I began writing this page immediately after returning from
the 43rd RRC of the Society. This year, as you are aware, we went to Gujarat for
the first time and assembled at Gandhinagar in a beautiful resort. There were
about 250 of us from all over the country. The camaraderie among all our members
and the excellent rounds of group discussions and general assembly were the
highlights of the RRC. The excellence achieved by our Seminar & PR Committee
members in organisation of such mega events was very much in evidence
throughout. The RRC was attended by several Regional Council members and two
newly elected members of the Central Council of the ICAI. We also had
participation of several members of various Branches of Regional Councils of the
ICAI. We also had a record turnout from cities other than Mumbai. I welcome all
the new members, who became our members recently, who attended the RRC. I am
sure that they will be our members for a long time to come. A full report on the
RRC, accompanied by photographs is printed in this journal. The Seminar and PR
Committee is now looking at organising more activities in the months to come.
It is said that time flies. I entirely agree with this
statement. It is now six months since I took over as the President of BCAS.
These six months have been very satisfying and the wonderful co-operation that I
have received so far from all our members is very touching. I look forward to
the next six months with the same amount of enthusiasm and vigour that I began
my term with.
Recently, I watched two Bollywood movies, which I felt were
very meaningful. The first was “Paa” and the second was “3 idiots”. The first
movie brought out the best in one of the most successful actors the world has
seen. At the age of nearly 67, he has enacted the role of a 13 year old and that
too with a fatal disease. The extraordinary efforts of Mr. Bachchan are worth
emulating. They tell us that nothing is impossible in this world and that one is
never too old to try out new roles in life. The stories doing the rounds about
the time taken to put on his special make-up and to remove it and the pains that
he took to play this particular character teach us that hard work and total
dedication are what bring success. On the other end of the spectrum, the Vidhu
Vinod Chopra movie saw another brilliant actor conveying an excellent message to
one and all. Aamir Khan exhorted viewers to pursue excellence rather than
success. The entire educational system today has moved in the direction of
pushing students towards a very high pressure life. There is constant peer
pressure and the fear of failure is very strong. The recent news reports of
suicides by several school and college going children are shocking and are a
rude awakening call for all of us. In such a scenario, this movie could not have
come at a better time. The importance given by coaching classes to passing the
exams rather than focussing on gathering knowledge is a malaise that is
destroying the very fabric of India’s strong educational system. Today, if India
is considered a strong economic force, it is because of our past educational
system, which has consistently been producing a large force of intelligent,
English speaking graduates, engineers, doctors, lawyers, accountants and other
professionals. Regrettably, in my opinion, looking at the quality of the current
crop of graduates, I am not sure how long India can be perceived to have an
advantage. The film, “3 idiots” is trying to awaken us. It’s for us to open our
eyes. I do hope our students have seen these films and have appreciated and
understood the socially powerful messages. If they have, then we can all say
with conviction that “all izz Well!”
The BCAS is proposing to lead an initiative to reduce the
consumption of paper. For this, we propose to encourage our members to receive
our communication by e-mail instead of physically. This will substantially
reduce the consumption of paper. As we are all aware, every sheet of paper
manufactured results in destruction of large tracts of forest land. This is
resulting in hazardous global warming, which has become a major international
problem. At present, we have a print order of about 8,000 copies of newsletters.
To begin with, even if we are able to reduce this by 20%, we would be saving
considerable quantity of paper. Therefore, our members will shortly receive a
request to permit us to discontinue sending printed newsletters. This of course,
is entirely optional and we will continue to send printed newsletters to those
who do not reply to us or those who do not wish to discontinue the receipt of
printed copies. Thereafter, we will replicate the process for notices and for
annual reports. I believe that every revolution has a humble beginning. I invite
you to join the BCAS in this noble initiative of reducing the consumption of
paper. Let us try to go paperless to the furthest extent possible.
Like last year, this year too, I participated in the Dream
Run, which is a part of the Mumbai Standard Chartered Marathon, along with a few
other members of the BCAS. The experience is truly exhilarating. Seeing
thousands of Mumbaikars spiritedly turning out in bright colours and holding
flags and placards and participating with such a fantastic spirit of
togetherness, is a heart warming experience. Many of our members even
participated in the full Marathon and in the half Marathon. My heartiest
congratulations to all of them for running this gruelling race.
The Finance Minister is preparing for the annual Budget and
so is BCAS. Our budget lecture meeting to be addressed by Mr. S.E. Dastur and
the budget publication are already planned out. The lecture meeting will be on
3rd March at Dadar in Central Mumbai in the evening. We once again look forward
to the solid support that our members have given us in the past for the same.
