ABG- "Building and Inspiring Lives."- Prajakta J Raikar, XIMB

It is needless to say much about the Aditya Birla Group but starting from building your house to apparel it is in all the sectors including every part of the life touching the lives of billions.  

Being a Mumbaikar I take immense pride to belong to a city where the huge SEA LINK stands today and Aditya Birla group has helped in its formation by providing the basic ingredient in the building up the bridge. It’s nothing but the "Ultra Tech Cement". It has reduced time travel to a great extent. This is not it, the famous Terminal-2 Airport in Mumbai which is said to be one of the best airports that have its root in the Aditya Birla group. Many of us might not know how deep its root is in our lives. The group is embedded everywhere from cement, chemicals, fashion, communication, etc.  

Many of their famous fashion brand outlets such as Forever 21, Peter England, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Louis Philippe, Ted Baker, etc are my favorite places to buy products from. Previously for women, it was hard to find a place to shop formals apparel but ABG has made it easy for me by including a wide range of options to choose from. I am also connected to the brand through its life insurance policies which are affordable and convenient.

‘Great businesses are never built on the quicksands of opportunism. I reiterate that, if living by our values means, perhaps growing at a pace slower than we would otherwise have liked, so be it. For us, leadership lies at the heart of knowing what we stand for.'

                                                                                                                                                 - Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla 

These words are the foundation for this huge empire on which it is built. Focusing on the company as well as society at large, it does community work across 5000 villages serving around 7.5 million people through  Community Services and Rural Development. The services focus on health care, education, sustainable livelihood, women empowerment projects, infrastructure and initiating social reforms that make a world and eventually ours a better place to live in.

 Part B

                                        “It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

                                                                                                                    -George Eliot.

Every person struggles to achieve something in life. For me, my biggest struggle was “Myself”

After graduating I landed up working as a production and quality engineer wherein I loved the work but always felt the incompleteness. Over time I developed negative thoughts of my career not being in alignment with my thoughts. I almost fell in depression leading to ignoring my time with family and friends. 

When life puts you in situations where everything seems to be not working, it’s just a temporary situation where something will come your way and make the picture clear. 

For me, the movie Chalet Girl did the work. It had a dialogue saying-

“You got brains in your head, feet in your shoes;

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.”

This dialogue made me think, it was me who was restricting myself to not think and just crib. I gave myself a week to think about what I needed to do. I self-contemplated and decided to pursue an MBA. This journey had its ups and downs from getting demotivated to make myself stand again to continue the preparation for the entrance exam. When everyone out there had strong opinions towards my future and gave me advice I resisted myself from falling for such ideas. And the only thing which helped me was my persistence towards my goals and after 2years of my long journey I reaped its benefits and got admitted to “Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar”. 

During this whole journey, I realized it's you who defines your destiny and everything will fall in place if you keep patience and not let others opinion define you. There is no time and age-associated to learn in life and grow beyond.  

All my life I was an adventurer and the biggest adventurer of all (LIFE) has just taken off!!!!!

#ABGLP #ABGWOOME #XIMB