It's already 4th year once or twice a year Yerevan is hosting Indian Exhibition. This is a trade fair of Indian goods, spices, clothes, jewelry, and even wooden furniture and carpets. Each time it lasts for 10 days and people just flow there every day all the time. The most exciting thing about this fairs is Armenian young girls working at the stalls bridging Armenian customers with Indian traders. This becomes to be a real fun especially when people start bargaining. I would admit here that Indians and Armenians are the most active bargainers in the world. So imagine the scenario ....
The most famous purchase is scarfs. If you look carefully at the young ladies passing in the streets almost every second one is having an Indian scarf over her neck.
Starting from the next day my sweetheart came to Armenia another Indian Exhibition started in Yerevan. Apparently it was our first site to visit after he got his rest from 24-hour-long trip in 2 airplanes.
We went there to participate in the opening ceremony and to meet lots of friends from the group. This time it was not as big as earlier times but what I managed to mention that the products were of high quality and as always colorful and smell-full.
The very first stall we came up was offering different types of Mehndi applications for women. Mehndi is an inseparable part of Indian culture. Generally women apply this on their hands and feet but it has some fantastic and auspicious meaning especially before marriage. There is a special day before the wedding called Mehndi day when all the women and young girls from both of the bride's side and groom's side gather at the bride's place, invite a special Mehndi master and start partying while the master applies heena on their hands and feet.
At previous Indian Exhibitions I had the chance to watch how Mehndi is applied but never had it applied on my own hand. This time my sweetheart suggested me to experience it myself.
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| My first Mehndi |
As you can see in the photo it was not applied totally on my whole hand but on a small spot. However I was very much excited and delighted.
The curiosity of the situation was the payment. As my sweetheart was carrying Rupees too he suggested the lady to accept Rupees as anyway she was going to India soon and there was no need to pay in Armenian Drams. Apparently she was confused and didn't know what to say. "You could never imagine to earn Indian Rupees in Armenia. Isn't it ", I said. Well it was a real strange situation for her in fact whatever she got in Rupees was double of what she asked to pay in Dram :)
I enjoyed my first Mehndi for almost 10 days. Coincidentally and unfortunately it disappeared in the morning on my Engagement day.
Loved the design :) There are also some beliefs that when a bride has her mehndi applied, the darkness of the colour that results indicates how much her future husband loves her :) Of course, in reality, the darkness of the mehndi colour will depend on the quality of the mehndi itself and the person's body temperature. There are lots of ways to try to make the colour of the mehndi go darker. I think you gave me a good idea for my next blog entry, I'll blog about mehndi and how to get a good colour!
ReplyDeleteOf course, I'm not an expert in applying or making mehndi, but maybe an expert in putting it on :)
Dear Soulful, Thanks a lot for you informative comment. I'll be waiting for you new entry about Mehndi. Hope to get an application from you some day :)
ReplyDeleteI am moving here some comments that I received on this post in Facebook because they are very informative...
ReplyDeleteChristine Zargaryan:
Dear Ruzanna! I was just reading how you felt about your first mehendi........ so nice. I wanna give some information.
You know I have worked on research which is called Mugal Influence on India and apparently before they invented India, Indians were not having mehendi culture and there are many other things that have pure Muslim roots………
Me:
So you want to say that Mehndi is a pure Muslim tradition?
..by the way as far as I know there are 2 types of Mehndi: Arabic and Indian. First is darker , close to black having tight patterns and Indian is more brownish with round ornaments.
Christine Zargaryan:
What I want to say is that in India mehendi is not known to be used for hand painting art before Mugals.As far as for Arabic mehendi ,they also got it from Mugals. Ornaments are coming from folk, everyday life..ect so it can be different from state to state even. Mugals left a big influence on North India. South India , culture and people are more as it used to be before Mugals.
I would just like to add a comment that regardless of its origins, mehndi is used throughout India & the middle east, and Indians and Arabs have had close ties through trading for hundreds of years. So it is not surprising that there are many cultural influences in both directions between Indians & Middle East.
ReplyDeleteThese days, it is very fashionable to apply both Middle Eastern henna designs (which is what Ruzi got- thicker designs, with more flowery patterns), as well as traditional Indian style designs (thinner and more detailed patterns).
Whatever its origins, and whichever pattern suits you, rest assured that Indians (Hindu and Muslim) are deciding based on fashion and whatever appeals to them. As long as it looks good that's all that matters :)