Sarala Balagopal Panchapakesan

In the 1960s, Sarala Panchapakesan marries a banker and heads to Hong Kong, only to return a few years later as a mother of two kids and pursue CA. She does things in élan, cracks the country’s secondtoughest examination with an all-India rank, and then disappears back to Hong Kong, to teach!

If you meet her, you would think she is in her mid-sixties, her silver hair notwithstanding. You wouldn’t believe that this lady, now pushing 78, was once a sick child and it was the illness that prompted her mother to pack her to CA. Sarala Panchapakesan’s has been an extraordinary story of a lady who conquered age and marriage to get professionally qualified and then overcame racism to emerge as a quintessential teacher.

Sarala was fit as a fiddle during her student days. After her marriage, when she was not keeping well for a prolonged time, her mother thought of an ingenious idea. Since Sarala was healthy when she was studying, she should start her studies again! As husband Panchapakesan had worked in a CA firm, the professional course was known in the family circle. So, it was decided she would join chartered accountancy!

In the 1960s the CA qualification had a big halo and an equally great dread associated with it. Stories of failure were a dime a dozen. It was called the course that was easy to enter but difficult to exit. And most importantly, there was no guarantee that you would qualify. There were instances of people making multiple attempts without success. Folklore has it that in the church opposite the ICAI office in Chennai, inscribed on the walls were the words, “Jesus never fails.” Below that someone had scribbled, “Ask him to take the CA exam.” Apocryphal perhaps, but the message is right.

Sarala was one of her kind. A woman about 10 years older than her colleagues, married with two kids to manage at home, and not in the pink of health. With the inputs from friends, her math mind went with the perception that CA was a challenging course. And she wished to opt out. It took her some time to muster the courage to step into Principal Sankaran’s room to inform him of her desire not to enroll. Before she could spell her mind, the boss pointed to the papers for registering as a trainee and said, ‘these are the documents for you to sign.’ He then stood up and left on an official assignment. In those days, juniors didn’t retort at seniors; unlike today, they didn’t consider themselves as equals to get into a slanging match. Grudgingly, Sarala saved her fears for another day. And formally started her training at Sankaran & Krishnan, Chartered Accountants.

There was a new purpose in her life and a spring in her walk. She had no idea of debit or credit, but was happy learning something new every day! The schedule was grueling: look after two kids, cook for the family, go for her internship, and then study. But both the hunger and the thirst for knowledge were immense. As they say, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going!” So did Sarala. In 1971, at the age of 30, she completed her CA Intermediate, standing 12th in the all India merit list. Colleagues in the firm now looked at her with new respect and admiration. She got noticed at the places of her auditees, worked hard, and completed her CA Final in November 1972 picking up the first rank amongst women students. It gave her the coveted Lady Shivabhogam award. What a finish! What a finish! That exam the All-India first rank went to Vijay Govindarajan. The man would in later years teach at the Tuck School of Business and be listed by CNN Money as one of the “top-ten business school professors in the world.”