a k a - another kind of accountant !

dear viji maam,
nice to read your feed back...i guess you must have felt nostalgic, remembering your son's student days....CA not only makes its students sweat, it gives their moms too a tough time... :)
hmmm.....sure, accounting systems have come a long way, from huge manual ledgers to computerisation, that too from small packages to now comprehensive ERP systems....

Originally Posted by iyerviji

Dear Sowparnika

What you have written about CAs is very true. My son has also done CA so I know what allthey have to go through . Chakravyuvil Abhimanyu very well said about CAs
He passed his CA after 5 or 6 attempts. But luckily he did not leave it. He had good exposure when he was doing his articleship. He came for the training in our Company where i was working that time now retired (Parke Davis) . At that time only our accounts were put in the system . We had J D Edward system that time. So he got to learn . We used to do bank reconciliation thru J D Edward only and finalisation of accounts all in that sytstem. Without spending any money he could learn that and now though he is a CA he is doing that job only . I forgot what u call that . He and another friend are running a company now.

Dear Kamla,
WOW ! A feed back from one of the mods, and that too one who gets to read the best of IL, everyday ! i could'nt have asked for anything more... !
many, many thanks for your lovely words of encouragement, Kamla...you really made my day...
well, i just hope that i can come up with more....this is my first attempt to write in a public forum like this, and all the support and encouragement i have received from my dear ILites has been such a shot in the arm...
again, thanks for saying that this has whetted your appetite....hope i am able to write more... :)

Originally Posted by Kamla

Dear Sowpar,

The nomination for FP of the month brought me here and I am so thankful now for the FP forum! It surely manages to bring attention to some excellent writings in IL which we may miss out otherwise.

If I call your writing excellent, it is very well deserved. I do not know much about CAs. I of course know our Varalotti who not only excels in writing, but is also an accountant who sailed through his CA studies with distinction.

And now I know you, a wannabe accountant whose destiny seems to be in writing:) If anything, you surely are a talented writer. I simply enjoyed this very smoothly and slickly told anecdote. Though you were talking about the trials and tribulations of the CA clan, the generously interlaced humor was highly delectable and made it fun to read. Great choice of words and an arresting writing style.

I now plan to go through your posts as this has whetted my appetite to read more from you:)

Looks like the loss of CA fraternity is going to be the gain for us who love to read good stuff. Keep writing, please.

L, Kamla

Hi Sowparnika,

Im another a.k.a. .....count me in. I used to dream about having either ACA or FCA after my name but very unfortunate.

I gave by blood and sweat literally to complete the course but could not. Like you said, i used to confine myself to a room and trying hard to gain my parents confidence who used to feel that doing articleship is equivalent to being an auditor.

I used to avoid the social gatherings, no movies, no masti in life, never used to buy new dresses for festivals etc bcos of the guilt of not passing exams.

However, i got sstuck up and somehow finished my 3 yrs of articleship. Though CA remains the story of sour grapes for me, i have to admit that it indeed helped me a lot to fine tune my communication skills and shape up my personality.

Im happy to say that im not a CA but atleast MBA !!!

I met a CA colleague yday and was thinking about this the whole day and now i saw this and felt like posting my experience.

hi roshni,
so, yet another from the great fraternity ! thanks for the feedback !
nice to see that you too seek the blessings of our beloved Alwarpet Aanju ! i used to live near the temple before marriage, so used to go there often... :)

Originally Posted by roshniv

Dear Sowparnika,

That was a great write up! I could feel the undercurrent as i am also a part of the bigger gang. I hope and sincerely pray the Alwarpet CA deity showers his benevolence on us in this regard!!

Cheers!!

Kamalji,
very true....He always gives us what we need, not what we ask....
happy to see that my post might be inspiring your next blog...looking forward to reading it ... :)

Originally Posted by Kamalji

Sow,

You are right.if god was to ask what he wants for what desires, no one would step into the temples.HAHA.People think he is cheap.Give him a tenner and ask him a crore eh !.
I read a saying somewhere, which is my all time favouirite.
God will not give u what u desire, but what u deserve.
I am going to write a blog on this, with u as the inspiration Sow.Regards.kamal

hi HW,
thanks for writing in !
there are a lot us sharing the same experiences ! well, on the bright side, you have done your MBA - that's grt, HW ...
i guess all students are by default ACA or FCA - they are either Aspiring Chartered Accountants or Failed to be Chartered Accountants !
Ofcourse, articleship is a great experience, whether you complete the course or not, it teaches you a lot in life....
thanks once again for taking the time to share your experience....

Originally Posted by happywoman

Hi Sowparnika,

Im another a.k.a. .....count me in. I used to dream about having either ACA or FCA after my name but very unfortunate.

I gave by blood and sweat literally to complete the course but could not. Like you said, i used to confine myself to a room and trying hard to gain my parents confidence who used to feel that doing articleship is equivalent to being an auditor.

I used to avoid the social gatherings, no movies, no masti in life, never used to buy new dresses for festivals etc bcos of the guilt of not passing exams.

However, i got sstuck up and somehow finished my 3 yrs of articleship. Though CA remains the story of sour grapes for me, i have to admit that it indeed helped me a lot to fine tune my communication skills and shape up my personality.

Im happy to say that im not a CA but atleast MBA !!!

I met a CA colleague yday and was thinking about this the whole day and now i saw this and felt like posting my experience.

Dear Sowpar,
I came to know of this post only when I clicked the link below your signature which appears in your fb for the Work For You thread.

For me it was a nostalgic trip down the memory lane. Let me add to my share of anecdotes.

I had a friend by name Nagarajan who wrote CA Inter with me. The first exam Accountancy was very tough. The first problem ran into two and a half pages. Everybody was upset. I could not solve many problems. But nevertheless went as far as I could and left them at that. This Nagarajan also did the same. We had discussed quite a lot of problems in our study hols.
He lived a few blocks away from me. Every morning I used to go to his house and from there we would go to the examination hall together. So when I went to his house the next day, I was shocked to see him in lungi. He told me that he was sure to fail in the first exam and so what's the point of writing the other exams. I and his mother pleaded with him, begged him to come along. I told him even the notorious CA Institute cannot fail all the students. They would give weight to the fact that the question paper was tough. No, he said firmly. I left him and went to the exam.

When the marks came we were all shocked. For Nagarajan had scored 62 marks in Accounts but was marked Absent in other exams. Had he written the exams he would have cleared them in one go.

My final costing was again a tough exam. The American College Main Hall was as silent as a funeral parlour. For the first 20 minutes we did not even open our pen. Then one of the students unable to bear the shock shouted "Gnanapandithaa" and fainted.
We were all jolted back to the world of reality. His shouting woke me up, physically, intellectually and even spiritually.
I looked into myself. I had given my life and soul to this course. If the paper is tough for me, it has to be tough for all the examinees. Why not try and do what best that could be done under the circumstances. Later I learnt many people had similar thoughts. The Institute people should have been surprised about such a sterling performance in a Mofussil town like Madurai. Thanks to Gnanapanditha.

Seeing my CA Inter Results was a life-defining moment for me. I was in one of the client units for audit. My father who was working for TVS at that time had some influence with Indian Express and had given my Roll Number to them. (I still remember the number 12995 - somebody said it totalled to 8 and hence unlucky. I told them that my God who created and ruled over all the numbers gave that number to me. And so it can't be bad)
Those days there were no cell phones or Internet. The results will come to the newspaper offices first.
Around 3 in the afternoon my father called me in my work place.
"Sridhar, don't worry about anything. I am there for you. I know how you studied. I know you virtually gave your everything to the course. But you see the result is not in our hands. You are sure to get through next time."
I was shocked. I could not think of me failing in the exams - after all I had shed not just sweat, but blood. I had given to the course whatever I had. And I loved it too. I was puzzled.
I prayed to my Lord Ganesa, that if I clear the exam that time, I would, the very next morning, visit virtually every temple of His, on the way from my house to the Central Bus Stand, a distance of about 5 kms.
I got permission from my senior and rushed to the Institute office. The results had just come. I just told 12995 to the clerk. After a few seconds he looked at me as if I were an alien creature. "You have cleared both the groups. Congratulations."

I was more relieved than happy. Next morning at 6 I started my trip to Ganesa's temple. I stood before each of his Statue and did 9 thoppukaranams before proceeding to the next temple. I finished the exercise by 10 AM.
About three weeks later I had travelled to Trivandrum for audit work. It was the TVS Branch over there. My Dad was in Madurai TVS. One day when I was busy with the work, somebody rushed to our room and shouted, "Sridhar, you have a trunk call from Madurai". I was shocked and ran along with him to the room two floors below.
My Dad was on the line.
"Sridhar, congratulations. Just now got an intimation from the CA Institute, that you have scored All India's 3rd Rank. I am proud of you."
I was happy not because of the rank and all. I was happy because that was the first time my Dad said, "I am proud of you." To me any day that was a much greater honour.
Sowpar, I have a lorry load of CA memories. Thanks for making me relive them.
love,

Dear Sridhar

I was very touched reading your experience. Passing CA is really a difficult thing.
My son passed after six attempts. And as i told Sowparnika he got good chance to learn ERP in our company during his last year of articleship. Though he is a CA now he is under ERP project only. I can understand how proud your father must have been when he knew that u got All India 3rd Rank. My neighbour's daughter when she was studying for CA she never used to allow the boys to play in front of their house. And noone should make noise also. She will sit in their kitchen and study. She passed in the first attempt worked only for sometime got married and after marraige left the job and now she is busy looking after her children. She has two daughters. If boys become CAs it is useful for the whole life. But for girls it depends after marrige they might get a chance to work or sometimes they dont get chance.

with love and blessings

viji

Originally Posted by varalotti

Dear Sowpar,
I came to know of this post only when I clicked the link below your signature which appears in your fb for the Work For You thread.

For me it was a nostalgic trip down the memory lane. Let me add to my share of anecdotes.

I had a friend by name Nagarajan who wrote CA Inter with me. The first exam Accountancy was very tough. The first problem ran into two and a half pages. Everybody was upset. I could not solve many problems. But nevertheless went as far as I could and left them at that. This Nagarajan also did the same. We had discussed quite a lot of problems in our study hols.
He lived a few blocks away from me. Every morning I used to go to his house and from there we would go to the examination hall together. So when I went to his house the next day, I was shocked to see him in lungi. He told me that he was sure to fail in the first exam and so what's the point of writing the other exams. I and his mother pleaded with him, begged him to come along. I told him even the notorious CA Institute cannot fail all the students. They would give weight to the fact that the question paper was tough. No, he said firmly. I left him and went to the exam.

When the marks came we were all shocked. For Nagarajan had scored 62 marks in Accounts but was marked Absent in other exams. Had he written the exams he would have cleared them in one go.

My final costing was again a tough exam. The American College Main Hall was as silent as a funeral parlour. For the first 20 minutes we did not even open our pen. Then one of the students unable to bear the shock shouted "Gnanapandithaa" and fainted.
We were all jolted back to the world of reality. His shouting woke me up, physically, intellectually and even spiritually.
I looked into myself. I had given my life and soul to this course. If the paper is tough for me, it has to be tough for all the examinees. Why not try and do what best that could be done under the circumstances. Later I learnt many people had similar thoughts. The Institute people should have been surprised about such a sterling performance in a Mofussil town like Madurai. Thanks to Gnanapanditha.

Seeing my CA Inter Results was a life-defining moment for me. I was in one of the client units for audit. My father who was working for TVS at that time had some influence with Indian Express and had given my Roll Number to them. (I still remember the number 12995 - somebody said it totalled to 8 and hence unlucky. I told them that my God who created and ruled over all the numbers gave that number to me. And so it can't be bad)
Those days there were no cell phones or Internet. The results will come to the newspaper offices first.
Around 3 in the afternoon my father called me in my work place.
"Sridhar, don't worry about anything. I am there for you. I know how you studied. I know you virtually gave your everything to the course. But you see the result is not in our hands. You are sure to get through next time."
I was shocked. I could not think of me failing in the exams - after all I had shed not just sweat, but blood. I had given to the course whatever I had. And I loved it too. I was puzzled.
I prayed to my Lord Ganesa, that if I clear the exam that time, I would, the very next morning, visit virtually every temple of His, on the way from my house to the Central Bus Stand, a distance of about 5 kms.
I got permission from my senior and rushed to the Institute office. The results had just come. I just told 12995 to the clerk. After a few seconds he looked at me as if I were an alien creature. "You have cleared both the groups. Congratulations."

I was more relieved than happy. Next morning at 6 I started my trip to Ganesa's temple. I stood before each of his Statue and did 9 thoppukaranams before proceeding to the next temple. I finished the exercise by 10 AM.
About three weeks later I had travelled to Trivandrum for audit work. It was the TVS Branch over there. My Dad was in Madurai TVS. One day when I was busy with the work, somebody rushed to our room and shouted, "Sridhar, you have a trunk call from Madurai". I was shocked and ran along with him to the room two floors below.
My Dad was on the line.
"Sridhar, congratulations. Just now got an intimation from the CA Institute, that you have scored All India's 3rd Rank. I am proud of you."
I was happy not because of the rank and all. I was happy because that was the first time my Dad said, "I am proud of you." To me any day that was a much greater honour.
Sowpar, I have a lorry load of CA memories. Thanks for making me relive them.
love,

Dear Sowparnika..

Very nicely written.. intresting to read... Even many of my friends are on their journey of pursuing their CA degree.... :) I m going to forward your post to them :) Thanx for a nice post...

Love
brindha

dear sridhar sir,
sooooo happy to have you stepping in.....great to read the experiences of a rank holder ! generally one tends to think that rank holders sail through the papers easily, but i guess they too must be going through the same feelings as others....
, the "gnyanapanditha" incident quite shocked me...(thooki vaari potudhu) have'nt seen anybody fainting myself...didn't know that CA institute papers could have such an effect....poor man....

you have pointed out the two most common mistakes made - not coming to subsequent exams because of accounts,
and being intimidated because of the first sum in the paper !
i too have seen many seats in the hall empty after the first day...
people also spend a lot of time worrying about the first exam and wasting their time to revise before the subsequent exams....
thought i didn't make the first mistake, i too have made the mistake of spending too much time battling with the first sum....i subsequently learnt to allot time to each question and proceed to the next, even if it was left unfinished...

hmmm, well, it would have been a great feeling for you, the trunk-call from your dad...
as to the 'thopukaranams' for all the Ganeshas on the way, i can only imagine how your knees would have felt, at the end of the day !

nice to read your experiences, sridhar sir...