The Beauty And The Brain - Episode 7 - Serial With Weekly Episodes

Welcome, Professional Colleague!

Dear Dear AGR,
You are a company secretary, your hubby is a chartered accountant and I am both. I am happy to learn that your husband is working for the big four.
Actually B & B originated from the case diaries of one of the brilliant chartered accountants of Mumbai. Of course I had to remove a lot of professional material and add a lot of populist material to make the story interesting.
Why should I charge you for telling my story to your husband? In fact I will be happy if you don't charge me. As you are doing a courier service for me.
I am happy you liked my story. Convey my regards to your husband.
Varalotti

 

Cant Thank You Enough, Pankaja

Dear Pankaja,
Your words fill me with enthusiasm and have also doubled my responsibility.
I had to rely very much on my profession to create this hero. In fact the whole story is based on the case diary of a chartered accountant in Mumbai. I have just added, changed the characters to make it lively for the readers.

All my clients are traders and industrialists in my place. Sitting here I can't aspire to get Aishwarya Rai's file or Karina Kapoors file. At times I used to imagine how will their accountants work. And this story is a result of that imagination.

I am really thrilled that you like the story.
Thanks for the nice words, once again.
sridhar

 

Today is a happy day for me, Sharada!

Dear Sharada,
I was not this happy when I cleared my formidable CA exams 25 years ago. I am very happy that you liked the cut rose incident. And no one could have so cryptically, yet beautifully summed up the triple S team - Beauty, Brain and Compassion.
Now, Sharada, you have proved to the IL and the rest of the world that you will call a spade a spade. And words of praise coming from you have to be multiplied by a weight factor of 100. As our super star Rajni used to say in a movie, 'If Basha says once, it's equivalent to saying a 100 times.'
Now I should pray God that I should pass the next exams as well. More than my releasing my first books this occasion calls for a Champagne. But as I am a teetotaller....., let me not repeat what I wrote earlier.
thanks,
sridhar

 

Thanks Ambika.

Dear Ambika,
The mere fact you have replied to this episode is enough proof that this episode is clean and gauging from your words, good too. Thanks a ton.
There has to be a battle royale between good and evil, whether it is in the world of fiction or that of reality. But the balance is and has always been tilted in favour of good.
With wishes from people like you I feel more confident now of turning out better and better episodes.
thanks,
sridhar

 

Happy that you liked Sethu!

Dear Minu,
I am very happy that you liked my characterisation of Sethu. After 22 years of hard core professional life I have an opinion that our profession, that of chartered accountancy, is underrated.
The subjects we handle and the training we get, especially, us Indian accountants make us comparable to any other accountant in the world. I was in a CA's office in England for three days as part of an exchange programme. There the CA's job is highly compartmentalised. One CA handles only tax matters , another only accounting matter, the third audit, and the fourth estate planning etc.
In India, especially in places like Madurai, I (and many of my professional brothers) have to handle client's accounting, taxation, audit, service tax, excise duty matters and in addition to that even counsel our clients. Once I had a father and a son as clients. They both did not talk to each other. But each will come to me to complain about the other. I was walking on razor's edge. After a few months I asked one of them to quit.
In many of the families in places near Sivakasi the family's auditors will sit together if an marriage alliance is finalised.
I just want to dedicate this serial to our profession.
Not that we are all Mother Theresas. We have our quota of black sheep. But as a profession we are still underrated.
Thanks for the nice words, Meenu and thanks for giving me an opportunity to think aloud.
sridhar