As I settled into the rhythm of everyday life, a survey from Indiaspora landed in my inbox, asking me to recall one serendipitous moment from IFG 2025. I paused—how could I pick just one? It wasn’t a single moment, a single session, or even a single interaction. It was everything, woven together into something much greater than its parts.

Stepping onto my hotel balcony at the Grand Hyatt in Abu Dhabi, a gentle breeze transported me back to my childhood. Decades ago, when my father was posted at the Indian Embassy, I had walked these shores with my parents, holding their hands as a little girl. That same familiar scent of the Arabian sea, carried by the Gulf breeze, stirred up those beautiful memories. And now, here I was again – older, different and yet somehow the same. Something about this moment felt like a whisper from the past, calling me back.

And then, as if the past and present were colliding, I met someone who had also lived in Abu Dhabi as a child, attended the same university I had in Toronto, and worked in the U.S. Our lives had unfolded in parallel, each unaware of the other, until now. Soon after, I met another person with eerily similar experiences, this time from Australia, where I now reside. Then, yet another—someone who shared my deep appreciation for Sanskrit. While neither of us were scholars, our children were learning formal Sanskrit and keeping the language alive, his even making it to the Guinness World Records for Sanskrit recitation.

One after another, I met people who reflected a part of me, and I, a part of them. Seven hundred people from 34 countries, yet we were all connected in profound ways. Each of us carried a piece of home within us yet found echoes of ourselves in one another. Indiaspora became a bridge, much like the undersea networks connecting the world—bringing together those who might never have met otherwise.

But just as I was beginning to see the magic in these encounters, something deeper stirred within me—a sense of something unfinished. These connections, as powerful as they were, were not enough. There had to be more than just mirroring lives, more than just a reunion of the past and present. What was I really meant to take from this? 

And then, the signs began to appear.

While touring the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, I casually mentioned how incredible it would be to meet Kailash Satyarthi, whose work I had long admired. And the following evening, as we gathered for dinner at the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, I found myself listening to him in person.

On the bus from the Grand Hyatt to the venue, I found myself in deep conversation about the Maha Kumbh, its grandeur and significance. The theme kept following me—again and again. Even my phone seemed to be conspiring, surfacing Ricky Kej’s Maha Kumbh song in my updates. Then, I found myself standing at the dinner—face to face with Ricky Kej himself. 

And then, another surprise—the very person who had made this experience possible, who had set the stage for all these connections, was suddenly on stage himself. Not speaking. Not facilitating. But playing away on his harmonium. Who would have thought? Another passion of mine, the stage, was in him too. 

And in that moment, the gathering itself transformed. It was no longer just an event—it became a performance of its own, an orchestra of people, stories, and moments converging in harmony. Some played their parts in the foreground, some in the background, but each was necessary to create the whole. 

Was it a beautiful series of coincidences? Or was something greater at play?

A day after the IFG Summit, I went to the Maha Kumbh, the world’s largest gathering of humanity, where the answer became clear. It wasn’t just about connection—it was about convergence. A force greater than ourselves was pulling us together. There is something sacred about the way people move in the same direction with a shared belief. You could visit the same place alone—but the coming together of people, thinking together, walking together—transforms it.

The Sangam mirrored this very truth: Selfless service (Ganga), purifying the mind and cultivating humility. Action (Yamuna), devotion in motion. Knowledge (Saraswati), the seeking of wisdom and truth.

This was the invisible (Saraswati) thread binding us all—the pursuit of wisdom arising from a collective consciousness, a call to inspire the Indian diaspora to be a force for good.

And then, just like that, the tides recede. Planes take off, people disperse, and life returns to normal. But something has shifted. I carry back something invisible, yet profound—a reminder that when minds align, when voices rise in unison, when we move together toward a purpose, the experience is magnified beyond measure.

The world’s largest confluence of rivers was not just an external spectacle; it was a journey inward. A reminder that we are always being called. The question is—will we listen?

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