Thursday was the best morning of our trip so far....we got to sleep until 10! Kavita got to catch up a bit on her sleep as well, which she really needed. Don't tell her parents that she had a bit of a lie in - there was work to be done!
We started the day with an old-fashioned sewing circle. Well, sort of. Kavita and Kimber did the stitching -- Kavita was altering a sari top and Kimber was hemming sleeves in shirts that she brought over. Sarah was not, as Massi suggested, "the lazy one." Rather, she was -- or so she informed us -- the story teller.
The amazing thing about Indian garments is that they are constructed with very, very generous seams with the intention of permitting alterations. K and K sat on the bed stitching away while Sarah kept us - rimshot, please -- in STITCHES with tales both silly and ribald. It was a wonderful, relaxing way to ease into the day.
As expected, the highlight of this day was the mendhi party. This is the Hindu tradition of decorating the hands and feet of the bride with lacy, intricate henna designs. The henna is the consistency thick glue and is in clear tubes sort of like toothpaste but with a fine point and smelling of eucalyptus and clove oil. (Some of the Indians girls admitted that they hate the smell, but we found it to be pleasant.) You squeeze the tube, the henna comes out (the thicker the better), and you basically draw whatever design you want. It's sort of like doodling on a canvas of epidermis. The henna dries, is rubbed off and the temporary (about 3 weeks) tattoo remains. (In our case, it gradually faded to create a reasonable facsimile of liver spots!)
id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Priya's mendhi took about 2 hours to do. The woman who did it did not use a pattern, but drew freestyle on Priya's hands and feet. Traditionally, the mendhi artist puts the grooms initials somewhere in the design. On their wedding night, the groom tries to find his intitials and if he does, they say that he will be the dominate person in the marriage; if he can't, then Priya will be. Many of the ladies at the mendhi party tried to find Chet's initials and were not able to. (His name was on Priya's left ring finger, for those of you wondering.)
Priya was unable to use her hands at all after her mendhi was done so her sisters and friends had to feed her and help her do anything she wanted/needed to do. As we were sitting around singing and laughing, it was poignant to watch young women taking care of one of their own in such an intimate way.
Priya made sure that Kimber and I had our mendhi done. It was hard to sit still while someone inked up the top of your hands. Naturally, as soon as mine was done two things happened: I had to go to the bathroom and my nose itched! I was able to wait until the henna dried to address both.
There were probably 80 women there but it was hard to tell because they were coming in and out. The mendhi night is always fun because of the henna. I think the Aunties and the Grannies grew weary of all the giggling and carrying on!
When we got back to Masee's, Kavita told us to rub Ben-Gay on to our mendhi to make it dark. The more body heat a person has, the darker the color of the henna and you want the henna to be as dark as possible. You could have smelled us coming about 8 miles away!
Because it had become routine, when Kavita got to Masee's we stayed up and talked and laughed and unwound from the day.
By the way, we thought the name of the woman we were staying with was "Masee", but we learned that "masee" means "mother's sister". So, instead of saying someone is an aunt, they are called "masee", which tells the listener exactly who the person is. By now, Kimber and I are picking up Hindu words and phrases - mostly names and blessings.
We had a chance to talk to Priya's dad during the meal. He was explaining different things about the wedding ceremony and mentioned that the car that Priya and Chet will leave in will run over a coconut. The coconut symbolizes the ego of man and how it has to be broken to get to the sweet goodness inside. There is no place for ego in a marriage. He has these wonderful nuggets of wisdom and we love talking to him and learning from him.
We are going to Wimbley tomorrow to shop for traditional Indian clothes. I want a punjabi to take home. A punjabi is a long tunic with slacks under it. Kavita gets to go with us so she gets a day off. Well, not off exactly, she has to babysit for the Yanks!
We have taken literally a thousand pictures, but we can't get them from the cameras to the varioius computers we've been using. When we get home, we'll load a bunch at once.
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