Sixteen exams, six dozens books, six years of extensive study and a rigorous life with tight articleship schedule, work pressure and coaching leaving no spare time or personal space. Yet, the eyes gleam with the iridescent dreams of a shining future, the determination is strong, the zeal unfading. There is some kind of latent pleasure in this monotony that they find; which keeps them going despite of the extensive and deep disciplines, aggressively tough question papers and tight results. This is the life of all budding Chartered Accountancy aspirants, bogged down with tonnes of things yet progressing towards the final goalpost, of being able to use the two most beautiful alphabets – ‘CA’ as a prefix to their names.
The CAs are entrusted with the substantial responsibilities of tax audits, financial consultancy; taxation planning and project consultancy underlining the confidence society has reposed in the profession, however the path to success is narrow and the risk of failure is alarmingly high as the regulatory body, ICAI has substantially reduced the pass percentage to single digits in last few attempts due to numerous reasons. The steep downfall is attributed to the market conditions of demand and supply wherein institute tends to meticulously match available opportunities with aspirants and thereby declare results.
Moreover, the institute wishes to keep a vigilant eye on quality of students being passed which has diluted with the overexploitation of CA as a profession by tutors and coaching houses. Another reason that is supposed to be working behind the tough exams and tight results is to encourage students to gain in depth working knowledge for practical situations from the course as well as disciplines, which seems to have been replaced by rote learning in the system.
No matter how tough the going gets, the tough still get going. Numerous famous CAs have scaled great heights of success whether it be CA Subhash Lakhotia (anchor of famous CNBC show ‘Tax Guru’), CA Shekhar Kapoor (Actor, Writer & Reality TV Judge), CA Parveen Sharma ( faculty at the most sought after name in CA coaching – ‘ETEN – CA’) or other names such as K.M Birla, Motilal Oswal etc. It all lies in our vision, for some CA is possible but difficult, while for others, it is difficult but still possible.
There will be inevitable heart breaking failures which when matched with apt patience, dedication and will to excel can amount to mightiest of successes. Be not afraid of progressing slow, only fear standing still. Allow me to quote author Ritu Ghatourey, ‘At any given moment you have the power to say – this is not how my story is going to end.’
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