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STORY so far: Kidnaps don't necessarily involve kids, though unwittingly I'm witness to an aborted attempt to whisk off a schoolboy in a waiting car. Despite being despised for its misuse potential, I find a camera cell phone helpful in passing essential info about the crime to the cops. At the same time, a different drama unfolds in real life — Budget 2005. And I join my accounting brethren in trying to understand the proposals.

Episode 103

If you ask a dozen CAs what they think about the Budget, you're going to get three-dozen views, some of which may be contradictory to one another. On Feb 28, I sat in the Institute's hall watching, along with about a hundred accountants, a big screen showing the televised parliamentary proceedings. By and large, it went on peacefully except for the ruckus when the cash withdrawal tax came up.

I was dismayed however, how some of the CAs were prone to talking among themselves, making it difficult to track what the Minister was saying. Believe it or not, during the discussion of agriculture and development in Part A of the speech, I could see how many of my colleagues were dozing off or gossiping. Suddenly, when Part B started with tax proposals, they were all ears, or at least seemed so.

I asked myself if as a profession we have nothing to contribute towards the country's larger goals. Or, are we only tax mechanics? Won't we then find the land slipping under our feet if the FM were to simplify tax laws to such an extent that most people can interact with the tax Department through kiosks and machines?

*********

More than the disease, one can be killed by medicine, reads a joke. But it is no joke that more than the Budget, you can get killed by analysis of the same by experts. This has become a standard practice for many firms and there are painstaking PowerPoint presentations in surreal halls, not without the usual adjunct of a dinner or lunch to cap. Knowledge at work, money at play and clients in attendance, and a two-hour slot is all you need to delude yourself to thinking you've understood the Budget.

At times, one finds CAs, on whom so much faith is reposed by people, don't seem to pay due attention to what they interpret for the lay. On more than one occasion, I found the number crunchers failing in simple arithmetical calculations, and drawing wrong conclusions hastily, thus adding to one's consternation.

Glaring proof of due care missing, I thought, and looked around to get a similar reproof from senior accountants, but was disappointed to find no such reaction. Though not everybody was dozing off and therefore absent to the wrong inputs that were given from the podium, such `accommodation' and `tolerance' is common I understand when professionals believe in being chummy with one another rather than pursuing the truth of things.

This year, I found that discussions were hijacked by queries that were mostly on only two aspects, viz. cash withdrawal tax and fringe benefit tax, as if other proposals didn't matter at all. Which only makes me think if the Finance Minister had deliberately put these in his Budget, only to make people get worked up and, in the process, be awake. This year, even as debates happen on TVs and conference halls, Parliament is not part of the post-Budget action, since proceedings have been disrupted ever since the presentation of the most important financial document before the nation.

*********

A few days ago, the principal of my neighbourhood school Ms Urmila Rao called me. I thought she wanted to know something about tax, but no, she wanted to discuss a problem concerning her students. "Swati, it's not like those days when you were studying. Kids have so many worries!" I said, "But madam, I'm not a psychiatrist, nor a trained counsellor." Ms Rao said, "Oh, I know that. Yet you know how to handle your thoughts and are successful at that." Though I couldn't figure out her compliment, I decided to spend some time with the girls of the higher secondary section.

*********

There we met, under a tree, with the friendly Dr Panju, the school's doctor, and a few of the students who deemed it fit to chat, as I'd told them, `just like that'. Well, they chuckled, were frightened, seemed angry and what not. There was this Harita whose world was crashing all because of the many freckles on her face. Then Jani, the terror known for abusing auto-drivers on the road for reckless driving. Simi was ever afraid of her marks. Bino had a mania for prayers that she filled half her answer-scripts with slokas.

We spoke not only about why it is so easy to break rules, to shout and scream, to be adamant, to be creative in giving nicknames to everybody, but also explored if they all served any purpose, after all. I said, "It's not wrong to be happy," and that seemed like news! I added, "Perhaps, you want to make a statement of your attitude and find only the violent ways as the only methods of expression, though the whole exercise doesn't make you happy a bit." I could notice they were looking at each other.

"100-crore plus people, and each one makes a statement of attitude, and who is there to listen. It's shockingly true that nobody cares for your attitude; who has the time. So, better be yourself, doing your thing, and look to yourself for satisfaction."

Too harsh, I know, but I think that's life. "Give yourself space to grow, and also time. It may seem as if the world, people around you, are pushing you to be far bigger than you are. They're the impatient ones, or may be you're hallucinating. Real problem is when you join them in destroying yourself." Some blah-blah, you may say, but it felt good gossiping with the kids, exploring their nameless anxieties and half-baked notions.

They seemed to find meaning in my words, as much as I was able to empathise with their problems. Thus, what was scheduled to be a half-hour interaction stretched to almost ninety minutes.

When I was returning home, I wondered if we grownups give the younger generation the required space to be themselves. But a larger question was whether we gave enough space to ourselves! Send in your thoughts by Friday.

Swati_CA@hotmail.com

For archived episodes of this column click on: htpp://www.thehindubusinessline.com/nic/swati/index.htm

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