WHERE THE RIVER GENTLY FLOWS

Their life together might have begun in San Francisco, but India has always been part of Natasha and Neel's story.

- By MUSKAN MUMTAZ.

When Natasha met Neel for their first date at a cozy wine bar in San Francisco's Russian Hill, they traded playlists and swapped notes on films they loved.

She, a venture capital investor, grew up in the Bay Area; he, now working in product at a startup, grew up in small-town Georgia. That night they also told each other stories of their childhood summers visiting family in India—and found a shared thread that felt grounding despite their different upbringings.

That early bond, and the sense that India had always been part of their story, shaped where they would marry. “It was impossible to imagine anywhere else for our wedding, because it’s where we feel like our stories really begin, not only for ourselves, but our families and our ancestors,” says Natasha.

After their engagement, they found their dream location during an impromptu road trip Natasha took with her mother to Rishikesh while visiting her grandparents in New Delhi. The two stood under a sprawling banyan tree with the Ganga flowing below, and Natasha remembers FaceTiming Neel, who immediately saw something of his Appalachian upbringing in those hills. “We just felt really guided by the elements. As we say in our family, it called to us.”