Neha Swami, actor Arjun Bijlani’s wife, lost her father, Rakesh Chandra Swami, on January 1. He was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai after suffering a stroke and was on ventilator support. Neha’s brother, Nishank Swami, took to Instagram to share an emotional message for his father.
With a series of photographs that showcase the hearty life his father had lived, Nishank wrote, “I have not even accepted what has happened. It still feels like you’ll walk back into my room any second—I keep longing for that hug and those last words, which I didn’t know would be the last. I keep waiting to hear you scold me one more time, to tell me what I should’ve done better, to call my name the way only you could call my name.”
“Doing your asthi visarian—watching the last parts of you go away—felt like losing you all over again. I carry you in my memories, in my habits, in the silence—I love you, Papa; I will miss you always. Before you lived with me & now you live inside me forever,” he added.
Arjun and Neha were in Dubai to ring in the New Year 2026 and rushed back to Mumbai as soon as they heard of Rakesh Chandra Swami’s deteriorating health. His last rites were carried out in Mumbai, and his asthi visarjan was performed in Haridwar.
