The Henna Artist: Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

After two weeks in Shimla, Lakshmi returns to Jaipur; it is now mid-October 1956. Lakshmi has had a wonderful time in the Himalayas, helping people who welcome her suggestions and playing with Kanta, Radha, and the baby. As soon as she gets home, though, Lakshmi is faced with the reality of her poverty and lack of clientele. She has debts to settle, and she refuses to ask Kanta and Manu for money.

When Lakshmi is unable to pay an oil vendor for his product, he tells her she can henna his wife to settle her debts. But when she arrives at the vendor’s small house, he is leering, instructing Lakshmi to draw a picture of her own face on his wife’s breasts. Lakshmi tells the vendor that henna is private, but he ignores her, watching and touching himself. Lakshmi is horrified and dismayed to feel that his wife’s resentment is directed toward her, not her husband.

Disgusted, Lakshmi rushes to leave the house, breaking her saas’s henna bowl in the process. As she runs through a nearby alley, she has memories of being a little girl, fleeing Hari’s abuse back in Ajar. But a familiar voice stops Lakshmi in her tracks: it’s Lala, Parvati’s old servant. Lala explains that her brother is Naraya, and that Ravi impregnated her niece, Naraya’s daughter. When the daughter’s new husband learned of her pregnancy, he had locked her out of the house. And in desperation, the girl had self-immolated, killing the baby as well. 

Lala admits that she wanted Lakshmi’s sachets, but she was too scared to work up the nerve. Lakshmi regrets that she didn’t act on her sense that Lala needed something (“how far I’d come from everything my mother-in-law stood for!”). Lakshmi wonders why Lala is working in such a poor neighborhood, and Lala explains that Parvati spread rumors about her so she couldn’t get better work.

Malik finds Lakshmi near her Rajnagar house. He offers to pay for a rickshaw, but she cannot take his money. Lakshmi reflects on Malik’s loyalty, and though she insists she has no more work for him, he tells her she will always be his “Auntie-Boss.” Malik always tells Lakshmi that more untrue rumors have spread, which is why not even local vendors will do business with her.

Finally, Malik makes Lakshmi face facts: “you can’t go on like this,” he tells her. Lakshmi starts to sob, and Malik pushes her to leave Jaipur, reasoning that her new house—although she is proud of it—actually makes her unhappy because of its expense. That night, Lakshmi offers food to a begging holy man, but he will not accept it because Lakshmi herself looks so pitiable. 

There is a letter from Kumar waiting, which explains that Kanta has paid for all of Radha’s medical bills, a fact that causes Lakshmi to weep with gratitude. More importantly, though, the letter begs Lakshmi to come to Shimla, promising that the scandals from Jaipur will not follow her there. Reflecting that she does not need a fancy house to prove who she is on the “inside,” Lakshmi decides to accept Kumar’s offer.

Lakshmi then writes Samir asking him to sell her house. Two days later, she gets a response—but it is from Parvati, who reveals that she knows of the loan Samir gave Lakshmi. Enclosed in Parvati’s letter is money to buy the house. Parvati specifically wants the patterned floor. Though she feels the two women are “even” in terms of their misdeeds, Parvati also wants to acknowledge “that we may never again have someone with your hand making our hands a wonder to hold.” Lakshmi looks at the note for a long time.