By the tenth day, there was a line. Not a polite Canadian queue—a chaotic, hungry, multilingual snake that wound past the bubble tea shop and the halal butcher. Teenagers in hoodies stood next to grandmothers in saris. A white guy in a Leafs jersey asked for “extra fire sauce” and Asha, for the first time in months, laughed.

She made one last vada pav. She wrapped it carefully, walked outside into the cold Ontario wind, and placed it at the feet of a homeless man sleeping near the bus stop.

On the fourteenth day, Mr. Dhillon came by. The line was out the door. Asha was moving like a goddess herself—three vadas in the oil, one hand swiping chutney, the other tossing pavs. Sweat dripped down her temple.

"Eat," she said.