He Became a Hate Crime Victim. She Became a Widow.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla’s death in an
anti-immigrant attack at a Kansas bar
made headlines the world over. Now his
wife, Sunayana Dumala, tells her story.
By AUDRA D.S. BURCH JULY 8, 2017
OLATHE, Kan. — Sunayana Dumala tried once again to enter the worship room she and her husband, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, had created in their home for daily prayers. Mr. Kuchibhotla had built an intricate wooden shrine by hand two years ago, a small sacred edifice where they would kneel each morning. Months after his death, it became a place where she would honor him.
On a Wednesday night in February, a man with a semiautomatic pistol and a distorted notion of American pride turned ordinary people into shooting victims and survivors — and he turned Ms. Dumala into a widow.
Mr. Kuchibhotla, an Indian-born engineer, was confronted about his immigration status at a bar, then fatally shot. By the time the police arrived, Mr. Kuchibhotla was dying, and his close friend Alok Madasani was wounded. Another patron who tried to stop the attack was also struck by gunfire.
Three months to the day after her husband’s murder, Ms. Dumala stood at the entrance of the prayer room alone, looking toward a window that framed storm clouds. She turned away.
“Everything about this room, everything about this house,” she said later, “reminds me of my Srinu,” the nickname she gave him during their courtship.
It was in the quiet of the next morning that Ms. Dumala, 32, decided that would be the day she would step inside the worship room. What had been unbearable just the previous day seemed surmountable the following day, if only because it was the next painful step.
more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/us/he-became-a-hate-crime-victim-she-became-a-widow.html?emc=edit_ta_20170708&nl=top-stories&nlid=57435284&ref=cta
