From India to America, a woman’s search for family, home, and self ➱ Mercy and Grace by Anoop Judge Book Tour with Guest Post and giveaway

 

Anoop Judge's

 

WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR

 

OF

 

Mercy and Grace

 

Tour Begins February 12

 

 

Book Summary

 

At twenty-one years old, Gia Kumari finally leaves the Delhi orphanage where she was raised. With few prospects for the future, she receives an unexpected invitation from a stranger named Sonia Shah, in San Francisco: an internship at Sonia’s weddings and event company. Jia and America. It’s love at first sight as she navigates an unfamiliar but irresistible new world of firsts.

 

It’s Gia’s first real job: her first meeting with her only known family, her uncle Mohammed Khan, and her first romance, with Sonia’s quirky yet charming stepson, Adi. But it might be too good to be true. Gia’s newfound happiness is unfolding in the shadow of a terrible family secret, the impact of which is still being felt in a place Gia now calls home. To save what matters most, Gia must come to terms with a tragic past she’s only beginning to understand—and a lifetime of lies she must learn to forgive.

 

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (September 19, 2023)

ISBN-10: 1662509219

ISBN-13: 978-1662509216

ASIN: B0BQNBFVBR

Print Length: 283 pages

 

Purchase a copy of Mercy and Grace on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.org. You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list.

Guest Post 

Mehndi Magic at the Big, Fat Punjabi wedding . . .

I squat in front of the mehndi artist and extend my right palm.  She shows me a dozen designs to choose from, and I pick an intricate paisley leaf, with spirals on the side.  Within minutes, she’s coaxed the dark-green mehndi color out of her plastic cone and on my outstretched palm much like squeezing icing onto a cake.  She throws on some pink and turquoise glitter to match the lehnga I’m wearing.  It looks pretty, but now I have to sit idly for at least an hour, giving the henna sufficient time to stain my palm. I’m not bothered though.  I’m attending my cousin sister’s wedding in India, and there’re plenty of relatives I can talk to who’ll help me pass the time.

Occasionally, a cousin appears magically with a small bowl of lemon juice and dabs a dipped cotton bowl over my painted palms, rendering them sticky and useless once again.  This is a way to guarantee that the henna produces the coveted orange hue when washed off.  Not that I care—I’ve been married for more years than I’ve been single.  However, if the resulting color for the bride is not dark enough, there are whispers among the elders that the union might not be that strong.  Of course, if the bride couldn’t even produce a darker color of henna what is the guarantee of that union?  Who can hope for the success of that relationship?  What kind of offspring would such a marriage produce?  Luckily, for the hapless bride, these days the mehndi artists are instructed to use the best mehndi in the market, the one guaranteed to produce good results so that fate can be relieved of delivering any unexpected messages through color.  

I find that Westerners who know about Indian weddings only from movies, and folklore expect five-day feasts in which every invited guest takes a week off from work to enjoy intricate ceremonies involving choreographed elephants and ring-bearing monkeys.  The reality is quite different. In modern India, the mehndi ceremony is a relaxed and intimate affair.  Though open to both genders, the function is probably akin in its pampering and animated gossip to an American bridal party getting their hair and nails done. The bride and her closest friends and family sit on stools as young women hired for the occasion patiently squeeze henna into elaborate patterns on their arms.  Female guests only get their palms done, but a bride’s hand and feet are decorated nearly to her elbows and shins, like a lace glove, heightening her feminine appeal on her wedding night.  The mehndiwalli also hides the groom’s initials somewhere in the complicated web of drying dye which the groom has fun finding on the first night.

I look at the henna, a map of lines stretching across my palm.  Could there be new fate lines, drawn to determine my future; these stylized shoots and twining flowers?  I inhale the musky scent, draw it deep into my lungs and imagine myself in the midst of the peacock-and-parrot patterns, tendrils curling around my ankles, ferns reaching out to caress my face.  Ah, what flights of fancy I may inhabit, even if momentary as long as the scent is still intoxicating . . .

About the Author

 

Born and raised in New Delhi, Anoop is the author of four novels, THE RUMMY CLUB which won the 2015 Beverly Hills Book Award, THE AWAKENING OF MEENA RAWAT, an excerpt of which was nominated for the 2019 Pushcart Prize, NO ORDINARY THURSDAY, and MERCY and GRACE.

 

Her essays and short stories have appeared in Green Hills Literary Lantern, Rigorous Journal, Lumiere Review, DoubleBack Review, and the Ornament anthology, among others.

 

Anoop calls herself a “recovering litigator” —she worked in state and federal courts for many years before she replaced legal briefs with fictional tales. She holds an MFA from St. Mary’s College of California and was the recipient of the 2021 Advisory Board Award and the 2023 Alumni Scholarship.

 

She lives in Pleasanton, California, with her husband, and is the mother of two admirable young adults.

 

You can find her online at:

 

Website: https://anoopjudge.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judgeanoop/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoop-ahuja-judge-94396743/

Giveaway

Join us as we celebrate the launch of Anoop Judge's book Mercy and Grace. Read an interview with the author and enter to win a copy of her book.

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