Stages of doing a mehndi design

It's chaand raat. You're sitting in front of your laptop, browsing through mehndi, or henna, designs, with a cone in one hand. You're confident that you will surprise everyone with your incredible designs this year.

However, the moment you start, you realise that it's not what you thought. Take a look at the stages a noob goes through when applying mehndi by themselves.

Stage 1: Extreme enthusiasm

Gone are the days of dependency, when you nagged other people for hours to draw mehndi designs on your hand. Now, you have Google – the source of all wisdom. You can apply any design you want to; no need for others' approval. Feeling extra enthusiastic, you find an intricate bridal design and decide to work on it.

Stage 2: A glimpse of reality

As soon as you start, you figure out that applying mehndi can be tricky. You have to put the right amount of pressure on the cone. If you put too little, the paste won't come out, and if you put too much, it will wheeze out of the cone, leaving splattered blocks of green inedible chutney on your hand.

Recovering from your trauma, you opt for a much simpler design. Because who wanted those tacky bridal designs anyway?

Stage 3: Doubting the product

Even after going for a simple design, you can't seem to draw a straight line on your wrist. This is the moment when you start to doubt whether the mehndi brand you bought is authentic. Come to think of it, the shopkeeper did give you a suspicious look when packing your purchase, as if they had something to hide.

Of course, you couldn't draw anything after sitting for an hour because the seller sold you a knock-off, not because you are horribly unskilled. After all, you did win an award drawing a mango in first grade.

Stage 4: Time to give up

After wrestling with the mehndi tube for two hours, you realise that it's time to give up. Then you realise you're a warrior, and no warrior returns home empty-handed. So, you use whatever remaining bit of creativity you have left. When you finish, you feel quite proud of your handiwork.

Stage 5: The big reveal

It's Eid day. Your relatives have come to your home, and after eating food and having a little chit-chat, they start showing off their own mehndi designs. When it's your turn, you hold up your hand, beaming.

"But it's just your name!" your annoying cousin shouts.

Honestly, people are the worst. They will never value originality or creativity. The flower you drew? It may look more like a cat's footprint than a real flower, but hey, at least you dared to come up with an original idea than the copycats who shamelessly stole their designs from Google.

Really, they could've printed the design and pasted it on their hands. It wouldn't make any difference. Kudos to you, though. You went through a challenging mission and came out victorious.

Request Sabiba to stop being an inutile at fb.com/Sabibastro. She might listen.