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Indian-American MBA student opens-up about questioning Nikhil Kamath's MBA comment
NYU Stern MBA student Anaheez Patel highlighted the significance of respectful disagreement in better thinking.
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Staff Reporter - Sun, 12, Apr 2026
- 03:30 EDT
- 36
Anaheez Patel and Nikhil Kamath / Anaheez Patel and Nikhil Kamath via LinkedIn
Indian-origin NYU Stern MBA student Anaheez Patel has shared her version of the tale after a video featuring Patel and Indian entrepreneur and investor, Nikhil Kamath’s, disagreement on MBAs went viral.
During the 21st annual Columbia India Business Conference, Patel posed a question to Kamath, challenging his earlier remark suggesting that pursuing an MBA at 25 may not be worthwhile.
ALSO READ: Sunak, Murthy are first couple guests on Kamath’s podcast
Kamath responded to Patel with a pinch of humor and said, “300 grand for your MBA course. So this room, if it has 500 people here, you have spent $90 million to be in this room. I hope knowing the rich kids of India of tomorrow has some value to me in the future. Hence, I’m here, ” drawing laughter and cheers from the audience.
Said in a room filled with MBA students, Patel’s challenge to Kamath and his witty reply quickly gained traction online.
Days later, Anaheez Patel opened about the moment and described it as “72 hours of breaking the internet in India.”
Patel revealed, in a LinkedIn post, that she comes from a family that takes education very seriously. Coming from a family consisting of a marine engineer father, a teacher mother and a pediatric surgeon sister, education has been key to Patel’s upbringing.
She remarked, “There was one thing that was never denied: access to knowledge. Books were never questioned. Even family vacations had an element of learning and substance - many museums, dad took us into engine rooms on ships and more. VERY RICH, in that sense of the term.”
Providing evidence to back her claims, Patel narrated the story of a domestic help whose family gained significantly from education. She said, “We had a widowed domestic help at home since I was born. Among the many ways my parents supported her, one was ensuring her daughters received an education. Today, her older daughter holds an MBA from an institute in Mumbai. Our domestic help is supported and no longer needs to work a menial job.”
Patel continued, “While we miss her, we’re incredibly proud of the upward mobility we were able to provide her family. So when I speak about education, it’s not abstract. I’ve seen firsthand what it can do”.
Patel also highlighted why she chose to speak up when her peers chose silence. She said, “We’ve normalised a kind of intellectual politeness where we sit around ideas we don’t agree with, simply because it’s easier. I’ve never found that particularly useful.
She continued, “Respectful (read that again, respectful) disagreement, when grounded in logic, is how better thinking happens.”
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