The Sacrifice
A tribute to every CA & CA student
A person once asked me what it takes to become a Chartered Accountant. I told him “It won’t cost you too much money, it will however cost you your entire youth.” — CA (Dr.) Girish Ahuja
It was 19th January 2015, the CA Finals result for the November 2014 attempt came out, with shivering hands and a cold sweat I checked my result. To my shock and joy I passed. I was on top of the world. I Eagerly displayed my success on Facebook and told all my friends and relatives. One of my friends who was not a CA asked me this question, ‘what does it mean to be a CA?’ I fumbled for an answer then as I wasn’t really sure, or maybe I was a mix of emotion and come up with a proper answer. But nearly 1.5 years later as I reflect on my life, post qualification, did I figure out the true depth of that one question.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CA?
It means that there’s a good chance that you enrolled into it because you heard that someone who did it has a good career now
It means that when you went to the ICAI building for the first time, the endless sea of students studying wherever they could, including sitting on the floor,confused you. How hard could it be, right?
It means that clearing your first exam CPT,PE-I gave you a confidence that no one could match. Now you scoffed at those people, and said to yourself, I can clear it easily.
It means that for the first time when you joined a CA firm to complete your training, you felt a sense of responsibility, while the rest of your friends lived out a carefree life in colleges.
It means that you spent, endless days travelling across clients for different assignments, the thankless hours in the office, trying to finish those audit documents.
It means that you missed out a lot of fun times with your friends from earlier, while they spent the evening enjoying in the clubs, in the malls, you spent yours preparing for a client meeting the next day
It means that you knew the the Company,tax laws like the back of your hand.
It means that when the first time you got your stipend after the first month of articleship, you truly realised the value of money, unlike others who still splurged it like anything.
It means that when you failed for the first time in your life, you knew what defeat tasted like, the devastation was probably too much for you to cope, your world came crashing, you thought about quitting. If it weren’t for your friends within the office you probably would have.
It means the fun times you had while being called a ‘nalayak’, Praveen Sharma sir during accounts, or the endless stories from Raj Kumar sir, or just trying to get through VG sirs class
It means you forgot the concept of what a holiday is, as your weekdays were filled with work and weekends with studies, your new holy cycle.
It means that you juggled your entire day with a morning class, training and evening class, while trying to fit in eating and sleeping somewhere in between
It means that your parents had to hear a lot of ‘aapka beta kaha hai’ at social gatherings, because you really didn’t care about whose mama’s cousin’s someone was getting married
It means that you also got really irritated at those people who didn’t understood the course and asked questions like ‘from which college are you doing, CA?’ ‘and which year are you in?’
It means the heartbreaks that you encountered throughout your course, that one girl you had a crush on, is gone. Your once gf/bf, is now your ex and marrying someone else because she completed her MBA and can’t wait for you to finish your course which even you don’t know when it will be done.
It means that you went through a lot of polishing, saw a lot of defeats, probably enough to drive any one else insane, but you held your nerves.
It means that you were so devastated by the previous loss that you didn’t believe the results when you finally passed.
It means that you made it your passion day in and day out to add the letters CA before your name, no matter how high the cost, how much the sacrifice.
It means that you lost a lot of friends, missed out on a lot because nothing else mattered more than finishing this course.
It means that when you finally cleared the final exam, the joy on your face made up for everything else, and you told yourself it was worth it.
It means that you are now one of the few people who have seen defeat so much that are primed to tackle any challenge in the world.
During my student days, I made becoming a CA my passion, the losses I’ve been through are nothing compared to the satisfaction of calling myself a CA. Today when I take a look at that question, what it means to be a CA? the one thing that strikes my mind is
It means to live a life, that no one else wants to live, in order to live a future that no one can afford to.
Wishing you all a very happy CA day
#TVI
