1996 · 2007 · 2011 · 2026
Two departures. One marriage. One shared choice.
We each left Mumbai to continue our education—Nishant in 1996, Neeti in 2007. Those journeys shaped how we understand opportunity, family, and what education can make possible. We married in 2011. Neti Neti is our decision to turn what we have received into a living legacy of wider impact.
Written in Mumbai · August 15, 1996
“I don't know what I'm losing yet and I don't know what I'll gain.”
Nishant's passage · August 1996
1996
Home became more than one place.
My father came to the United States in 1973 to pursue his MBA, beginning at the University of Scranton and completing the degree at Temple University before returning to India. He wanted both his sons to go forth into the world and find our own way.
My brother went to France for his eleventh-grade year through Rotary's Youth Exchange Program, and I expected to follow a similar path to Japan. Then I received a scholarship to Asheville School. My mother protested, certain that if I went to the United States I would never return. I pleaded with her to let me go.
She relented, and at sixteen I entered the country through Philadelphia before traveling south to North Carolina. What began as an unexpected educational path became a second life. Thirty years later, together we are asking how the opportunities we received can widen possibility for others.
Neeti's passage · June 6, 2007
2007
Education was the inheritance.
I grew up in Mumbai as the middle of three children. My parents, who had not had the opportunity to pursue higher education themselves, made it possible for all three of us to earn graduate degrees in the United States.
My father, Janak Bhayani, believed fluent English would help us wherever in the world we chose to go and whatever work we chose to do. My parents made education more than a credential. It became mobility, independence, and an opening into a larger life.
After earning my MA in English Literature from the University of Mumbai, I arrived in Philadelphia on June 6, 2007, to pursue a master's degree in Interior Architecture & Design at Drexel University. I carried my parents' investment in me and my own willingness to begin again.
15
Years · 1996 to 2011
From one departure to a shared life.
15
Years · 2011 to 2026
From a shared life to shared responsibility.
A line that has stayed with Nishant
“My legacy would not be dependence but independence.”
Leadership first taught Nishant to think of himself as a temporary keeper, one puzzle piece rather than the whole puzzle. Giving should carry the same humility.
See how the giving record began