When Preetika Randive learned that she was the Commonwealth’s 2013 Mother of the Year, she humbly said, “I am just an ordinary mom.”
Preetika’s husband, Anurag, and her two sons, Rushil and Aashil, however, all agree she’s anything but an ordinary mom — she’s an extraordinary one.
So does Corrine Spells, who nominated her friend and co-worker at Greenwood High School.
“As soon as I read about Mother of the Year in the newspaper, she immediately popped in my mind. I didn’t even have to think about it,” said Spells. “She is a very nice person. She is a hardworking mother and always has something positive to say.”
Spells has worked at the high school for 21 years. She is a teacher assistant for special-needs students and a bus driver. She has known Preetika since the Indian native first started working at the school 10 years ago. Preetika’s classroom is just two doors down from Spells’.
“She is a good mom and a wonderful, church-going person,” Spells said. “I just felt it in my heart to submit her nomination.”
Spells gathered information from Preetika’s family to supplement her own, including a letter that Rushil wrote as if he were sending it to his mother.
In it, Rushil praised his mother’s courage for making the decision in 2003 that her young family’s best prospects lay in moving thousands of miles from her homeland.
“You left your parents, friends, relatives and family literally thousands of miles across the world to gives us a better future,” he wrote.
Preetika was recruited by the Greenwood Public Schools as a math teacher at the high school. She had already earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education in India.
Two years after moving to Greenwood, Preetika received a second master’s degree, this one in special education, from Mississippi Valley State University.
“Sometimes my students ask me why I didn’t choose to live in a big city when we moved to America,” she said. “I tell them, ‘I am a small-town person. I like it here in Greenwood.’”
Teaching and education are dear to Preetika, 46. Her mother was a teacher and received an excellence in education award in 1973, which is one of the highest honors an Indian educator can receive.
It is hard for Preetika to talk about her mother without tears appearing in her eyes. Her mother passed away in December 2012.
“I was thinking my mother deserved to be Mother of the Year,” she said.
When she describes her mother, it sounds similar to how Preetika’s family and friends describe her.
“She sacrificed a lot to make sure my sister, brother and I received the best of everything. She was always for education, and that has passed down to me,” Preetika said about her mother.
“My husband and I work hard to make sure our children are able to fulfill their dreams,” she said.
Preetika and Anurag have been married for 22 years. They have raised their two sons to appreciate the value of schooling.
Rushil, 21, is a 2010 honors graduate of Pillow Academy and graduated Friday from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. He has been accepted to William Carey University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Aashil, 19, is a 2012 honors graduate of Pillow and is attending Mississippi State, where he is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
Aashil will not be the only engineer in the family. Anurag was a civil engineer in India. When the family moved to Greenwood, he decided that changing occupations was best to provide the most for his family in their new country. He owns two convenience stores, one in Greenwood and one in Duck Hill.
He now applies his engineering skills at the family’s home in a quiet country setting of Carroll County off U.S. 82, where he designed and built an equipment shed.
The family attends New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Greenwood.
“I believe in family unity. We eat together and pray together,” Preetika said. “We are friends and parents to our children.”
Although her children are away at school, Preetika stays in daily contact through phone calls and text messages.
“She doesn’t go to sleep until she has heard from us,” Aashil said.
“You have to give your undivided attention to your children and spend time with them,” she said. “However busy you may be, you have to come home and spend time talking to them. I like spending time with my kids.”
She also enjoys cooking for them, even when they’re not nearby.
“She will take homemade food to Starkville, so Rushil and Aashil will have something to eat in their dorms,” Anurag said.
Preetika’s home-cooked Indian meals are well-known to her sons’ friends. One of her popular dishes, an Indian appetizer called samosa, is requested often by their American friends and referred to as “the triangles.” Her chicken curry is also a touted dish among her family and friends.
“I love seeing how, when Dad comes back from a tough day, you cook him an awesome meal and help him forget about all the troubles of the day,” Rushil’s letter said.
Both of her sons agreed that they have been blessed to have her as their mother and friend. She has always been there for them when they needed her, they said.
Preetika has made sacrifices for her children and worked hard to keep her family thriving.
“I don’t want anything to hinder them from achieving their dreams,” she said.
Preetika and Anurag taught their children early to be God-fearing and honest and to respect their elders.
“I see these values in them now, and it makes me happy how they have turned out,” she said.
• Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7233 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
