The Nandalala Mission The Nandalala Mission

Pujya Shri Mathioli Saraswathy

The Nandalala Mission in the United States and it’s parent organization in Chennai, India, The Nandalala Seva Samithi, were founded by Pujya Shri Mathioli Saraswathy, with the primary motivation of service to humanity, with particular emphasis on activities for children.

Preethi Gopalan

Preethi Gopalan has been associated with Nandalala Mission since she moved to the Bay Area in 2008 and has been associated with the parent organization, Nandalala Seva Samithi Trust, in Chennai since her childhood. With the able guidance of her mentor Gayathri Sundaresan, she was inspired to volunteer in the back to school drive and has been volunteering for the same year after year along with other like minded volunteers.   She also volunteered as the communications lead and Vice President for the Mission. Being a part of Nandalala Mission, she has learnt to be patient, work as a team with people with diverse ideas and backgrounds.

Nandalala Mission has given her an opportunity to give back to the community in a small yet soul satisfying way and she hopes to continue her service to the mission.

Preethi works as a Senior Program Manager at Cisco Systems, San Jose

Dr. Senthilkumar

Dr. Senthilkumar is an anaesthesiologist at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in West Covina, CA. He is an ardent devotee of Pujya Shri Mathioli Saraswathy since 1997 and has been a board member of Nandalala Mission engaged in community service in the Los Angeles area. He has organized and provided nutritious food for the homeless, school supplies for the under-priveleged students and conducted lectures on positive living at homeless shelters. He has also led discussions on our founder’s books through Saraswathy Nivasam Book Club, with a view to promoting her message to many more people. He is also an avid poet, and inspired by her, has penned verses in Tamil and English, a collection of which was published as a book by Pujya Shri Mathioli Saraswathy.

Ramachandra Gopalan

Gopalan has been a devotee of Pujya Shri AMMA since 1990.  He was the founding member of Nandalala Mission’s Youth Music group in New Jersey in 1998 and in Tampa, Florida in 2005.  He holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Alberta, Canada and is now retired after a successful professional career in Database Administration and IT design with Alberta Government Telephones (Edmonton, Canada), Deutsche Bank (New Jersey, New York), Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (Tampa, FL). 

Sankari Senthilkumar is a Sangeeta Vidwan title holder of the Central College of Carnatic Music in Chennai South India.
She started her teaching career in 1989 at the auspicious Malibu Venkateshwara Temple in Los Angeles and continues to date, coaching students with a goal of uplifting them to professional status.

Sankari is a devotee of Pujya Sri Mathioli Saraswathi Amma since 1997 and Sri Amma has been instrumental in the development of Sankari’s music career. Her music school was named as Sahana Music School by Sri Amma in 2005. In 2010 Sankari was awarded the title of Vidya Vaahini by Sri Amma during her 70th birthday celebration. Sankari has released two music compact disc albums to her credit, the first one in association with Rajarajeshwari Peetam in Rochester, New York and the latest, Divine Melodies, in association with the Hindu Temple of Antelope Valley in Lancaster, California. Sankari was given the auspicious responsibility to compose music for the songs Sri Amma wrote for the deities of the temple in Antelope Valley.

Sankari and her students have participated in all the Nandalala Mission programs in Los Angeles and local temple festivals.

Raju Venkataraman

Along with his wife Jayashree, Raju is involved in supporting the activities at Nandalala Prarthanai Peetam. Both Raju and Jayashree have been devotees of Sri Akka since 1998. Raju has been a Nandalala Mission board member since 2003.

In his current role as operating partner at Syven Capital, Raju works closely with the leadership teams of the portfolio companies to achieve a step-change in performance and growth. Prior to founding Syven Capital, Raju was the founder and CEO of two successful consulting companies that continue to serve leading financial services firms. Raju is a trained “principled negotiator”; with extensive experience in negotiating business transactions and managing conflicts. He graduated with a MBA from Cornell University.

Mangala and Bala consider themselves very fortunate to have the dharshan of Pujya Shri Amma in 1996 during her visit to Los Angeles.  Since then their lives have been changed for the better with Her guidance.  They have been associated with Nandalala activities in LA and San Francisco and are eager to continue to support the Mission’s activities.

Usha has been blessed to know Pujya Shri Amma from 1995. During her visit to Southern California in 1996, Pujya Shri Amma speech to a small group of devotees on “The importance of lighting the lamp” humbled her deeply as it was a form of worship that she had deviated from. Subsequently Pujya Shri Amma initiated Nandalala Mission’s LA chapter and the annual Deepa Pooja.
In Usha’s words, “Sri Amma has been my Guru, my mentor, my guiding light in all aspects of my life, I feel her presence with me at all times, I am so Blessed to have had her grace in my life. I wish to continue my support of Nandalala Mission as much as I can. My Namaskarams to Pujya Shri Amma”.

Professionally, Usha, has been a Real Estate Agent in Southern California serving families with their real estate needs since 1992.

Sivaganesh Srinivasan

With the blessings of our guru Her Holiness Pujyasri Mathioli Saraswathy, Sivaganesh has been involved with Nandalala Mission and the parent organization Nandalala Seva Samithi from its inception.  He is based in NJ and organizes Matru Seva ,Health and Wellness Seminars, Sankata Hara Chaturthi Pooja, Nandalala Satsang, Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam and Sri Lalitha Sahasranamam chanting programs on a periodic basis.  In addition, his  wife Madhuri coordinates the Nandalala Children’s club that meets every week. Professionally, Ganesh is a Senior executive in the Telecommunications Industry

T R Ramakrishnan

T. R. Ramakrishnan, has been a devotee of Pujya Shri Mathioli Saraswathy for over 54 years.  He served as President of Nandalala Mission for several years until as recently as 2016.  Along with his wife, Syamala Ramakrishnan, he coordinates events at Thulasi, SFO bay area’s spiritual center.  He is  a retired Sales & Marketing executive with Hindustan Lever Ltd in India.

Shyamala Ramakrishnan

Syamala Ramakrishnan has been an ardent devotee of Pujya Shri Mathioli Saraswathy for close to 60 years.  She served on Nandalala Seva Samithi’s sub-committees in India for several years, prior to her move to the US.  Along with her husband, T. R. Ramakrishnan, she helps coordinates spiritual gatherings at Thulasi, in Santa Clara, CA.

Rupa Sethna

Rupa and Vijay  have been associated with the Nandalala Mission and its activities for over 15 years, One of the projects that Rupa loves doing is working closely with the Abode Services (http://www.abodeservices.org) and ensures that as part of our  Bala Krishna  monthly activities we provide milk, butter and bananas to this shelter. Additionally she collects garments offered at our monthly Shri Satyanarayan Likhit Puja and delivers them to this shelter. Vijay’s passion is in Matru Seva activities. Both Rupa and Vijay have also actively participated in the Mission’a  annual Back-to-School program. Over the years, the Mission has provided over  750 gallons of milk, 100 garments, 10,000 meals and 1000 backpacks containing a years supply of stationeries

Murali Sundaresan

Murali Sundaresan is a computer architect/designer with three decades of experience in the semiconductor chip design industry. He lives in Sunnyvale, California, at the heart of the Silicon Valley, where Pujya Shri Mathioli Saraswathy graciously founded the Nandalala Mission in 1997. He serves as the President of the Nandalala Mission USA, preceded by three other presidents in the past 20 years. [T. R. Ramakrishnan, K. Subramaniam, and R. G. Sundaresan]. He is lucky to live in northern California where a short hike among the awe inspiring hills and coastlines balances an otherwise busy life.   Shri Akka has often said that service to those in need and communion with nature are truly spiritual paths, and Murali abides by those words.

Umesh Apte

Umesh Apte is a Software Engineer by profession. Met PujyaShri Amma in 1998 and has been associated  with Nandalala Mission since early 2000.  Involved in group worships and assisting in Matru Seva, Backpack drives for Nandalala Mission in the bay area.

Vaishnavi Ramakrishnan is from Pleasanton, CA and a tax consultant by profession. She has been associated with Nandalala Mission since its inception in 1997. Her passion is health and wellness and as a member of Nandalala Mission, she organizes various talks related to this specific area and leads the program called ‘Adding Life to Life’

Vaishnavi Ravindran

Vaishnavi has been associated with the Nandalala family since childhood and was a member of the children’s club in India. This foundation inspired her to lead the children’s club initiative in the Bay Area.

Volunteer service and working with children is her passion.

She leads the Children’s Club, Meal packing at KAH Bay Area and Project Sunshine.

Saptharishi Ramanathan

Rishi grew up in Chennai, where his involvement in Nandalala Mission began as a participant in the children’s and youth programs. Rishi continued his association with the mission when he moved to the U.S for his graduate studies. After completion of his PhD at Georgia Tech, he moved to the Bay Area where he works in research and development of solar cells. Residing in the Bay Area has kindled his passion for the beautiful outdoors, where Rishi and his wife enjoy hikes, runs and national park trips. As a member of the board, he coordinates the activities of its hiking club, Nanda Adventures. 

Vic Iyer

Vic Iyer has been a board member of Nandalala Mission since the beginning. With the blessings of our founder, PujyaShri Mathioli Saraswathy, he has the humble privilege of representing Nandalala Mission in different activities of the various chapters of the Nandalala Organization – inaugurations of KSHANA KSHANA, a children’s center in Bangalore and Mathioli Vidya Bhavan in Hyderabad; Milk Distribution for young under-privileged children by the Trivandrum and Bangalore Chapters; Matruseva in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and New Jersey and Hyderabad;Backpack Drive in San Franicsco Bay Area and New Jersey.

Vic has visited and participated in activities of our parent organization, Nandalala Seva Samithi Trust in India – at the Surakasha Dialysis Center and Thoppu Medical Center, both in Chennai and Medical Camps in Mambattu and Chennai. He has also actively participated in their Tsunami relief efforts – in the distribution of care packages and fishing nets in the severely impacted villages.

Vic has represented Nandalala Mission and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in building houses in San Vicente, El Salvador, Bawana, India, Hurricane Katrina’s relief efforts in New Orleans and Jimmy Carter Work Project of building houses in Lonavala, India – claim to fame being he was the impromptu translator for President Carter and his wife when they wanted to communicate with the home owners. It was truly an honor and a very humbling experience when our founder PujyaShri Mathioli Saraswathy visited both the Bawana and the Lonavala Projects in spite of HER extremely tight schedule. SHE not only visited but also gave gifts to all the team members on behalf of Nandalala Seva Samithi.

Being a finance professional with focus on SAP consulting has provided him the flexibility to participate in these world-wide activities of the Nandalala organization.

Gayathri Sundaresan

Gayathri is a founding member of Nandalala Mission since 1997.  She draws her inspiration from it’s founder Pujya Shri Mathioli Saraswathy, since childhood.  In the SFO bay area, Gayathri conducts Nandalala Mission’s youth concert series, which provides a live forum for youth to showcase their musical talents.  On a professional level, Gayathri is a hardware engineering program manager at Microsoft.

Ravi Ramakrishnan

Ravi Ramakrishnan is from Pleasanton, CA and is a supply chain professional working for a large health care provider in the Bay Area. He has been associated with Nandalala Mission from the time it started in 1997. He manages the Education Loan program and supports Matru Seva in the Bay Area.

Namrata Apte

My association with Nandalala Mission (Bay area) goes way back to early founding years.  I am an active volunteer since 2000. It is a privilege to serve our founder and our Guru Pujyashri Mathioli Saraswathy! HER passion for kids and love for community motivates me.   As such I participate and support all the activities, as a volunteer, but I am one of the lead for spiritual activities, such as Likhit Satyanarayan pooja, Group Satyanarayan pooja.   By profession I am Software Analyst but right now ‘mother’ in me has taken precedence!  

Anandhi Venkat

Anandhi Venkat has been closely involved with NJ chapter  of Nandalala Mission since 1998.  She has arranged many youth concerts, dance programs and a drama ‘Krishnavatharam’ that have raised funds for various causes.  She also served as a cultural committee member  of the Bridgewater Balaji temple for many years, as President of NJ Tamil Sangam for 2 years and as an advisory board member for many years.   Professionally, Anandhi is a credit analyst at PNC Bank.