Mehendi

Here is another one of Nikhil's albums that documents the mehendi (henna) that Nithya (Nikhil's sister) and I had done on our hands on a Sunday afternoon at the beauty parlor. This is traditionally done in the north prior to a wedding, so you can imagine that as I was traveling around India I got a few comments, mostly from nice ladies at airports wondering if I was just married.

The guy who applied the mehendi did so using a paper cone like you'd use to frost a cake. He was seated, as was I, and bent over my arm and carefully created his own design in "Arabic" style on both my hands and in traditional Indian style on Nithya's. It took at least 30 - 60 min per arm.