Anshu Gupta’s home is in Bijnor but the prospect of going back there fills her with dread. When she was 15, a stalker splashed acid on her, burning her left hand and eye, and the left side of her face, neck and middle.
Six years on, Anshu forgets her scars while she’s working at the Sheroes Hangout Cafe in Lucknow’s Gomtinagar. However, when the lockdown started in March, the cafe closed and Anshu and the other acid attack survivors who work there had to return home.
“Going back to Bijnor was horrific,” says the 21-year-old. This time, she had to bear not only the pain of old associations but also kidney stones. She faced them with grit: “I didn’t give up in the crisis that hit my treatment and medication.”
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