Have started a new series of blogs for Women CAs - the objective is to inspire them to stay . First of the blogs by Rajee Rajesh TV Rajalakshmi, a G P Kapadia Gold medalist had a brilliant academic record but had to relocate to Trichy owing to her marriage. Was this the end of her professional career. What does she do today?. Read on for more .. My name is Raji and I am a Chartered Accountant in Practice from Trichy. My colleague and friend Sripriya wanted me to do a short story on my professional journey as a Chartered Accountant. I am given to understand that this is intended to inspire a few more women CA’s to make the proverbial professional comeback and I really do hope it serves the intended purpose. I joined Price Waterhouse as an Articled Clerk in 1993 and the next 3 years were game changing for a girl from Chrompet, a suburb of Chennai , from a school and college that you still may not be able to locate on google maps. I had the good fortune of being the All India First Ranker in the CA Intermediate exams and also a 40+ rank in the final examinations Just when I thought that I was all set to realize my CFO dreams, life dealt a completely different hand. An outstation audit, a chance meeting with a young engineer, a proposal for matrimony intelligently routed through proper channels led to wedlock and relocation to a Trichy. However I still managed to work for the next few years before I took a sabbatical to be a fulltime mother. While the rest of the world went through the dotcom bubble, the introduction of the Euro, Enron Corporate Frauds, SOX, the War on Terror, I was fully immersed in baby babble, preparing alphabet flash cards and evaluating preschools. Eventually, when I slowly started tiring of my maternal affectations, the scene of my professional comeback looked very bleak. My children were very young, I did not have any family support at home, the incremental money was no motivation, there was no way to explain a 5 year reprieve to an interviewer and a full time job was out of the question. I started teaching for CA students and this gave me a chance to brush up my long forgotten grey matter. An accidental meeting between a long lost friend and my mother in law in a supermarket, presented a small window of opportunity and I partnered with her in a professional practice with an office premises the rent of which was twice as much as the revenue and with two trainees who were equally clueless but more confident than me of what we had set out to do. From then on it has been one memorable journey. I realize that practice in a smaller town has its challenges but gives you a splendid opportunity to do many things. I work, teach for CA students, advise small corporates, am part of a happy Womens club called Aura, manage good holidays, supervise the kids, am active on facebook, blog, read and much more. I have even found the time for a bit of Bollywood dancing occasionally. Am happy to let you know that I am also an Independent Director on a listed company based out of Trichy and attempt to do justice to this new role as well I have in several instances in the past felt constrained by my geographical location and endless peers ranting on how my fantastic academic run would have seen me through as a CEO. These thoughts do not faze me any more. I realize that life is not always about having the best but making the best of what you get. The joy I get out of staying connected professionally is an endless high.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 16:39:30 +0000
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