Ever Smiling and Loving, Radha Golikeri Turns 90 to a Warm Celebration
The Golikeri family enjoys a light hearted moment at the 90th birthday celebration of their matriarch, Radha, who was feted at a large gathering of friends and family last Saturday, April 26. Grandchildren (left to right) Rohit, Reema and Rita and daughter-in-law Ranjana and son Sudhir enjoyed the moment. They also celebrated Sudhir’s upcoming birthday (the next day) with a crown and impromptu flute in the traditional Marathi style.
By Jawahar Malhotra
SUGAR LAND: “What most people don’t know is that my amma is an avid sports fan”, revealed Rita Golikeri to titters from the crowd. “Ask her what the stats are on any player or how the Houston Rockets did in the playoffs (they won the third game) and she’ll tell you!” she added as the crowd of well-wishers laughed out loud and amma smiled broadly in her front row seat.
With about 150 people, including many young kids, who came to wish her well, Radha Golikeri, fondly known as amma by one and all, stood to accept their warm embrace as she turned 90 this past Saturday, April 25 at the T. E. Harman Community Center off Hwy 90 across from the Imperial Sugar building. Some close family and friends staged a few songs, bhajans and a short dance to Bollywood music before dinner catered by Udippi Café.
Golikeri has lived with her son Sudhir and his family – wife Ranjana and children Reema, Rohit and Rita – in the Houston area since 1984 when her husband passed away in India. In the ensuing years, she pursued outlets for her active mind and body, getting involved with the Clear Lake community’s seniors, the India Culture Center and – her favorite – holding an annual ceremony for graduating Indo-American high school seniors for the past 17 years, a total of over 625 students.
“Amma would scan all the yearbooks to find Indian names, then locate the kids parents and call them up, inviting them to come”, explained Rita, marveling at her grandmother’s tenacity and determination. It was these same skills, as well as a need to support her family and her ailing husband that pushed Golikeri to work as a young woman at Hindustan Levers in Bombay doing market research and collect data in the six Indian languages that she knew. She traveled often for her work and retired after 30 years with the firm.
She has stopped her graduation parties now, especially after the family moved across town to Richmond, but she still remains very active, attending many community functions and writing her thoughts in English in essays and poems. Still vigorous at her age, one of the people who feted her said that he had known amma since he was 60 years old. “Now that I am 70, I have asked her to be the chief guest at my 90th birthday party and she has gladly agreed”, he chuckled.