Both say it was as much the differences in their cultures that intrigued the other, at first, as it was their personalities. “Shosh is a very sweet, but straightforward person,” Mr. Boga said, while Ms. Heerter said, “Rahul is so kind and that really drew me to him.”
Mr. Boga is from Hyderabad, India, and works as a senior product manager for the Boston office of a consulting firm. He has a degree in information systems from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad, and an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.
Ms. Heerter has a bachelor’s of science in geography and environmental sustainability from Salem State University. She is an executive assistant to the chief executive of a cybersecurity company based in Somerville, Mass., where the couple now lives. She is a certified yoga instructor and also served as a sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces.
Mr. Boga met Ms. Heerter’s parents in September 2021.
In October 2022, Mr. Boga introduced Ms. Heerter to his younger sister and her family, who live in Delaware, so his sister could vouch for her to their parents.
“I really wanted his parents to accept me,” Ms. Heerter said.
Knowing the importance of having the right “biodata” to please traditional Indian parents, Ms. Heerter wrote and assembled a 12-page letter to Mr. Boga’s parents, with many more pages of photos, all about herself, her family and her work. She then had it translated into Telugu.
“We sent it to my parents, who then printed it out,” Mr. Boga said. “My mom had tears in her eyes.”
While on a trip to Israel in April 2023, Mr. Boga proposed at the Givat Aliya Beach in Tel Aviv-Jaffa.