Pretty colored nails

I will need to pull out a history book to understand the how and why of how women's nails became a social symbol. My virgo nature, as I write this, makes me want to understand the cosmetic industry, the inventions of why only women got an opportunity to be creative when it come to coloring their nails. I will reserve that for another post. For now I will focus on the actual process of what pretty nails mean for me.

While school had a strict policy of keeping our nails short, the summer and Diwali holidays we were allowed to grow them out. The Lakme advertisement of the '80s that played on loop on Doordarshan was enticing for any pre-teen to want to try out a similar look. Madonna had not yet taken over the music industry, but there were glimpses of what pretty nails looked like.

My Grand Aunt, in the middle of preparing for her daughters wedding, dropped everything and took the nine year old me to Lajpat Nagar to let me choose my ''own'' nail polish. Why? Because I threw a fit during the wedding preparation that just wearing a silk salwar kameez was not enough and I absolutely needed to have pretty colored nails to go along with the outfit.

Since then, I've spent forty plus wonderful years scouring nail bars, salons and home treatments looking to get my nails done. And then show off my pretty nails! Cities I have lived in and travelled to, on the plane, in a bus. During my hospital visit for when I delivered my son or to twenty years later when I went through rounds of chemotherapy. Showing up with pretty colored nails became so joyful! Short, long, medium. Oval or square. Bright, glimmer or a gentle French finish.