Sarma Ananthabhotla

August 7, 1936 - July 26, 2021

Sarma Ananthabhotla passed away Monday, July 26th, 2021 around 7:00 AM at home in Kings Park, NY, USA. Born into a close-knit family in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India, he was a pioneer among friends and relatives, moving to Madras for higher studies in Engineering; being one of the first to travel abroad to the UK for advanced training with his company; and being called “Car Thatha” for owning a car that everyone loved and rode in...often squished together. He served first as an engineer with rural electrification projects for the State Electricity board in Andhra Pradesh, then as part of design and test teams for Indian Air Force flight craft with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bangalore, and later as Head of Engineering services at TVS Madras. In Madras, he attended the Thirumangalam Sai Center, where he served as Service Coordinator. During that time he helped coordinate a project which provided food and educational support to visually impaired students. When his second granddaughter was born, he took an early retirement and relocated to New York to spend time with his grandchildren. He gave up his aluminum castings and moped to now become their badminton partner; their hands-on engineering mentor; their cricket buddy; their disciplinarian; their safety net. He loved driving, Costco shopping, mobilizing Sunken Meadow Beach trips and sharing Haagen Daaz icecream bars. He loved his news in Tamil, his songs in Hindi, and anybody who spoke Kannada. He loved supporting SSE programs and activities behind-the-scenes, attending Flushing Sai Center service activities, maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle, and encouraging all his grandchildren’s talents in art, dance, sports, and music. As he grew older, he enjoyed listening to Young Adults’ bhajans, maintaining the family calendar, listening to Sai talks, and coordinating Food Seva logistics with colorful, frequently capitalized and punctuation-agnostic emails. We love you Nanna/Mavayya/Thatha! We pray that we may uphold the values of discipline, vandanam, sravanam, and seva that you have instilled in us. May Swami take you back to Him!