This morning while peering into the rusty bathroom mirror something hit me between the eyes.
The blank spot between my eyebrows. Blank.
There was a time when I had a permanent white patch on my forehead from the bindis I've worn all my life. My bedroom back in Kerala has pictures of a Yardley-ed, coconut-oiled me as a baby with a huge black spot smack in the centre of my forehead. My grandmother told me she used to make kohl at home, to make sure that my eyes remained black (I wonder why she expected them to turn blue or green) In any case, I still walk about with liberal amounts of black grease around my eyes.
But the bindi for some reason seems to have dropped out of my life. So many of them have come and gone.. the small round plastic dabbas of kajal that you had to apply with your finger tips, long maroon sweet smelling tubes of Shingar, big velvetty circles of Shilpa stickers that you had to peel off mirrors (and sometimes lick to make them stay on your face) round boxes of rainbow colored tiny bottles generally picked up whenever there was a festival at the temple ...
I now watch my mother's bindi grow smaller and more fashionable. My grandmother's has changed from a fiery red circle in the centre of her forehead to a huge splotch of sandlewood paste. My sister flatly refuses to wear one. And the white patch on my forehead is fading fast.
I cover it up with a squiggle of eyeliner and march out of the bathroom. This black spot is staying on.
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7 comments:
yo amamma!!!!
btw, "liberal amounts of black grease"??? - my eyes r itching!!!!
KISS - Keep It Short, Sweet! This is exactly what you have done here on this blog!
I guess you have in a few words very well explained the changing times and fashion of India... Bindi's which were once very much a part of Indian culture is slowly disappearing! I loved the post :)
Hmmmm... " Yardley-ed, coconut-oiled me as a baby with a huge black spot smack in the centre of my forehead"
Lol... this post is funny...
Times are changing. Traditions are changing :).Our next generations will replace bindi's with a tattoo may be :)
Did you know Sree, that married women are required to keep on at all the times? :P Couldn't resist! Growing up, eh?
yo sis!! appa saw the blank forehead n asked "did it fall somewhere on the way ma??" :P n therefore i now wear bindi :D
chim forgot to complete her statement "n therefore i now wear bindi wen i am around vicky's house"
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