Alka Joshi

A Novel

Perfumist of Paris

Lindsay

"Many would argue with me, but I've often wondered whether Mumtaj herself was in a tomb during her life." ... "What I mean is that she was a woman prized solely for her eligibility for marriage, sold to the highest bidder, with no control over her body or her money. She had to compromise her dignity every minute of every day. My mother and grandmother taught Nasreen and me - and we teach all our girls - to unlearn the ways of centuries. To perfect their skills in classical dance, poetry and literature for their own edification. To satisfy their own physical desires while satisfying another's. To manage their dignity and their money equally."

"The measure of us isn't in the day-to-day. And it's not in our past or our future. It's in the fundamental changes we make within ourselves over a lifetime."

Perfumist of Paris quotes

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