印度人的成功之路

英语自学网

　　印度人的成功之路
　　Vikash Kumar, a business student in India, took a trip to Nepal last week with four friends. To get there and back, they traveled for hours by airplane, taxi and rickshaw. They passed through border areas menaced by bandits.
　　They aren't adventure-seekers, or even tourists. Mr. Kumar and his friends are simply trying to take the Chartered Financial Analyst exam.
　　Passing the CFA -- a series of three grueling, six-hour tests covering economics, accounting and markets -- opens the door to high-paying financial jobs. India's booming economy is triggering a concurrent boom in CFAs: This year, India had been expected to produce more than 10,000 candidates, according to the U.S.-based CFA Institute, more than anywhere except North America. Just seven years ago, India produced less than 250.
　　But a long-simmering trademark spat over who has the right to use the letters 'CFA' in India has thrown this year's process into disarray.
　　So, CFA hopefuls like Mr. Kumar are traveling the globe for alternative sites. Test-takers have ended up as far away as Sri Lanka, Oman and Nebraska.
　　That is, if they can get a flight. The exodus is so great that flights to Nepal in early June (an exam date there) were booked up, even though it was monsoon season, one of the worst possible times to travel in South Asia. Some CFA hopefuls trying to go to Singapore at the last minute got tripped up by the three-day waiting period for a visa, missing tests there.
　　Internet chat rooms are packed with frustrated CFA candidates. 'Let's start off the day on a positive note and start praying to GOD' that the exams will take place, wrote someone signed 'Jigz' this year in a CFA community on the social-networking Web site Orkut.
　　That elicited a string of sarcastic responses. Usually, people pray to pass an exam, someone retorted, but 'we pray in order to sit for the exam!'
　　Other posts seek help finding the best test sites abroad. 'ok, so who is travelling to colombo/bangkok?' asks one poster. 'i am for sure . . . . cant risk katmandu with the maoist c- happening there' -- a reference to political violence stirred up by Nepal's Mao-inspired rebels.
　　The notion of Maoists attacking business-school types in the Himalayas might sound far-fetched. But it is a deadly serious concern. Just ask Abhishek Verma, 26 years old, who traveled to Katmandu this year for the CFA exam only to find the city shut down by the Maoist insurgency, which is protesting government corruption and opposes the Nepalese monarchy.
　　Because the city was shut down, Mr. Verma had trouble finding a taxi to take him from the airport to the hotel. And once he did, he was promptly stopped by a Maoist who threatened to set the car on fire.
　　The taxi driver, he says, pleaded that his passengers were foreigners, not Nepalese, and was finally allowed to proceed unharmed.
　　'We were so afraid,' Mr. Verma recalls.
　　The dispute over India's CFA exams boils down to this: For more than a decade, the Virginia-based CFA Institute -- which administers exams world-wide -- worked with a local licensee in India. In recent years, the local licensee broke off, launched its own certification program dubbed the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India, and launched a campaign to prohibit the American firm from operating in India. The ICFAI also has opened business schools in India.
　　Both sides blame each other. 'The fault rests with CFA alone,' says S.R. Mallela, a member of the board of governors of ICFAI in Hyderabad.
　　The CFA says it has every legal right to operate in India, and blames the ICFAI for causing headaches for Indian students. 'The burden is placed most heavily on those who don't have the means,' says Jeffrey J. Diermeier, president and chief executive of the CFA Institute.
　　While test-takers could take the ICFA test in India, many prefer to obtain the CFA's certificate. 'The ICFA doesn't even carry much weight in India,' says Jasmit Singh Chandhok, a CFA candidate from New Delhi.
　　Which is why he flew to Bangkok a few months ago to take the CFA exam. At the test site in Thailand, he says, he was surprised to see that about a third of the 300 people in the test room there were also Indian.
　　'In one corner, there were four guys I knew from home,' he says.
　　According to the CFA, Indian candidates this year have traveled to at least 16 countries to take the exam. The CFA Institute has tried to ease the financial cost by cutting a $300 check for any Indian who tested abroad. CFA registration and materials can cost more than $2,500 for all three exams needed to receive the designation, an immense sum in India, where a fairly typical urban office job might pay only $3,500 a year.
　　Earlier this year, Karan Mehta, a securities analyst in New Delhi, decided to take the test in Omaha, Neb., because he was going to be there anyway for a wedding. He landed a few hours before the test, bleary-eyed from the 181/2-hour flight, took a quick nap, then went straight to the exam room.
　　Afterward, he says, he strolled around Omaha, hoping that he might bump into famed investor Warren Buffett, who lives there. 'But he was too hard to find,' Mr. Mehta says.
　　The vast majority of traveling test-takers so far have headed for Nepal, India's neighbor to the north. Nepal is close enough to India that people can get there overland, avoiding costly plane tickets and visa hassles.
　　Among them was Mr. Kumar, 26, the business student who went to Katmandu with his friends. While he was able to get a flight into Nepal, he wasn't able to get a round-trip ticket to fly back out.
　　So, after taking the test on Dec. 2, they flew to the Nepalese town of Simara, went from there to Birganj by taxi, and then by auto-rickshaw across the border. Then, it was just a seven-hour taxi ride for the five of them to Patna.
　　It was worth the hassle, Mr. Kumar says. 'For getting into a good career, into investment banks and all, CFA's quite mandatory these days.'
　　He had better hope the trip winds up better than it did for Nikita Sharma, 25, who traveled a similar route earlier this year. She flew to Katmandu in June to take the CFA. But traveling overland on the way back, she got stranded on her bus for 15 hours after an accident in Nepal blocked traffic.
　　Ms. Sharma says that she and her two friends thought about abandoning the bus and trying to hike out. But 'we also got scared, if we started walking, if we would be able to save ourselves from the animals.'
　　Instead, they stuck it out and subsisted on mango juice. At least a dozen people on the bus, including them, were also CFA candidates, she estimates.
　　Despite all the hassles, Ms. Sharma had no regrets -- until, that is, she learned a few weeks later that she hadn't passed the exam.
　　'If one had passed,' Ms. Sharma says ruefully, 'then one would have cherished the moment.'
　　印度商科学生维卡什•库马(Vikash Kumar)上周与四名同伴一道去了次尼泊尔。这一来一回路上就要花掉好几个小时，搭乘的交通工具包括飞机、出租车乃至黄包车，途中还要穿越有匪徒出没的边境地区。
　　实际上库马和他的朋友既不是什么探险者，也不是游客。他们只是去那里参加特许财务分析师(CFA)考试而已。
　　CFA 是一项分三个级别、时间为6小时的考试，涉及经济学、会计和市场等各方面内容。通过这项考试就意味着拿到了金融行业高薪工作的敲门砖。随着印度经济快速发展，印度国民对CFA考试的热情也日益高涨。据特许财务分析师协会(CFA Institute)称，今年印度CFA报考人数估计将超过10万人，是除北美以外全球报考人数最多的国家，而7年前全印度的报考人数还不到250人。
　　但在印度，有关“CFA”简写使用权的一场长期争吵使得今年该国的CFA考试组织工作陷入了一片混乱。
　　于是，像库马这样的考生只好长途跋涉到其他国家参加考试，有的是去斯里兰卡，有的去阿曼，甚至有人到美国内布拉斯加州赴考。
　　但到国外赴考就需要乘坐飞机。而赴考人数是如此之多，以致于6月初(尼泊尔有一场CFA考试)到尼泊尔的机票被预定一空。而当时南亚正处于季风季节，是该地区一年中最不适合出行的日子。此外，还有一些打算踩着时间去新加坡赴考的学生，最后因为3天的签证等待期而错过了考试。
　　CFA考生在互联网聊天室里怨声载道。一名署名“Jigz”的考生今年在社交网站Orkut的CFA社区中发帖称，“但愿今年的CFA考试能有个好开端，让我们乞求上帝今年会开考。”
　　而这条发言引来一大群自嘲的回帖。有人这样写道：通常人们都是祈祷能通过考试，而我们则要祈祷能参加考试。
　　此外还有其他帖子在询问最佳的海外考点。有人发贴问道：“有谁要去科伦坡或曼谷吗?我敢肯定......尼泊尔的毛派反政府武装会在加德满都作乱子的”。
　　虽然尼泊尔毛派武装袭击商学院学生的说法听起来有些不着边际，但这确实很让人担心。今年26岁的阿布舍克•维马(Abhishek Verma)今年到尼泊尔参加CFA考试时，就遇上毛派叛乱武装封锁加德满都。这个派别的主张是反对政府****和君主制。
　　由于城市被封锁，维马从机场去酒店时几乎找不到出租车。后来好不容易找到一辆，还在半路上遭到反政府武装拦截。
　　幸亏司机向叛乱份子解释乘客是外国人，维马才被安全放行。
　　维马回忆道：”当时我们害怕极了”。
　　印度CFA之争起因在于，CFA协会作为管理全球CFA考试的机构，十多年来一直与印度一家获得认可的当地机构进行合作。然而最近几年双方关系破裂，印度那家机构建立了自己的认证系统，并命名为印度CFA协会(ICFAI)，还发起一场旨在禁止美国CFA协会在印度经营的运动。该机构同样在印度开办了商学院。
　　双方相互指责。ICFAI管理委员会成员马来拉(S.R. Mallela)说，错误完全在CFA一方。
　　CFA表示，它拥有在印度运营的所有法律权利。它还指责ICFAI给印度学生带来了麻烦。特许财务分析师协会的总裁兼首席执行长杰夫里•狄尔梅尔(Jeffrey J. Diermeier)说，那些没有办法的人所承受的负担最重。
　　尽管考生可以在印度参加ICFA考试，但多数人都希望获得CFA证书。来自新德里的CFA考生赞塔克(Jasmit Singh Chandhok)说，ICFA在印度的含金量不是那么高。
　　这也是他几个月前飞到曼谷参加CFA考试的原因。他说，在泰国的考点，他惊奇地看到考场中的300来人中，约有三分之一都是印度人。
　　他说，一个角落中的四个人我在国内时就认识。
　　据CFA 称，印度考生今年至少前往了16个国家参加考试。特许财务分析师协会减免了到国外参加考试的所有印度考生一项300美元的审查费，以减轻考生的经济负担。 CFA所有三个级别考试的报名费和材料费估计要超过2,500美元，这在印度显然不是一个小数目，因为普通城市白领的年收入也只有3,500美元左右。
　　今年初，新德里的证券分析师梅赫塔(Karan Mehta)决定到内布拉斯加州奥马哈参加考试，原因是他要到那里参加一个婚礼。他在考试前几小时抵达那里，近19个小时的航程让他无精打采，打了个盹后，他就径直走进了考场。
　　梅赫塔说，考试后，他就在奥马哈四处闲逛，希望能碰到住在那里的著名投资家沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)。但他说，要想碰到他太难了。
　　迄今为止，大多数出国考生都涌向了印度北面的邻国尼泊尔。尼泊尔离印度不算远，人们坐车就能抵达，从而能够避免昂贵的机票和签证的繁琐。
　　其中就有26岁的库马。这位商学院的学生是与同学一道来到加德满都的。尽管他乘飞机去往了尼泊尔，但却无法搞到返程票。
　　因此，在12月2日考试结束后，他们就飞往尼泊尔小镇Simara，在那里坐出租车赶到比尔根杰，然后乘三轮车进入了印度境内。从那里坐出租车到巴特那正好需要7个小时。
　　库马说，如此费尽周折也是值得的。要想获得一个好职业，进入投行这样的机构，现在CFA证书几乎是不可或缺的。
　　他的运气看来比此前走过相同路线的夏尔马(Nikita Sharma)要好一些。25岁的夏尔马在6月份飞赴加德满都参加CFA考试。但在坐车返回时，由于尼泊尔的一起事故导致了交通堵塞，她在车上整整颠簸了15个小时。
　　夏尔马说，她和她的两个朋友曾考虑下车，步行回去。但能否坚持走下去?碰到野兽怎么办?这些问题难住了她们。
　　最终，她们决定还是呆在车上，靠芒果汁补充体力。她估计，包括她们在内，车上至少有十几人是CFA考生。
　　尽管经历了千辛万苦，夏尔马还是无怨无悔，直到几周后获知她没有及格。
　　夏尔马难过地说，通过了考试的人这一刻一定会欣喜若狂的。