DH and I were invited to a wedding in The Sultanate of Oman last January. I typed the draft about the henna night right after we came back to Malaysia but totally forgot about it until today.
The application of henna as a temporary decoration on the hands and feet of the bride is an important part of Indian, Malay and Arab weddings. According to Wikipedia, in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan, the groom is expected to have it done as well. In Malaysia, the most that Malay grooms ever have is on their fingertips. And not every groom does it.
For Malay brides, however, the tradition is so deeply ingrained, that no wedding seems complete without it, even if it’s not a compulsory thing to do. It’s also a definite must for Indian brides.
In Malaysia, henna can be applied at the fingertips only, but it can be as intricate as the photos in this site.
The henna night I attended in Oman was very unforgettable indeed, for good and bad reasons. Read on…
Held at the bride’s home, the all-ladies affair started around 6 pm. I felt so honoured to have been invited, as the henna party was limited to the immediate family and very close friends and relatives of the bride.
Two henna artists made magic with tiny cones of henna paste, expertly drawing intricate freehand designs on the guests’ fingers, hands, arms and feet, with the area of coverage depending on the guest’s personal preference.
The ladies sat and talked, sipping tea and exchanging gossip as they waited for their turn. Those who already had their turn sat with their arms outstretched, to avoid having their clothes stained by the henna. Even little girls as young as 3 or 4 years old patiently sat down to wait for the henna to dry. One lady took some food from her plate and fed her friend who was having her arms decorated up to the elbows. There was music, there was dancing. Omani ladies sure know how to party!
When my turn finally came, I excitedly put my hand on the special pillow and let the henna artist swirl the dark brown paste into tiny flowers, vines and leaves. The lines were very fine and no two designs were alike. I was so excited, I felt like a bride myself!
My hands, nails and fingers done, I sat down and started the long wait for the paste to turn into a pale green colour, signifying that it has already dried.
Unfortunately, it turns out that Omani henna artists now add a certain chemical to the henna paste to make the colour turn dark faster. Traditionally, henna would have to be left on overnight in order to achieve the desired dark red-brown colour. With the addition of certain chemicals, the same colour can be achieved in about an hour. The downside? Not all skin types take kindly to it, including mine. Especially mine!
My poor hands started to feel a hot stinging sensation underneath the cool smooth paste of swirly patterns on my hands. During the first 20 minutes, everyone said it was normal. But as time went on, the stinging became more intense and my skin started to turn scarlet. The other ladies who were present started crowding around me, murmuring intelligible Arabic phrases. All I understood was “ahmar“, which meant “red”, a most apt description of the colour of the skin on my hands.
One of the aunties gingerly touched the inflamed skin in between the half-damp, half-dried designs on my hands. She declared that some of the areas have already dried, and she slowly scraped off the hardened bits. I winced as her hands rubbed my skin, then felt immense relief as she gently dabbed some petroleum jelly on the raw areas. Someone else brought in a small ice pack from the kitchen, which they pressed gently on my burning skin.
It took quite a while for the stinging sensation to completely go away, with my skin feeling raw for the next few days, even after we already went back to Malaysia.
Ahh…the lengths women go through for the sake of beauty!
Postscript:
If you are tempted to try this temporary form of tattoo, you can expect the henna to fade within a week or two, depending on the type of henna that you use and how long you let it stay on your skin after application. But if you apply henna on your nails, the colour will go right into the keratin and there is no way of removing it. You can only wait for your nails to grow out.
Different types of henna produce different colours, ranging from red to orange to brown to dark reddish black, and can also be used for dyeing the hair.
I don’t cook a lot. But I loooove watching cooking shows to pick up tips and techniques, small stuff like brushing olive oil on the pizza crust so that it doesn’t get soggy after you pile up on the toppings. Or a quicker way of making pastry by grating frozen butter and gently mixing it with flour using your fingers instead of waiting for the butter to soften and either cutting in the butter into the flour or pulsing it with a food processor.
My current favourite is the Asian Food Channel.
I finally checked out their website and was delighted to find recipes listed by show (The Naked Chef? Chef At Home?), by chef (Jamie Oliver? Michael Smith?) and/or by category (desserts? soups?). Oodles of recipe. And all for free. Check it out today! :D
Image from www.irishhealth.com
A very good friend of mine is experiencing major heartbreak right now, which got me to thinking about the oft-repeated quotation: “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
But is it better really???
If you have loved and lost…
- You’ll have first-hand knowledge of how wonderful it is to love and be loved. But the moment you lose that love, you’ll spend the rest of your life looking for the same euphoric high. If you get a second chance, well and good. If you don’t, you could end up wishing you never knew what it was like in the first place.
- Things will never be the same again. It’s just like finally having known the freedom, ease and convenience of having your own car, then suddenly having to take public transportation again. Sucks, huh?
- You might spend the rest of your life pining for your lost love.
- You’ll forever be haunted by the “what-if’s”.
- You could end up a cynic.
If you’ve never loved at all…
- Ignorance is bliss. When you don’t know what you’re missing, it won’t matter to you if you never find it at all.
- But then again, you’ll forever be wondering what the hype in all those movies, paperbacks, telenovelas and love stories is all about.
- No man is an island. And things can get pretty lonely when you’re solo far too long, especially when friends start living their happily-ever-after’s one by one and you start feeling like an extra finger on a glove everytime you go out with them couples.
Share with me your thoughts on the subject, people!
I chanced upon this little guy this morning, right after a quick run on the treadmill.
He looked so miserable, with a smudge of blood beneath his right eye and his tail no longer attached to his body. He was staring at the sky, motionless and pitiful, not even twitching a muscle when I moved in close with my Nokia N82 to snap his pic.
If lizards can talk, I swear I could almost hear him say, “Why me?”!
The Tuileries Gardens in Paris make for an interesting stroll. It’s a sprawling park with trees, mallard ducks playing hide and seek amidst the tulips, and ancient statues. But stay away when it’s a windy day lest you find yourself in a virtual dust storm because a huge portion of the area is comprised of bare earth.
Between now and the 2nd of June, 2008, if you do visit the Tuileries, be prepared to come face to face with a gargantuan black spider, about as tall as a tree. Or to be more precise, 30 feet (9.1 m) tall.
It’s actually a sculpture by artist Louise Bourgeois, one of the seven bronze casts, with a stainless steel version on long-term loan to the Tate Modern, London. The six other bronze casts are located at:
* National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
* State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
* Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
* Mori Art Museum, Roppongi, Tokyo
* Samsung Museum of Modern Art (Leeum), Seoul
* Havana, Cuba
I hadn’t planned on posting this pic because I find it quite creepy (I hate creepy crawlies!) but then I saw a photograph of the same spider in Kayni’s Corner Cafe, although I didn’t know yet at that time that there are several casts of the same sculpture. That’s why there’s no oomph in this photo. I just snapped away without thinking of composition or angles, just focusing on showing its size relative to the trees.
The sculpture is, interestingly, called “Maman“, which is French for “Mama”. I found the choice of name bizarre, at the very least, for a spider. Curious, I immediately googled it up and found out from Guggenheim Museum’s website that the sculpture is actually associated with the artist’s own mother (seriously!). According to the site: “The spider, who protects her precious eggs in a steel cage-like body, provokes awe and fear, but her massive height, improbably balanced on slender legs, conveys an almost poignant vulnerability.”
Stumble it!