One Precious Life - Rishabh Garg, MDI Gurgaon

Kashmir region suffered disastrous floods across many of its districts caused by torrential rainfall. I was in college at that time. Our hostels were flooded with water and had to shift in the common rooms. The level of water was continuously rising. All roads to the airport were blocked and there was no way to leave. An electric pole fell into the water and one of the canteen workers died of the electric shock. Soon after that electric power supply of the whole region was cut down. All the network systems were down and we could not contact our homes. Since the mess workers were from the local area, they left to help their families. No one was there to prepare food. Everyone in the campus understood the intensity of the situation and we decided to stick together and deal with it.

We made different teams and divided the task at hand. One team took responsibility for preparing and serving food. Another team took care of medication of students and maintaining hygiene. And the other team was continuously trying to contact rescue teams to get help. The water level was still rising and after two days we had to leave college and go to a university nearby which was at a higher level. Till then the road to Ladakh got cleared and we decided to leave the same day. From Ladakh, we were airlifted to New Delhi and then reached our respective homes.

277 people died and 390 villages completely submerged in that flood along with loss of property of thousands of crores. People lost their family, their house, everything. Each one of them was a precious life but they were not just as lucky as we were.

Sometimes we forget how privileged we are to have all means required to achieve everything we want. And It gave me my purpose in life, to work hard and become capable to serve those who can not afford to be privileged.

“ If you’re in the luckiest one percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                     -Warren Buffet

How Aditya Birla Group is big in my life:-

ABG had been my constant companion all through my life. I still remember cartons of ultra-tech cement in the godown when we were building our own house and that yellow diary which I always used to keep with me. In college when there was a shortage of money by month end and all other telecom services were charging 150 rs for 1gb data, Idea came up with 7rs recharge for 600 MB and saved us all. Even when I had to go Ladakh due to floods, Idea was the only network working on the way and I was able to contact my family. And how can I forget the first suit I bought with my own money. I tried almost every brand but it was Louis Phillip that made an instant fit.

ABG’s CSR initiatives have always inspired me. The contribution made by ABG for society in Education, Health, Employment, and many other sectors is remarkable and I'm sure in the years ahead it will keep motivating me to stick to the path that I have chosen for myself.