1996 · 2007 · 2011 · 2026
Thirty years after Nishant left Mumbai, we are choosing what comes next together.
Not this, not this
Not a monument. Not a performance. Not a claim to know the answer.
Why this name
Neti neti is a Sanskrit expression often translated as “not this, not that.” It is a contemplative method of looking past the identities and assumptions that can obscure what is essential.
We borrow that discipline carefully. In giving, it asks us to let go of rescuer, controller, hero, and expert before deciding how we might be useful.
Read the philosophical referenceA letter from both of us
We each left Mumbai to continue our education. In 1996, a scholarship to Asheville School changed Nishant's expected path to Japan through Rotary Youth Exchange. In 2007, Neeti left for graduate study at Drexel after earning her MA in English Literature at the University of Mumbai. We married in 2011.
Our families taught us that education can enlarge a life, access carries responsibility, and enough creates an obligation to act. We are beginning with children and childhood, through education and health, in India and the United States.
Why children · Why childhood
Our commitment to children comes from different parts of our lives. Nishant has spent much of his professional life as a teacher and school leader, defending children's right to joy, wonder, authenticity, learning by doing, and compassionate hearts.
Neeti grew up in a family that treated education as a promise from one generation to the next. Her parents gave all three of their children opportunities they had not received themselves. She carries their belief that what becomes possible for one child can widen the horizon of an entire family.
For us, this purpose is not abstract. Our histories lead us to stand behind the people and conditions that let many children be fully themselves: safe enough to wonder, healthy enough to grow, supported enough to learn, and free enough to imagine a life of possibility.
“We celebrate our children's right to be children.”Read Nishant's writing on childhood
Our first public commitment
US$50,000
Our first public commitment supports pediatric heart surgeries for children through Gift of Life.
This is where our purpose and family history meet: children, health, India, six years of leadership by Nishant's father, Past President Nitin Mehta, and the year Nishant's mother, President Harsha Mehta, leads the Rotary Club of Bombay Airport, District 3141.
What giving is not
Neti Neti asks us to change the question.
From
“What can I do for them?”
To
“What assumptions, identities, and attachments do I need to let go of so I can truly understand how to be useful?”
Are we assuming helplessness where there is already agency?
Are we defining the problem because we have money, or listening to people who understand it directly?
Are recognition, visibility, or a quick result distorting the choice?
How the purpose comes together
Capital with purpose
The instrument follows the outcome.
Places + proximity
Guided by people closest to the work.
Pathways
Chosen for meaningful, attributable outcomes.
Purpose
More children with the time, care, health, learning, and possibility to be fully themselves.
Listen · Measure · Learn
Why begin now
Too much giving is postponed until the twilight of a life, or written into what follows it. We want to practice generosity while we can still listen, learn, change course, and remain accountable to the outcomes.
We teach children to save for the future. We should also model how to give toward one.
Two journeys · One shared life
1996
Mumbai to Asheville
His father had studied in the United States and returned to India; his brother had spent a school year in France through Rotary Youth Exchange. Nishant expected his own path to lead to Japan. A scholarship to Asheville School changed the destination. His mother, worried he might never return, ultimately supported his decision to go.
2007
Mumbai to Philadelphia
Neeti arrived in Philadelphia on June 6, 2007, after earning her MA in English Literature at the University of Mumbai. At Drexel, she began a second master's in Interior Architecture & Design. Her path carried forward her parents' belief that education could give all three of their children choices they themselves had not had.
2011
Together
We married in 2011. Since then, our decisions about work, family, place, and resources have become shared decisions.
2026
India + United States
Fifteen years later, we are choosing Neti Neti together: a shared practice of giving, learning, and investing for impact.
The record so far
US$124,200
This brings together two years of Impact Fund giving, earlier gifts to schools and Gift of Life, and our new US$50,000 commitment. The number matters less than what the capital makes possible.