The Roots of Identity
I come from the Gujarati Jain community, with ancestral roots in Surendranagar, Gujarat. Yet, my story is as much about Mumbai as it is about Gujarat. Born and brought up in India’s financial capital, my earliest memories are of a joint household — fourteen members under a single roof, three generations living as one. It was a home filled with discipline, tradition, abundance, and most importantly, love.
I was blessed to live not just with my parents and grandparents, but also my great-grandfather — a rare privilege that gave me a living connection to my lineage. My heritage is not simply cultural; it is living memory, carried forward through the examples set by those who came before me.
The Inheritance of Values
If wealth defined my family’s early years, values defined its legacy. My grandfather was the force behind my survival, pouring his life into my treatments, my education, and my growth. My grandmother, equally, instilled in me the essence of resilience and independence — teaching me that dignity comes from self-reliance.
Ours was a family that valued courage, effort, and persistence over comfort. These values became the invisible inheritance that shaped me long after material wealth was lost.
The Turning Point
In 1998, the stability of generations collapsed. Betrayal within the family stripped us of everything we had built. Overnight, the wealth that once defined our household disappeared. What remained was responsibility. My grandfather’s illness, household duties, and survival itself demanded action.
Adversity became the crucible in which my heritage was reforged. From abundance to scarcity, from dependence to independence, I learned that true heritage is not what you inherit but what you carry forward when all else is taken away.
Carrying the Lineage Forward
Today, as I live in Manila with my wife and children, my heritage travels with me. It is present in my decisions as a strategist, in the resilience that adversity carved into me, and in the values I pass on to my sons.
Heritage, to me, is not about nostalgia. It is about continuity — of values, of courage, of faith in resilience. My journey, though global in experience, is deeply rooted in the lessons of my forefathers and foremothers. They gave me the foundation to build, to endure, and to rise.