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BEHIND THE STRIPES

Neha Patel

By Atlanta United FC

April 30^th, 2026

In a moment of true vulnerability, Neha Patel made a bet with her husband, and by extension, with her faith.

The trials of life as a mother, working a job and still finding time to express herself artistically put Neha in a position where she felt like she needed a sign.

She called on her Hindu faith and one deity, known as Bhagavan, in particular. She called on Krishna.

“I told [my husband], ‘If Bhagavan is real, I will find a fabric that is the exact Hare Krishna yellow. The yellow has to be the Hare Krishna because that would be like from him,’” Neha said. “‘It has to come in my life some way or the other.’”

Just two days went by, and Neha received an email from Atlanta United’s creative team. She had been recommended by Sanithna Phansavanh, the club’s 2025 Asian American and Pacific Islander Scarf designer, to design the 2026 edition.

“They sent me a PDF of previous people, so I see that person's name on it that recommended me. I click on it, the guy that recommended me is wearing the exact Hare Krishna yellow,” Neha said. “I'm like, ‘You want a scarf from me?’ Like, okay, what kind of scarf? They pull up a painting that they think I should go direction wise. And is a freaking Krishna.”

Her faith was fulfilled right in front of her eyes, inviting her to tell her story to an audience she never had before. As a member of Atlanta United’s 2026 Art Collective and the designer of the 2026 AAPI Scarf, Neha chose to platform aspects of her life that define her: her belief, her culture, her motherhood.

“I don't know why I'm here,” Neha said with her signature humble and comedic demeanor. “God brought this to me, so I better do a good job at it.”

Neha’s journey with art began in her home. As a practicing Hindu, she was searching for ways to bring her religion into her house, especially as she began to raise her son in 2015. She looked around at her fellow Indian Americans and was surprised to find that coordinated, Americanized décor took precedent over culture.

“I noticed that a lot of the moms, they were not bringing spirituality in their homes when they created the environment, just because they felt that it did not match a home's aesthetic,” Neha said. “It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we're really gonna give up who we are because it doesn't match the aesthetic of our homes?’”

So Neha took matters into her own hands. She started digitally, creating images of Bhagavans. Her background as a UI/UX designer informed what quickly evolved from an artistic side quest to a legitimate business.

It started by word of mouth, friends noticing her work and asking if Neha could make more. She found that mothers, especially new mothers, wanted her artistic vision to define their own homes. She made Bhagavans in different colors upon requests and started earning commission.

It became a community practice, one that Neha said she didn’t plan. But she felt like her work was needed.

“I really did it because it's what motherhood is about,” Neha said. “What can I curate in my home, and what energy is it that I want my children to live in?

“This is a little bit of that intersection in a way of reinventing who we are as Indian Americans reinventing how we belong in American society and still holding on to who we are as Indians. I thought that was very powerful.”

That work earned Neha attention, and through Sanithna’s recommendation, an opportunity to design a scarf for Atlanta United. Her role in the 2026 Art Collective gives her the opportunity to spread that vision even further than she could’ve imagined. But what would she create for this particular project? The subjects of her scarf are just as deliberate as she is.

With golden accents and deep red and black colors, one side of the scarf displays women on horseback.

“In typical ancient paintings you have, I have always seen men on the horses. They're represented as warriors. It's always been males, right?,” Neha said. “I thought that in today's era, it's the moms, we have to get on them. We have to be warriors in the role of how we raise our future generation.”

“Because, honestly, whatever teammates you have on the field, they all have moms.”

Neha knew about Atlanta United’s “Kings of the South” slogan and wanted to create something regal with some edge, but that tie to motherhood is essential. After all, she wouldn’t be here creating art in this way without her journey as a mother.

Flipping the scarf around, those same colors line the background and accent the subjects, a line of women performing a dance from the Hindu festival called Navratri. The celebration is a symbolic one to honor the triumph of good evil.

“I love the dance. I love how the families and everybody come together,” Neha said. “… When we all get dressed up and we all come together and do the dance in circles, it really gives that vibe … feeling royal. I wanted to bring that aspect, our ancestral stance, like this is what we do.”

That’s where Shemoni comes in. Neha’s friend and dance instructor, Shemoni Parekh, teaches traditional Indian dance classes in and around Atlanta. She’s the Art Director at Kruti Dance Academy and has garnered national attention on shows like America’s Got Talent.

Shemoni teaches one particular class that is full of mostly mothers, the one Neha attends. Her art is the real-life inspiration for the dancing women Neha created.

As Shemoni admires the scarf in person for the first time, seeing her culture represented on such a scale is moving. She spoke on how pressure to find sustainable, safe careers in South Asian families often led to people from previous generations to shy away from the arts. Shemoni herself studied and worked in engineering before venturing into dance.

“Now we're at this amazing phase where, because of [our parents’] hard work, we can now allow our children to dream, to be and do anything,” Shemoni said. “When you bring in South Asian elements, or different elements of different cultures into the athletic space that may not have traditionally been in this kind of path that there's a space for them.”

For Neha, it all goes back to the reason she got into art: to root her culture and faith into her home and spread it with her family and community. That mindset of being unapologetically proud of her Indian American heritage is something she wants everyone to adopt.

“I think Indian Americans … we haven't lost who we are. We know exactly who we are, and we would still like to be part of the Americana as we as who we are, and that's my intention with this. I would like my son to know that you could be so you, so us, who we are, and still be part of ATL. You don't need to lose yourself in the act of wanting to belong to a community. This community will accept you exactly how you are.”

Seeing that scarf on the necks of 17s and all around Mercedes-Benz Stadium for Atlanta United’s AAPI Month match Saturday will make it feel all the more real. Neha wants her art to connect people with their own identities, with their communities, with self-love.

“I want to be a bridge between people that are trying to become and the people that just are who they are," Neha said. "Like helping people get there … I want to be that person that reminds my people love yourself.”