14/09/2019
CHANDRAYAN -2 MISSION FROM A CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT’S PERSPECTIVE
At the outset I would, as a Chartered Accountant like to congratulate Dr. Sivan, Chairman, ISRO and his entire team of dedicated Scientists for the success of the Chandrayan -2, Mission. Though a lot of debate has been going in the Visual, Print and Social Media as to whether the Chandrayan -2 mission was a success, partial success, partial failure or complete failure, for me first as an Indian and then as a Chartered Accountant, the feelings are entirely different. The least that I can express is that I am really thrilled and proud of the stupendous efforts of Dr. Sivan and his Team. And now I would like to dwell into as to why a Chartered Accountant’s feelings on this matter are different from the rest.
As every Chartered Accountant would agree with me, there is no better person, except perhaps Dr. Sivan and his team who can understand the measure of success and perhaps the pains of a failure. I would like to recall my days as a student of the Chartered Accountancy course, when we as students would go through a mission similar to the moon mission once every six months. The preparations for the mission would be elaborate, painstaking and nerve wracking, similar I am sure, to the moon mission. There is no better person who can understand the feelings of Dr. Sivan and his team than the CA fraternity, who have gone through similar situations not once but a myriad times in our journey towards our goal of becoming a Chartered Accountant. I could relate the culmination, the final 8 days when the student of chartered accountancy writes his examination, be it the Inter or the Final, to a situation the Scientists went through maneuvering the Orbiter into various orbits. The alternating moments of nervousness on the first sight of the question paper at times feelings of joy, and at times feelings of despondency and again a final feeling of hope and a sudden surge in the trust and faith for the God, can only be compared with the similar feelings the scientists would have gone through the entire journey of the Mission.
Just as Dr Sivan and his team waited with a bated breath for the final descent of the orbiter into the lunar orbit and the ultimate separation of the Vikram Lander almost after a month from the launch of the Mission, a Chartered Accountancy Student waits not only with a bated breath but with a variety of mixed feelings, hoping and praying for the success of his mission as he looks into the Monitor just as the Scientist, for the ultimate result of all his efforts.
Now let me come to the similarity of the situation. Here is a student who has secured 199 marks out of 200 or has secured 200 marks in the aggregate but 30 marks in one of the papers in the group – The result shows he has failed. A student with just an extra mark, say 200 is said to have passed and thus succeeded. Imagine the feeling of the failed student. It is none other than the student who missed the bus by a single mark, who can understand the feeling of DR. Sivan and his team better than anyone. Is this the end of the road of the Student who has failed. Never. He waits for his next attempt six months later and again six months later if he is not successful. This can go on even for a life time for one who has a belief in self. And every such attempt which is otherwise termed a failure by people who have not experienced this, is in fact an experience in learning, that undoubtedly will hold in good stead for the future attempts at the mission. Therefore I for one would never call this a failure since I feel that one has indeed actually succeeded in getting closer to achieving success after each attempt. It is indeed not a failure but a “Postponement of Success” as the Superstar Rajnikanth states in one of his movie dialogues. Therefore on a similar analogy I would call the Chandrayan -2 Mission as a short postponement of Success and never a failure. All their efforts have indeed moved them closest to their object and they are now at a striking distance of their destination. They just have to look at some of us Chartered Accountants who have kept trying and never gave up. I am one of them. I am absolutely sure that Dr. Sivan and Team will never give up and will only top up their efforts and will go on to achieve success and bring more glory to our Country.
Congratulations once again Dr. Sivan and Team. Keep Going. We Chartered Accountants as a fraternity are with you and we will be with you throughout your immediate next journey to SUCCESS and GLORY.
CA R. SRIRAMPRASAD
