My Kashmiri piercing

The day I decided to marry a Kashmiri man, I didn't know a few facts.

1. They are an extremely religious bunch and have a fast for almost every day of the week. But thankfully Anant does not follow. Phew!
2. Any Kashmiri girl planning to get married or a non Kashmiri girl marrying a Kashmiri boy will have to gets an ear piercing symbolizing that she is a part of the elusive community.

Ah the piercing! It’s not just any piercing let me say. This was one is pretty unique. Firstly, I am never a big fan of making holes in my body. The only time I got my navel pierced, it got totally infected and thus the stud had to be removed. Yes…it was pretty gross! So naturally the idea of getting my ears poked was making me nervous. Now this ear piercing needed to be done in the inside cartilage of the ear. Ouch! Yes I was freaked out! I got my regular pierced at the age of 25 after the piercing done at childhood had gone horribly wrong and was thoroughly infected. (I just seem to have bad luck with piercings).

On the positive side, I did have the choice if not going ahead with the piercing but then I wanted to impress my soon to be mother in law and secretly thought that if I have the guts to go ahead with it then ultimately it will look pretty cool!;-)

So I goggled it! That part of the ear is called the “Conch” and apparently it does hurt getting that pierced. That’s not good! Someone suggested that I stop reading about it because all the information will just freak me out. But I was obsessed. I needed to know all that I can about the procedure so I read all that I could. The end result? I was hyperventilating the day of the piercing.

But still I managed to get to the tattoo parlor with my soon to be sister in law. Her attempts to make me feel better on the way totally failed and I was on my verge of tears. I was in so scared that I shooed her away from the piercing room so that I could cry shamelessly.

So did I cry?

Yes I did. Very shamelessly. But it was more out of anxiety than pain. The pain was bearable because my ear was totally numb due to the shoot of anesthesia. The guy who was piercing my ear AJ could not help but laugh his guts out seeing me sob. His only line was “If you feel no pain then why are you crying”? Bah!

I came out sometime later with tow studs in my ears. It was done. Do I feel like a Kashmiri now? Surely not. But the stud looks pretty cool and makes me look pretty ethnic. That cheered me up for sure. Not to forget all the special treatment I got back at home.

And yes, if you are thinking of getting it done. Go for it but just make sure whoever does it uses anesthesia. There is no pleasure in pain!