“There were three kinds of karma: the accumulated karma from all our past lives; the karma we created in this life; and the karma we stored to ripen in our future lives.”
It had been a while since I’d ‘binged’ on a novel like this. I was glued to book as soon as I started reading it! The Henna Artist is such an incredible and fierce story of one woman’s journey of building a life on her own terms. Joshi creates this beautiful world with some unforgettable characters. Including the backdrop of the beautiful city of Jaipur with its palaces and busy streets.
It has been 13 years since she left her husband, her family behind and established her business in Jaipur. Lakshmi, The Henna Artist, she served to the rich and elite households of the city. Over the years, she had earned every bit of the reputation and respect from society. She was a master at what she did, and that’s why her appointment diary was always booked. Lakshmi had special magic in her hands, her designs and natural remedies she made healed these women in more ways than meets the eye. All she ever wanted was to earn enough money to build her own house, and with all her hard work she was just inches away from having it all. Nothing was going to deflect her from this dream. But one day she finds her husband at her doorstep with a young girl, her sister, Radha.
“My younger sister was lively and curious, which was good, but she was also untamed—and that could be a dangerous combination.”
Lakshmi was stunned, facing this little girl, her eyes the same blue as her own and her mother’s. A sister she didn't know she had. Radha was born the same year Lakshmi had run away from her husband. Not once did she think about taking this shabby little girl in, even though the last thing she knew was how to raise a teenager. Radha quickly started making the rounds with her sister, visiting these homes and getting acclimated to this new city life and Lakshmi with Radha’s presence. In all these years, Lakshmi had kept her past from her acquaintances, she had to find new ways of weaving Radha’s sudden company in her life, so it would not affect her reputation and in turn her business. That is until your secrets and past traits are kept hidden from society.
There are so many more things I want to say about this book, but I don’t want to give away anything else! Joshi’s writing is descriptive and flows so easily, which made it a complete page-turner for me. She brings out all these nuances of our culture and society and explores them so well. I simply loved the idea of a female character as bold and independent as Lakshmi thriving on her own in the 1950s. She had to deal with the disparity of the caste system, which was a clearly drawn line by the characters of Lakshmi’s clients Joshi had etched out. The inequality of girls not getting as good as an education the boys did. To deal with rich entitled men and their sons.
I also admired the way all these many characters were brought together. All of them had their own personality to flaunt. You agree with them or not, they were here to tell their side of the tale. They all had a purpose of being there, either in their silences or in their subtle outbursts. I especially adored the relationship between Lakshmi and her assistant Mallik, who accompanied her to all her appointments. A young boy, full of spark and energy. Who stood by Lakshmi no matter what. By the end of it, you feel like you’re a part of Lakshmi’s journey and hoping, with a full heart she gets the happy ending she so truly deserves.