Self care. She is our caretaker’s wife. I loved her veni of flowers and requested for a picture. She happily obliged and said. Not just now, I have been wearing a Veni everyday since before marriage. That itself makes it clear women did all of this for themselves.
I have seen women especially older women take such good care of themselves. In the villages they tend to their hair twice a day. Weekly oiling and head bath are a leisurely affair. Sitting in the sun after head bath to dry the tresses is such an act of rejuvenation. Especially after periods. No one objects to the women relaxing at the time. In our modern lives we don’t care for our hair nor general health. We made such an issue about sitting separately during periods and lost the best part of it, the rejuvenation.
I know my mother’s generation took such pride in turning out well every single morning. Hair combed, saree perfectly draped. Kajal in the eyes, bindi on the forehead and gajara in the hair. They would go about their work with tinkling bangles that was reassuring to us kids that Mum is around. The younger ones ran across the house with paijan at their ankles. There wasn’t that much traffic even in the cities that would drown the music.
I personally being conditioned in a convent school dropped all of this. Now it seems so pleasing…
