The Traditions apartment complex is prominently located along an emerging stretch of real estate in Edison, New Jersey. They’re not really apartments but closely-packed townhouses, identical and bearing fresh coats of yellow paint. Outside, satellite dishes with the words "Dish Network" emblazoned upon them announce this as a community of successful Indian immigrants, all wired in to Zee Gold, TV Asia, et al.

Rajesh Khandelwal and his wife Shweta purchased their home here on August 10 last year, a month and a day before the towers fell. The cream carpets are still immaculate. It was on this carpet that their child, Sivam, now 20-months-old, would sit waiting for his father to come through the door.

But his father never came back. And Shweta now lives here with Rajesh’s parents and Sivam. An enormous TV dominates the living room. On top of that rests a vcr, a dvd player and a music system, as well as a heart-shaped frame with a photo of Shweta and Rajesh. The entertainment system was just the beginning—Rajesh wanted to turn his living room into a home theatre. "He did everything—chose the furniture, put up the curtains," says his father, Ramesh, gesturing around the living room.

Rajesh and Shweta had their initial doubts about the house, but once told the vaastu was excellent, they closed on it. He had joined Marsh McLennan three years earlier. "From the age of three on, he never made a mistake—he was a most disciplined boy," says Ramesh, an astrologer. "Astrologically, he was very sound. Forty per cent of his stars were the same as Lord Krishna’s."

As the rescue operations went under way, the Khandelwals constantly received encouragement from astrologers and relatives in India, many of whom were sure Rajesh was fine. They told the family to look for him in the south, "but there was no way for us to convey that to the rescue team," says cousin Rekha, as Shweta sits silently. "When we saw Ground Zero, we thought, ‘How could anyone survive this?’."

The family considered returning to India, but ultimately decided that the best way to honour Rajesh’s memory and his wishes was to stay behind. It could also ensure the best possible education for Sivam.

Sivam is, in many ways, just like his father. He too refuses to take his shoes off, he is quiet, orderly by nature. The one exception, perhaps, is his obsession for fruit. "His dad never ate fruits," observes Shweta, as Sivam climbs off the sofa, hops back to it, clambers over his mother’s back and onto his grandmother’s lap, all the while firmly clutching a thick wedge of dried pineapple.