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Theirs is a pairing that came from different perspectives but ultimately convened at the same place.
Raised in America but born in India, author Alka Joshi dove deep into her heritage and her mother’s experiences to write “The Henna Artist,” followed by “The Secret Keeper of Jaipur,” off-the-press bestsellers in 2020 and 2021. Although Joshi intended to pen one novel, it became clear, once the story was finished, that the saga was not. In fact, her third installment in what is now a trilogy, “The Perfumist of Paris,” will come out in 2023.
To write authentically about the capital of fragrance, Joshi needed to leave her Pacific Grove home and travel to Paris.
Baltimore native Meredith Mullins, a photographer who annually leaves her Pacific Grove home for an extended stay in Paris, met with Joshi at a Paris bistro for coffee and conversation. Turns out both are passionate about Paris, both have a deep affinity for India, and each is imbued with the energy of Ganesh, the god of wisdom, understanding, and a discriminating intellect, which one must possess to overcome obstacles blocking our path to passion, productivity, perfection.
A portrayal of this beloved god is the impetus for their upcoming exhibition, “Removing Obstacles: Celebrating Ganesh.” Hosted by the Pacific Grove Art Center, the event will pair Mullins’ images of India with Joshi’s insights into her books, plus henna art, authentic food, and mandala painting by local artist Ellen Henrici.
Joshi also will share the story of Ganesh: how this god became represented by the body of a boy with the head of an elephant, and what he means, on both a cultural and fundamental level for those who evoke his professed wisdom.
“It took 10 years for me to write ‘The Henna Artist,’ and so much of that time was spent starting and stopping and trying to figure out ways of getting around an impasse,” Joshi said. “By imploring the energy of Ganesh, I was able to pick up the pieces of the story in another way, enter the story from a different direction, seek people who lived in India. Once I became an obstacle remover, I completed the book.”
Some people have less of Lord Ganesh in them, says Joshi, while others possess more of his energy, enabling them to remove obstacles. The common wisdom is that obstacles occur when we don’t know how to lift out of our own thoughts and ideas to find a higher route to resolve a situation.
“Meredith Mullins and I are two women who handle obstacles,” said Joshi, “by looking for creative ways to overcome them.”
When developing her third book in the trilogy, Joshi relied on Ganesh to help her solve obstacles along the way. She knew she needed to immerse herself in Paris, visit perfumeries, talk with perfumers if she was going to understand her protagonist’s life. But the pandemic put up obstacles between Pacific Grove and Paris. And so, she waited. She relied on wisdom, patience, understanding. Ultimately, she went to Paris.
“I don’t think I would have been able to complete this book without having met these people in Paris. Once you start removing obstacles,” she said, doors open. “All of a sudden, the network begins and you find gold.”
A matter of perspective
Mullins had traveled to the Middle East and Asia many times. Every time she reached a new border, she pressed on. Yet the closer she came to India, travelers she saw coming back from there always seemed dejected. Or maybe just tired. She never felt drawn to venture into the experience of India.
“The people I saw reinforced my assumptions of a lot of people, a lot of poverty, and a lot of overstimulation in India,” Mullins said. “I prefer to be peaceful, alone, amid nature.”
Yet, when a friend created a food tour of India and invited friends to join her, Mullins went along. While visiting places like Jaipur, Rajasthan, and Delhi, including the Taj Mahal, she loved every minute of her experience. And she took legions of photographs that captured her enchantment.
“When seeing something for the first time,” she said, “you become curious. Everything is new and interesting. I found the Indian people generous of spirit and easy to photograph. In some countries, you have to spend a lot of time building relationships before you can take a picture. In India, they allow you to enter their space and their spirit.”
Mullins’ first trip to India was in 2015, and her only question was why she waited so long. She has now been to India three times in the last five years. Yet she had never done anything with her photographs. Until now.
“To go back through my photos on behalf of this exhibit at the PG Art Center was like reliving my experiences of India,” she said.
During her trip in 2015, Mullins was a follower. But, in 2016 and 2019, she served as a tour leader.
“India is full of surprises,” she said. “When I went back in 2016, I attended the amazing Pushkar Camel Fair. Hosted in the Indian desert around the full moon in the Hindu lunar month of Kartik, it brings in camel and cattle traders to do business during the holy Kartik Purnima festival.”
In 2019, Mullins returned to India to join a reported 120 million people in the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage to bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges River.
“A Hindu festival, it is a two-month equivalent of Burning Man or maybe Woodstock,” she said. “A very spiritual and revelatory gathering, it’s also a confluence of mortality and immortality, in that you may achieve immortality by bathing in the Ganges or die from bacteria.”
Mullins experienced the festival from on high, via a helicopter flying overhead.
“Out of thousands of photographs from three very different trips to India,” she said, “it was very hard to decide which photos to select in curating this exhibit. So, I included one photo from every event I attended. I culled the collection to 22 photographs, a small but, I think, provocative and beautiful representation of my experiences in India.”
During “Removing Obstacles: Celebrating Ganesh,” Mullins will complement Joshi’s talk and speak about clearing the obstacles on her path to India and, through the photographs she took, share her impressions of India and the impact of her journeys.
If you go:
What: Removing Obstacles: Celebrating Ganesh
When: Saturday from 1-3 p.m.
Where: Pacific Grove Art Center, 568 Lighthouse Avenue
Cost: Free and open to the public
Contact: 831-375-2208
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