Folklore and independence | Book Club Reviews ‘The Henna Artist’ by Alka Joshi
Written by Nishtha Banavalikar
In the halls of kings, politicians, and powerful men, their wives run the armies of cooks, house servants, and attendants, with gossip and reputation as their weapons of choice. Lakshmi, having fled abuse at seventeen and now shunned by her family and village, finds herself in the vibrant city of Jaipur, immersed in these upper echelons of society. There, she slowly builds up a client base, from pleasure women to eventually the maharanis themselves, through her skills in beautiful original henna designs and, more secretly, knowledge of contraceptive herbs and medicines.
However, the arrival of a sister she never knew she had, alongside the re-emergence of her husband, threatens everything she’d built thus far. Determined to keep her independence, she uses every skill she’s learned thus far as an attendant and confidante to the wealthy to keep herself and the future she’s dreamed of afloat.
Alka Joshi’s debut novel, The Henna Artist, took ten years of research and frequent trips to India to write. It was born out of a personal revelation of identity and motherhood, motivated by a desire to understand and reimagine her mother’s life in fiction. After graduating from Stanford and working in marketing for most of her early career, becoming an author didn’t strike Joshi until she later revisited India with her mother.
For me, the most striking theme in the novel was the recurring theme of prisons and cages, some more gilded than others, as in the case of the Maharanis. There is this troubling acknowledgement that class and wealth, though empowering through comfort and safety, do not free a woman from the shackles of society and patriarchy. In the club, we delved into a lengthy conversation about consumerism and capitalism, how the allure of decoration and purchases ultimately cannot replace the invaluable place of community and knowledge transferred through these bonds. Lakshmi herself learnt everything she knew from her saas, knowledge which eventually saved her life and gave her independence. Not only was she empowered by the commerce it provided her access to, but it also opened a whole community through her relationship with her saas.
Naturally, the conversation spread into a heated discussion about traditional medicines and folk remedies for families, from cough medicines to thyroid ailments to hail oils; no stone was left uncovered. It was startling and heart-warming at that moment to see in real-time the ancient nature of the civilisations we, as South Asians, come from and how advanced our folk knowledge of the sciences has been.
The Henna Artist had us all thinking to some extent about family, the duties we have to ourselves and our dependents. For Lakshmi, suddenly being inundated with a sister less than half her age was terrifying, especially when she herself was in an incredibly tenuous financial situation in a career ruled by reputation and gossip. All in all, we weren’t sure whether Lakshmi had been a good sister to Radha, or vice versa, but with both of them in complex and impossible situations, their growth towards and apart from each other was still a pleasure to read.
Buy the book here, or did you know you can ask your local library to stock a book and borrow it too? It’s a great way to support the authors too.
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In today’s member highlight, we’re delighted to introduce Jess Singh, a film producer and creative. Jess has been making a significant impact in the world of film, working on numerous narrative short films and cultivating her growing interest in documentary filmmaking.
