The Henna Artist Quotes

“Success was ephemeral—and fluid—as I’d found out the hard way. It came. It went. It changed you from the outside, but not from the inside. Inside, I was still the same girl who dreamed of a destiny greater than she was allowed. Did I really need the house to prove I had skill, talent, ambition, intelligence? What if—”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“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.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“People are more gullible and less compassionate than any of us want to believe.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Hadn’t Gandhi-ji said, An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind?”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“At this moment, sitting in front of this good, sensible woman, I wanted the thing I hated most in this world. Sympathy. Even more, I hated that I wanted it. Hated myself for my weakness.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Before independence, these objects had signified my ladies’ admiration for the British. Now, they signified their scorn. My ladies had changed nothing but the reasons for their pretense. If I had learned anything from them, it was this: only a fool lives in water and remains an enemy of the crocodile.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“He deserves paradise who makes his companions laugh.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Independence changed everything. Independence changed nothing.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Just then, my mother’s words echoed in my head: stretch your legs only as far as your bed. I was getting too far ahead of myself.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“In India, individual shame did not exist. Humiliation spread, as easily as oil on wax paper, to the entire family, even to distant cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews. The rumormongers made sure of that. Blame lay heavily in my chest. Had I not deserted my marriage, Radha would not have suffered so much, and Maa and Pitaji would not have been so powerless against an entire village.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“If I had learned anything from them, it was this: only a fool lives in water and remains an enemy of the crocodile.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Independence changed everything. Independence changed nothing. Eight years after the British left, we now had free government schools, running water and paved roads. But Jaipur still felt the same to me as it had ten years ago, the first time I stepped foot on its dusty soil. On the way to our first appointment of the morning, Malik and I nearly collided with a man carrying cement bags on his head when a bicycle cut between us. The cyclist, hugging a six-foot ladder under his arm, caused a horse carriage to sideswipe a pig, who ran squealing into a narrow alley. At one point, we stepped aside and waited for a raucous band of hijras to pass. The sari-clad, lipstick-wearing men were singing and dancing in front of a house to bless the birth of a baby boy. So accustomed were we to the odors of the city—cow dung, cooking fires, coconut hair oil, sandalwood incense and urine—that we barely noticed them.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Success was ephemeral—and fluid—as I’d found out the hard way. It came. It went. It changed you from the outside, but not from the inside.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“I felt my spirits lift. I would leave the map of my life here, in Jaipur. I would leave behind a hundred thousand henna strikes. I would no longer call myself a henna artist but tell anyone who asked : I healed, I soothed. I made whole. I would leave behind the useless apologies for my disobedience. I would leave behind my yearning to rewrite my past. My skills, my eagerness to learn and my desire for a life I could call my own - these were things I would take with me. They were part of me the way my blood, my breath, my bones were”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Not once had I believed him capable of change. But if I could change, why couldn’t he?”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Saasuji once told me 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.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“My younger sister was lively and curious, which was good, but she was also untamed—and that could be a dangerous combination.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“The one-eyed man is king among the blind,” I replied, smiling.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“The poor weren’t the only ones imprisoned by their caste.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“What is the use of crying when the birds have eaten the whole farm?”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“I wanted the thing I hated most in this world: sympathy. Even more, I hated that I wanted it. Hated myself for my weakness,”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Maa was gentle, but firm. She was brought up to obey her parents and her husband, not to defy, question or contradict. She told me Pitaji’s books had filled my head with too many silly ideas. They had given me the useless notion that I could make my own decisions.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“Samir Singh frequented the pleasure houses of Hazi and Nasreen whenever he had business in Agra. There, Muslim noblemen, Bengali businessmen and Hindu doctors and lawyers smoked hookahs, and ate and drank as the courtesans recited ancient poetry, sang sweet, nostalgic ghazals and performed”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“When the Goddess of Wealth comes to give you her blessing, you shouldn’t leave the room to wash your face. —Hindu Proverb”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“I would leave behind the useless apologies for my disobedience. I would leave behind the yearning to rewrite my past.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“He was committed to his ideals. Unfortunately, high ideals came with a price.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“She expected from me what wasn’t mine to give. Forgiveness. Absolution. I was a stranger.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind?”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“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.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist

“In India, individual shame did not exist. Humiliation spread, as easily as oil on wax paper, to the entire family, even to distant cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews.”
― Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist