India's great culture

According to Times of India: feb: 2: 2013.

As burqa-clad a Girl walks past the ever bustling streets of Jama Masjid, there’s nothing really striking about her. That’s untill she flashes the bright red bangles she’s wearing-the kind that newly-married Hindu women have around their wrists.

Young muslim women in India, and even Pakistan, can be increasingly seen sporting the chooda, mangalsutra and often the sindoor. And they seen no taboo in that taking it as a fashion statement, something that lends to their whole ‘just married’ look.

“Wearing a chooda doen’t make mea Hindu or a lasser Muslim,”says 21-year-old girl. “see, among Muslims there is nothing that differentiates married women form those who are still single. I have been fascinated with choodas ever since I was a young kid. So that was one of the first things i bought after my engagement. In fact, my cousin too, wore one at her nikah.’  Also form the jama Masjid area here when she got married last week. To her surprise, none of her relatives objected.

It’s not only the chooda. The demand for mangalsutra is picking up and not just in India but also in Pakistan where many of those who ask for it put it on the influence of India;s enormously popular saas-baju soaps.

Two year ago when Naseema Aziz, a resident of karachi, visited her relatives in Delhi they were startled manglsutra is a beautiful neckpiece and goes with every suit,”

Naseema explaned over phone. “If one is wearing it out of choice, there’s nothing wrong in it out of choice, there’s nothing wrong in it. In Pakistan everyone knows i am a Muslim. Merely wearing a mangalsutra won’t have me confused for a Hindu.”

Jewellers in Delhi confirm this trend. “In the past two-three years, we have seen a growing number of Muslim women, some in burqas, ask for the mangalsutra,” Says owner of a Jewellers. “they prefer the ones that have diamond pendants.”

With the mangalsutra and chooda finding favour among Muslim women, how can the sindoor, that eternal sign of a married Hindu girl, be left behing. But while most Hindu women prefer red sindoor, Muslims tend to go for orange. Interestingly, in parts of Kolkata the two different shades have come to distinguish women from the two communities.

Rizwana, who works as a nanny in Kolkata, has seen her mother with orange sindoor. She followed suit when she herself got married in 2010. “Hindu women use red and we orange. Don’t women in Delhi \do the same?” the 24 year old asked. In Bihar, however, many Hindu women also use orange sindoor.

This confluence of cultures can these days be witnessed during Muslim weddings too. Some of them come complete with what resemble the sangeer ceremony.
Omar’s wedding in Delhi is on Feb 23 and he’s busy not just with his shopping but frenetic dance rehearsals. “though the wedding is on the 23^rd, the nikah will take place on the 23^rd, the nikah will take place on the 10^th. And there is a sangeet cum mehendi function with dance performances by relatives and friends. Both Hiona, Who’s my fiancee, and i will be performing, “says the excited man.

When asked why the nikah was being held before the functioned, he says, “If we perform together before the nikah, some of our elderly relatives might not like it that the girl and boy are dancing away without even getting formally hitched.”