Last week, I was standing in line at a Shoppers store when the young woman just ahead of me caught my eye. She was slender and tall, with a pretty fresh face and long soft hair. Trendy in her cutoff shorts and small tee, she looked like what you would imagine a youthful Seventeen Magazine cover girl model to look like.
But that is not what got my attention. Rather, it was her right hand.
From the tips of her fingers to well beyond her wrist, she had the dark stain of an intricate mehndi design. Or what is commonly known in the West as a henna tattoo.
Mehndi is traditionally associated with weddings in India, and more particularly with brides. It is an integral part of the bridal décor, along with the finest jewels and ornate bridal wear. Pre-wedding functions are often planned around the application of mehndi to the bride’s hands and feet, which takes several hours and then many more to deepen the colour of the stain. There is usually a great deal of excitement amongst all female relatives and guests who also enjoy having henna designs applied on them.
So, I couldn’t help myself. “Excuse me,” I asked, “I couldn’t help but notice the lovely henna on your hand. Did you attend an Indian wedding?”
“Oh, thank you,” she replied, smiling as she gazed at her hand. “No, I had it put on at a street festival in Little Italy!”
I was surprised and not surprised at the same time.
Here was a young woman, wholly unconnected to the Indian culture, who went to the Italian part of town during a street festival and experienced a marriage tradition that traces it roots to a world away.
Since when did things from India become so cool?
I remember in elementary school, all the kids were gathered to see a film on India. The predominant focus was on poverty and homelessness, no doubt to increase awareness of how other people live and our relative lives of privilege. Unfortunately, children don’t always have the sophistication to pick up socially relevant messages. And given that there was already some taunting about skin colour and names, who needed to be associated with unsavoury images of India? I was left feeling almost embarrassed to be Indian.
Then in high school, when everyone desperately wants to fit in and be accepted, it was ultra cool at Centennial Regional High School, Greenfield Park, Quebec, to be Black or Greek or a smoker that hung around the fringes of the school, but to be Indian was to be, well, basically a nerd. Not cool.
But in the last few decades, there has been a shift, and India has not only become increasingly accepted, it is actually in vogue!
Interestingly, I can almost see this progression when I look in hindsight at the aggregate experience of my husband and his siblings and me and my siblings. Collectively, our experiences reflect the passage of time and the coming of age of Indians in North America. My brother-in-law, currently in his late 40s, went to school when there were very few other Indian kids around. He was harassed for being different and for speaking a different language. Understandably, he made every effort to assimilate, ultimately marrying a French Canadian woman. The experience of his younger sister was not that different, and she ended up marrying a British man. By the time the youngest, my husband, went to school, there were more South Asians than previously, and he was able to form several enduring friendships with them. He ultimately chose to marry an Indian woman (me!).
I am two years younger than my husband, and as the oldest sibling of my family, our experience takes off from the point at which theirs leaves off. By the time me and my sister went to high school, we may not have been able to define the word ‘cool’, but we South Asians were sufficient in number to form our own social networks. We belonged. We had the luxury of embracing the traditional cultural and linguistic influences at home. My youngest sister never knew what it was not to belong. With a veritable explosion in the Indian youth population, they did redefine what it was to be cool.
Perhaps this demographic coming of age influenced pop culture as well. Trendy European nightclubs began to mix in the vibe of Bhangra beats. Yoga became a fitness craze. Chai became available on every major street corner. Young women began applying henna tattoos. And, of course, it did not hurt to have a pop music icon like Madonna place a bindi on her forehead and influence fashion around the globe. Whatever it is that started the trend, it appears to be here to stay.
This is the new Republic of Indo-Cool.
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