I was born and brought up in Chandigarh. Blessed with a flawless childhood, I enjoyed a lovely family, the finest of education and a sound social life. In school, I excelled in studies as well as extracurricular activities. I was a brilliant orator and was excited about pursuing media communications growing up, but I somehow ended up studying for a BTech. My dad wanted me to become an engineer, and after completion, I went for an MBA. 

During my hostel days, I spoke frequently with my parents on the phone. But one night, there was no response and I had a feeling something was wrong. My dad had passed away due to a cardiac arrest. That moment changed everything for me and my family. I relegated my career to be close to my mother, so that my brother could focus on his job in Delhi. We were all dealing with grief in our own ways. 

Days passed by and things started feeling better. My mother and brother wanted me to focus on my career and pushed me to get a full-time job. Within a few weeks, I’d bagged a job as a recruiter with a Chandigarh-based company. Although I did pretty well for a newbie, the organisation wasn’t encouraging, so I decided to step back. This was when I started reading about start-ups in India and it sounded so exciting! Long story short, I joined Grofers as a recruiter in NCR. The energy on the floor was unlike anything I had experienced before. 

Back then, I used to be on calls all the time telling people what Grofers is (and how it’s pronounced – Albi was very particular about it) and hiring good people. The thing about recruitment is you need to know quite a lot about the function you are hiring for, to understand the gaps that potential hirees can solve with their skills and talent. When I first began hiring for the Category team, I had no clue what Category Management was all about or what a Category manager did. But my plan was simple: if I didn't know something, I worked extra hard to learn. Eventually, our team was hiring for Design, Finance, Legal, Sales, Marketing and so on. 

I am glad my path crossed with Grofers (now Blinkit) because it gave me confidence as well as direction in life. Had it not been for Blinkit, I could have resigned to being a snobbish kitty party wife to someone in Chandigarh, but because of this org, I found a purpose in life. And the nicest part is I continue to imbibe knowledge and wisdom from some of the best leaders in the ecosystem. I’ll be completing 7 years here soon, and whenever somebody asks me “What next?”, I can only think to myself: “I am not done yet.”