‘Big’ touches our lives in every possible way. ABG has done exactly that to me. It has been everywhere, starting from my father’s businesses to my own personal clothing needs. My father’s first business was that of fertilizers. A small dealer, in a small village. I still remember the outer walls of our house painted with the logo of “Birla Balwan” and others.  He went on to start his second business of a cement retailer, dealing in Ultratech, Lafarge and ACC cement. Here again, the Aditya Birla Group was making its presence felt. Probably the house I live in was constructed using Ultratech cement, probably the tires in the bikes, tractors, trucks, and cars owned by our family have carbon black fillers by “Birla Carbon”. My first branded clothes were from Peter England, perhaps because they were the first to open in my town and today I am a Van Heusen and Louis Philippe patron. I have been using the services of Idea Cellular for 8 years now. The aluminum foils in my lunch boxes, the copper in the wires running through my house, the insulators, the cover glass on my smartphone, there’s not a sphere in my life that ABG has not touched. That is the sheer size and influence of ABG in my life that probably I have been using an ABG product without even knowing that it comes from them.

It’s not just big, The Aditya Birla Group is HUGE in my life.

PART-B: How I overcame the challenges to achieve my ambitions in life so far

In the 2nd half of the 2000s, My father set up a cement plant of his own, though a mini plant but by the nature of the industry, it was extremely capital intensive. It was by 2011 that we had failed miserably, losing the business and along with that almost all the assets including house and cars. I had come home after two years completely unaware of the situation, my JEE results were out, I had not performed too well, I wanted to drop a year and join a coaching institute to prepare again. That’s when I realized things were not the same anymore, we weren’t even in a position to continue the schooling of my siblings. I decided to stay back and help my father in the small businesses he took up.  I also started teaching the 8^th, 9^th and 10th-grade students while simultaneously preparing for my 2^nd attempt at JEE. One year passed and I had performed worse. Our financial conditions had started to improve and on insistence from my parents I decided to take up a student loan and do my B.E from a decent institute in Karnataka. I performed comparatively well there and secured 3^rd position in the whole batch after the results of the 1^st semester were declared. Four years passed and I graduated with good grades and an IT job in hand. But now, I knew this was not what I wanted, my heart was still in business. But before I could start anything of my own, I needed to learn better planning, strategizing and a few years of corporate experience. I decided to prepare for CAT while simultaneously working for my Company.

My first project was for a renowned Aerospace giant. I joined it as a QA trainee, but within 2 months was also entrusted with the job of a PMO Lead, when I voluntarily approached the management to help them with the budget and cost management, since we were constantly hitting negative margins, leading to the project being on the verge of closure. It was a challenging task to take up such a responsibility and manage people while being the junior most in the team.  I worked simultaneously on both the fronts working consistently over 12 hours a day, even through weekends while also preparing for CAT and managed to win four awards in four consecutive quarters. This time I succeeded, I managed to perform well in CAT and other entrance exams. I finally secured a seat at IIM Kashipur. It has been a beautiful learning experience so far. All the challenges that I have faced have made me the person I am today. I am confident now that I can take any challenge head-on and turn it into an opportunity.