Atlanta, GA, September 19, 2026: Seven storytellers. Seven deeply personal journeys. One evening dedicated to the stories that shape lives but are rarely told on a public stage.
NRIStories, NRI Pulse’s annual live storytelling event, returns to metro Atlanta on Saturday, September 26, bringing together voices from medicine, technology, dance, entrepreneurship and the community for an evening of true stories and real-life inspiration.
Dr. Sumit Seth, Consul General of India in Atlanta, will attend the event as Guest of Honor.
Moh Jewels NRIStories 2026, presented by NRI Pulse, will be held at 6 p.m. on September 26th at Bliss Events & Banquet Hall, 3170 Peachtree Pkwy, Suwanee, Georgia.
Now in its third year, NRIStories was created as a platform for members of the Indian-American and immigrant community to step beyond professional titles and public accomplishments and tell the personal stories behind their journeys. Presented in a TED-style format, each storyteller takes the stage to share a carefully crafted story drawn from lived experience.
This year’s storytellers are Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan, Abhijeet Singh, Stephanie Fraser, Bhavya Jha Chaudhary, Anurag Sharma, Malika Jiwani, and Aastha Shastri.
Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan, Executive Director of the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, will present “Where My Story Really Began.” His story begins with his mother, Jayakka, whose determination and independence helped shape the questioning young man he would become. Dr. Narayan traces an unconventional path from medical school to epidemiology and public health, and eventually to leadership roles at the NIH, CDC and Emory. Along the way, his willingness to question accepted wisdom and follow unexpected paths helped shape both his career and his approach to science. His story looks beyond professional achievement to the people, choices and moments of uncertainty that made that journey possible.
Abhijeet Singh, Founder, President, and CEO of TechSera, a global technology firm specializing in supply chain, retail and digital innovation, will share “Built From the Ground Up.” With more than 25 years of industry experience working with Fortune 500 retailers and consumer brands, Singh will step behind the résumé to tell the story of building a company from the ground up as an immigrant entrepreneur while navigating uncertainty, setbacks and difficult choices. His story explores what it takes to keep moving forward when there is no roadmap, and why character, resilience and people matter as much as business success.
Stephanie Fraser will share “Searching for the Girl I Left Behind.” Born in India and adopted at age three, Fraser grew up in an American Catholic family in New York. For decades, career, motherhood and adventure filled her life while the earliest chapter of her story, including her time at a Mother Teresa orphanage, remained largely in the background. Now, DNA testing has connected her with biological relatives and other international adoptees, and she is preparing to return to India with two fellow adoptees she calls her “Indian sisters.” Her story is a deeply personal search for identity, belonging and the missing pieces of her beginnings.
Bhavya Jha Chaudhary, Founder and Managing Attorney of Bhavya Chaudhary and Associates, will present “I Know What It Means to Begin Again.” A graduate of Delhi University School of Law and Emory University School of Law who is licensed to practice in Georgia and Tennessee, Chaudhary has built an accomplished career in immigration law. At NRIStories, however, she will step beyond those professional credentials to tell the personal story of the upheavals, difficult choices and reinventions that tested her resilience and ultimately shaped the life she built in America.
Kathak practitioner, choreographer and educator Anurag Sharma will present “When Destiny Became My Calling“. Trained under legendary Kathak maestro Padma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj, Sharma has performed at venues and festivals including Madison Square Garden and India’s Khajuraho Dance Festival. Yet for more than 30 years, he pursued Kathak alongside a career in Information Technology. In 2026, he finally left the corporate world to devote himself fully to dance. His story explores confronting expectations and prejudice, holding onto an unconventional passion and ultimately choosing the life he felt he was meant to dance.
Malika Jiwani’s “Chased on a Road I Called Home” begins with a frightening encounter when she was chased in her car by a white man on a road in the country she calls home. That encounter becomes the starting point for a larger story about identity, belonging and what happens when a place you consider home suddenly makes you question whether you are seen as belonging there.
Aastha Shastri, founder of Aastha’s Dance Academy, will share “From the Wreckage, I Chose Life.” Her story begins with a devastating 2015 crash in Mexico that killed her husband, Mrugesh, and left her with 19 injuries and facing a long road to recovery. Shastri will tell the story of what came afterward: grief, motherhood, physical recovery and the difficult work of rebuilding a life when the future she had imagined disappeared overnight.
The evening will also honor author, scholar, and longtime Atlanta community member Dr. Uma Majmudar with the NRI Pulse Lifetime Achievement Award. A native of India who immigrated to the United States with her family in 1967, Majmudar earned her Ph.D. from Emory University in 1996 and has devoted much of her scholarship to Gandhi’s philosophy of peace and nonviolence.
The evening will also recognize a story that has reached far beyond the NRIStories stage. Sonny Bharadia, who spent 8,393 days incarcerated before his conviction was overturned and the case against him dismissed, will be present at the event. Bharadia shared his story with NRI Pulse last year and, while he is not one of this year’s featured storytellers, guests will have an opportunity to meet and speak with him personally.
Bharadia will also be presented with an original painting of a phoenix rising from the ashes by Dubai-based artist Reena Bekal, symbolizing a life being rebuilt after more than two decades behind bars.
NRIStories was launched in 2024 as part of NRI Pulse’s 20th anniversary celebrations. The inaugural event brought seven storytellers to the stage and drew a sold-out audience. It returned in 2025 and has since evolved into an annual gathering built around first-person storytelling.
The event’s guiding idea remains simple: True Stories. Real Inspiration.
“Over more than a quarter century of journalism in the United States, I’ve learned that some of the most powerful immigrant stories are the ones that we never hear,” said Veena Rao, founding editor of NRI Pulse and founder of NRIStories. “NRIStories gives people a stage to tell those stories in their own voices. By professionally recording and archiving the talks on the NRI Pulse YouTube channel, we are gradually creating an oral-history collection of our community that can live on for generations.”
Moh Jewels returns as Title Sponsor of NRIStories 2026. The event is also supported by the Sheth Family Foundation, Dr. Narasimhulu Neelagaru, Madras Catering & Co., TechSera, and the Subra, Anu & Kiran Bhat Foundation.
Community organizations have also come together as table sponsors, including the India American Cultural Association (IACA), Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (GIACC), Georgia Association of Physicians of Indian Heritage (GAPI), Heartfulness, One World One Family Foundation, and Sankara Nethralaya, among others.
The evening will include the live storytelling program, entertainment and opportunities for guests to meet and interact with the storytellers and other members of the community.
Hors d’oeuvres and dinner will be curated by Madras Catering & Co.
Moh Jewels NRIStories 2026
Saturday, September 26, 2026 | 6 p.m.
Bliss Events & Banquet Hall
3170 Peachtree Pkwy, Suwanee, GA 30024
Tickets are $25. Register at NRIStories 2026 | NRI Pulse
REGISTER AT NRIStories 2026 | NRI Pulse
