One of the staples of Nepalese weddings is the henna designs painted on the hands of the bride and other female wedding participants (close family and friends). I've had experience with mehendi before - in Egypt, a toothless old woman decorated my hand with thick black henna, and in Mumbai Aziza and Neema drew designs with a cone of brown henna we bought at a tiny store - but never like this. It was a whole production, with a mehendi artist and a bunch of women coming to the house, food prepared for all the visitors, and hours of sitting in the lounge with our hands in the air, not touching anything.
The mehendi was the highlight of the day, after a quest for bangles for me and one card delivery for a friend of Bishakha's brother. This delivery was itself an adventure, since streets lack names and buildings lack numbers - we had to turn around in the narrow, wall-lined streets and call for help more than once, but finally the house was found and Bishakha made the drop. Errand finished, we returned to the house to prepare for the henna artist.
Tour books often warn about skeezy henna artists in tourist destinations - 30+ men who use the opportunity to see some tourist flesh. Of course, Bishakha didn't find this man in a tourist area, so I was expecting something different. I was not, however, expecting what we got - a kid who claimed to be 16 but who probably wasn't more than 14, who applied henna with the speed and skill of someone with years of experience. The poor boy was teased throughout the afternoon about his age, and about the fact that he should be in school rather than developing a career as a mehendi artist. I must admit, though, he's good at what he does.
Bishakha went first, of course, and her hands were painted on both sides and about halfway up the arms. Our boy was especially fond of peacock designs, and we found a number of them hidden in her design. It's traditional that the groom's initials are hidden somewhere in the mehendi, for the bride to find, but she refused (echoing Bishakha's insistence that when Sandeep decorated his car in flowers for the wedding, he didn't put S + P in big marigold letters on the rear window).
I was next - they asked what I wanted, and then explained that he couldn't do what I picked from the design card anyway. I was told to just give him my hand, and did just that, and he was done with both in around 10 minutes. I only got one peacock (named him Bob), but thought the designs were awesome.
But, of course, then came the agonizing hours of not touching anything. Henna darkens the longer it remains in contact with the skin, so we applied a lemon juice and sugar mixture to keep the henna moist longer, and when we finally got to rub off the excess, we still couldn't wash our hands - that had to wait for the morning. All-important activities like washing my face were done with surgical gloves covering the mehendi (courtesy of Sandeep), and by the time I went to bed, the designs had darkened to a rich orange. The price we pay for beauty! Bishakha explained that mehendi is done for a number of occasions, but I can't imagine going through this on a regular basis. However, for a wedding, it was well worth the effort.
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Shopping tally: 4 boxes of glass bangles
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