East Indians New York

According to Hindu tradition, there are five basic elements of life: air, water, fire, earth and space. There is no mention of passion. But for Hema Sakhrani, passion was all. So when the man she loved was slain last month by a family acquaintance, the 20-year-old woman leaped from the window of her parents' 16th-floor Rego Park, Queens, apartment. She left this world, friends say, to meet her beloved in a better world.

According to Hindu tradition, there are five basic elements of life: air, water, fire, earth and space. There is no mention of passion. But for Hema Sakhrani, passion was all. So when the man she loved was slain last month by a family acquaintance, the 20-year-old woman leaped from the window of her parents' 16th-floor Rego Park, Queens, apartment. She left this world, friends say, to meet her beloved in a better world.