The physique of Aishwarya Thatikonda, certainly one of eight folks killed within the mall shooting last weekend in Allen, Texas, has been flown to her household India and cremated.

But as South Asians from Texas to Telangana, India, grieve the lack of the 26 12 months previous, they’re additionally contending with a funeral course of that defies conference — sending off somebody so younger, who died so removed from residence. 

For somebody like Thatikonda who died throughout an ocean from their instant household, returning the physique to the house nation is step one in a conventional Hindu funeral, and it’s important in guaranteeing final rites will be carried out. 

“The purpose of the funeral ceremony is to honor the body that hosted the soul in this birth,” mentioned Pandit Chandra Mouli, a Hindu priest primarily based in Allen. “It also includes prayers for the soul until it attains its next birth.”

Thatikonda, a undertaking engineer who grew up within the South Indian metropolis of Hyderabad, was on the mall on May 6 searching for an outfit for her twenty seventh birthday, which might have been on May 18. After graduating along with her grasp’s diploma from Eastern Michigan University in 2020, based on her LinkedIn profile, she moved to Texas and commenced working at a contracting agency.

Messages from NBC News to her dad, brother, cousin and different contacts weren’t returned. 

According to Ashok Kholla, treasurer of the nonprofit Telugu Association of North America, who helped set up the trouble to ship Thatikonda’s stays residence, the household opted for a conventional Hindu ceremony. 

This usually consists of bathing and dressing the physique, administering final rites, cremation, a 13-day interval of mourning, and spreading the ashes over a physique of water. 

In any household, spiritual or not, having the physique of a beloved one brings closure, Mouli mentioned. But for Hindu funerals, the physique performs a very vital position. Normally, cremations are carried out as quickly as doable, typically inside a day or two of loss of life, mentioned Madhu Bommineni, president of the American Telugu Association. It took a number of days for Thatikonda’s physique to even start the journey residence, so the grieving course of was longer than normal. 

“In the Hindu belief, the soul is given a human body as a gift,” Mouli mentioned. “A human birth is considered a very rare gift. Once the purpose of the human body is completed, the body is returned back to where it came from and the soul continues the journey.”

Traditionally, the eldest son of the deceased conducts the final rites, main the household in prayer. If the individual didn’t have youngsters, then that position normally falls to the partner, mentioned Bommineni. But for somebody as younger as Thatikonda, who was not married and had no youngsters, who performs the final rites stays unclear.

“Since she’s a young woman, one of her family members, most probably her father, will take care of that,” Bommineni mentioned. “It’s hard to think about. They’d never expect such things to happen to their children. … Not knowing what happened to her, and then knowing she passed away, and then all this weight of bringing her back home. It’s not easy for anybody.” 

Mouli says these processes exist to make sure the soul’s protected passage into its subsequent life, its new physique. The ashes are scattered in water to free the soul so the physique, which is fashioned in fluid within the womb, can full the cycle the place it started, he mentioned.

“The human body is made of the five elements, and once the soul leaves the body, we consign the body back to the elements,” he mentioned. 

Identification of her physique was initially delayed “because her face was mutilated, totally unrecognizable,” her boss and shut good friend Srinivas Chaluvadi told NBC News on Monday. “It’s a grief I’ve never experienced. I pray that this situation doesn’t happen to anybody.”

After the capturing, Telugu group leaders in North Texas got here collectively to lift funds and repatriate Thatikonda’s physique to India as quickly as they might. 

“This young woman came from India to go to school for better education and seeking a better life,” Bommineni mentioned. “And without a thought, she was at the mall and now her family is grieving their loss.”