The State We Are In: Neither Here, There, nor in Heaven Image courtesy of Madhushree Ghosh. Illustration by Carolyn Wells. Madhushree Ghosh | Longreads | May 2021 | 16 minutes (4,261 words) Seventeen years ago, I receive the call most immigrants dread. It is inevitable, and yet. The call announces that my Baba, my indefatigable, extroverted, positively enthusiastic father, was felled by a massive cardiac arrest. On a heart that was the most giving one among all the people I’ve known. Life in America at that second continues without a ripple. Only, my life changes, divided into before-the-call and after-the-call. I ask my now-ex. “Will you come with me?” — like a child.