Ritu Jha-
“Bhagavad Gita is my inspiration for anything and everything I do, whether it’s a startup or even this campaign,” says Indian American Murali Srinivasan, who created history on January 3 by taking oath as the Councilmember of Sunnyvale City, representing District 3.
Srinivasan won the November 8 election defeating Justin Wang by just one vote. He took the oath in the presence of his wife Ganga who held the Gita and his children.
“Campaigning is very hard,” Srinivasan told indica. “It not only exposes your fears, but it also exposes whatever you do to the public.”
Srinivasan is an engineer and a serial entrepreneur. “Imagine an engineer transforming into a public figure. It was the hardest thing I did. The Bhagavad Gita gives answers to approach these kinds of fears.”
The Srinivasan-Wang face-off was so close that there were two recounts. But, Srinivasan said, he slept like a baby through the ordeal while his 300-odd supporters were anxious. “Even now they say that your calmness put us in the right spirit.”
Srinivasan says he has also read the Bible and the Quran because he believes in Sarva Dharma Samabhava (treat all religions as equal).
Srinivasan came to the US in 1984 as a student on an F1 visa and earned a master’s degree in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. He then worked at AT&T Bell Labs in New Jersey and later moved to Silicon Valley wanting to do business. There, he joined Stanford University to earn a master’s degree in engineering management and ventured into a series of companies. He is currently working on writing an app for the boating industry.
He has worked for GE, as senior staff architect, digital strategy group, and at Amazon, he was in-charge of architecture and development of its careers site. He has also worked at Sun Microsystems.
Besides that, he was involved in the city, community, and the neighborhood as a volunteer and a leader for over 15 years.
He said he earned his leadership stripes after he served on the boards of local non-profits and on the Sunnyvale Sustainability Commission. “I was president of our neighborhood association for over four years. I learned about leadership when he in 2017 joined Leadership Sunnyvale, a non-profit that provide the tools, knowledge and relationships to make a difference in the community. The course taught me to be a leader of the community,” Srinivasan said. “Community leadership is completely different from being an entrepreneur. You should be the unifying force.”
He said serving on the Council is not only an extension of this work but also about making an impact on local and regional issues. His first meeting with the mayor after joining the council was focused on improving the residents’ participation in the city’s governance and policies. “This is the next step of democracy after electing the representatives.”
He said he will be addressing issues that the city faces, such as housing, traffic, climate change, and public safety.
“Homelessness is increasing. We have 700 homeless people are in Sunnyvale. The city’s population is 160,000 and one-sixth – 28,000 – are from District 3,” he said.
He said the first thing he wants to do is to improve the democratic process, and we need to help resident to involve in local policies and local governance.
“Instead of blindly putting in some six-storied building apartments, we want to talk to the neighbors, consult them and get them involved in the process. They will be affected by traffic, schools, water, public safety and more.”
He will also focus on climate change. “I will be working with neighboring city with climate action plans. That will be on my agenda,” he said, adding education is another thing he is passionate about.
Indian American Murali Srinivasan takes oath as Sunnyvale City Councilmember
