14th January is celebrated all over India as a Sankranti festival. You can see kites flying from mid December itself, those young enthusiastic kids who cant wait till January to enjoy kite flying. But there is a small section of people who are filled with dread once they sight that first kite in the sky. And that dreaded look only means one thing- ...CA results (usually published on 14th Jan) are now really really close. I passed my exams in 2003. And now that i look back, i realize, that those exams have taught me much more than accounting standards and standard deductions.
Eliminating the lows in life does not automatically result in a high.
Most of us (leave aside the CA rankers who i have never understood how they do it!) have struggled through these exams. There have been subjects that have terrified us and filled us with dread while some have been easier than others. Every 6 months there was this sword of results hanging on our head and as the countdown to that began, the calculating and recalculating of marks in the head begins. You come out of the exams feeling that you will surely pass this time and by the time the result time arrives, you start questioning every belief you had pertaining to it. Visiting temples becomes more frequent and you feel that passing these exams will remove each and every obstacle in your life. Failing and revisiting those books again is the worst thing that can happen to you, you feel. Amongst all these feelings, i passed my exams in 2003. And i waited and waited for the sense of high, euphoria etc that i felt it would bring. And it came with the realization that just eliminating the lows of failure in life does not mean a heightened sense of success. It is much deeper and profound than that. And requires much more effort than just clearing exams
A degree means a lot, and you may have worked crazily hard for it, but it still does not define you
As far as i know, i always wanted to be a CA. Because my father was one. And i thought he had the coolest job in the world. He just had to sign papers all day. No 'real work' :) He was the CFO of a petroleum corporation. I have seen people around him always in awe of him and respecting his position and education and the way he rose in his career. He passed away at the age of 52. And there were so many people who came to visit us. And NO ONE mentioned his degree, career growth and position. All they talked about was how helpful he was, giving and always cracking some witty and funny jokes. How he tried to set up two of his Parsi friends just to realize that they were actually brother and sister. And how he sponsored two disabled kids which we knew nothing about. But no one mentioned his position.
You cant pass out with flying colours in every field in life. Give yourself credit for scraping through sometimes.
There are things you are good at, then there are things you are not so good at and then there are things you are really bad at. I had a breeze studying all the theoritical subjects in these exams but income tax exam used to terrify me. I could spend months on that and still come out feeling underconfident. There will be things in life and situations which will seem tougher than it will seem to others. Give yourself credit for scraping through. We are all wired differently. You wont see me sweat a bit if i need to walk 20 kms at a stretch but put me in a roomful of 20 people and have me interact with them, and i will need all my survival instincts to kick in.
Success is relative- so celebrate your version of it.
There was this really tough income tax paper that was set one year and we all came out of the examination hall feeling overwhelmed and sure that we wont need to wait for the results to start studying again. And then we crossed this CA exams topper who was looking equally dejected. Gave us a ray of hope and a feeling of pleasure, that if the topper looks so sad then who can blame us! We asked him how his paper was and he said "It was really bad. I dont think i will be a topper this time". And we walked ahead even more depressed than before. That was the attempt i passed out in and that guy i had met topped. I celebrated and partied harder than he did :)
You will manage to get through- twisting, turning and scraping through
Any obstacle that you will encounter in life, it may seem to be the toughest one you have ever faced, may have left you feeling overwhelmed, tired, dejected, frustrated and with a low self esteem- still you will get through it. It may be a different way than you thought but still it will be over one day. I look at all the recessions that have struck, the job-cuts, the uncertainity and through all that i have known only one thing- that this too shall pass. It may be really bad or even worse than i may have imagined, but it will pass. And teach me something that i may not have learnt or even wanted to learn otherwise. Who really wants to learn those hard lessons in life!
There are some shared jokes that only CAs will realize have an element of truth to them
I have a friend (also a CA) who called me up to share the good news that his marriage has been fixed. The usual questions- who is she? what does she do? I asked him if she was a CA too and he said "I would never marry a CA. She would come to know how little i know!" We laughed and we understood. There is a certain bond and an understanding look that passes between these ex-CA students. And that stays forever.
...........and that shade of pink on the CA results website will never ever be your favorite colour again.
Good luck to all the students i know who are struggling and hats off to all those who passed. And to the toppers i know......i still dont know how you did it :)
Most of us (leave aside the CA rankers who i have never understood how they do it!) have struggled through these exams. There have been subjects that have terrified us and filled us with dread while some have been easier than others. Every 6 months there was this sword of results hanging on our head and as the countdown to that began, the calculating and recalculating of marks in the head begins. You come out of the exams feeling that you will surely pass this time and by the time the result time arrives, you start questioning every belief you had pertaining to it. Visiting temples becomes more frequent and you feel that passing these exams will remove each and every obstacle in your life. Failing and revisiting those books again is the worst thing that can happen to you, you feel. Amongst all these feelings, i passed my exams in 2003. And i waited and waited for the sense of high, euphoria etc that i felt it would bring. And it came with the realization that just eliminating the lows of failure in life does not mean a heightened sense of success. It is much deeper and profound than that. And requires much more effort than just clearing exams
A degree means a lot, and you may have worked crazily hard for it, but it still does not define you
As far as i know, i always wanted to be a CA. Because my father was one. And i thought he had the coolest job in the world. He just had to sign papers all day. No 'real work' :) He was the CFO of a petroleum corporation. I have seen people around him always in awe of him and respecting his position and education and the way he rose in his career. He passed away at the age of 52. And there were so many people who came to visit us. And NO ONE mentioned his degree, career growth and position. All they talked about was how helpful he was, giving and always cracking some witty and funny jokes. How he tried to set up two of his Parsi friends just to realize that they were actually brother and sister. And how he sponsored two disabled kids which we knew nothing about. But no one mentioned his position.
You cant pass out with flying colours in every field in life. Give yourself credit for scraping through sometimes.
There are things you are good at, then there are things you are not so good at and then there are things you are really bad at. I had a breeze studying all the theoritical subjects in these exams but income tax exam used to terrify me. I could spend months on that and still come out feeling underconfident. There will be things in life and situations which will seem tougher than it will seem to others. Give yourself credit for scraping through. We are all wired differently. You wont see me sweat a bit if i need to walk 20 kms at a stretch but put me in a roomful of 20 people and have me interact with them, and i will need all my survival instincts to kick in.
Success is relative- so celebrate your version of it.
There was this really tough income tax paper that was set one year and we all came out of the examination hall feeling overwhelmed and sure that we wont need to wait for the results to start studying again. And then we crossed this CA exams topper who was looking equally dejected. Gave us a ray of hope and a feeling of pleasure, that if the topper looks so sad then who can blame us! We asked him how his paper was and he said "It was really bad. I dont think i will be a topper this time". And we walked ahead even more depressed than before. That was the attempt i passed out in and that guy i had met topped. I celebrated and partied harder than he did :)
You will manage to get through- twisting, turning and scraping through
Any obstacle that you will encounter in life, it may seem to be the toughest one you have ever faced, may have left you feeling overwhelmed, tired, dejected, frustrated and with a low self esteem- still you will get through it. It may be a different way than you thought but still it will be over one day. I look at all the recessions that have struck, the job-cuts, the uncertainity and through all that i have known only one thing- that this too shall pass. It may be really bad or even worse than i may have imagined, but it will pass. And teach me something that i may not have learnt or even wanted to learn otherwise. Who really wants to learn those hard lessons in life!
There are some shared jokes that only CAs will realize have an element of truth to them
I have a friend (also a CA) who called me up to share the good news that his marriage has been fixed. The usual questions- who is she? what does she do? I asked him if she was a CA too and he said "I would never marry a CA. She would come to know how little i know!" We laughed and we understood. There is a certain bond and an understanding look that passes between these ex-CA students. And that stays forever.
...........and that shade of pink on the CA results website will never ever be your favorite colour again.
Good luck to all the students i know who are struggling and hats off to all those who passed. And to the toppers i know......i still dont know how you did it :)
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