Obituary

Shanti Kadambi Gopalan

(January 18, 1941 – July 18, 2024)

Shanti Gopalan reminded us each day that there is an abundance of simple pleasures around all of us. She saw enchantment in birds, grace in vegetation and blooms, majesty in vistas, transcendence in nature’s murmuring silence. All of this inspired her paintings and pastel drawings, to which she dedicated herself during her silver years.

Nothing gave her more joy than sharing what she had. If you appreciated something in her home, she would gift it to you. If you admired one of her rings — and boy, did she love her rings — she would give you one right off her finger. If she was snacking on fruit, as she did each evening, it always came with an offer to eat some with her. (The act of seeding pomegranates, she once said, was one of the most relaxing pastimes she could think of.)

Born in Vellore, India, into a family of 12 siblings, Shanti was known as the beautiful, quiet one. She married Raj Gopalan in 1967 and surprised him by agreeing to move to the United States after he hesitantly broached the topic. The distance only seemed to deepen the bond with her five brothers and six sisters. She often spoke with them for hours on end, recounting hilarious story after story of their colorful upbringing in Vellore and Chennai. (In the pre-Internet days, this resulted in breathtaking phone bills.) Her innocent laugh was unmatched, and her humor was at turns sly and silly. But she didn’t have an ounce of sarcasm in her bones.

A teacher for more than three decades, Shanti took great pride in shaping hungry minds, while reminding each of those elementary school kids — many of them low-income — that, despite what a biased society around them may seem to say, they mattered greatly. She even learned Spanish to better culturally connect with her students and their parents. They, in turn, called her “maestra.”

Shanti never complained, even when her health took a turn. She would humbly defy all odds by living with ovarian cancer for nearly a decade. Her oncologist even called her a miracle. But if you asked her what her secret was, she said it was very simple, “I just live my life one day at a time.”

Shanti Gopalan is survived by her husband, Raj, daughters Priya and Nisha, son-in-law Maulik, and grandchildren Sophia and Siddharth.