This podcast is brought to you by Score Foundation.
Hi, my name is George Abraham and welcome to Eyeway Conversations. My guest today is Mahesh Narasimhan from New Delhi. He is a gold medalist from the faculty of management studies. He is a senior consultant with Ernst and Young. Hi, Mahesh. Welcome.
Thanks for inviting me. I'm super excited to be here.
Mahesh, you work with Ernst and Young, you're a senior consultant. Tell us a little bit about what exactly is your profile.
So it was in 2017 when I was interviewed in Ernst and Young, EY, for the post of consultant in the transfer pricing practice, which comes under international tax. In the beginning, with the basic computer knowledge, which I had, it was a bit challenging. So at that time, one of my very good friend in Ernst and Young one Mr. Manas Aurora, he helped me learn VLOOKUP and he only guided me to learn pivot table and other advanced Excel tools. And he told me that in the long run these tools will take you very long way anywhere. So these are few things or fillers, one can say so are the building blocks, which enabled me to scale up in the organisation.
So what is the kind of work you do? If you were to explain to a layperson.
It is more to do with management support, and I am actually directly associated with the transfer pricing national leader. Leader in the sense that here the top cream is called partners, or we can call them as leaders. So and there will be one leader, the topmost, Mr. Vijay. Yep. So I am directly associated with him. And that means he's my reporting partner here. And the counsellor is one, Mr. Nitin Jain. He's also a partner in the practice. Yeah. And Aashima Gupta, ma'am. She's also one of the partners, I directly work with them. With, with the management support role. That means it might be any initiative at the national level, which would help the practice grow and it would be with respect to finance related stuff. And it could be bit of business plus operations.
And what about the human relationships, your engagement with your colleagues, building relationships, being blind, was that a handicap?
Not at all? It's superlative. And they are very understanding very supportive. Not only the transfer pricing team, even the admin the support, everybody's very supportive.
If you know of anyone with vision impairment, who needs guidance on living life with blindness, please share the Eyeway national toll free helpline number 1-800-532-0469. The number is 1-800-532-0469.
Emerge before you joined EY, you had done an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies. And I remember when you initially were looking for admissions, you had certain challenges, there were certain issues, what were those issues and how did you sort them out?
I would go back to 2014 when I had faced this challenge. This was June 2014. There was a written test and a personal interview. Both happened on June 18 2014, to be very precise, and to my understanding I had fared well. And so it's so happened when the result was published. I was in the I was first in the waitlist. And before we find physically challenged, were admitted to the course. And, to my understanding, I felt there was some sort of injustice done to me, because the number of seats at that time, total number of seats were about 170. And as per the law, it was not less than 3% to be admitted to the course that means 3% of 170 would be 5.1. So, that means minimum of six individuals had to be admitted, and they had admitted only five. So that posed a challenge. And in this regard, I had connected with you and you guided me first to give a written representation to the dean FMS, which we did, and he said that he has abide by the law, and the normal understanding of the law was maximum 3% had to be admitted. So then you suggested me to approach the Chief Commissioner for People with Disability (CCPD). And we gave our representation there, and as and when my case was taken up, they had sent a letter, I think, to the registrar, University of Delhi. And subsequently, on August 28, I got a call from FMS office that tomorrow is the last day to get admission. And are you interested? So I said yes, very much,
Then you started doing your MBA course? Was content, what the teachers were teaching, the books you had to read? Was that available to you in accessible formats?
No. So that did pose a challenge, in the sense that all class or the course material was being taught in the class was through a PowerPoint presentation, and which was tough for me being visually impaired. So I requested all the professors and faculty members to help me because I have this limitation. So they were very open, and they started reading out the slides, they started imparting that knowledge. They were very supportive. And on the spot itself, they created that ecosystem, which was very friendly for a visually impaired person. And in terms of book, the library was very supportive in the sense that whatever book I needed, they used to issue to me and my father used to read out the post material the books to me and I used to write in big font, that means big letters. Yeah, before before that, I would like to share that till the age of seven. I had normalised sight. And because of macular degeneration, my eyesight started deteriorating. Right when I learned the Roman script and the Devanagari script, because of which I could write big and I could read, so slowly, only my eyesight deteriorated.
But when you're doing your management degree, you were totally blind?
Not totally, eyes still have a bit of eyesight. So, that is how.
Any useful eyesight or just light?
Image perception and all those things are there. That means if a person comes to me, I can understand a person is standing there next to me.
But you might you might not recognise the person?
I cannot recognise unless and until that person speaks to me.
Now you were working with the Oberoi Group before you started your management course. What exactly were you doing there and how did you actually get the job at the Oberoi's?
One of my father's very good friend had visited us in March 2006. And while interacting with my father, so he asked, casually asked, so what Mahesh is doing all those stuff? So Father said he's trying for a job and this is how the situation is, and he knows us well. So at that time, he was the chief operating officer Mr. R. Shanker. Now he's the president of corporate and legal affairs in the Oberoi group. So, he said, let him come and join the printing press. Let us see what he can do. So he offered me a job, I went there in the beginning for I think, two-three months. Honestly speaking, I did not know anything about the printing industry. Firstly, I thought of understanding the processes that happened in a printing press for which I physically went to all departments interacted with the staff in every department understood the processes, and I realised that coordination would be one that could be very productive and efficient element through which I can contribute for the organisation. So, initially, it was internal coordination, I used to coordinate with the printing press and the rest of the production unit and seeing my interest and the area of expertise you can say so in the coordination. Slowly I was moved into the sales coordination role. And there I was supporting the team with, you can say one of the Esteem clients Standard Chartered Bank, team computers, Development Bank of Singapore, I was handling successfully and first Chartered Bank, if I were to say that I was single point of contact for all their print solutions, which were done by the Oberoi Printing Press pan India level. right. So, they had moved from manual procurement to E-procurement. So, I was instrumental in creating that particular catalogue, which I think had about 1000-1500 odd products also, with their price, product description, everything, which we were handling and that was uploaded in the Standard Chartered Bank portal. And through this role, I actually had you can say a hands on experience not only that, every product, the price and everything was there on my fingertips, so any call used to come, so asking that what is the quantity what is the product, how to order so entire process of procurement for Standard Charted bank I knew. So I used to help them raise the purchase orders and entire end and use the process them and get it executed and delivered on priority basis to all Standard Chartered branches.
So Mahesh, you said that you had started losing your vision when you were about seven. And you also get your schooling at St. Xavier School Delhi, which is a mainstream school. So what was the process? They readily give you admission? Was there support services? Did they have special teachers? Did they have material for you to study in accessible formats? How did they actually work with you?
To begin with, I joined St. Xavier's in the third standard, it was just the beginning of my eyesight deterioration. There was an entrance test, which had three papers English, Hindi and mathematics. So at that time, the headmaster of the junior school was one father Chaco. And before the exam started, the very same day, I approached him and requested him whether he could give the maths paper first. Everyone was given maths, paper first, then English, then Hindi. Okay. So when the results came out, he went to went up to my father and he said, your son is brilliant. He's the first student whom I have seen, who has asked for the maths paper first, and he has scored 100% marks in mathematics. So, we are giving him admission. No second thought. And when my eyesight started deteriorating further, so engineer school, there was one assistant headmaster called father Johnson. So at the time, he used to write the exam papers in large font and give it to me and I used to sit and write the exam in a different room. Yeah. And in terms of classroom interaction, I used to or the teachers made me sit nearer to the board. so that I could see the board and write my notes and everything. But I slowly so deteriorated that I was unable to see the board even. Right, as I advanced. And as I raise the senior classes, senior school. So, at that time, the vice principal one, Mr. Miranda, he arranged the system for exams, that I would be sitting separate. And whoever the invigilator would be, that person would be reading out the question paper to me, right, I write my own paper, then. Support system was superb.
And I guess they were all doing it organically rather than out of some kind of a template. They must have, they must have been responding to the need rather than waiting for systems we put in place.
Absolutely. And there was no special teacher or nothing like that. Right? It was absolutely organic.
You know, your parents? Yes. And I believe your sister also has a similar eye condition. Correct. And she is right now a lecturer at Kirori Mal college. Yes. So tell me a little bit about your family. Where are you from? And how did your parents initially respond to both the children being visually impaired. And from where you have reached, it appears they have been superb in their response. And they've really done a great job. So talk us through your family.
We are basically from Kerala. And my father had come to Delhi in 1958. For higher studies coming to this particular element, wherein we both are visually challenged, and the support system that our parents extended. So my mother used to read out the books, notes and everything to my sister. And my father used to read out books, notes and everything to me. So it was like, you can say, the ecosystem, the families support that we got. It was amazing. It is still amazing. And because of which we have been able to scale up in our lives and do well. And I would like to mention one more thing, the interest in max that I have. So see, my father is the zoology retired professor of zoology, from the Delhi University. So Interest in maths and with my limitation, to nurture that it is very difficult. Yeah. And I wanted to pursue my graduate in mathematics. So what happened, when I was in you can say, 9th 10th 11th 12th and so, you can say actually, one Mr. Sundaram. He's my mentor. He used to guide me in mathematics in 11th and 12th, standard 10th 11th. So he's basically mechanical engineer from IIT Madras, then he did his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. I think now he is working with Amazon. Yeah. So, he guided me and when I was in 12th standard, he asked me what would you like to do in your graduation I said maths. So, he says, See, he won't be able to extend that much of support, because his professional commitments were also increasing. So he said that take up such a course in which there may not be that much of help required. So since my bend was towards mathematics, and my father was in Kirori Mal College, so, I went and spoke to the other professors of mathematics department, and they said that the course is very rigorous, since you want analytical paper max would be very difficult in which they will be it would be difficult for them to extend the support, but nevertheless, look out for such a paper which should have analysis application. So I went to the economics department there. Those people the professors over there, they said that yes, we can do it, no problem. We will extend the support. That is how I ended up doing economics commerce from the university.
Support our work with the blind and visually impaired, you can visit the donate page on our website, www.scorefoundation.org.in. Please note, www.scorefoundation.org.in
I also was hearing you tell me that you have an interest in gardening you have an interest in technology, but what about gardening meaning it's such a strange thing for a blind person to be interested in gardening is share your interest with us. Yeah.
Perfect. So, my mother, she's a double graduate. Yeah, and she did her graduation in zoology and botany. Yeah. So botany being kinds of plants. So, you can say it can be genetic, the interest, yeah, so, I grew up seeing all plants and everything around me, I used to go with my mother to water them to give them manure or to take care of them like that. So, once upon a time, you can say before my mother's health started deteriorating. So, we had I think more than 300 pots here please. So, that is how the interest developed. It is it is absolutely fantastic to be there with the plants, they also understand they also have I think, I feel that they also have that feeling touch of belongingness and everything as one goes there, be there and be with them for some time, just warter than just touch them. And they are also happy. For instance, I have brinjal tomato, chilly, few flowering plants, tulsi, hibiscus, all those stuffs. So in this time, you can say there are flowers in this heat. We water them morning, evening. So it is it is fascinating, actually.
Mahesh you know, your parents have been very supportive your sister and you both of you are visually impaired. I would be interested in asking you, How do you spend time together as a family? What is your what is the way in which you enjoy life together?
So for instance, we don't celebrate anybody's birthday. Right? Okay. And that means we don't buy cake. We don't cut it. Yeah, like, we don't do anything. So, but whenever we feel like having cake, we just go to the market, and we will have it together. Right. Whatever we have, we have together. Be it icecream, be it samosa, be it tikki, be it anything. So whatever we feel want to have, we will have together we will enjoy together. This is this is the moment that God has blessed us with parents have sacrificed their lives for us. Now it is our turn, whenever they want anything, it would be there at home, we'll get it and we will enjoy.
So Mahesh looking ahead. You are you're you have a fair bit of experience professional experience now. How do you how do you see your future?
It is very exciting, and the support that EY has given me. So I'm fortunate enough in the practice that I'm able to support the entire practice in many projects, many exercises, and that has actually so exciting because through those exercises, through those projects, I'm interacting with the entire practice, everyone knows me. So, you can say it is building up the network, it is interacting and it is very interesting, you can ultimately it is coordination, you interact with them. And as one interacts in the every human being is different. Right? So it is very interesting and that helps develop the relationship also professional relationship. And that helps once confidence also that helps develop the skill sets also. And through through all these interactions through all these experiences. These things actually have enabled me to grow and I'm looking forward that yes for next XYZ years, till the time God, God is kind to me. So I would be able to be lively, be energetic and be able to support the practice.
So Mahesh, you seem to be on a good wicket playing a great innings. Thank you very much for talking to me and wish you the very best as you go forward.
Thank you sir. Thanks for the honour and I am I am super delighted to be here. Thanks for giving me this opportunity.
This podcast was brought to you by Score Foundation.
