A pair of macaques check themselves out in the rear view mirror of a motorbike in Chandigarh, India in the last decade of August 2024. (Photo by Anuj Jain/Media Drum Images)

“Mehndi or menhdi is the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration in India, as well as by expatriate communities from the country. The word mehndi is derived from the Sanskrit word mendhikā. The use of mehndi and turmeric is described in the earliest Vedic ritual books. Haldi (Staining oneself with turmeric paste) as well as mehndi are important Vedic customs as a symbolic representation of the Outer and the Inner Sun. Vedic customs are meant to awaken the “inner light” and so the gold of the inner Sun has an important symbolic function”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Application of henna or “Mehndi” to a girls hand in a market on October 18, 2010 in Jaipur, India. (Photo by Simon de Trey-White/Getty Images)

Indian policemen carry the body of one of their colleagues killed in a rebel attack in the town of Dinanagar, in the northern state of Punjab, India, Monday, July 27, 2015. Indian forces fought an extended gunbattle Monday with militants who attacked a moving bus and stormed into a police station in a northern town bordering Pakistan. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

Indian dancers paint their body like tigers as they perform a Tiger dance during the International day of the Tiger in Calcutta, India, July 29, 2015. Students of Calcutta are taking part in an awareness campaign aiming to draw attention to the threats that tigers face due to habitat loss and poaching. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA)

A naked Hindu holy man arrives to bath in the Godavari River during Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival, at Trimbakeshwar in Nasik, India, Saturday, August 29, 2015. Hindus believe taking a dip in the waters of a holy river during the festival, will cleanse them of their sins. According to Hindu mythology, the Kumbh Mela celebrates the victory of gods over demons in a furious battle over a nectar that would give them immortality. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)

Mahouts return home with their elephants carrying grass to feed them on the eve of the rhino census in Kaziranga National Park in Assam state, India, 24 March 2015. Kaziranga will be closed to visitors for the next two days for a census of the rhinos commencing 25 March, in a previous census in 2013 in the park the population of the Indian rhinos was 2329. (Photo by EPA/Stringer)

Revelers, covered in coloured powder, celebrate, during a Holi Run Festival in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, April 12, 2015. Thousands of revelers took part in the festival that includes a mini marathon. The festivals are fashioned after the Hindu spring festival Holi, which is mainly celebrated in the north and east of India. (Photo by Andres Kudacki/AP Photo)