Saraswathi Ranganathan

Our mom, Saraswathi Ranganathan, who watched our school  concerts like she was watching Beyoncé on stage. Our mom who dressed for every event as if she was going to a coronation- - be it Adam and Sam’s Christmas performances, Shak’s 3rd grade recorder concert, or Shyam’s 5th-grade graduation, everyone’s weddings, or their birthdays.

Our Amma or ‘Ma who showered us with an indescribable love and fierce loyalty.  If you ever met her, you’d feel so special, and you’d never go hungry. Whether it was 1 friend or 50, she’d make just as much food. She’d be up up early morning to make each of our favorites. Her sambhar was unmatched - people would literally travel hundreds of miles to taste that manna. I remember my mom lovingly bathing  shrimp in manjal (turmeric) until they were so clean you could see through them. These she’d transform into the most succulent curry you’d ever have tasted. She could elevate the most simple food into breathtaking deliciousness.

But she wasn’t simply a great cook. She was a worshipper of friends and family. She did everything to make us feel celebrated. It wasn’t enough unless she got you flowers, balloons, a HUGE card (you know those) and took you out for dinner and a cake. With my mom, you knew you’d have fun and laugh, no matter what her own pain or struggles were. One day, we were in the hospital ER after she had taken a fall. I followed the ambulance to the hospital where she was on a hallway stretcher , waiting for a room to open. I was miserable,  feeling horrible and down that I was supposed to be taking care of her when it happened. She made a joke - probably about my giant earrings - and made me smile and I said ‘Mommy, how can you laugh when you’re in so much pain and we’re sitting here waiting in this hallway?!’ She said, “In life, you always have a choice to laugh or cry. I choose to laugh.”

Saraswathi Ranganathan, was born in Salem, India and grew up in Madras/Chennai. She went to all-girls Nirmala College in Coimbatore where she played sports like tenecoit, basketball, and badminton. She had starring roles as both male and female characters in stories from the Ramayana and others. My mom was a Tamil pundit and had such love for both her native homeland and Maryland, her adopted one. When anyone asked her to describe her mother tongue, Tamil, ‘Ma would say with pride that it’s still the oldest living language.

She started her career as a Tamil lecturer at Queen Mary’s College in Madras, India. When my parents moved to Maryland, in 1971, my mom went back to school and got a Masters in Library Science at the University of the District of Columbia with the three of us in tow. She taught Tamil for the kids in our community, who went on to become her friends and are in her life to this day. She taught intense immersion classes for Foreign Service officers. They were lovely, down to earth people who my parents included in all our celebrations, and who were later stationed overseas. She told me they had more in common with James Bond than us and we never knew their real names. She made their favorite foods too.

Our mom was a huge force in our community through the Murugan Temple which she, my dad, and her fellow fresh immigrants founded in a small space in the 70s. Now the Murugan temple is a thriving, stunning, place of worship in her beloved Maryland.

She and our dad, C.P. Ranganathan, met on August 1, 1961, and got married 29 dates later. They were married for 45 years before we lost our dad in 2007. She raised 3 kids, Santhi, Vijai, and I, two sons-in-law, and 4 grandchildren, Shakthi, Adam, Samson, and Shyam.  And so many more. My mom and dad adored kids and longed for grandchildren so they adopted their siblings’ and friends’ grandchildren as their own. They waited so long for us to have kids and then within one wintry week, Shak, Addy, and Sammy were born. They said the only rules for grandchildren were that there were ‘no rules’ and called the three of them their little Tsunamis. She had a special connection with each of them. She lived with Adam and Sam who doted on her and who perfected her favorite coffee. Shak shares her name and my mom would wait for every visit for Shak to give her a manicure and pedicure, followed by only Shyam knowing how to help her put on her socks and shoes. Shyam reminded her most of our dad. When he was two weeks old, they’d lay side by side and hang out after she had one of her many surgeries - this one was a knee replacement.

The last time I saw my mom was Thursday, February 3. I brought her a HUGE Valentine’s Day card, and a stuffed puppy she liked, but then commented that her “White grandson,” Juice/Zeus, was cuter!

I kissed her and hugged her and cuddled her the way I’ve done all my life. We made silly videos and took selfies. We FaceTimed the kids, then chatted with Vijai and Santhi and my Aunties. She spoke to her little brother, my Rajamamma, my cousin, and her best friends. She said the same to all of them - that she’ll see them when she got home. And we all thought she would. Whenever I left my mom, I’d touch her feet and she’d put Kungumam on my forehead, give me a blessing and as I left, I’d  say “Ma, na poittu varen” because in Tamil, you never say goodbye, you always say, I’ll see you again soon.

Ma, na poittu varen ❤️

Service Details:

Saraswathi Ranganathan passed peacefully on February 4, 2022.

Funeral arrangements will be both live-streamed and in person:

Saturday, February 12, 2022

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Donaldson Funeral Home

1411 Annapolis Rd (Rt 175 E)

Odenton, MD 21113

In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to the Murugan Temple of North America. https://murugantemple.org/

Saraswathi Ranganathan,

June 17, 1938 - February 4, 2022

She is survived by her daughters, Santhi Pearsall (Gregory), Indira (Suresh) Ranganathan, Vijai Nathan; grandchildren, Shakthi Manjanath, Adam Pearsall, Samson Pearsall, and Shyam Manjanath; older sister, Rajalakshmi Hanumanthan, and younger brother Raja Venkatraman and beloved sisters-in-law, Savithri Manjanath, Shashi Raja, and A. Alamelu, as well as countless friends and family members. She is predeceased by her husband of 45 years, Chinglepet Ponnurangam Ranganathan, her brothers M. Amirthalingam, and R. Balu, her brother-in-law, H.R. Hanumanthan, sister-in-law, Suguna Balu,

and her parents, Namakkal Kavignar Ramalingam Pillai, and Soundarammal.

live stream access: https://my.gather.app/remember/saraswathi-ranganathan