As India suffers, diaspora looks for ways to help from the NW

In India, five million Covid cases have been reported in the month of April alone.

There’s nothing harder than watching a family member struggle with illness — or even die — while you’re thousands of miles away. That’s what’s happening to many of the estimated 75,000 Indian Americans who live in the greater Seattle-Bellevue area.

Agastya Kohli lives in Kirkland. He’s a tech worker, but he’s better known as the son of a towering literary figure in India named Narendra Kohli. So when Agastya's father died of Covid earlier this month, it hurt on many different levels.

“He was a giant," Agastya said. "The loss is both personal — a father to me, a grandfather to my nephews, a husband to my mother — but a lot of his admirers and readers are also mourning his passing. It is a great loss to Indian literature, to Indian culture."

Even India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences.