Moment:
August 12th, 2019 at 8:37 PM IST
“Do you want your henna to be floral or violent?”
We had a long weekend for Eid, so we decided to go dress shopping and get henna done. When I was in my dad’s village, I had the opportunity to see how henna leaves are grown, and my dad’s aunt gave us a bag of leaves to take home. My mom then dried out the leaves and ground it into a powder that is then combined with water or oil to be applied to hair, hands, or feet. It results in a temporary dye or tattoo of sorts, as it stains your skin with a deep red color in beautiful designs. One of my university friends said that applying henna can even reduce body heat, so both guys and girls alike will apply henna in the summer months.
When we went to the henna stand, the artist presented us with a couple different designs, but I just told him that I wanted it from my wrist to my index finger then let him design my henna however he wanted to, and it turned out beautifully. He probably only took about 5 minutes to adorn my hand in detailed flowers and mango motifs, but he did it with such precision and care. I’ve gotten henna from my friends numerous times in the past (shout-out to Teja, my personal henna artist for almost 15 years and counting) but I am still always in awe of how skilled henna artists are at their craft. My friend Claire even did her henna herself on both her left and right hands!
With our henna and Indian outfits, we were finally celebration ready. Usually Eid is celebrated as a family affair, but since Salma is on the other side of the world from her family, we decided to go out to a nice lunch with our program director. The only criteria was that the restaurant must have biryani, but this proved to be a lot harder than we thought, because many restaurants were closed so the owners and staff could celebrate as well. We eventually decided on a rooftop restaurant, which sounds cool already, but we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a gorgeous view, koi fish ponds, lots of greenery, and fountains shaped like frogs.
We then headed back to our hostel for a more casual get-together. We had some extra henna cones laying around, so there was definitely some amateur henna artistry going down, especially by yours truly. Thank goodness henna is temporary, because I somehow wound up with some warrior-esque henna on my knuckles (only my knuckles though, so quality over quantity I guess?), and I drew what looked like “some crawling ants and worms.” Claire did henna on one of my hands (she’s significantly better at it than me), and it was an evening filled with playing carroms, taking tons of “candid” photos, learning how to floss, and dancing an Irish jig. It was definitely a day for the books, and I’m glad these memories will last a lot longer than our henna ever could.
