Noted educationalist Mrs YGP passes away

Noted educationalist and founder of the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (PSBB) Group of Schools, YG Rajalakshmi Parthasarathy, passed away on Tuesday afternoon at a city hospital following a cardiac arrest at the age of 93. She is survived by two sons - YG Mahendran and YG Rajendran.

Rajalakshmi's mortal remains has been kept for public homage at Padma Seshadri School/Bharat Kalachar in T Nagar. Cremation will be on Wednesday.

Popularly known as

Rashmi or ‘Mrs YGP’, Rajalakshmi studied at St John's School and Holy Cross College, Chennai, and completed her post graduation in journalism from Madras University in 1947. She acquired a master's degree in history from the same university. She started her career as a journalist with The Hindu and later joined the Tamil magazine Kumudam . She married playwright YG Parthasarathy and quit her job to start PSBB in 1958 with just 13 students. The classes were held in the terrace of her house.

Since then there was no looking back as PSBB went on to become one of the most renowned schools in the country and has grown manifold with over 8,000 students and 500 staff members. Rajalakshmi had served as PSBB’s Dean and Director since its inception. She also contributed immensely to the CBSE system.

In 2010, She was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civil honour, for her contribution to literature and education.