Without language you can't feel that you have a legitimate, respected presence. You are without a voice, without power. - Jhumpa Lahiri

Like pregnancy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity of from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect.

On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment, combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in bowl.

As strange as it seemed, I knew in my heart that one day her death would affect me, and stranger still, that mine would affect her.