‘You will be fine in the kitchen.’ Rajjo nodded again, with a lump forming in her throat.

Kuljeet’s act was neither out of kindness, nor fondness nor curiosity. Yet it was the most significant thing she had done for Rajjo. She’d officially allowed her to join them as a sewadar and stay on in the ashram. And then she heard Kuljeet add, ‘Wisdom, honour and wealth are within the grasp of those whose hearts remain with the Lord.’

Rajjo stole her gaze away like a thief. She was not here to be one with the lord. Thankfully, Kuljeet continued, ‘Anyway, we are short-staffed in the kitchen. Three of my women have moved to other ashrams! Rahat here will give you the overview.’ Rajjo strained to hear every word with her left ear and then she turned towards the boy Kuljeet had pointed at.

Rahat was a teenager, barely five feet in height, with an adolescent stubble and acne on his face. A mop of dry curly hair sat on his head. His eyes were glazed. As if he was high on some drug. He stammered while speaking as he showed Rajjo around the kitchen while Kuljeet and the others moved away to inspect the little storehouse situated in the back of the property.

As she followed Rahat, Rajjo almost chuckled aloud. She was going to be serving people in the name of God!

For the next few weeks the kitchen was her solace. Rajjo would wake up at the crack of dawn to get ready for the chores that awaited her. The others would say their prayers before commencing, but Rajjo would resolutely stare out of her window, taking in the sunrise. The religious readings would start in the prayer room in the compound, the sermons could be heard all the way to the kitchen where Rajjo sat chopping vegetables, filling buckets and buckets of cabbage and cauliflowers each day. From absolute inaction she had gone to a continual state of action.

It was cathartic to cut and chop without stopping, without thinking. Her knife was her weapon and she wielded it with urgency. Rajjo emerged as a worker to reckon with, given her speed, dedication and desperation to work until she was exhausted enough to fall into her bed at night as if she was dead. She welcomed the tiredness. It was a race between her mind and body.