Mehendi has been of immense traditional importance in India.
Every special occasion a girl has to decorate her hands with intricate
mehendidesigns, without which the celebration is not complete. It’s atradition
that even crazed Madonna to adorn her hands with prettydesigns. But mehendi
these days is a pretty expensive affair. One has to go to parlours or mehendi
artists to indulge in the art of mehendi. These options are quite costly for
the ones who put mehendi every once in a while. The cheaper options available
are the mehendi tattoos and the artificial mehendi prints done on streets or
beaches. But they don’t give the feel of the real mehendi. Now, what do the
mehendi lovers do? And here, the men come to the rescue!
Yes, these days in mumbai suburbs, men sit on the road with mehendi cones and
books and a few necessary stools. These men draw beautiful mehendion one’s
hands for just Rs 50 onwards. The Arabic designs are availableat Rs 50 and the
Indian designs start from Rs 100, depending upon thedesign one chooses. The
mehendi is homemade using clove andneem oil and secret herbs of their
forefathers’ formulae, whichguarantees a fantastic colour. Wondering how come
men have entered thewomen’s field? One such mehendi artist from the streets
ofDadar says, “When girls have entered the men’s field, why shouldn’t weenter
and explore theirs? Besides, we’re doing better business thanthem.”
The growing business
Truly, they are doing good business. Every day each mehendi artist has almost
10-15 customers. In the festive season, one has to take an appointment to get
the mehendi done or else there is a five-six hours wait. They also take orders
and charge no extra money for travelling. A mehendi artist proudly says, “We
earn enough during the festive season to last us for the year.”
They
have customers coming from Mulund, New Bombay, and even Pune. One such
customer from New Bombay, Preeti Deshmukh, says, “My mother saw this
place in Dadar while shopping and forced me to come here. This place is
reasonable making it all the more interesting.”
The men behind the Mehendi
Thesemen come from states like Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh; some in searchof a
job and some to spread their talent. The Borivali street mehendi artist
Sarvesh Vshvakarma came to Mumbai to roam with his friends. He learnt mehendi
by observing his brother who was already in this business. And now he himself
is in the business. The story of the Dadar mehendi artist is quite different
though. Bikas Agarwal learnt mehendi at a very early age from his grandmother.
The love for mehendi drove him to attend a course on mehendi art in Jagjivan
Ram Institute in Jaipur, Rajasthan in 1998. It’s an institute dedicated to arts
including mehendi.He attended the course for five years advancing to the next
level everytime. Coming to Mumbai was a dream for him for he had never seen
thedream city. From opening a roadside business two years ago, he has comea
long way. Currently he has rented a small shop on the request of hiscustomers.
Thesmall town men have big dreams. They plan to expand this business andset up
a shop of their own. Bikas Agarwal, who already has a rentedshop in Dadar,
plans to open a bigger shop in the upcoming mall nearShivsena Bhavan. This shop
will be a parlor completely dedicated to mehendi.
Now, one can say that the tradition of mehendi is truly available at your
doorstep.
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