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By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
There are two sides to Nimmi Sehgal: one is a bubbly, infectiously happy woman, overflowing with energy. The other is a calm, graceful, soothing artist. The henna tattoo artist, who has been practicing henna for over 35 years, switches between these two modes faster than you can blink. At the Dover Library on Thursday, Nimmi offered her artistic services free of charge as part of the Library’s celebration of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. This festival lasts five days, and it is traditional for women to decorate their hands with henna on the second.
Nimmi used to teach henna courses at the Adult Education Center in Boston. Her students asked how she began to learn the art of henna. “They would ask, ‘Did you have to go to school or something?’ No, my school was my home, my teacher was my television set. And they would say, ‘How could the TV be your teacher?’ So I had to explain and tell them every Sunday afternoon an Indian movie will come on TV, and we being Indian, Hindus, we don’t want to miss that. At some point in the movie, there would always be a wedding, and it’s traditional for the bride and other family members to do henna. Very intricate. I thought it looked so pretty, so after the movie, I would take markers or nail polish and start making design on my hands and feet, and that’s how I learned,” she explained.
Nimmi’s energy lit up the room, but once she began to draw, she exuded a calming elegance and grace that was exceptionally soothing. One woman, who had brought her children to also receive hennas, told Nimmi she was going to a wedding – not an Indian one, though. “A wedding is a wedding!” Nimmi exclaimed, and began an intricate pattern of swirls and florals on her hand and fingers.
After she had finished, the woman said, “It was so soothing, I feel like I just got a spa treatment done!”
Nimmi explained that “a lot of people fall asleep on me, it’s so relaxing.”
Henna is a plant that is crushed into a powder and then mixed with tea or coffee. Nimmi used to make her own mixture, but it became too much of a hassle, so she purchases it from a company she trusts. Henna is traditionally done at weddings, and the bride in particular receives intricate henna all over. It is considered good luck, and the superstition goes that the darker the henna, the longer the marriage will last.
Gracing the Dover Library with her gifts, Nimmi explained that she used to do henna outside of her family’s store on Newbury Street. There have been two documentaries made about her henna, and once, during a wedding in Northampton, the entire Channel 2 news crew showed up to tell her story. Now she does weddings, birthday parties, and visits 27 libraries in the Boston area to offer her arts to the public.
