In her childhood she showed an exceptional interest in Buddhist rituals and preferred to study rather than play. She very much wanted to attend school but in 1923 at the age of twelve she was married and later went to live with her husband, an engineer, in Rangoon. He soon left to work in Burma, leaving her with her in-laws. Eventually she moved to Burma to join her husband. In 1929 when Nani was 18 her mother died unexpectedly, leaving behind a baby boy named Bijoy which Nani and her husband took to raise in Burma, as they had not yet had a child.