Woh CA ki class

Writer’s note: I compose this post in my head as I return after meeting my CA friends, some of whom I have met after close to two years. Please condone the over-sentiness of this post.

When most qualified or semi qualified CAs are asked what they recall about their “process of completing CA” days, they would mention their heavy CA modules, horrible routine of May and November attempts or the torture they went through as interns. When I am asked the same question, however, I always promptly say, “my CA friends”. These are the friends I made during my CA tuition classes who have been kind enough to put up with my nonsense and whimsicalness till date.

It was a rainy day in August 2005 when I entered the CA tuition class for the first time. I was painfully shy and I had joined the class one month late. As a result, all the bonding between the 20 odd classmates had already happened and I was the outsider. I kept telling myself it didn’t matter and that I was there to study, but my heart would sink during break times when everyone would be talking and joking and I would be sitting in the corner and pretending to go over class notes. I had grossly underestimated the kindness and goodness of my classmates, and before I knew it, Peekay (named this way since his real name has the same initials) came up to me and started telling me how he knew me through some common friends. Then the Angel (I have no other name for her-she was and am sure still is the guardian angel of our group) took me into her fold and made sure I sat next to her in class till I became more comfortable. One after the other, each person in the class started befriending me and treating me just like one of them. I felt very loved, wanted and cared for and began to look forward to the class that I used to dread going to not so long ago.

Before I knew it, I had opened up to them totally. They put up with my tuneless singing during the breaks, included me in all their post class plans (and never stopped inviting me although I never went) and even tried to match make between me and another classmate because for some weird reason, we always wore the same color (for gods’ sake, I started wearing pink thinking it was the most feminine color only to find him in pink too!).  Being a huge group, there were the routine fights, crushes, relationships and breakups.. but the group stayed. They included me to such an extent, that I bonded not only with them, but also with their friends who weren’t in the same class. I had a great time throughout the duration of the class and learned not only accounting and taxation, but also lessons in friendship, bonding and loyalty.

At some stage, I went through a horrible patch and cut off from all of them. They were so loving that they never gave up on me. In those two years that I was away, they kept trying to reach out to me in any way possible. And when I did get back in touch, they forgave me and welcomed me back. ( Of course, there were wise cracks about me being the Aamir Khan of 3 Idiots, but that was the least I could expect.) Even today, I have hurt some of them by not attending their weddings, by disappearing for months at end…but they swallow their anger and accept me each and every time.

Today it is close to a decade since that first class. The group has weathered many, many storms. The untimely demise of the one we all loved the most, exam failures, relationship failures, loss of parents, job crises, quarter life and identity crises-but the bonding in most part has stayed intact. It gives me immeasurable pleasure and pride to see how each of them is personally content and professionally successful.

I write this post as a gesture of gratitude to each and every one of them-thank you. Thank you for including that shy, awkward girl into your gang. Thank you for giving me the kind of warmth, love and acceptance that you did. Thank you for teaching me how to stand by friends during their good and bad times. And most of all, thank you for never giving up on me. I am a nerdy weirdo and may do a disappearing act anytime, but please bear in mind, that I truly love  you and will never forget you or what you have done for me.  And while I don’t know if I can be as good a friend as you are, you will always inspire me to try my level best.