CA Bargavi Natesan - Where there is a Will, there are many Ways !

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 Vivekananda's 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 that's the way to success". 

Bargavi Natesan !

CA T V Rajalakshmi - GP Kapadia to Tiruchirapalli - My Story

Have started a new series of blogs for Women CA's - the objective is to inspire them to stay . First of the blogs by Rajee Rajesh a colleague at work

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 reenergise my 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.