The first meal that Shanti Verma had, after she broke her fast, was a plate of kaali dal, a single ghee-streaked roti and a dollop of subzi, at a langar in a New Delhi gurdwara on her way out from the capital. “It was hard to eat too much, after you’ve fasted for four days,” she says over the phone. “I was also struggling with guilt. Guilt over having given up the fast. It’s been almost two weeks since I took the train back to Obra, and I’m still confused about whether I lost or simply pressed ‘pause’. I’d been fighting so vehemently and now, suddenly, I found myself back home.”
To say that it’s been mildly bewildering for Shanti Verma, All India Radio casual announcer, to go from perching herself steadfastly on an old pipeline outside her former workplace, only drinking liquids out of her bottle, to sitting at home, writing letters and waiting for replies to them, would be an understatement.