Yes, I’m a CA aspirant. NO! You don’t know me!
July 1st,2017; today when the nation is both euphoric and tensed about the sudden GST imposition, the CA community celebrates the foundation day of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) as it completes 68 years of its origination. ICAI, a statutory body formed by an Act of Parliament in 1949, is India’s national professional accounting body. The body which licenses and regulates the financial audit and accountancy profession in India.
On this esteemed day, here’s an article devoted to the CA community. One of the best and most difficult professional courses in India, being a CA is of great honor. So, I got into talk with some aspiring CAs to have a closer look into their supposedly studious lives.
A college friend of mine, Garima Setia, an aspiring CA, talks about the ‘CA world’; “Now that I’ve dabbled into the ‘CA world’, I kind of get it when people say it’s takes a lot of hard work and is time consuming profession. But the whole stigma around it is what I don’t get! The amount of people who’ve told me “CA is a very difficult yaar, I can’t do it”, “you must be a genius” and stuff, are many. I’m not saying that you should pursue CA if you don’t want to, because I understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But, nothing worth having comes easy. You really shouldn’t care about what people say if you have your mind set that this is what you want to do! “
I asked her about the one misconception she‚Äôd like to bust about CAs. She answered ‚ÄúOh there are so many! One of them being, ‚ÄúCA students study ungodly amounts of hours a day.‚Äù It‚Äôs all crap! Taking tuitions worth 7 hours in a single day is not a big deal! We‚Äôve all did that in school, haven’t we?‚Äù
For those who think CAs might not be having a social life, or that they don’t do anything for fun, I even know people who are handling CA and college societies just well. So don’t just hear people say “You do not have time” and think that you can’t do it because someone who is NOT doing CA told you so.
This other friend of mine is a STAR! Managing CA, college’s music society, a band, and what not! Mantej Singh, talks about being assumed nerdy just because he’s pursuing CA, “No one knows the struggle we face, especially when you’re pursuing B.Com. H simultaneously. It’s obvious that CA is always a priority but sometimes college studies may suffer because of it. A CA student is always sleep deprived. To deal with the pressure of one of the most difficult professional courses, music comes to my rescue. Yes, I give some time to music, as it is my passion, and then compensate it by studying a little more!”
When asked to give a reply to those who consider them as UNCOOL, he storms, “Un-cool for you, but we are the most respected students in the world. Let’s talk when this ‘un-coolness’ turns into ‘money’ in future.”
I ended up asking another CA aspirant, about the awkward faces they get when people get to know they’re doing CA. She explained, “Some of our friends in college don’t even ask us to hangout as they ‘presume’ that we might be busy studying. We don’t! P-uh-lease! I personally end up laughing at it. One, I’m not studying all day, two, I’m active on all social media plus I sleep a lot! Majority of us have watched FRIENDS just like our fellow non-CA millennials. For god’s sake we are similar kind of human beings who just have a vast knowledge of tax & accounting.”
Guys, CA students are just like any other person with ambition, and just like them, we’ll have to work hard at times to get what we want.
To the CA community, Congratulations guys! You are awesome!
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