People of Payir

Senthilkumar Gopalan is the brain and founder of Payir. He is a highly motivated young professional who is a believer and follower of the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. He graduated as a Mechanical Engineer and worked in different capacities at a 500 MW Thermal Power Plant, IBM Global Services India. Last he was Technical Manager of New Business Initiative and lead a team of 30 engineers at Lason Inc., MI, USA having ownership both on-shore (multi-city, US) and off-shore development and was instrumental in setting up the off-shore division in Chennai. He left that position and moved back to India in 2005 with sole aim to fulfil his childhood dream of empowering Rural India. He is now part of the grass-root Payir team at Thenur village. He has dedicated 100% of his time and energy for Payir and spends all his time nurturing Payir. He has created a wonderful network of social organizations and NGOs, which has helped in improving the livelihood of Thenur, and its surrounding villages. Senthil also has built good relationships with local administrators and bureaucrats, which helps in implementing progressive projects easier. Mr. Senthil Kumar Gopalan mentions: "Truth and its principles form the basis of all living in this world. Truth is an all encompassing word for integrity, peace, perseverance, patience. All these values make us what we are. There is goodness all around in this society and our experiences of life is a reflection of what we are. This eternal reality cannot be more exemplified than in the lives of the rural poor. These are my beliefs, this is my faith, this is my creed, this is my religion. Payir was founded and will function on these beliefs. Payir has a conviction to nurture these soul values by facilitating a good quality of life sans materialism for the rural community. I am honoured to introduce here the ladies and gentlemen who personify these beliefs and have come forward to lead this Institution of Payir by example. I thank my loving parents, Shrimathi. Leela and Shri. Gopalan for being and for becoming what I am. I want to place on record the support, encouragement and involvement of all those altruistic noble minded people for their unstinted support and cooperation that has made Payir - a dream become a reality. "

Preeti got married to Senthil in May 2013, and has been an anchor to all of Payir’s activities. She has been working with Payir before her marriage, and got inspired by the work and Senthil. She is a homeopathic doctor by profession and takes complete care of the Health Unit of Payir, along with mentoring the women in Payir and anchoring all activities related to empowering women. She comes from a family which has been in social services for more than 40 years.

Ramanathan Meenakshisundaram is one of the founding members of Payir Trust. Ram is a close friend of Senthilkumar Gopalan since 1989, and has been instrumental in the formation of Payir Trust from the early days. He provides the "big picture" for Payir, charting out long term plans for Payir. He strives to bring in innovative ideas that make social organizations like Payir to be self sustaining. He is one of the founders of Payir Innovations which is the Business Unit of Payir Trust. Payir Innovations is founded on the principles of social entrepreneurship - perfectly blending the disciplined profit making motives of a business with the wonderful social values of a Trust. It believes in running business with high ethics and values, to make social organizations self sustaining. Ram lived in the US for 12 years, and did not take his US citizenship and moved back to India to follow his passion of social entrepreneurship and serving the society. He lives in Bangalore with his wife Priya and 2 sons. Priya is an active volunteer of Payir Trust and a co-founder of Payir Innovations.

Mr. Senthil Kumar Gopalan is the brain and founder of Payir. He is a highly motivated young professional who is a believer and follower of the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Mr. Senthil Kumar Gopalan graduated as a Mechanical Engineer and worked in different capacities including: - Senior engineer in a 500 MW Thermal Power Plant - Technical Lead in IBM Global Services India - Technical Manager of New Business Initiative and lead a team of 30 engineers at Lason Inc., MI, USA having ownership both on-shore (multi-city, US) and off-shore development and was instrumental in setting up the off-shore division in Chennai. Mr. Senthil Kumar Gopalan has since left that position and is now part of the grass-root Payir team at Thenur village. He has dedicated 100% of his time and energy for Payir and spends all his time nurturing Payir. He has created a wonderful network of social organizations and NGOs, which has helped in improving the livelihood the people of Thenur, and its surrounding villages. Senthil also has built good relationships with local administrators and bureaucrats, which helps in implementing progressive projects easier. Mr. Senthil Kumar Gopalan mentions: "Truth and its principles form the basis of all living in this world. Truth is an all encompassing word for integrity, peace, perseverance, patience. All these values make us what we are. There is goodness all around in this society and our experiences of life is a reflection of what we are. This eternal reality cannot be more exemplified than in the lives of the rural poor. These are my beliefs, this is my faith, this is my creed, this is my religion. Payir was founded and will function on these beliefs. Payir has a conviction to nurture these soul values by facilitating a good quality of life sans materialism for the rural community. I am honoured to introduce here the ladies and gentlemen who personify these beliefs and have come forward to lead this Institution of Payir by example. I thank my loving parents, Shrimathi. Leela and Shri. Gopalan for being and for becoming what I am. I want to place on record the support, encouragement and involvement of all those altruistic noble minded people for their unstinted support and cooperation that has made Payir - a dream become a reality. "

Amarar(Late) Shri.S.Sethuratnam, hailed from the hill station town of Yercaud. He was a coffee planter and has lived in the Yercaud region since 1961. He was a shining example of a farmer who had made his way up through hard work, perseverance and the application of the right technology at the right time. He was credited, among other innovations, with bringing in anthorium cultivation to Yercaud, and being the first in the area to experiment with bio-gas for household use. Amarar(Late) Shri. S. Sethuratnam also had an active public life in the region, having been President of The Yercaud Library and Sports Club, Vice-President of The Shevaroy Planters Association, President of the erstwhile Agri-Horticultural firm of Yercaud and the chair person of the Siyala Amman Kumbabhisekam committee. Amarar(Late) Shri.S.Sethuratnam was the founding chairman of Payir Trust, and he and his family have donated their ancestral lands in his birthplace to the Trust. He was a highly respected member of the community in his birthplace of Thenur village. He passed away in April, 2008.

Mr. Meenakshisundaram is a professional banker with over three decades of banking service. He is a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, and a Commerce graduate from Alagappa University. During his tenure with Union Bank of India, he served in various capacities such as Chief Manager, Regional Manager, Zonal Manager and Deputy General Manager. He has served in different parts of India, traveled abundantly in India and abroad, met with people from all walks of life including farmers, labourers, industrialists, religious leaders, ministers and administrators, and has served in projects from all industries including agriculture, fisheries, mining, chemical, IT, textiles, sugar and retail, to name a few. He was last posted as the Zonal Head / Deputy General Manager, before he opted for voluntary retirement from the bank in 2001, just in his 54th year. Mr. Meenakshisundaram is spending his retired life in his native town Karaikudi, engaging himself with social activities that serve the community. Mr. Meenakshisundaram was/is known among his colleagues as a straight forward person, one who is sincere to his commitments. Along with his obvious financial and project management expertise, he offers Payir his cach`e of experience as a well-traveled, well-informed professional, with many accomplishments in the areas of public-speech and leadership. Mr. Meenakshisundaram is the Treasurer of the Payir Trust. His son Mr. M. Ramanathan is a close friend of Mr. Senthil kumar from school days and an active volunteer of Payir.

Ms. Rama Sastry started out her career as a laboratory technologist but moved into education along with her husband Ramdas when they set up the school in Pondicherry. She is an educationist par excellence indefatigable in her pursuit to provide quality education to young children. She has been the person behind Vidyodaya School playing a number of roles simultaneously! She has helped train a number of young tribals as teachers who now work with their own community. Ms. Rama Sastry is in great demand as a trainer of teachers from a number of schools. Both she and her husband have initiated a network of alternative schools across the country and are pioneering an effort to develop small schools.

Dr. Lalitha George is a gynecologist and Trustee of Tribal Health Initiative (THI), in Sittilingi, a tribal village in Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri district. She and her anesthesiologist husband, Dr. Regi George, have been working in voluntary health ever since they finished their studies. They have had the additional advantage of traveling throughout India and seeing first hand the living conditions, health status and work done among tribals elsewhere in India. More about this wonderful couple can be found in the Reader's Digest article, which published a cover story about them in September, 2001.

Dr. Sridhar is an active member of the Payir team.

Sriram Thiagarajan is one of the Trustees of Payir Trust. Sriram is a friend of Senthil and Ram from school. He finished his Bachelors from IIT, Chennai and moved to the US to pursue his MBA in Purdue University. He was one of the early members of Mu Sigma, which specializes in Data Analytics. He lived in the US for 10 years, and moved back to India as part of Mu Sigma. He quit his job and is now following his passion of serving the society. He brings in a lot of practical thinking to our grass root activities. He also helps with public relations for all the work we do at Payir.