I’m no fashion queen but I do enjoy jewelry and I especially love the breadth of accessories from Nepal that enables me to further personalize my style. Nepal has so many beautiful ethnic and cultural ornaments that I love buying and wearing, but there’s the sensitive ground of supposedly doing it “right” that I’ve had to deal with.

For instance: nose piercings. I went to school in India, a cultural cousin of Nepal with similarities but differences enough to set our self apart. There, having a glinting stone in your nose was common enough that I went ahead and endured the pain of piecing my nose too. Though I was in 8th grade, it was common enough that it didn’t garner too much attention.

That is, until I came home for my holidays where everyone informed me I had done it on the “wrong side”. According to the Nepalis who thought it necessary to point out my naak ko phooliI had erred greatly in opting to stick a needle on the right nostril when “Nepal ma ta baya paati garcha,” so most Nepali traditionally get their nose pieces on the left – that doesn’t mean I made a mistake, it just means I choose to hang a jewel on the other side.

Truth be told, my decision to piece my nose had little to do with culture and a lot more to do with fashion. Also, getting my nose done would mean a less harsh yelling from my mother since I could (somewhat validly) argue that it was in our culture to do so.

Now, this very same nose piercing in America gave people the wrong first impression because they thought I was more “punk” or “alternative” when I’m neither of those.

Another example of my wrong ways of wearing Nepali jewelry – hariyo chuura. I think bangles are great fun, they’re cheap, they tinkle, they’re easy to wear and come in a wide range of colors and styles. For the better of the last four years I’ve been wearing a set of silver bangles that have faded and rusted from daily wear.

Due to the sorry state of my bangles I decided to substitute my silver glory for green bangles. After a week or two of searching I finally found a set of green bangles to my liking. They’re not the usually plain, thin, dark green ones that are easily found around the city. The ones I bought (and am now wearing) are thicker, with grooves on the side to give it a different style and my favorite shade of emerald green.

Happy about my find, I wore them only to have multiple people tell me that this was the wrong month to wear them “Shaun is over, why are you wearing those?” is a phase I’ve heard from multiple people. And again, my choice of color, of style, and of choosing to wear these particular bangles has little to do with the tradition of wearing green or yellow during Shaun. They’re pretty and I really like them.

Maybe the only cultural jewelry thing I’m doing right is not wearing pootays. The glittery beads caught my attention years ago and while rummaging through my mother’s armoire I tried on one only to be told that they’re only for married women. So, as pretty are they are and as much fun as they’re be to a dull outfit, I’ll avoid another Nepali fashion faux pas.

In trying to stay true to my culture and the heritage that traditional jewelry holds, what’s more important – keeping the story behind the accessories alive or having the jewelry around at all when girls are more and more likely to opt for hoop earrings?

Saani has no real goals and aspirations but she sees opportunity in everything and goes with the flow. This is probably because she loves exploring and discovering. She writes for fun but for the same reason she also cooks, reads, and spends a lot of time on random websites that offer a chance to learn all sorts of tid-bits on life!