaluation contest. Many members encouraged me to contest for humorous speech contest. The ghost of my past haunted me and told me " you are worthless". I automatically decided that I am not capable of winning these contests. Three years passed like this.
One day I asked myself a question" Why am I not able to achieve anything?" I did not get the answer. I was pondering over this question when I went for a swim in the evening. At the swimming pool,I saw a coach training a small boy. The boy was holding onto a float and was scared to let go. The coach told the boy " If you keep holding onto the float you will never learn to swim". The coach further told the boy" If you keeping holding onto your fears, you will never learn to swim".
Aah, I now got the answer to my question. What was I holding onto? I was holding onto my past, disappointments. It only made me heavy and stopped me from achieving what I wanted to. That day I let go of my past and my disappointments. When I let go I felt relieved and enlightened. I became a new man with a new outlook towards life. That day was June 10-2016. After that, I cleared all my Backlogs, took up leadership positions in toastmasters and even reached division level in the humorous speech contest. I continued my positive outlook towards life and in 2019 cleared Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) entrance exam and got into IIFT. All this would not have been possible if I hadn’t let go.
Dear readers,what are you holding onto? You may be holding onto hate, disappointments, your past. When you let go you will feel relieved, when you let go you will feel enlightened, when you let go you will achieve more.
All it takes you is to let go.
The Emotional Connect with ABG
Have you ever experienced the trouble of moving every year? House ownership is something that many of us dream of. Owning a house means putting down roots and having a space that is truly yours. For many people owning a house is the fulfilment of a dream.
I was born in 1995 into a family which was not financially well off. From an young age my mother, uncle, grandmother and grandfather were my family. I was showered with so much love and affection that I never thought about my father. Even though we were not financially well off, we managed to enjoy the lighter moments in life and live happily.
One of my prominent childhood memories was shifting houses every year. I used to enjoy that part which happened every year in my childhood. The thought of moving into a new house was exciting for me. We were shifting houses every year as we lived in a rented one. Although my family were happy in front of me, I could sense that they were tired of shifting every year and sad on not owning a house.
2005 was a joyous occasion for my family. We finally saved up money to construct our own independent house. I was standing at the site looking at the proceedings when a truck load of ultra tech cement arrived. It was bright yellow in colour. It was the first time I saw a cement. I fell in love with it, the bright yellow bag. Within the next 1 year the house was completed. That was an emotional moment for my family. Even today the house reminds me of my families emotions and the love I had for the bright yellow bag.
Years passed by and my uncle was blessed with a baby boy. I got a cute younger brother to play with. I had many fun moments with my brother which will stay with me for the rest of my life. One of the many experiences I remember with my brother was the many trips we made to the MORE retail outlet near my place. The supermarket for a toddler will always be a place filled with weird objects to their amazement.
MORE retail outlet helped me build an emotional bond with my brother. Even today when I miss him I remember the trips to the MORE retail outlet which gave me many happy experiences. The real treasure in this world is the happy memories you have of your loved ones. I am grateful to Aditya Birla Group for being a part and parcel of those happy memories. A real brand is one which maintains an emotional connect with its consumers and Aditya Birla group is one such unique brand.
“People don’t always remember what you say or even what you do, but they always remember how you made them feel” – Maya Angelou
2019 and still going strong my connect with Aditya Birla Group.