Immortal Dust

Ordinary dust

Gathered on furniture, ledges, in carpets, a child’s name written on an end table.

Layered dust of

a day, a few years, generations

sprinkled with dreams, laughter and tears

Fragments of dusty memories

settle within heart, soul and mind

revived by a flower, an aroma or a brilliant sky.

Ghostly dust of generations ~

invisible layers from families passing through time

traced by fading foot prints and frayed lessons

Star Dust ~

when it is our turn, we each join the dust of ages

sprinkled with dreams, laughter and tears.

“We’re all immortal, as long as our stories are told.”

~ Elizabeth Hunter, The Scribe

Book Review: The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi

Alka Joshi has returned us to the India of her first book, The Henna Artist. Kind, gentle and patient, Lakshmi Shastri, who decorated the rich and royal of Jaipur as a young woman, is now married and living in the city of Shimla. Some may even consider that she is a master manipulator! 

Except for her own hands, Lakshmi has given up her henna artistry to work alongside her husband Jay Kumar at the Lady Bradley Hospital. She also developed an herb garden for use in the care of her husband’s patients. The young man, Malik, that she befriended in her early years in Jaipur has continued with her. He introduces us to the setting in the Prologue. Lakshmi first knew him when he was about eight years old. Still as charming and mischievous as he was then, he has since graduated from a boys school and remains a close part of Lakshmi’s life. He knows her as Auntie-Boss, which describes their relationship. Between them, they carry all the intriguing secrets of those rich and royals that remain in Jaipur.

Lakshmi sends Malik to Jaipur to learn all facets of the building trade jointly owned and run by the Singh/Sharma families. These families only suspect, and some also know, the secrets of their past and present lives. Singh/Sharma’s most recent and spectacular building project is the Royal Jewel Cinema, financed by the palace and the Maharani Latika. Lakshmi returns briefly to Jaipur to sort out the strands of intrigue that Malik has unraveled.

As an aside, a favourite character of mine, Madho Singh, has nothing to do with secrets and intrigue. An Alexadrine parakeet, he is just annoying and talkative. He had belonged to the Dowager Maharanji and was gifted to Malik when he left for school. Was it because the esteemed Madho Singh liked Malik or was the Dowager Maharani getting rid of an annoyance? He is quite a fun character in both books.

In The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, Alka Joshi has not merely given us a repeat of the same cast of characters. Nimmi enters the picture in the first chapter. Nimmi, a young widowed woman with two children, is from a tribe of hill people. She has left her tribe to come to Shimla to work. Working in the Shimla Mall, selling flowers and herbs, she meets Lakshmi and Malik. She is unaware of having met Lakshmi earlier. Her relationship with Lakshmi is awkward, but Malik charms both Nimmi and her children, Chullu and Rheka. When he leaves to work in Shimla, it increases the rift that she has with Lakshmi. In the pause of Malik’s absence, Nimmi’s concerns about her brother are magnified when one of his sheep, carrying gold underneath its wool, is discovered and brought into Shimla Mall. She leaves Shimla with her children to find her brother in the hills. It this episode that brings Nimmi closer to Lakshmi. Should she return to her tribe and give up Malik and her independence? She knows nothing of the intrigue of Jaipur, she just wants Malik back in her life.

Alka Joshi has carefully and beautifully given her readers the colourful, intricate and fragrant world of India. Reintroducing her characters has answered a frequently asked question ‘What happens to them all after we close the book?’  Happily, the author is presently researching the third in this trilogy. 

“A born politician. That’s what you are, Mrs. Kumar. If you’d been born into our family, you’d be in Parliament by now, my dear.”

~ Alka Joshi, The Dowager Maharanji Queen, 

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi

Title: The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

Author: Alka Joshi

Copyright: 2021

Publisher: MIRA Books (Published by arrangement with Harlequin S.A.)

Type: Novel

Format: Soft cover

ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-1145-4

A Bit of Cheer

Far afield for spring flowers 

I went.

everywhere beneath the snow, 

they're bent!

Blizzards swept this land of ours ~

Covering everything for hours

So weather or no, we need some cheer ~

Through my photos, digital flowers are here.

“It is deep winter with shivering cold air, 

but heart is dancing with joy and spring flowers.”

~ Debasish Mridha, American physician, philosopher and poet

Chapter Two, Episode Eighty - Circles of Family and Friends - Situationally Theirs

Circles of Family and Friends

Tonight, I’m taking this opportunity to just review the last two years since the first episode on March 25, 2020. As the Storyteller of Situationally Theirs, I should know what each of the residents and participants of the Beaufort Estate story think of when not being showcased. But I don’t. They each must have lives outside of their little worlds. Mustn’t they? How do they seem to remain calm while the rest of the world is whirling about?

That’s not quite true. In over two years, they have had their struggles. Desperanza Eliot, or Dez as she prefers, started this story with a bank robbery! Not a real one, just one of opportunity that turned out to be quite unsuccessful. In short, her first experience was at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, when she was covered with Lysol and taken to the police. From there, the next character was Emelina Beaufort, who turned out to be Dez's sister. Widowed and grief stricken, she was the sole owner of an estate outside of city of Hartley where Dez lived. That same evening, Emelina was left alone for the first time in four years. A call from police to come and get her sister, roused her in the middle of the night. The sisters had not seen or heard from each other for about 10 years. This is where the story began. 

Set on Vancouver Island, the beautiful Beaufort Estate and it's residents seems to have no purpose other than to provide a living for Emelina Beaufort’s staff: James Digby, butler; Martha Haverstock, housekeeper, Elizabeth Saunders, Cook and Samuel Forrester, groundsman. There was a time when the Estate was apparently filled with busy comings and goings. That time had passed and Emelina’s grief kept her from being aware of her responsibilities. For the first fourteen episodes, as they told me their stories, Dez and Emelina were getting to know each other again, living in the kitchen of the Estate, taking care of each other and following pandemic recommendations. 

I could go on. Dez returned to her apartment and kept taking this job and that job. Emelina grew into her role as an employer. James and Martha finally declared their love for each other after working together for over twenty five years and were married. Cook - that’s Elizabeth Saunders - just keeps on cooking and taking care of people with her good food. Oh, and she has a good friend, a very good friend, in Samuel Forrester. Samuel does keep to himself and would rather be on the land than in any house. Has what he calls a ‘shack’ at the edges of the Estate. Everyone does have their own home which allows them to come and go on each work day.

There have been many other people who have come and gone throughout the last two years and will continue living their lives outside the story. Martha’s daughter and grandchildren, Cook’s letters to her sister Lily in England, most recently James reunion with his brother Thom and his partner Sonja; Samuel adopting a lost dog, naming him Brewster. There was Brigitte Smithson, originally Emelina’s maid who left for university. Giles Thornton, the Estate's chauffeur, married and with children, who lives off the estate. Even a little ghost named Sarah has made several appearances. Tanya, a teenager and babysitter. Tucker, another teenager who did odd jobs for the estate. (The little ghost girl fell in love with him.) Dr. Jeremy Crawford, who marries Emelina, is a doctor in the city hospital.

Although, Situationally Theirs is about Dez and Emelina, it is also about the circle of friends and family around them. Not that different from many people, just living the best way we can in the the world of the Pandemic which goes on and on with each wave. 

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”

~ Dalai Lama

Three Friends

We just had fun!

A birthday celebration

With laughter, 

            hugs and 

                good food.

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

~ William Shakespeare,  The Merchant of Venice

From the Centre

From the centre of our being

ideas sprout and grow

pointing us toward the sun.

From the world around us

ideas shine with reality

asking to be something more.

From times past and present

ideas grow into our futures

riding in our dreams.

“Ideas define us, our past, our present, and most importantly, our future.”

~ P.W.Cross, The Idea Miners: The Lost Lake Dig

Against all Calm

My back is sore

My eyes are crossed

Tax time's a bore ~

Getting it done? Such a chore!

Aroma of chicken holds sway!

The taxes? I’ll just put them away! (for tonight)

“Today it takes more brains and effort to make out 

the income-tax form than it does to make the income.”

~ Alfred E. Neuman