Lucky Everyday

Lucky Everyday (2009) is the debut novel of the Indian author Bapsy Jain published by Penguin, USA. The book was earlier published under the title Blind Pilgrim. It tells the story of Lucky Boyce, a young, well-educated Indian woman who flees to New York when her wealthy husband divorces her and starts volunteering as a yoga instructor in a prison. After settling in the United States, a series of bizarre events force Lucky to face her fears and find her inner strength. The book focuses on Lucky's struggle toward enlightenment and blends the principles of yoga with a modern take on a fulfilled life. Jain's second novel A Star Called Lucky, follows Lucky into new, cross-continent adventures as her faith is challenged once again by a mysterious twist of fate.

Plot

Lucky Boyce the protagonist is a Chartered accountant who moves to New York when her wealthy and charming husband divorces her and squashes her successful entrepreneurial career. Fortunately, old friends welcome her to New York where her life breathes promise and she rediscovers happiness. Determined, and trying to do something that makes a difference, she volunteers to teach yoga to prison inmates. And just when self-esteem and even the possibility of love start to surface, she gets framed for drug-dealing and money laundering. Duplicity and betrayal lead Lucky on the path of spiritual commitment. She is forced to face her fears and she finds her inner strength through the practice of Yoga.

Themes

The plot highlights how one needs to be removed from his/her life experiences and look at them objectively, to be able to move on and grow in life and that is the heart of the story.

Inspiration

In an interview Bapsy Jain stated, "Almost unconsciously, the character Lucky's inspiration has been my own life and the people I grew up around. Like Lucky, I am a chartered accountant, and like Lucky, I was educated in London, but there the likeness ends. In terms of her physical being, she is based on a very dear nanny who looked after me from childhood until I was about 12 years old. But it’s not that she told me in words things that inspired me. It was part of the way she lived. She struggled without any outward display of the struggle and she had a sense of detached acceptance that I really understood only years later in my adult life. There were other such people I grew up around, whose lives and actions touched me and compelled me to write Lucky Everyday".

References

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