“Did I Cross [The Runny-less Red Line]”?

As I touched the red line on the man’s forehead, he did not back away or ask me to stop. Instead he looked at me with questioning eyes. As I pulled him closer and shouted over the music into his ear “Your bindi is running down your forehead!!!” I had no idea that I (the culture expert) was committing the biggest faux pas of my career thus far.

As I am writing this I can admit to everyone that even I make mistakes. Even someone who travels the world through her immigrants’ experiences makes outrageous assumptions once in a while. So now, as I find myself in the same boat as some of the xenophobes I resent, I can unabashedly say that I removed my foot from my mouth with a natural deftness- and amazingly so. 

As I was trying to push the red line back up to form a dot in the center of this guys forehead I couldn’t fathom why it wasn’t moving. The air was warm from bodies moving to the insanely loud music. Everyone was sweating. His face was shiny and there were beads of perspiration gathering at his hairline. My assumption that his bindi ran due to his sweaty brow was just that- an assumption. 

“Ask and you shall receive”- for that I did. I despise not knowing why people believe in certain issues, why certain actions are taken or decisions are made. I operate most productively with a NEED TO KNOW internal system that drives my intellectual expansion. This gentleman kindly explained to me that the line (which was definitely NOT a bindi) represented his Hindu sectarian affiliation. It is actually called a tilak (Sanskrit for ‘mark’) and was on his head because of a religious ritual he was in the process of participating in. He said that eventually a U shape will be added to his tilak and that it represented his devotion to his spiritual path. Excellent explanation.

For most of the despicable xenophobes out there, my mistake would have been like slamming a large metal door in the face of personal growth. Instead, I learned a little tidbit about a cool guy with a red line that wasn’t runny just so I could share it with you.