The Perfumist of Paris

Lakshmi picks Radha up in Agra, where the smells and sounds of India awaken her homesickness. Lakshmi has traveled from Shimla to Agra to introduce Radha to Nasreen and Havi, the courtesans she believes will be able to help Radha in her quest for perfumes. Lakshmi helps Radha disguise her foreign appearance to protect her from pickpockets, and as they head to the haveli (or mansion), they catch up on family, Lakshmi’s business, and the economic troubles plaguing India following independence. Crimes are up against the wealthy and anyone appearing foreign, and Lakshmi warns her that Nasreen and Havi, though still wealthy, have seen a dramatic change in clientele and interest in their services. Wealthy families have left the country and few appreciate the traditional arts and formal etiquette that once earned their kotha (or brothel) respect and high standing.

Radha is disappointed by the shabby haveli where Nasreen and Havi live, but inside, the place is elegant and smells of sandalwood so strongly that she is overcome with memories of losing Niki. When they meet Nasreen and Havi, Lakshmi performs pranama—she respectfully bows and touches their feet—and this confuses Radha since the kotha’s proprietors are wealthy but not of higher social standing than herself and Lakshmi. Radha looks down on their role as sex workers, not understanding the complex relationship they have with the elite as arts and culture teachers, nor the role they play in uplifting women in their community. Over refreshments, Radha allows her low opinions to show, asking how many women work for them. Havi corrects her, saying that the women work for themselves, receive an education, collect their pay, and leave when they are ready, instead of languishing in abusive marriages or poverty. Later, Lakshmi explains that the British slandered the courtesans’ work as merely sex work when they realized the women were helping fund the independence movement; this has contributed to the decline in clientele since independence. Despite her faux pas, Radha enjoys an evening of traditional music, dance, and drama, and she looks forward to meeting the perfume merchant the next day.

However, the meeting with the merchant Rajkumar Mehta is unsuccessful. He looks down on Radha’s Western perfuming methods and does not have the scent she needs. As a result, she worries her failed trip will let both Delphine and Pierre down. Lakshmi comforts her, but Radha wakes in the night after a nightmare in which she struggles to reach her girls. The young kitchen girl, Binu, makes her chai and tells her she would be an astronaut if she could, but at the kotha, she is a poor Indian girl happy enough to be working in a safe place. Radha realizes she escaped a similar fate only because of Lakshmi. At dawn, Radha climbs to the roof to see the Taj Mahal, after which Havi takes her to the traditional open-air perfume factory that she and Nasreen run. As Radha takes in the scents of dung fire and essential oils, she watches men scoop mud into a still for distillation. The essence is the smell of rain, called petrichor or mitti attar, and Radha realizes this is the humid base she needs for the Olympia project. Before she and Havi leave, Radha suggests that Havi hire girls to apprentice at the factory and expand the opportunities they already provide at the kotha to girls with few options.

When Radha and Havi return to the kotha, Radha is shocked to see Niki’s adoptive mother, Kanta, and she assumes Lakshmi arranged the meeting to force her to confront her feelings about Niki. Kanta assures her she came on her own and explains that Niki has run away to Paris to contact her. Kanta recounts how Niki found a lapsed scholarship application from an anonymous benefactor; it offered him free college tuition college in exchange for a two-year apprenticeship in America following graduation. Kanta and her husband Manu had heard rumors that the rich, corrupt Singh family thought their sons Ravi and Govind were incapable of running their real estate business—Ravi Singh is Radha’s old lover and the biological father of Niki. Since the Singhs had no male heirs, they planned to trap Niki with the scholarship and groom him to take over the business. When the Singhs’ corruption had been exposed, it prompted them to emigrate to America, and Kanta did not want their son involved in anything to do with them. When Niki discovered the wasted opportunity and Radha’s returned letters, he ran away to find Radha, thinking she might know who his benefactor was. Kanta hopes Radha will explain what happened, and convince Niki to forget the scholarship and return home. Faced with the inevitability of her repressed secrets coming to light after so long, Radha lashes out at Lakshmi for not trying harder to help her keep Niki and at Kanta for passing the responsibility of telling Niki about his adoption to Radha, who has always been clear about her desire for detachment. Afterward, she hides in her room to process her hurt.

Later, Lakshmi convinces her to attend the night market with her so she can buy souvenirs for the family. They visit Hari, Lakshmi’s ex-husband, who sells incense crafted with the kotha’s mitti attar and trinkets with his wife and many children. He is no longer the abusive husband Lakshmi fled from and they have an easy understanding. Over their favorite street foods, Radha and Lakshmi air their resentments about how each handled Radha’s pregnancy. Lakshmi assures her that she, Kanta, and their cousin Malik each blamed themselves for not educating her or speaking up about her closeness to Ravi sooner. Seeing Lakshmi willingly take on her share of the blame, Radha forgives her and leaves India recharged.