Mehndi-mania on the first day of Shrawan

Photo By: Abhas Dharananda Rajopadhyaya

Abhas D Rajopadhyaya

Kathmandu, 16 July.

Ishu Shrestha had come all the way from Harisiddhi to Dharmapath to put mehndi on her hand. She was accompanied by two of her schoolmates, Aayusha Shrestha and Bandana Khanal, who chose low-cost simple designs. They were interested in this tradition of decorating their hands with mehndi.

Aayusha and Bandana believed that the darker the mark of mehndi, the more they get loved by their husband in the future. But Ishu had other ideas. She does not believe it.

They had put on mehndi on the occasion of Shrawan Sankranti – the first day of the fourth month of Bikram Sambat. "This is the day," says Laxmi Pokharel, Kathmandu, "when Goddess Parbati lured Mahadev decorating herself with ornaments." She adds shyly, "I put on mehndi to get more love from my husband."

"The tradition of putting on mehndi is now popular among the youths even," says Nisha Khatri, high school graduate from NIST College. Three girls from Trinity College had done it for fun. Afraid to tell their name lest breaking the college discipline, they had done it copying their friends studying elsewhere.

While the girls are following their tradition, the mehndi-decorating vendors are having their day. Suraj Giri, mehndi-decorator at New Road, says he earns thousand rupees per day and had once earned 1.5 lacs in the month of Shrawan. Working for over eight years in mehndi-design, he adds, "Many people prefer simple designs, while some rich-looking girls prefer the Arabian design or some other fancy ones." These designs cost from rupees 25 to even 25 hundred.

Ram Praves Kumar, a street-vendor of mehndi at Bagbazar, only earns 10-15 thousands in this month. Harindar Kumar, hailing from Ranganathpur, India, says, "There are more people in our profession and our earning is going down." He had decorated over a hundred hands till today afternoon and expects up to five hundred today.

A policewoman complains that the trend of tiuri use has been replaced by modern mehndi. Taking some time off her job to put on mehndi, she adds, "it is the first time that I have put on mehndi; otherwise I would have opted tiuri." She asserts that we need to even take hold of the better-one – the use of tiuri.