Our Journey

People contribute to causes for many reasons—emotional fulfillment, social responsibility, or the desire to make a difference. For me, giving back started no different than others but over the years it morph into a profound drive to support youngsters and bring awareness to the character and life skills that is beyond academic excellence that promote living meaningful life.

I consider myself incredibly fortunate; my path, forged through hard knocks, presented many forks where I could have settled for an ordinary existence. Often, I longed for a mentor or guideto lighten my journey. It was in 1990s that I first encountered Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” a book that, over time, profoundly shaped my outlook on life.

From early 80’s, our giving was straightforward: I’d write a check, a major contribution to Share and care foundation: USA, feeling good about supporting charity work in India. But around 2012, a question from Mr. Narayan Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, at a New York City meeting shifted my perspective entirely: “What is the difference between charity and philanthropy?” This challenged me to think more deeply. I realized I wanted to be personally invested, to give not just treasure, but also my time and talent – the proverbial three T’s.

This deeper commitment led my wife, Deena, and me to India in January 2014, with Mr. VijayDalal, a founder member of Share and Care in USA, to visit 15 different charities. We were particularly drawn to the Oasis movement, an institute dedicated to character education based on best practices, including Covey’s 7 Habits, Daniel Coleman’s, emotional intelligence, and AS Neil’s democratic education principles. I immersed myself, undergoing training as a facilitator. For the next six years, I dedicated two weeks annually to volunteering as a facilitator for various camps for students, teachers, and parents, alongside providing financial support. I saw amazing transformative changes in participant at all the levels.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this cycle of travel, though our support for Oasis Movement, continued remotely to this date. This shift prompted us to seek local partnerships. We now proudly collaborate with Virtual Enterprise International (VEI), an organization that has transformed over 200,000 young lives through authentic business experiences, preparing them for fulfilling, financially secure futures. Through VEI, we provide partial scholarships to bright students facing financial barriers, bringing awareness to five pillars that lead to a meaningful and happy life. We also partner with StreetSquash, a comprehensive youth enrichment program in Harlem, New York City. There, we introduced and actively support a financial literacy program for students and their families, recognizing that financial literacy is integral to accumulating wealth, which in turn provides the freedom to exercise choices in life.