For Indian Americans, heartbreak over the homeland
LOS ANGELES — There have been such joyful days lately, when the COVID-19 vaccine clinics that Payal Sawhney helps organize at a Hindu temple in Norwalk are bustling, with thousands of people getting shots.
And there have been days when about every phone call and WhatsApp message brings news of yet another friend or relative sick or dead in India.
Sawhney's mother, in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, has COVID-19. Her brother does, too.
In the city of Gurugram, near New Delhi, her husband’s aunt and uncle tested positive for the coronavirus, as did their son and daughter-in-law, and their two children.
"It feels like being immigrants between two countries; we are on a roller coaster ride, up and down, up and down," said Sawhney, 44, of Cerritos.
"When it was bad in L.A., it was good in India. We were at peace, at least, knowing our families back home were OK. Now, it's getting good here and
