A firm hand grips the bride's freshly manicured one and with quicksilver movements, the most delicate and the most traditional patterns are wrought in mehendi, from elbow to hand and from calf to foot. And Laila Bhagat's fingers should fly, after an 18-year affair with mehendi, applying the most exquisite patterns come as easily to her as icing to a chef. She began as a young girl, experimenting with different designs and practising hard, learning from her sister, another expert in the field. Laila smiles and says, ``I started applying mehendi in earnest when, for my neighbour's wedding, the mehendiwali was unbearably slow, and I was able to fill in for her.'' This set her on her present path, specialising in bridal mehendi, staying exceptionally busy towards the end of each year, when weddings take place practically at every corner.The bridal make-up is full of fine lines, curves, ambi motifs, dolis, flowers and of course, the name of the groom which must be carefully woven into the pattern. This is a delicate operation - the name must be difficult to find, and yet not so difficult that optic nerves begin to strain! She is well-known in mehendi circles, her business booms as her work is seen at weddings. ``I can do as many as three brides in a day and I work on the hands of anywhere between 40 and 50 brides in a season beginning in November and ending towards the end of February,'' says Bhagat. She gets a classic view of the slow fuzzing of the line between different cultures.``Maharashtrian brides now want some of the festivity that comes with a Punjabi wedding - the mehendi party is one such thing. Hesitant still, they want the mehendi only an inch below their palms, but, yes, they want it. Of course, the Muslims, Sindhis, Punjabis and the Marwadis have weddings that ensure that the mehendi tradition lives on.'' A bride going for the works with Laila will be shelling out a cool Rs 1500, but a wedding day is a wedding day after all and such expenditure is justified.Bhagat would need about three to five in her team for an ordinary mehendi party. Her own work with the bride can take between one and three hours to complete. The designs come out of the album she has made or whatever the bride may specify. ``But the design can never come out exactly the same,'' says Bhagat. She continues, ``A Sindhi mehendi party can have as many 300 people attending and she takes a 15-member team for such an event.'' Her team members are normally Ismailis like herself, members of the Khoja community or Muslims from other sects. Says Bhagat simply,``It is God's gift to us. Normally each household has at least one girl who can apply mehendi. They learn very fast.'' And it is also a question of economics, for as Bhagat says,``It needs a small investment and gives large returns.''Bhagat makes her own mehendi mixture with eucalyptus oil, tea water and clove oil. And she uses Rajasthani mehendi which she believes gives a better colour. Her advice to people wanting to get into the business is that you need loads of practise and some artistic talent.
