I generally had an easy go of things, largely due to my financial situation, which allowed me access to competent legal representation and adequate therapy, and a very progressive and accepting family. But I also wondered how other South Asian women managed such a life transition within this cultural context.

We South Asian women are not a monolith by any means: Our families originate in a number of countries, and one could write a dissertation on the ways in which immigration, class, gender, religion and intergenerational status — and culture — intersect in the aftermath of a divorce. I reached out to friends and acquaintances: Some declined to speak to me on the record. “The stigma is real,” one said. Everyone, however, appreciated the opportunity to chat about divorce and co-parenting in the context of our cultures, and all agreed on the invaluability of creating community in the face of changing family dynamics in the diaspora.

Shivani Desai, 41, an Indian-American physician from Naperville, Ill., was married for seven years and has been divorced for about a year. Her family and close friends supported her through her initial transition, as did the parents at her 5-year-old daughter’s school. “But one of the things that helped greatly was social networking,” she said. “On Facebook, specifically, I found moms in my situation. There were several other South Asian women just like me, in the same profession, in the western suburbs of Chicago. And through this network, I met another mom, with two similar-aged children, who I recently went on a Disney cruise with.” Desai stressed the importance of having her child interact with other children going through the same experiences, to build normalcy around their family.

Satya Chheda’s separation and divorce were hard on her son, who was in fourth grade at the time. (He is now 12 years old.) “Both his father and I were a mess, emotionally, and we couldn’t find the right therapist for him,” said Chheda, 45, a career coaching manager for a coding bootcamp who was married for 13 years. “But a friend reached out to him, and said, ‘Hey, my parents aren’t together either,’ and they bonded over that.” She also credits her son’s school in Brooklyn, N.Y., for creating an in-school support group for families in transition. She tried to find culturally specific groups for herself and her son, both online and off, but had limited success. “I went to a New York City-specific group meeting, but felt very disconnected as all the women there were white and well-off,” she said.

Elsewhere online, Kishwer Vikaas, 33, an immigration attorney in Sacramento, who was married for four years and has been divorced for two years, found comfort in Instagram, like me. “I would post vague memes that anyone going through a divorce could identify with,” she said. “Two South Asian male acquaintances reached out to say, ‘Are you going through a divorce, because I am, too!’ We all clung to each other, I guess.”