MANASUM GOA'S FIRST SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY

Three leaders, Sumathy Anantharam, Anantharam Varayur, and Kushal Ramesh, are bringing a clear, services-first model to senior living. From a first principles approach in Bengaluru to a purpose-built community in Goa, their focus is consistent: dignity, everyday independence, and institutional continuity.

- By Rajesh Ghadge

THE STARTING POINT: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL BEDROCK

"I started working the day after graduation," says Sumathy Anantharam. "Service engineer, Bombay-based company, early computer systems." It was the late 1980s. Anantharam Varayur joined the same firm; they married young, "I was 21, he was 2,4" and soon chose entrepreneurship.

In 1989, they founded Micro Tech Computer Services; by 1991, it became a private limited company. Their work scaled quickly: IT planning, hardware and software integration, network design, and maintenance for major banks and institutions. They supported defence and public sector units in Bengaluru and executed networking for 35 power projects nationwide, "projects with about 100 km of fibre and thousands of nodes each," Sumathy notes.

Even in those years, one question kept recurring at home: why do many Indian seniors become isolated and anxious after 70? Sumathy had long been the family member who stayed back with the elders. Later, she cared for Anantharam's grandmother from 100 to 103, managing daily care with sensitivity. "Those years shaped my view," she says. "Independence with assurance is what people want." Travel reinforced the gap. Abroad, they saw 80-90-year-olds lead active lives in golf, salons, and social clubs. "We asked ourselves why our seniors couldn't have the same assurance and routine without losing identity," says Anantharam.

THE TURNING POINT: A PUBLIC PROMISE