Inspiring CAs of Women Professionals - #2 I am Bargavi Natesan and write this story, in the interest of many young and dynamic women chartered accountants, trying to work around their personal and professional lives. I have often seen that we are either guilty that we don’t work enough or we are guilty that we don’t spend enough time with our children and family. My story was no different but I have managed to achieve a median path that is not any less hectic but far more rewarding than quitting it all and sitting at home I did my schooling in Chennai and college at Puttaparthi. Later on, I did my articles in Sridhar and Santhanam, Chennai from the 97-00 batch. I decided to challenge myself and hence pursued two courses at a time and completed CA and CS. I joined Infosys at 2000, in Bangalore and later on relocated back to Chennai, post marriage. Infy was a tremendous learning ground. My job , although a youngster involved liasoning with ministry of commerce and finance, participating in pre budget memorandum meetings along with NASSCOM, parliamentary committee meetings on SEZ etc. The action was endless. I was also a part of the core committee involved in formulating rules in SEZ Act and rules and held positions as elected member of the export promotion council, a body attached to the ministry of commerce. All of this came at a cost and I had to travel frequently spending 20 hours a day, attending regular meetings with ministry and other associations, post office hours. Later, having spent a decade with Infy, I moved to Cognizant for close to 3 years and took up additional responsibilities of handling all India and Asia Pacific compliance on all these foreign trade policy and RBI matters. One day, I decided that I wanted to spend more time at home and took a few months off to decide on whether to quit once and for all and be a full time parent to a child who had patiently borne through all my aggressive professional pursuits I always had the dream to do something different and I felt that my passion was to connect with people and network. I had shared my views and advised many small time entrepreneurs. It made tremendous sense to be on my own for two reasons- one spend more time with my daughter and secondly, my instinct to reach out to many and not just one company in an employer employee relationship. I joined a mid sized practice run by women with similar backgrounds of good pedigree, high flying jobs and am very happy that my career is better than ever. I am glad I did not quit. I support Goshala and organic farming initiatives in my free time. We had two brilliant Navrathri golus themed on Krishna (last year) and Lod Muruga (this year). As I spent the days before the Navrathri at the Office of the Development Commissioner and the night working on the dolls, I realized that there are many choices in our life and it is we who have to make “that” choice, with well informed facts. It is possible to do everything, to multi task and its great fun. As women, its wired in our genes. In my case, I have made the choice to stay Connected Professionally ! And where there is a will, there is indeed not just one way but many ways. I found one and hope you fund yours too ! I recall swami Vivekanandas speech... take up an idea, leave all the ideas alone.. Live on it.. Dream of it.. Let all the parts of the body, muscle, brain work for that idea and thats the way to success. Bargavi Natesan !
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 07:01:45 +0000
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