The Crusade by Chitra Mudgal

She stopped. Standing close to the broad edging of the flower beds, she bent over like a bow…
Whenever she comes to Rangoli and sees the rare specimens of cacti peeping out from between the arrangement of rocks placed by the main entrance, she is transfixed. In fact she is tempted to pilfer one, hide it in her purse quickly before the doorman, standing there rigidly like a mannequin in a shop window, catches her.
—from this book