One muggy August morning, a terse email popped up from my father, informing me that my Aji had joined the ancestors. I had just graduated from college in Iowa, and moved to Washington, DC, for an unpaid internship hoping to jumpstart a career in environmental research. Aji passed surrounded by her surviving children and all her grandchildren, except her favorite one. With no money and my international student visa about to expire, I could not even contemplate flying out to mourn with my family in Kathmandu. I quietly stepped away from my desk, sat on the bathroom floor, and bawled.
Luna Ranjit is a Nepali-USian who lives between Kathmandu and New York and moves between poetry and essays. Website: lunaranjit.com Twitter: @LunaRanjit