Henna - Sometimes it is the little things that change your perspective in a bigger way, beyond anything we could ever expect.

 

Henna

An old friend and I were meeting for a short catch up in a shopping complex close to my place of residence.

“Naani! Where are you man?” Nani was a petname I had been given for the shorter and easier pronounciation.
“I’m at the shopping complex man where are you?”
“In front of Baskin Robins la”
“Baskin robins? Ye kab aaya yahaa? Tell me if you see Dominoes, Al-bake or a Nathu’s sweets. Those are easy navigation points for me.”
“Nani, I see you walking towards me and I have Nathu's sweets on my left”. He stood with his hand waving above his head.
“Okay cool I think I see you now.” I raised my hand too, some sorta Indian connect I suppose to mimic.

“Chinmay! how have you been man Long time no see?” 

“Arey main aata, par kaam you know. Things got f@#$d up, par abhi chill ae”
“You wanna go for a beer before we blab about our respective break ups?”
“No man, have a flight to catch at night. Better stay sober, tumko chalna hai to main company de sakta hai”
“Haan haan CEO saab jo ban gya hai. How’s that start up thingy coming along now that you and your partner broke up”
Arey chill scene hai bro, wo aisa nahi hai baki ladkio ka jaisa. She’s very professional. Kaam mein no messup, personal life fuck all ho jaye koi baat nahi” He laughed his cheeky laugh with eyes almost closed.

“Cheers to break ups and fuck alls. Gives us reason to connect and party at least”, I laughed. 

Chinmay was the most fun, interesting and vibe check passing guy I had come across. He was like the Capybara in human form. Anyone and everyone would love to be friends with him.

We went to Nathu’s sweets, a popular local restaurant for some snacks and then strolled around the shopping complex catching up on all the life events, good and bad alike, that had happened since we had last met. It was supposed to be the auspicious day of the Teej Festival and Henna artists sat over booked with ladies sitting on the side stools waiting for their turn. We did not have much to do and anyway wanted to sit, so I decided to give in to my temptation of getting some henna designs painted on my hands too. I sat down while Chinmay got himself a smoke break, while I took a seat and did what I liked to do best. Choosing a design from the catalogue book the man showed me I sat down with my palm open, held gently by the henna designer who stared at it with the focus of a painter looking at blank canvas.

A lady sat next to me so that I was facing her back, she was getting henna patterns done on both her hands and feet. She wore a pretty peacock patterned saree which I really liked. I looked around the people and general commotion when an old man caught my eye. Nothing special about his simple clothes or calculated pace of walk balancing all the goodies he had just got packed from Nathu’s but rather, the way he smiled at the old lady sitting with her back towards me getting her henna done. His driver rushed to him, taking away the heavy load when he stopped the man and took out a small box of sweets out of the package and instructed him to keep away the rest in the car while he did some more shopping. By this time, somehow the henna designer had made some mistake in the design the old lady had chosen for her feet and she was genuinely upset. The man walked as fast as he seemingly could and tried his best to calm down his lady luck and succeeded in convincing the Henna artist to redo the floral henna pattern with seven petals instead of five as was his wife’s desire. The henna artist muttered inaudibly for a while but finally gave in. The old man then turned to his wife, and opened the small box of sweets he had taken out a while ago. Offered her water to drink and politely explained to her that the boy has agreed to redo the pattern so she need not worry.

Chinmay was back from his smoke break and took a seat beside me on another plastic stool.
Seeing how I was deeply engaged not in looking at how my henna pattern was turning out but rather someone else’s, he asked, “Bro. . what” with raised eyebrows.

With the great indian head wobble I slyly pointed his gaze towards the old couple sitting right behind us. The man was gently guiding the henna artist to redo the pattern while trying to get his wife to take a bite of the sweets as she was on a fast and could only take milk based lightly sweetened items at the moment. He calmed her down tactfully and we both could not help but admire how cute they were. By now our staring had probably become too obvious, and the man turned to us, explaining how he was trying to be nice since his wife was on a fast and he wanted things to turn out the way she liked for her happiness. We ended up blurting to them sheepishly how they both seemed so very cute. The man confessed to having been married to the lady for 50 years, an arranged marriage at a very young age they both said blushing. 

“I don’t know about marriage, but seeing you makes me wish for a lasting love like that”
“Arey beta, we have a son like that too. Youngest in the family probably a bit older than you two kids. You kids these days, baba re, shaadi ke naam se to aaplog aise bhaagtey ho. Par beta humein dekho, hasi khushi zindagi beet rahi hai.” He beamed 

“Agreed, we both have had an amazing life and I really wish mera beta bhi jaldi shaadi karle.” The lady smiled warmly.
“Samaan bhi to lena tha na Anita ka?”The lady looked at her husband.
“Maine sab samaan le bhi liya, gaadi mein rakhwa bhi diya.”
“Aapko to sirf list ka yaad hoga, bachcho ki pasand ki chizein?”
“Suneeta ji, Sab pack karwa liya hain humne aap bas barfi khao aur mehndi lagwao. Samaan Jeetu gaadi mein rakh ke aata hi hoga. Don’t worry you’re in safe hands my lady.”The old man finished with a smirk like a poor imitation of James bond, and his wife smiled adoringly.

“Beta humara ghar paas hi mein hain, par ab chala nahi jaata na. So we need to be driven around. But achha hai, aap log abhi bachche ho ghumo phiro,,enjoy life. And do get married young. Humaare bete ki tarah nahi, jiske nakhre hi khatam nahi hote” They cribbed a little about their son who sounded like quite a catch on the matrimonial market.

They both left shortly after, as they had so many other preparations to do for the Teej festival and what not. I don’t recall much of the later details, but what I do recall is what Chinmay and I both somehow agreed on that day. "Bro wo auntie tumhe rishta k liye bhi puchhlena ta agar thodi der aur rukte. But Yeah they were both really cute" I remember Chinmay had remarked and I greed, they were unforgettably cute together.

The old couple came out of the blue while we had been bitching about our supposedly not so great relationships and a general disregard for the social sham called arranged marriage given the floods of proposal we were navigating in our respective homes. Somehow, seeing these wobbling penguins of a human couple gave a warm feeling on the inside and the sweets they offered us take no credit. The simple gestures and care for one another actually shifted our cynical perspective towards a positive one and we could just not stop admiring how cute this couple really was. Maybe some day in life in the distant future I would want the kind of love these two shared, forgiving, caring, patient, silly, and lasting.