LOVE IN THE NEW AGE

Doyel Joshi and Neil Ghose Balser's wedding is a story of their Marwari-GermanBengali cultures, their worlds amalgamating through their artistic practice, and the love that inspires and liberates them. AKSHARA SUBRAMANIAN charts their story

When we thought about marriage, it was so much more than a social construct for us. Over the course of the pandemic, we'd spent time thinking about how it would show up in our worlds—in the way we'd compose something, how it would impact our work individually and together, the ability to express ourselves, our vulnerability and how we live our truth,” says Doyel Joshi of her relationship with her husband, Neil Ghose Balser.

Some relationships are fated to begin at the most unintended places. Balser and Joshi’s started at the entrance of the University Center at Parsons School of Design in New York City. I was wearing an orange turtleneck, getting out of a yoga session. Balser and his friends were hanging out there. We noticed each other and just needed an excuse to start talking,” says Joshi. Despite not having met previously or having mutual connections or social circles of any kind, the couple felt like they were placed in each other’s lives at the right time. We became friends and spent a lot of time at the university library. She was working long hours, and I helped her with the sound design and composition of her final thesis,” says Balser.