Mrs Andal Krishnamurthy

Ninth generation –

Andal (Chooda) Krishnamurthy is a Vainika & co-founder of Veena Swara Laya (2007), and the founder of the Stockton Balagokulam (2002). She was the first South Indian to help propagate Carnatic (South Indian Classical) music and the values of Santana Dharma in suburban California, and has passionately inculcated our music/culture in several second generation Indians, Sri Lankans, and other minorities. She recently retired after 19 years of service as Data Base Support/Evaluator for Research and Evaluation/Curriculum from Stockton Unified School District, prior to which she has held various roles in Accounting/Information Systems in a wide variety of industries/academia since the time she migrated to the USA in 1983. She has a Bachelors degree in Commerce from Bangalore University, a BS in Business Administration and a minor in Computer Science from Stanislaus State University, California. She also has a certification in Accounting, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Computer and Information Science, Supervision & Management from San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton, CA. She also has a Visharad in Hindi from Karnataka Mahila Hindi Prachar Seva Samithi, Advanced diploma in Art (Sketeches/Oil Painting) from Kalamandir Art School, Bangalore, has successfully completed four levels of Sanskrit from Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan – Bangalore, and also completed her Vidwat exam in Veena/Carnatic Music from Mysore University. Andal learnt Veena from Vidwan R.K. Prakash from Bangalore and Vainika R.K. Padmanabha from Mysore (Sons of late Vainika R.S. Keshavamurthy, Mysore).

Andal has been actively involved in community interfaith events, and voluntary service for Stockton Shelter and Homeless for the past 29 years. She is an extremely talented chef and is also passionate about Indian hand loom weaves. As the youngest daughter of her parents, she took on the painstaking task of converting her father Athinathan Iyengar’s effort – the Kizhanatham Family Tree into the website you are seeing today. She lives with her husband S Krishnamurthy, and loves spending time with her daughter Ashveena, son-in-law Nikhil Dighe and two beautiful grandchildren – Karthik & Ayana.

S.KRISHNAMURTHY:

S Krishnamurthy is a successful entrepreneur in the Printing industry for over 45 years. Besides running his own business, Krishnamurthy has worked for Burroughs Corporation and Standard Register for close to two decades and is currently with ‘Progressive Print Solutions’. During his stint in the Printing industry in 1991, he was recognized and awarded the ‘Best Sales Volume Leader’. He holds a B.S. Degree from Castleton University, Vermont and MBA from Chico University, CA. Krishnamurthy immigrated to the US in his early teens, yet has values that are fundamentally rooted in Indian culture. He has a spontaneous and uncanny sense of humor and is a firm believer that ‘brevity is the soul of wit’.

Child of ANDAL and S.KRISHNAMURTHY:

Ashveena ¹⁰ married to Nikhil Dighe works for Microsoft.

Ashveena has B.S. in Cognitive Science from University of California, Berkeley, M.Ph., St. Louis University, M.S in Bio Medicine from University of South Florida.  She is the Director of Program Operations for the kidney Precision Medicine Project | Clinical Research Senior Project Manager for Kidney Research Institute, University of Washington, Seattle.

Two Children

Karthik Nikhil Dighe¹¹

Ayana Lakshmi Dighe