WHEN PUBLIC SERVICE MEETS A MOTHER'S HEART

PCS officer Ramindri Mandarwal turned her Dehradun home into a shelter, supporting 170 destitute children, women and elderly, narrates Narendra Sethi

- Narendra Sethi

THOUGH public office is often seen through the prism of administrative rigidity, Ramindri Mandarwal is one person who is known to thousands across Uttarakhand and beyond as not merely an official but as “mother” and “grandmother.”

Born on April 22, 1972, in the picturesque hills of Uttarkashi, Ramindri was raised in a family deeply rooted in Gandhian ideology. The daughter of Sunderlal Mandarwal, a two-time MLA from Pauri and Srinagar, and her mother Sundari, Ramindri’s childhood was unconventional. While other children played with toys, she found a spiritual anchor in “Laddu Gopal ji,” whom she treated as her own son. By the age of nine, she was already driven by an inexplicable urge to help the underprivileged children.

Her commitment to education began long before she held an official title. In 1985, while a seventh-grade student, Ramindri noticed children from the Valmiki and Banjara settlements near her school struggling with basic education.