His mother did not eat for three days when the 23-year-old chartered accountant tore apart an appointment letter from the government for the post of assistant accounts officer of Uttar Pradesh State Spinning Mills Corporation in 1986. The boy?s marriage had already been fixed, but the girl?s family members became hesitant and negotiations almost came to a standstill. Family members tried to convince him of the importance of a government job, but that did not change his mind. He was firm on his decision to have a chartered accountancy firm of his own.

Eighteen years down the line, Jaishankar Jaipuriar is a happy man married to the same girl. He also has a chartered accountancy firm, which is doing roaring business with the head office in Bokaro and branch offices in Calcutta, Delhi, Bangalore and Ranchi.

JJ, as Jaishankar Jaipuriar is known among friends, had to close down his Mumbai office in 2000 after his younger brother, also a qualified chartered accountant, decided to shift abroad. The younger brother now runs a school named after his mother in the US.

?Earlier, students who failed to get admission in the science stream in colleges of Bihar, opted for commerce. Many of them ended up doing better in life than science graduates. The trend changed, first in metros and then gradually in the districts as well,? says Jaishankar, who secured his B.Com degree from Ranchi?s St Xavier?s College in 1983.

Like other students aspiring to clear the difficult chart accountants? examination, Jaishankar, son of an academician couple, went to Calcutta in 1984 to prepare for the test. By 1988, he had cleared the examinations. Luck was on his side. Jaishankar?s ?guru? Lalchand Baid, a successful chartered accountant in Calcutta under whom he did his articleship for a stipend of Rs 60 a month, gifted him four lucrative clients as reward for being successful in the chartered accountants? exam and starting his own office.

The benevolent senior also provided office space and other infrastructural support to Jaishankar to ensure that he faced no difficulties in running the office. Jaishankar still remembers his first four clients, all closely related to his ?sir?. The four, put together, paid him a sum of around Rs 10,000 a month to take care of their accounts and audits.

Today, Jaishankar?s firm, J. Jaipuriar and Company, has over 30 employees ? including qualified chartered accountants and cost accountants ? as partners. The client list of the firm includes 60 private limited companies, more than 40 partnership firms and, at least, 10 PSUs, including Bokaro Steel Plant subsidiaries, Bharat Refractories Limited, Coal India Limited and many of its subsidiaries like the CCL, BCCL and ECL. Besides, hundreds of individuals also get their income tax returns filed through Jaishankar?s firm.

According to Jaishankar, the turning point of his career came in the mid-90s, when the retired executive director of Bokaro Steel Plant, S.P. Dutta, joined him as business partner. The 1961 batch chartered accountant helped Jaishankar bag several PSU projects. The firm?s curriculum vitae became awe-inspiring after Dutta?s arrival and PSUs started showing faith in JJ?s competence to handle their accounts and audits.

The chartered accountant, who lost his father when he was only 10 years old, gives all credit for his success to his mother, who stood like a rock to ensure none of her three children suffered due to their father?s absence.

?My greatest problem was I did not know how to tackle businessmen in the first five years of my practice. A chartered accountant from a business family usually does not face such problems as he gets the needed support from friends and relatives,? he said.

Jaishankar suggests youngsters to learn with patience before taking the big leap of getting into practice. He says there is immense scope in the field and the quantum of outsourced work is on the rise.

?They should concentrate on bank projects and NRI projects and should also be computer-savvy. There is no boundary wall and the scope has become unlimited due to tax audits and especially after income tax offices started establishing its offices even in smaller towns,? he said.

Though the number of chartered accountants in the city has increased significantly in the last few years, Jaishankar believes that Ranchi will need thousands of more of them in the coming years.

?Ideally, one fourth of the population of any city should be earning ? and they should also be paying taxes. The advantages an income tax return holder gets is great and the income tax department and the chartered accountants should ensure that maximum people file their returns. Besides, Ranchi needs chartered accountants for project financing, audit, accountancy, consultancy and they can also enter the field of Central excise and sales tax,? he says.

As many practicing chartered accountants have turned into industrialists, Jaishankar also has grand plans for the future.

He admits that dealing with industrialists sparks the idea of becoming an industrialist himself in most people, but he, who has earned sufficient, wants to serve the society in a different manner. Jaishankar, who has already established a prep school in Mumbai, plans to establish a school in Jharkhand in the near future. This is his way of returning the success people of the city brought to him

Anupam Sheshank