It was in 2011 when chef Vikas Khanna was in Vrindavan to celebrate Holi when he first encountered the widows who live there, cast away by families. He was there to shoot for a show. Just as he was being rushed out from the backdoor exit of Bankebhai temple to avoid the rush of onlookers who had gathered, he walked into a street lined by hundreds of widows lining both sides, watching the Holi festivities from afar. "Until then, I hadn't thought about them. When I was growing up, there was an aunt who was always at home, beautiful, not allowed into any family function. We [Indians] consider it normal. A boy walking behind me was trying to explain, 'Inko mat dekhna, apshagun hai [don't look at them; it's inauspicious]'."

Khanna remembers making eye contact with a 90-year-old. "I smiled at her, organically. And she looked happy for that, that someone had acknowledged her," Khanna narrates over an early 8 am breakfast interview at an Andheri five-star.