My Dear Colleagues,

June was a hot, humid but a happening month.

We were in Srinagar from 12th of June to 16th of June, the city was hot but Pahalgam and Gulmarg were pleasant and offered pure cool breeze amidst the sound of water gushing past the rocks in the River Lidder.

Seminars, during the month, as usual were largely attended and were found to be of immense topical interest. In the near future we are planning to hold more workshops of practical importance. A Sub-Regional conference is being organized by the HP Branch on 20th July, 2008 (For details refer inside). Come in large numbers and make this joint endeavour a huge success.

On 20th June, 2008, an elocution and quiz contest was organized in the ICAI auditorium at Vishwas Nagar, for the Delhi level participants. The enthusiasm and eloquence of the students had to be seen to be believed. I felt very proud and satisfied to see a keen preparation and wonderful performance by all the contestants. The participants were bubbling with energy and I, myself, felt energized in their company. What a wonderful experience it was!

As the quizmaster, I found the awareness level of the participants was much above the expectations. I am pleased with the thought that our profession has a very bright future ahead with such a brilliance around. The regional level elocution and quiz contest are scheduled to be held in the month of August. Branches are requested to send their entries as soon as possible.

My friend CA Surinder Mohan Kaushal, from Yamunanagar, has expressed his concern over the irregular training trend prevalent amongst the articled clerks. I wish to inform all of you that the ICAI under the able Presidentship of CA Ved Jain ji has formulated some checks and measures to curb this irregular training tendency due to coaching classes or whatever. All concerned should appreciate that the course of Chartered Accountancy stands out from other courses only because of its unique practical training. In other words the real essence of this course lies in the training. Ask yourself how comfortable would you be to get yourself operated upon by a doctor who never attended any practical classes. Very soon you shall see things falling in line. Wait and watch.

The Diamond jubilee of the ICAI was celebrated with a lot of decent pomp and show. We organized health camp, tree plantation, marathon, seminars and conferences to mark the importance of this day. The celebration was attended by the members from all over the country and also delegates from the neighbouring countries. The icing on the cake was - inauguration by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Manmohan Singh ji, participation of Finance Minister of India Shri P. Chidambaram ji, Minister of Corporate Affairs Shri Pramod Chand Gupta ji, and Deputy speaker of Rajya Sabha Shri K. Rahman Khan. Evenings used to be a delight with stars like Hema Malini and Shreya Goshal who regaled the audience with their charismatic talent.

I wish to share a story with you:

A man was untimely taken by Yamraj. It was later realized that he had still to live his life. Yamah apologized to the person and in compensation offered to take the person around heaven. They went to the first room, known as the PRAYERS ROOM, many people were working there. Yamraj told the man that prayers are received in this room. They are segregated in this section and are being sent to God. They visited the next room which was equally big with lots of people working again, the room was known as BLESSINGS ROOM. Yamraj told the man that blessings are being dispatched to people in return to their prayers. Then they went to the 3rd room viz., AKNOWLEDGEMENT ROOM, only one person was there and that too was sitting idle. The man asked Yamraj, “What is this room for? Why is the person sitting idle?” Yamraj told that people pray, get blessings but usually forget to acknowledge and thank God in return.

So my Dear Friends, I feel motivated to acknowledge with many thanks H’onble President CA Ved Jain ji and his team for co-ordinating a successful mega event in such a professional manner.

Wishing you a healthy and wealthy life ahead.

Thanking You,