Purdue Student Waits for Word as Aunt and 14-Year-Old Cousin Remain Missing in Himalayan Disaster

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — What began as a disaster thousands of miles from Indiana has now reached directly into the Purdue University community.

Srishti Agrawal, a Purdue University Ph.D. student in Indiana, is waiting desperately for news about her 14-year-old cousin, Rashi Shashidharan, and Rashi’s mother, 54-year-old Rekha Shashidharan. The mother and daughter, who are from New York, are among the Americans still missing following catastrophic flooding and landslides along the Nepal-Tibet border. (initialnews.com

The connection provides an answer, at least in part, to a question the Hoosier Enquirer raised last week: Does the Himalayan catastrophe have an Indiana connection?

It does.

There still has been no publicly confirmed identification of an Indiana resident among the missing, based on information reviewed by the Hoosier Enquirer. But one Purdue doctoral student’s family is now directly caught in the disaster, making events unfolding on the other side of the world painfully personal in Indiana.

“The Days Are Longer Than Ever”

Agrawal described an agonizing wait for information about her relatives.

“It feels like the days are longer than ever,” Agrawal told CNN from Indiana, adding that she has been sleeping only a few hours each day while constantly monitoring her phone for updates. (initialnews.com)

She has established different notification sounds for the people and groups providing information, including a WhatsApp group connecting relatives of members of the missing tour group.

According to CNN’s reporting, none of Rashi and Rekha’s fellow travelers had been located as of the latest account. Agrawal last spoke with her cousin in July while visiting family in India. The cousins had discussed traveling together to India in December — a plan that has now been replaced by an excruciating wait for news. (initialnews.com)

The Purdue student told CNN that her family is caught between hope that their relatives survived somewhere without communications and the horrifying images emerging from the disaster zone.

A 14-Year-Old’s Pilgrimage

Rashi and her mother had traveled to Nepal as part of a pilgrimage toward Mount Kailash in Tibet, a mountain considered sacred by several religions.

CNN earlier reported that Rashi, an eighth grader, had been excited about making the Hindu pilgrimage. Her mother ultimately accompanied her rather than allowing the teenager to make the journey without her. (kesq.com)

The pair spent several days in Kathmandu acclimating to the altitude before traveling north toward the Chinese border.

The family last communicated with them on the morning the disaster struck. They were expected to travel to an immigration checkpoint before crossing into Tibet.

Then came the flood.

A massive glacial and rock collapse high in the Himalayas sent an enormous torrent of water, ice, rock and debris through valleys below. The event was powerful enough to register as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event, according to scientists cited by the Associated Press.

Communities, roads, bridges and other infrastructure were overwhelmed. (apnews.com)

After the disaster hit, communications with Rashi and Rekha stopped.

Roughly 80 Americans Still Unaccounted For

The numbers have continued changing as rescuers locate survivors, recover victims and families establish contact with people previously considered missing.

As of Monday, the U.S. State Department was aware of approximately 80 Americans who remained unaccounted for, while 13 U.S. citizens had reached safety, according to a State Department spokesperson. (goodmorningamerica.com)

The overall scale is staggering. Nepalese authorities reported Monday that 939 people had died in Nepal and 3,925 remained missing, including 592 foreigners. Chinese authorities reported another 16 deaths and 546 people missing in Tibet. (scrippsnews.com)

Hundreds of workers are also feared trapped inside enormous hydropower tunnels filled or blocked by mud. Rescue crews are attempting to penetrate those tunnels while confronting damaged roads, unstable terrain and continuing hazards.

For families waiting thousands of miles away, however, those enormous statistics ultimately come down to individual names.

For one Purdue student, they are Rashi and Rekha.

The Question Hoosier Enquirer Asked

The Hoosier Enquirer reported last week that no Indiana resident had been publicly identified among the missing or dead. At that time, we cautioned readers that the absence of an identified Hoosier should not be mistaken for proof that Indiana had escaped any connection to the tragedy. (hoosierenquirer.com)

That distinction has become important.

The Hoosier Enquirer still has not found public confirmation that an Indiana resident is among those missing, but we now know that a Purdue University doctoral student has two close relatives among them.

As authorities gradually identify the missing Americans, it remains possible that additional Indiana connections could emerge.

Waiting in Indiana

For Agrawal and her family, statistics about thousands of missing people cannot answer the only question that matters.

Where are Rashi and Rekha?

Six days into the ordeal, Agrawal told CNN that her family was still holding onto the possibility that the mother and daughter could be alive somewhere in the devastated region, unable to communicate and waiting for rescuers.

The alternative is something the family is not prepared to accept without definitive information.

That is the brutal uncertainty shared by families across the United States and around the world as rescuers continue searching the Himalayas.

And now we know that one of those families is waiting for answers right here in Indiana.