Red henna covers my right palm and inner wrist in an intricate design.
It was painted on Friday by a woman I’d met that evening, a cousin of Fahmida’s whose name is Fatima.
That evening, four of us accompanied our friend John and his parents to his bride’s family home in Brooklyn. There, we were generously received, fed incredible homemade Indian food, and entertained with traditional Bengali dance. This was but one of the many rituals leading up to John and Fahmida’s wedding in Queens today.
It was certainly the most colorful wedding I’ve ever had the honor to take part in. We (Ethan and I, and our friends Stacy and David, and some other ifMUDders) got to participate quite a bit. We wore traditional clothing. I heard an Islamic sermon for the first time.
There is much more, and it will come – in snippets. I figured, planning to put it all into one long post was a bit delusional. Now you have a framework; the nooks of memory will whisper the rest soon.
