What’s the best way to spend your free time on midterm break? Decorate yourself with henna, of course! The Office of Intercultural Life managed to obtain several tubes of hard-to-find henna paste, so they set up shop in Nourse Lounge and had a henna party.
Though henna decorations on the skin are bright red, the henna plant that is the source of the dye isn’t very spectacular-looking. It grows in Africa and southern Asia where Indian people have traditionally used it for body decoration for centuries. The powdered henna leaves are mixed with acid (which helps the dye stick to your skin) into a goop that is commercially available in foil-wrapped packets. The tubes of henna paste look like pastry bags, and they work like them, too. The best way to apply the henna is to cut the end off of the tube and squeeze the paste onto the skin.
Intercultural Life had put plenty of paper towels down on the table in case of spills. A number of students from OIL who knew what they were doing stood by to help students with their designs. There was also one adventuresome reporter who didn’t know what she was doing, but decided to try applying the henna to herself anyway.
Surprisingly, the paste didn’t look a lot like henna tattoos from photos. That’s because the squeezing on of the paste isn’t the final step in the process. The paste flakes off when it is dry, a process that usually takes half an hour to an hour, and leaves the skin underneath stained red. Professional henna artists can make designs that are quite elaborate; we novices managed some pretty decent flowers and swirlies, as well as the word “spiderman.”
No need to be bored while waiting for the paste to dry, either. In keeping with the Indian theme, Intercultural Life put a classic Bollywood film, Lagaan, on the lounge TV. The people of one particular Indian village can’t afford to pay their land tax this year because the crops have failed. The colonial British authorities make a deal with them by challenging them to a cricket match. If the villagers win, they don’t have to pay the tax; if they lose, they will have to pay triple. Bhuvan, the hero, is determined to organize his village and help them win, never mind that nobody in the village actually knows how to play cricket.
It actually lasted fifteen minutes before the villagers burst into a song and dance number. What a great way to spend an evening – Bollywood, henna goop, and some great-looking temporary tattoos to take home.
