VIII
I’d
spend more consciously, much less profligate
with
time, deep dive into each day, every night
to
bring up their treasures, feel their sheen and weight
in
my hands and heart, against the watertight
tautness
of existence. I’d spend less time on
making
a home of walls, an address of roads
and
cities, instead make a home of my own
within
my ribs and skin and veins. Slightly odd
to
be frugal with time and building when there’s
more
of it. Nine would mean more time to value,
each
like your ring, never mind the gems or rare
metals,
just the shape of the vow and the true
worth
of timelessness. Each one vermilion red
grace
smeared in my hair, love shined on my forehead.
.
IX
And
every single day I’m given, I’d pin
more
of my heart, and other parts, on my sleeve
nothing
much of the fabric would show, more skin
more
raw flesh, more wounds, blemishes. I might leave
off
sleeves altogether, on bare arms pin them
instead.
Or maybe like stacked bangles I’d wear
them
on my upper arms as northern women
do,
they’d jingle, make themselves known everywhere.
Or
like lace up espadrilles, strong sinews nine
times
around, years winding up from my ankles
halfway
to my knees. With all the extra time
you
might just get better at straps and bangles.
But
whatever - on sleeves, straps, bangle or shoe
I
might pin in nine lifetimes, I’ll pin for you.
These are the last two of the series of nine and they conclude the posts for February.
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Traditionally, marital jewellery is a huge thing in Indian culture. Not just jewellery, colours and cosmetics also. What a married woman should or shouldn't wear has been specified and prescribed and hotly debated. Not just married women, what any woman can or should wear is up for discussion by all and sundry at the drop of a hat. Anyway, let's keep that for another time,
A married Bengali woman is supposed to wear vermilion in her hair part - first put there by her groom as a part of the wedding rituals, and also as a 'bindi' or 'teep' on her forehead. The colour red is associated strongly with auspiciousness and married ladies, widows aren't supposed to wear it.
Then there's the loha, an iron bangle worn on the left forearm, slipped on the bride's wrist by her MIL as she enters the new family. There are the conch shell and coral bangles one of each worn on either side. Apart from that, it is frowned upon to leave ears, wrists and neck 'bare' for a married woman.
Other communities have other marital symbols - some have special necklaces called mangalsutra (lit auspicious thread) or thali which the groom fastens round the bride's neck during the wedding ceremony and which she's never supposed to take off again in her husband's lifetime. Others have special kinds of bangles and so on. If anyone ever asks why, these are all worn to ensure the good health and long life of the husband. Taking them off jeopardises the whole lot.
In short, a Hindu married woman wears her marital status like a beacon, useful no doubt in a traditional patriarchal society where it's important to be able to tell which women are 'taken' and which not.
On the other hand, the bride in a Hindu ceremony does not put a single thing on the groom, not even a tilak. Some gift of gold is made to the groom traditionally by the bride's father. Some men choose to wear them, some do not - as per individual taste. But men are not required to wear a single item, not a ring nor a dot nor a distinctive hairstyle or beard, to show they are married. You couldn't tell an Indian married man by looking at him - 2000 years ago and also now.
It has always seemed a tad unequal to me, not to mention the cumbersomeness, the sheer monotony of having to wear a ton of jewellery day in day out. Fine if you want to, many women wear them as a marker of identity - these traditions go back solid unbroken for some 3-4 millennia, so that weight can be an anchor for some, something that pegs their place proudly in the world - I totally get that. I admire and value that long history. But I was never a fan personally. I know quite a few women who followed all the conventions and wore everything they were required to, yet were widowed heartbreakingly early. So much for the bangles and bindis ensuring good health and long marriage.
Live and let live, love and let love. Wear whatever the heck you want if that's your own choice, don't be blackmailed into wearing a bangle or a chain because of social bullying. Or conversely, give up wearing anything because of it.
