Every December, something small begins to shift in salons. It usually starts with a quick conversation, a picture saved from Instagram, or someone walking in saying, “It’s Christmas… do something fun.” What follows is almost never just a manicure. Festive nails have slowly grown into a tiny ritual of their own, something people look forward to as the year wraps itself up. The colours change first. Reds become brighter, whites turn frostier, greens look deeper than they do at

Festivals in India are not quiet affairs. They’re loud, dazzling, and stretched across weeks of pujas, late-night card parties, and the...