Priti Umarkar has one reason to live, her daughter Vomika. The three year old just celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi, her first experience of an Indian festival, at her grandfather's home in Nagpur. An idol of Ganpati occupies a corner of the living room. Opposite, a gentle-faced man smiles from a gold-framed portrait, against the backdrop of a monument that like him, lives only in memory.
'My father's name is Anil Umarkar,' Vomika tells her kindergarten class. 'He was working in Tower One. A plane crashed into it. My father fell down. He could not come back home.'
Only Priti and her friend Shefali Agarwala from among the victims' families have returned to India. "I live for Vomika," Priti says, "and to realize her father's dreams. That dream will keep me strong." She hopes her daughter can return to America some day, perhaps as a student.
Text and photograph: Bijoy Venugopal. Excerpted from India Abroad's Magazine Special on the Survivors of 9/11