Day 2 - Evening - Mehandi

[ In the pic - from left - Poornima, Shilpa holding Ria, Vani and Archana]

A bridal mehandi specialist was coming late in the evening because of the last minute confusion. For all others, three girls came to put mehandi. They came home by 4pm. I asked my cousins and A to put mehandi before everyone started arriving. We all got ready and I got busy with arranging for the evening. I wore a burnt orange color skirt and a black silk top. We had caterers for dinner.

My house was already bursting with people. Just when everything was going on fine, there was a power cut !! There was never any power cut in the last few days. There was sunlight, so the mehandi troop marched out and sat outside in our patio near the garden. It was noisy and a lot of fun. After a while, when there was no sign of the power coming back, I began to panic. Everything would flop if there was no power !! I had taken many scented candles and this was a good time to use them.

After what seemed an eternity, the power finally came back. The girls were busy putting mehandi and the line seemed never-ending. I think the mehandi girls were there till 9pm after which they were too exhausted to put for any more people. I am sure there were more than 40 people who put mehandi. My house was decorated with serial lights; the lights on the coconut trees were very fascinating. The food was excellent. I was instructed to eat soon before they start putting mehandi because it is difficult to move around after that. So, I promptly ate. The food was excellent. I don't remember all the things on the menu; there was Raj kachori, small samosas, some special kind of pulav with bread crumbs, raitha, parathas, some vegetable sabzi, curd rice and hot jelebis. He was making the jelabis in front of us. I am not a big fan of this sweet but it was very tasty when tasted fresh off the pan. My friends, Vani and Manu had also come by then. Then the groom side people came for dinner. I ofcourse claimed that I had not eaten. hehehhe.

The bridal lady had not shown up and it was almost 7:30pm. Where was she ? Everyone but the bride had mehandi on !! I went to call the lady and discovered my land line was dead !! Would everything go wrong on the same day ? Anyway, I decided not to panic and tried to look for my cell. In the meantime, the lady came and she promptly got to business. It took her a little over 4 hours to put the mehandi. She did a great job. I had 3/4th of my hands done and a little on my feet. She even hid a little puzzle for Vikram in my palms ( he was supposed to find his name is less than a minute - he lost the game; a few of the letters can be seen the pic of my palms above). She also drew a heart with our names.

I was stiff with sitting while she put the mehandi. As I did not have much time to keep it on ( just overnight), she asked me to put tiger balm over the mehandi every few hours so that the heat gives it a good color!! She left a little after midnight. My cousin Anu and A gave her company in the car as M dropped her home. I could not even move without help. Sigh. It was time to sleep and A and Anu helped me to bed. It was a very funny situation and I started laughing at my state. We kept talking for a while before finally dozing off. I kept waking up every few hours to put tiger balm.