If Anderson University had a mayor, it might well be Srikrishna Ramanathan, or “Krish” as the faculty and students have come to know him. Always smiling, always cheerful, Krish moves through the campus as if it’s his personal mission to bring a little sunshine into the lives of those he encounters. As he approached graduation this May, however, this tennis player from India couldn’t help but marvel at the remarkable circumstances that led him to Anderson University and the life-changing events that occurred here.
Srikrishna RamanathanGrowing up in Chennai, a town in southern India, Krish knew absolutely nothing about Anderson. He knew precious little about any American universities. What he did know was that he was dedicating himself to becoming a talented tennis player, in hopes that his tennis would lead to an American education and greater opportunity. His father worked in the financial world, and Krish wanted to follow in his footsteps. With tennis as his vehicle, he sought a business education in the U.S.
“I went online to collegetennisonline.com,” Krish recalls. “I looked at the top 20 tennis schools in Division II, and Anderson was on the list. I contacted all of them, but when I talked to the coach from Anderson, I thought he was the nicest person I’d ever met. So I decided to come here.”
Just like that, Srikrishna Ramanathan was an Anderson freshman. When he arrived on campus, however, he was struck by the fact that he was in a different world – not just culturally, but spiritually as well. Krish, who had grown up in a Hindu family, didn’t know that Anderson was a Christian university. He had some experience with Christian education, having attended Christian school in India, but the culture he found on the Anderson campus was vastly different from anything he’d ever experienced. The difference he noticed was stark and immediate.
“Others were always helping me out. How could you not become a part of the culture,” he says. “It definitely had an impact on me.”
On a return trip home, however, Krish realized that not everyone was as excited about the Christian culture and his flirtations with it as he was.
“When I mentioned it to my mother, she cried. She was very upset,” he recalls. “I hated to make her that upset.”
Krish determined that he would return to AU and continue his friendships, but in deference to his parents’ wishes, pursue Christianity no further. That began to change however, as Krish experienced life with a group of roommates in one of Anderson’s ministry houses.
Ministry houses at AU are houses adjacent to campus. Students are allowed to live in community with one another, provided they demonstrate a plan to perform some sort of ministry or community service while living there. Krish lived with several other men, not knowing that their ministry might have included him.
“These guys were different,” he says. “They really walked the walk. They gave me a Bible and said that if I had any questions they would answer them, but they put no pressure on me whatsoever.”
Krish read the Bible and it raised the level of conflict in his heart. He became more and more convinced that the Jesus of the Bible was seeking him, but his worry over the relationship with his mother was growing. He had seen the impact his investigation of Christianity had brought about once and he feared the prospect of a rift in what was a deep relationship with her. The conflict came to a head one night while Krish was sleeping.
He had what he calls the most vivid dream he has ever had. In it was a clear message that the Jesus he had been reading about, initially just out of curiosity, was indeed one with the only true God and that he was ready to claim Krish as his child. Krish shared the dream with a Christian friend on campus, who suggested that he relate the dream to his mother. The fear of causing another unpleasant episode kept Krish from doing so for four days. Finally he worked up the courage to tell her.
In a rambling telephone conversation, Krish finally got around to describing the dream, hoping that his mother would at least find it interesting and hopefully not upsetting. As he relayed the details of the dream, however, the response it elicited was nothing like he expected or even hoped it would be. It was miraculous. Krish’s mother asked him for the exact time and date his dream occurred. After a pause, she informed him that it was precisely at that moment that she had given her heart to Jesus and embraced Christianity. What had served as a dividing point between a young man and his mother now united them spiritually as never before.
“It’s wonderful,” he says. “We have such a deep relationship now. I feel as though I can completely share who I am.”
Earlier this month, Krish’s undergraduate career concluded as he and about 185 other seniors crossed the stage at graduation. As he looks back on his random choice to come to Anderson University, he can only marvel at the providential hand of God in his life, a God he didn’t even believe in when he first came to AU. Not only did he earn a business degree, but he also excelled in business. He has interned at one of the fastest-growing Fortune 500 technology companies in the country, and has promising job opportunities already should he choose to pursue them. He’d like to enroll in AU’s new MBA program if possible – if, as he puts it, “the Lord works it out.” That’s something Srikrishna Ramanathan believes strongly in these days. His incredible circumstances make it impossible not to.