Notes from the founders
From The Drivers' Seat
The view from where we sit — the stories behind SOS Global Indians, the lessons six years of community have taught us, and honest words about the life we all share: building for Global Indians while carrying India in our hearts. Written by us, for you.
Original · SOSGI Founders
Born in a Crisis: The Story of SOS Global Indians
In March 2020, a son could not bring his stranded mother home. What began that week as a WhatsApp group became one of the largest support communities for Indians abroad — close to 300,000 strong.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 5, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
What 300,000 Strangers Have Done for Each Other
Oxygen in the Delta wave. A road out of a war. Resumes rewritten overnight, companions for seventeen-hour flights, and the hardest journeys home. Six years of receipts — this is what this community actually does.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
Why We're Building This
Not by passport. By spirit. By resilience. By the sheer adaptive capacity we've inherited. We have the network. We just didn't have the structure. Until now.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 9, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
The Marketing & Media Minds Behind SOSGI: Michael & Maneesha
A community builder recognized by Meta, and a global marketing and media leader with 25 years behind the world's biggest brands. Together, the husband-and-wife team building the platform for global Indians.
Founder's Vault · SOS Global Indians · July 6, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
Incredibly Indian: Our Vision for the Global Indian Century
Wherever we go, we carry India with us — in our festivals, our food, our families, our hustle. This is our vision for the global Indian century, and the standard this platform is built to.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 7, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
The Guilt of the Ocean
Every one of us has done the math — the hours, the time zones, the years between visits. This is for everyone who loves their parents from eight thousand miles away, and carries the weight of it quietly.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
Raising American Kids with Indian Hearts
Our children switch languages mid-sentence and worlds mid-day. The question every one of us carries: how do we give them India as a gift — not as homework?
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
When Are We "Settled"?
First it was the degree. Then the job, the visa, the green card, the house. Somewhere along the way, every one of us asks the quiet question: when does "settled" actually arrive?
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
Making Friends After 35, Eight Thousand Miles from Your School Friends
Your school friends are a WhatsApp group and a time zone away. Making real friends as an adult abroad is awkward, slow, unglamorous work — and it might be the most important thing you build here.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
The Two-Passport Heart
The citizenship ceremony takes forty minutes. The decision takes years — and almost none of it is about the paperwork. A letter for everyone standing at that quiet crossroads.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
What We Owe the Newest Arrival
Someone picked you up from the airport once. Someone explained deposits, winters, and why the rent needed a co-signer. This is about the oldest tradition our community has — and keeping it alive.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
Diwali on a Texas Cul-de-Sac
The first year, we celebrated quietly, curtains drawn. Somewhere along the way, the neighbours started asking when the lights go up. What our festivals become when we celebrate them out loud.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
The Career That Waited: For the H-4 Spouses
Behind so many of our success stories stands a spouse whose own story was told to wait — degrees earned, careers paused, identities rebuilt in a country that took years to let them work. It's time we said this out loud.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
The Money Conversations We Whisper
We are a community famous for doing well — and terrible at admitting when we're not. On layoffs, loans, the pressure to perform success, and why our silence costs more than the truth ever would.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026
Original · SOSGI Founders
Home Is a Verb
For years we asked ourselves whether this place would ever feel like home. The question was wrong. Home isn't something a place gives you — it's something you do to a place, until it answers back.
Michael & Maneesha · Founders, SOS Global Indians · July 18, 2026