Today was the mehendi ceremony. It is a ceremony when beautiful intricate henna patterns are drawn on the palms and feet of bride and groom and the other women who are interested. Indrayani had called some tribal women from the locality and promised them pay for each side of the hand they draw. So, if they drew patterns on the upper side and lower side of each hand, they would get four times the pay. 

The Patils had already enough saved up and Indrayani thought that her daughter's marriage was the perfect way to spend their savings, especially when her son-in-law's family were taking responsibility of most of the wedding expenses and wouldn't even tell them the price with the fear that they would try to pay forcefully.

Mahesh's elder brother and his wife, Hemant and Savita had an important ritual that day. The neighbouring kids gathered as the couple stood barefeet. There were bandwalas (Bandsman, I don't know what they are called in english but google showed this word. They play drums, trumpets and other things) in front of the couple Mahamaya's cousins, some guests for the wedding possession, neighbours and anyone who wished had joined. Four men stood around the couple. Hemant held a thick stick and on that stick stretched a saffron cloth. The four men surrounding the couple held the four corners of the stick as it almost looked like Hemant was holding an umbrella over Savita.

Savita's hands held a pooja ki thali (plate with vermilion, turmeric, lamp and other things which are used for praying and worship). Two of the four men holding the edges of the cloth were walking to the forefront, with the couple behind them as they walked to the nearest goldsmith's shop. 

After they reached there, the shopkeeper showed them the silver pentagon shaped small plates they had left of their kuldevi (ancestral Goddess) Goddess Bijasni for polishing. These plates were collected from all the houses of Mundkhede, Mahesh's house, thus showing that the entire village blessed the couple. Savita put some vermillion, turmeric, betel nut from her pooja ki thali on each of the plate. 

Savita gave her own plate to her daughter-in-law Pooja (Mahamaya's sister-in-law) who was standing behind Savita and she herself took the bigger plate with all the tiny silver plates inside it. They exited the shop, with the cloth covering the Goddess from the sun. It symbolized that the devotees of the Goddess were so blindly in love with her to realize that the one who created the sun didn't need protection from the sun.

They they went to a nearby small temple and worshipped the plates there, before again lifting them and taking them back to Mahamaya's home then and placing them inside the home temple, before doing the aarti (woshipping) again.

Meanwhile, Mahamaya, along with most of her female close relatives, Indrayani, their neighbours and all those who wanted to participate in the marriage were in the house as the hired girls were busy in drawing the henna patterns. Mahamaya, as obvious, had to remove her bangle and her anklets to get the henna drawm properly.

The girl who was drawing the henna patterns for Mahamaya was really an expert and it took her hours to draw patterns for her. Indrayani and the rest got theirs too. It took a lot of time to draw henna on so many hands and many women were sat waiting for their turns. 

"You know what they say, Maya. The darker the shade, the more your to be husband/husband loves you," Pooja said, making Mahamaya blush. Her henna pattern was beautiful indeed and they had hidden Viraj's name somewhere in the pattern as was ritual. Similarly, henna patterns were also drawn on her feet. By the time everyone was satisfied, her limbs were numb. After the henna was drawn, sugar water was blobbed on it with a cotton balls as it would help darken the colour and prolong the colour of the henna.

Finally, after hours of making henna patterns, it was evening and they decided it was time to click pictures. Indrayani and her cousins helped Mahamaya wear a henna coloured outfit. It was not difficult because the henna on their hands had dried up. All her cousins who had their hands covered with henna, which were almost all of them, clicked pictures as they made patterns of hands and clicked loads of pictures with the bride. Mahamaya's solo photos with the henna patterns with the trending poses were clicked too.

Finally, after everything was done, food was ordered from a local poli bhaji kendra (traditional cheap food alternative of sorts). Since their order was in bulk, they could request for more traditional and more number of dishes. 

It was a ritual to feed close relatives after worshipping the kul daivat (ancestral deity). This ritual is called as kelvan jevan. This was how the mehendi ceremony in Mahamaya's home was carried out.

In Viraj's home too,  they had gotten their silver plates of Khanderao (their ancestral God) polished and professional henna artists were called in and women flocked to get henna drawn on their palms and why wouldn't they? After all, on the occasion of marriage of the to be Mafia Boss, Ayush had announced that all women in the house, whether they were staff, house help, prostitutes or family members of their gang members could get henna drawn on their hands for free. He would pay for all of it out of his own pocket. 

That led everybody to work with more enthusiasm and for the work to be done more efficiently because they wanted to complete everything as soon as possible and then get their hands painted with henna. He was surprised with the results himself. Another plus point was that Viraj and Mahamaya got blessings from all these people. 

Ayush was learning more about humans now than ever, a bit surprised himself because his profession needed him to read humans. He did know that humans would work better with the dangling prize of reward in front of them but he never thought of using it on women. 

Maybe he never even realized that women were humans too. His wife did all the chores and he never stopped to ask her if she was tired or to ask her if she wanted a massage but when he did yesterday after so many years of his marriage, unlike what he expected her to do, which was accept, she respectfully told him no but the happiness in her eyes seemed to be happier than ever.

Ayush never believed in God but when he saw Mahamaya's angry form that day, he suddenly started to because the energy emitting from her was so intense that he either wanted to join his hands and submit or run away. He never came to terms with what he felt but he had a big guilt in his heart since that day as he was realizing slowly how he had treated everyone in his life. There was a shift in the way he was thinking since that day.

Finally, after every woman's henna was done, Viraj's palm was undertaken. Since he was a man, he wouldn't have to get a full hand pattern like Mahamaya's. The design which he chose to be drawn was simple, easy and far less time consuming. Even Yuvraj got himself a nice simple henna pattern and the happiness was evident on his face because it was the first time he was seeing henna and he felt like it was magical.

Viraj had some photoshoots done and he was feeling weird because the other women, even women from his family, like daughters of some of his gang members weren't doing those fun poses which he had seen women do in other weddings. Everybody was scared of men. Finally, he decided to order men around and as the men left to do what he had ordered, the women felt freer and started talking amongst themselves, comparing their henna's colours already and after him insisting, they even clicked pictures with him.

Finally satisfied with how the event ended, he called and told the men that they didn't need to complete his orders anymore and he had changed his mind. 

Ayush had observed this but instead of getting angry as he would, he was greatly amused. Silently, he blessed Viraj and hoped that he would change things for the better once seated on the throne of the entire Mumbai...

*****
A/N:

Henna has a cooling effect on the body and is usually applied to calm the wedding stress the bride and the groom must be going through.