Our Life, Our Message

Dear Friends,
This past week we have had a lot of emails requesting who we were and why we write here. I, Neriz even had a long 45 mins conversation on a Thursday night with a friend who hoped our endeavor failed. In this post myself and Atma Nirvana will share our stories on why we write here. Sorry for the long post.

Neriz: I was born and raised in a Christian home in Mumbai India. I grew up in a wealthy family with a golden spoon in my mouth. Being the only grandchild and the only grand son I was spoilt. Just a month before I was born my grandfather passed away. The family’s employees in the family business thought I was a reincarnation of their old boss and treated him like a king. I gave my life to Christ during the Hindu-Muslim riots at the age of twelve, but fell away from Christ at the age of 17. I became a well-known and successful DJ in India and played professional soccer. The fame and fortune led me to live a loose, promiscuous lifestyle; I started drinking alcohol doing drugs. I spent several years living in the world and eventually became hopeless and being lost. I began taking pain pills to numb the pain in my life and my heart. I continued to increase the dosage and found himself addicted to pain medication. My parents were very concerned about well being because of all of the negative pressures placed on youth in India. In an attempt to protect me, my parents sent me to the United States at the age of 21. I decided to leave the world behind and rededicate my life to Christ at the age of 23.

The Lord called me to serve Him in 2003. When the Lord called him I said why me Lord, the Lord spoke to me through one of his favorite verses John 15:16. Since then I have sought the Lord's will for my life in all that I have done. I served as a Campus Minister for one of the University of Louisville programs reaching international students and worked with Bridges International, a Campus Crusade for Christ Organization. I also led a mission trip to India and served as a youth leader and was one of the founding members of Youth for Christ-Colaba Unit, Mumbai India. I currently work for a non profit in CA.

I openly sate that I sided with the Democratic Party Platform when I first came to the United States as a young man, but now support the Republican platform. The change came after I took a long hard look at the issues.

I am just a young man in the land of dreams. This is the only place where dreams become reality. “When I came to America I did not come to live the democratic parties dream or the republican parties dream but to live the American dream.” Although it may be hard for me to achieve my dream I am working towards it. I love this country and thank it for making me a better man. I ask you join me in standing for what you believe in. If you do agree with our blogs show us your support by commenting

AtmaNirvana: I was born to a single mom who left me in a government orphanage when I was two days old. Later I was adopted by an American family who had made India their home. My adopted parents were the best parents one could have and I consider myself to be lucky to have had them has parents. Although my parents were Hippies, they took good care of me and sent me to good schools and wanted the best for me, they had a very good heart. Tragedy stuck when I was seventeen years old, an Indian family took advantage of my parents kindness and duped them of all their life savings. My parents had nothing left and they committed suicide. I was traumatized by this incident and had to drop out of high school as I had to now fend for myself. I led a street life hustling for a daily bread. During this time I saw horrible things human beings did to each other. I first hand saw how Women and kids were sexually exploited. I wanted to get away from the street life and move to greener pastures.

Through my adopted parents I was considered an American Citizen and therefore my goal was to save enough money so I could move to America. When was eighteen I had enough money saved and I immigrated to America.

In 1999, I joined the Army has I felt I owed this service to my adopted country America. The Army provided me with a daily bread and money for college. In the Army I quickly made friends and most of my best buddies to this day are from the Army.

When serving in the Army I fell in love with the most beautiful woman (she wasn’t in the army) who was a Mormon. She never practiced her faith and revolted against her parents, she used to abuse drugs and alcohol, mesmerized by her beauty and love I also started abusing drugs and alcohol and I thought I was happy with her. Because of my alcohol abuse I was close to getting kicked out of the Army but one of my higher officers intervened and gave me a second chance. I was admitted into the alcohol rehab program rather than get kicked out of the Army.

Later, 9/11 occurred, I was sent to Iraq as a soldier. I was involved in several fire fights and saw one my close friend, they officer who intervened and helped me out during my alcohol abuse, die in an IED attack. During this time my girlfriend who was back in the US broke up with me; She didn’t want to be involved with anyone religious like myself. This was hardest time of my life, I felt very lonely. I always wondered why God was testing me with hardships. I wondered why God took my parents away from me, why did He take away the good officer and why did the most beautiful girl in the world break up with me. Why God why I asked? I had totally lost faith in God and gave up on him.

One day when we were on a mission to provide security in the City of Kirkuk in Iraq (The birth place of Abraham) the strangest thing happened to me. I felt the presence of Jesus, I felt immense joy, I didn’t feel lonely anymore. He told me he was always with me. I felt the presence of the Jesus in what was considered a holy land, this was the happiest day of my life. Ever since I have never turned back on life. When I returned back to the states I went to school got my Bachelors degree.

As God acts in mysterious way, I accidentally met Neriz on a bus ride to work. We shared our stories about Jesus and I loved what Neriz was doing for the kids back in India. I decided to help him with Blog. I feel Jesus has bigger plans for me. I personally don’t believe in Politics, I feel Jesus Christ love us all, both Democrats and Republicans. His Love is immense and unconditional. My adopted parents were liberals and Democrats, the officer who helped me was a Republican, Jesus Christ sent them at the right time to help me out without consideration to their political affiliations. Therefore my goal is to reach out to the unreached and spread the word of Jesus. Please share the message of our blog to your friends and family.