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Kamal’s blooming journey from a village to Barista at Starbucks to XLRI

D2C Admin

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Kamal’s blooming journey from a village to Barista at Starbucks to XLRI

0 min read

“A Lotus Grows in the dirt, Rises up through muddy waters and Blossoms into brilliance.”

Just like the quote above, Kamal has undertaken a journey that has brought out the blooming lotus in him. Despite facing numerous adversities, Kamal did not let anything dim down his passion to dream and make it big. According to him, he has been aptly named, “I think my parents were being very prophetic when they named me Kamal because that is exactly what happened.”

From overcoming challenges, being the first one to graduate from his immediate family, and working at Starbucks to making it to XLRI - HRM '23 with 99.89 percentile, Kamal’s blooming journey is inspiring to say the least.

Growing and rising through struggles

Kamal was born in a tiny village that does not even have its location on Google maps. There would not have been much hope left for him had his parents not decided to move to Bangalore with dreams of a more “urban” life.

Kamal is the first person to graduate college from his immediate family and his journey has been anything but easy. Along with college he was juggling a full-time job which resulted in plummeted grades.

“I would say the Rising-up-through-muddy-waters bit of my life was my stint in college. It was tough being the first person in my immediate family to graduate college; I often felt I had to reinvent the wheel. Having a full-time job along with college is something I would NOT RECOMMEND to everyone and my grades tanked (59% for the ones wondering) as a result.” Kamal shares.

Exploring career options

Being the first one to graduate from college, it was undoubtedly Kamal’s greatest achievement but he did not stop there, instead kept on broadening his options and horizons. Apart from studying, he started working at Starbucks and this opportunity opened up a whole new world to him.

“My greatest achievement till date has been putting myself through college. It was a series of firsts for me - my first job, first date, first-ever friend group, first heartbreak etc. Plus, working at Starbucks opened up this whole new world to me! I had friends from ages 17 to 71, and I got to live vicariously through all their experiences. I actually “networked” myself into a couple of internships and my second job while working at Starbucks. It was when I asked a regular to teach me designing and he ended up hiring me as a web designer that my time at the siren had come to an end.” Explains Kamal.

Settling for the one

While exploring and tasting different career options, Kamal finally started developing an interest in the business; the human aspect of it. “I then went on to develop an interest in the people side of business management. Wondering how the scientific achievements made by brilliant scientists could be made accessible to the larger populace with the help of business acumen spurred me on through entrance exams and I eventually landed up with two admission opportunities: FMS Delhi on one side and XLRI - HRM on the other.”

Despite both FMS, Delhi and XLRI being fantastic choices, Kamal decided to choose XLRI as he wanted to pursue HR and XLRI is well known for its HR programme. Quoting what Robert Frost once wrote, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both” to elucidate his choice, Kamal says, “I ended up heading down what might be the road less travelled, but it's definitely the better road for me. I wanted the power to empower and as the best HR course in the country, XLRI provides me with just that.”

Kamal has come a long way and has worked hard to taste this success, but he is on his way to achieving bigger things in life. “Orientation begins soon and I hope I’m able to move onto the next stage and blossom into brilliance at XLRI.” He concludes.

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