​The 13th century poet saint Gyandev created a children's game called Moksha Patam. The British later named it Snakes and Ladders & diluted the entire knowledge - instead of the original Moksha Patam.
In the original one hundred square game board, the 12th square was faith, the 51st square was reliability, the 57th square was generosity, the 76th square was knowledge, and the 78th square was asceticism. These were the squares where the ladders were found and one could move ahead faster. The 41st square was for disobedience, the 44th square for arrogance, the 49th square for vulgarity, the 52nd square for theft, the 58th square for lying, the 62nd square for drunkenness, the 69th square for debt, the 84th square for anger, the 92nd square for greed, the 95th square for pride, the 73rd square for murder and the 99th square for lust. These were the squares where the snake waited with its mouth open. The 100th square represented Nirvana or Moksha.The tops of each ladder depict a God, or one of the various heavens (kailasa, vaikuntha, brahmaloka) and so on. As the game progressed various actions were supposed to take you up and down the board as in life...
Though we had played this game during our childhood, like myself, many of us may not be knowing about the very important lessons of life which can be learnt by the children while playing this game.
Britishers had destroyed not only Sanskrit but also Hindu beliefs in many ways. After capturing power, the main agenda of the British was looting India of its wealth and spreading Christianity throughout the country by destroying Hindu beliefs and customs. (Source:  Virtual Museum of T&T Octob 8, 2021)

Enjoy 

Phoolwanti 'Doll' Ramsingh, 58, of Doll's Chulhas in Branch Road, Fyzabad, is affectionately known as Aunty Doll, the Chulha Lady from Fyzabad and the Original Chatak Matak Queen.

People come from all over T&T and overseas to her place for the unique culinary and cultural experience from seeing a chulha or dirt oven built from scratch, custom made to the buyer's specifications, to feasting on a variety of delicious food off the chulha–to bread and pizza from the dirt oven 'hot on d' spot,' and spending the day reliving the 'ole time' days.

The chulha means different things to different people. It is a link to the past, and can still be found in several people's backyards for sentimental, cultural and traditional reasons hearkening back to the time of their grandparents or great-grandparents.

People swear there is no comparison between food cooked on a chulha to food cooked on modern gas and electric stoves, and induction cookers.


The chulha can also be used as an emergency stove for when the electricity goes, natural disasters like storms and floods, or when you run out of cooking gas.

As people did more cooking and baking at home during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the humble chulha and dirt oven have also enjoyed a resurgence.

For Ramsingh, disconsolate over the death of her husband, making chulhas was a way to keep herself occupied and focused and has enabled the mother of seven, grandmother of six and her family to earn a living during the challenging COVID-19 economic times.

Speaking to the Sunday Guardian on Wednesday Ramsingh said "October 11 will make it five years my husband Chandersingh Ramsingh died. When I lost him, I used to be like not here.
"I dropped everything, I was a wreck. One day I decided to start back and threw myself into my work. When I started back making fireside, I would be enjoying myself and forget all my worries.

"When I made the fireside so nice, it made me live. I told my daughter Sandy if not for the chulha I might have gone."

She said when she was in the process of making a chulha, she felt so happy inside that she lost track of time and her daughter had to remind her to take a break and eat.

Ramsingh learned the art of chulha making from her grandmother Sancherie Dookie from Spring Trace, Fyzabad.

She reminisced about when she was a little girl sitting down and watching her grandmother fashioning a chulha, she tried it and it came out just like hers.

With the help of family members, such as her daughter Sandy, her grandchildren, among them Abby, who also cooks, Ramsingh can make ten chulhas a day starting from around 10 am to 10 pm. A dirt oven will take a week to frame with steel and BRC wire.

She also fits in brush cutting with a weedwhacker six days a week from Monday to Saturday with her son Randy in the morning, and when she returns home, she starts work on her chulha making.
Ramsingh revealed that the reason they started selling 'chulha food' was that a lot of people did not know the taste of it, so she and her daughter decided to cook and cater food from the chulha and dirt oven. ​The menu includes on dirt oven Thursdays: coconut bake and baked chicken. Chulha Fridays: stew-curried chicken, channa and aloo, murtani, dhalpuri and mother-in-law. Chulha Saturdays: curried duck, channa and aloo, murtani, buss up shot and mother-in-law, to pepper roti, octopus, and bread and pizza from the dirt oven are also available.

She and her daughter Sandy were trying out new dishes such as pumpkin with chicken, sweet pepper and carrots in the dirt oven.

Tuesday night they did channa puri stew/curry chicken and chataigne puri.

Ramsingh said that people from all parts of Trinidad, even Tobago come to her house to sample her 'sweet hand' and buy a chulha or dirt oven. They come from as far as Tunapuna, Mayaro, Aranguez, Trinicity, Cunupia, Siparia, Fyzabad, Princes Town, Penal, Debe, Avocat, Santa flora. Trinidadians living in the diaspora in the US, Canada, and Europe have also visited.

You can see Ramsingh on Facebook @ Doll's Chulhas and Fireside Cooking With Doll-Hot From The Chulha.

My name is Piero Guerrini and, 28 years ago, I came to Trinidad for ten days. I’m still here.
I come from Grande Riviere but I was born in Italy. My father used to be a coal miner in Belgium and he would talk about how wonderful it was for him, as a young man, to go from Italy to a different country. My father used to go 1,000 metres below ground level to literally pickaxe coal out of the rock. He was paid by the amount of coal he was able fetch out of the mine every day. But he always passed me this idea of travelling. Since I’m 18, 19 years old, I’m saying, “Daddy, I’m not going to live in Italy. I want to travel.”
Finally, my father said to me, “Okay, I would like you to be close to me but you go ahead.” Since 20, I’ve been travelling. I became a photographer, because it combined my lifestyle and my desire very well. I travelled so much. Until I reached Trinidad and Trinidad chose me. From the first day, it was love at first sight.
I’m vegetarian. I’m against industrial food.
My life has been divided into three parts. I was a photographer and then I was a hotelier on the beach. Not many people know the first part: I was a professional footballer. I used to play No. 10. Of course. Long hair. Everybody said Piero is going to be a great footballer. I had big promise in Italian football. I tried for Juventus, Bologna. I got a back injury when I was 19 and start to have problem.
My only child, Aurora, 23, started doing a masters degree on a scholarship at Oxford and her professor said, “You can skip the masters and go straight for the PhD.” I’m very proud of her achievement. She is the president of the Conservative Students Association. I don’t know, maybe she rebelled [against me] by becoming a conservative. She tells her friends her dad is a hippie.
I lost my father two years ago and, to be honest, I was losing my way. I was single, frustrated, working all the time. I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t sleeping well. I had gained some weight. And then, in two wonderful months with my mother, she told me all the things she hadn’t before. How my parents met, what they did together. When I came back, I start to think, “I need not to be alone anymore.” And then I met Sali. The lockdown gave us the possibility to really get to know one another. She is my “one”.
You have to go back to who you are, the person you really are. You have to not be afraid to [allow] yourself [to come] out. I lost 20 lbs. Now I am the Piero I know I wanted to be. Now I sleep well.
I met [Trinidadian/St Lucian poet] Derek Walcott in Boston during the Nobel Prize tribute celebration as well as [late musician] Andre Tanker, actor Albert Laveau, Glenda Thomas [now Collens see Trini to D Bone 19 April 2021]. Derek said, “You wouldn’t believe the talent that is in Trinidad!” Glenda came in and start to sing. He said, “And she’s unknown in Trinidad!”
Every year, as a photographer, I did a series called, “The World of” [that year’s Nobel Literature Prizewinner] and so I came to Trinidad to photograph Derek. The year before, I’d gone to South Africa, when Nadine Gordimer had won the prize. Back then, the “BeeWee pass” [let you] go in all the BeeWee destinations for US$300. So I went in 14 different islands. But Trinidad was, immediately, immediately, the place I was looking for.
I had a part in Damian Marcano’s short film, Cheese, but I don’t know anything about music or movies after the 90s. When I go to show her a film, Sali always asks, “And how old is this one?”
At Maria Regina Prep School, there was every possible race and class of child. Brian Lara daughter was in class with my daughter. In another country, a person like Brian Lara would have fans [smothering him]. Here, he’s just like a normal person. And there were kids of security guards, working class people, whatever. I always tell Aurora she should be thankful to grow up in such a wonderful environment.
I used to say, Trinidad is my India AND my Africa. You don’t need to travel far away because EVERYTHING is in Trinidad. After arriving, I didn’t go anywhere for four years. I was in the Trini lifestyle.
[During] my trip to Trinidad, the Mt Plaisir Hotel property became available. When the owner saw the white man, she doubled the price but she accepted my counter-offer and we opened up that December. We only had three rooms at first. One of my staff was a Spiritual Baptist and she went on a fast. I asked her to ask if Mt Plaisir would be successful. When she came back, she said it would be so successful you won’t believe it. And it was true. Everything has been beyond my expectations. The success almost trapped me in the business. I don’t think I will continue with the same intensity without Aurora but it has been a fascinating journey.
There were a lot of setbacks for Mt Plaisir. The beach was almost completely washed away, and the hotel. Two qualities, patience & resilience, were missing in my personality. I’m very happy Trinidad taught me patience. I used to be very stubborn. [Trinidad has turned] that stubbornness into resilience.
The people of Grande Riviere, they adopt me, they accept me, they help me, they support me. They still do. It’s amazing. They say home is where you feel loved and protected and that for me is Grande Riviere. I sleep with door and window open, even in these days. I talk to all the so-called bad boys., all the boys I used to give one day of work on Saturday morning, to collect the leaves on the beach. All these years, I haven’t changed my relationship with them.
My story with turtle: I arrived in Grande Riviere in August and there were no turtle and I thought people telling me about these huge turtle coming to the beach were exaggerating about their size and number. The first time I saw a turtle was on my birthday, 27 February 1994, with my father, and I was astonished by the size! I lay down on the sand to compare my size and she was bigger than me.
When I came, the beach had 2-4K turtle per season. I encouraged the people of the village to protect the turtles and they really got organised on the right track. After 27 years, Grande Riviere, with 30-40K nesting per year, is now considered the leading place in the world to watch leatherback.
I had so much expectation of the new post-Covid world. I thought our government would see some new light but, no, they are blind and continue to go down the same road. I made a proposal to [government advisory] committee. They said thank you. A UNESCO Heritage Site [status] for the beach would bring more exposure and financing. But, unfortunately, the government is focussed on different things.
My big [personal] change came when I was 27. A psychologist friend in Italy and I, we used to go walking around and talking in the night and, one night, he decide to go deep on me and really put me through some psychoanalysis tests. He made me cry because I discovered certain things but, from that day, I took control of my life. I decide to become a photographer. I became much more stubborn


Life always is full of surprises.
I love Carnival and my desire is to photograph it in a way that hasn’t been done before. I was getting into Carnival when Peter [Minshall] was active. He was the only one who captured my desire to free myself. I did M2K and Lost Tribe. I don’t take part any more. It doesn’t grab my gut. The soul of Carnival has been lost somehow. [Younger people today] don’t know what we used to have in Carnival.
Before Covid, I would walk in Port of Spain, just to look at the people. You see this beautiful face, this incredible combination of every possible race. Chinese/black, Indian/white, any kind of whatever. I still love it. Even though everybody’s masked up now.
That beautiful energy of the country is still there. Now you have to be attentive, if someone is following you for some reason. Maybe this paranoia about crime, all these things have their consequences on our psyche. [After] Covid, I see people being very unkind. Not the Trinidad that I know.
In 2001, when he won the Nobel Literature Prize, VS Naipaul wanted photographs for new editions of his books. He spent two days with me in Grande Riviere and he was amazing! Absolutely wonderful! I’m probably one of the few people in the world who have this sweet idea of VS Naipaul. He was so curious about my life, asked me so many questions, I thought he might have been doing research for some book or something. He used to hold my hand to go and see turtle. I did the cover of Guerrillas, A House for Mr Biswas and The Night Watchman’s Occurrence Book. He invite me to his house to photograph him.
Instead of me going to look for people, people started coming to my little universe, artists, interesting people coming to stay. Sir David Attenborough has been several times. Peter Doig became famous through the work he did in Grande Riviere. Chris Ofili. Margaret Atwood, a birdwatcher, came for the birds. Grande Riviere still remains that source of inspiration for so many people.
I turned the clock 25 years back. I have that same energy. Even the guy working with me [building a house by hand from foundation up], he is 35, 40, and he gets tired right away. I dig my foundation, there are stones in the ground and you have to dig and dig and dig.
I’m very happy I still have this romantic idea about Trinidad. All the barbarian attitude of the society has not affected me yet.
[Late poet & newspaper writer] Wayne Brown described the Trinidadian as “the people who laugh.” My friend from Miami asked, “Why people laugh so much here?” I say, “That’s how they are.” And, in Conde Nast Traveller magazine, a writer said, in Trinidad, you see people in the morning, happy to be listening to the birds. [For me, then] a Trini is a person who laughs and is happy just to be alive.
In the ten years before I came to Trinidad I went to, I think, 65 countries. In Hong Kong, in Kenya, other places I was considering to stay a long time. To me, Trinidad & Tobago was the one place that I felt at home for the first time. Trinidad is home.
Source:  Trini to d bone, July 17, 2021

​If you were a child of the 80s and stumbled into adulthood in the 90s, you will recall the lone television station TTT, the Panorama newscast, and its weatherman for our two seasons – Robin Maharaj.
Maharaj was the one who educated us about the evil Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (the ITCZ), the approaching storms, and that the waves were probably going to be two metres high in open waters, and one in sheltered areas.
Even the worst weather news, Maharaj, dapper in shirt jack or suit, delivered with an engaging smile and perfectly groomed sideburns and pompadour.
His most memorable moment on TV for us, of course, would be his 'Rain in dey muda$$ tonight!', comment that accidentally went live, a line so perfect in its Trinidadianess that it lived on…long after TTT died.
Around the time State-owned TTT went out of business, Maharaj vanished from public view.
And when CNMG went on air, there were new weathermen and women to tell us about how hot or rainy it was going to be tomorrow. And we would hear nothing much of Maharaj, until earlier this month, when the rains of biblical proportions began the night before Divali and lasted for six days.
Maharaj became a meme, and middle-aged Trinis demanded his return, with long discussions about his forecasting ability and the need for people with expertise to share reliable information before we were all washed into the sea with the fridges and car parts. We found Robin Maharaj. He lives thousands of miles away. But he has been following local events for decades. And his life has been epic. This is his story:

Dades Trace is tiny agricultural-based village near Rio Claro that was once connected to Port of Spain by the railway lines of the Trinidad Government Railway. When the railway system closed in 1968, the village suddenly became a distant place. (You can read about this place in the Express story titled “Defending the Bridges”).
This is the birthplace of Maharaj, born October 1942, educated in Rio Claro and academically gifted enough to make it into the Naparima College in San Fernando. Maharaj would go on to get his credentials at the Caribbean Meteorological Institute in Barbados and Pennsylvania State University in the United States.
He told us: “I joined The TT Met service in 1964 as a Meteorological Assistant; then trained at the US Naval Base in Chaguaramas to man and operate the US upper air weather station when the US Navy left in 1966. Became a meteorologist in 1972 following a two year training course in Barbados, at the Caribbean Meteorological Institute.
My job in the TT Met Office was mainly weather forecasting for aviation and maritime services, as well as making local public weather forecasts. Importantly, I first did the TV weathercast on TTT on Sept 5, 1972. My last was on December 17, 1999. In between,
I completed around 4,000 on-air forecasts, comprised of individual local, international and special occasion forecasts and interviews. In 1999, I left the TnT Met Service where I was Chief Meteorologist, and also the TTT Chief Meteorologist, to take up a job as a Senior Meteorological Scientific Professional at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), at its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. WMO is a UN Agency.
This posting was feather in the cap of Trinidad and Tobago, as the job was advertised globally. The government of the day showed appreciation by awarding me the Medal of Merit for my local career in meteorology, at the 2000 Independence Day Ceremony. At the WMO, my experience, research and expertise in both meteorology and weather broadcasting were utilized in coordinating and organizing global activities and training in weather forecasting, weather broadcasting, and devising/designing and packaging weather office products for a wide spectrum of public users.
And most importantly, I was tasked with assisting Met Services in the developing countries to boost their capabilities in severe weather forecasting and warning, with a view to promoting the safety and security of populations and property. This entailed direct training, preparation of training manuals and use of whatever scientific, professional experts/expertise we could garner from member countries, on projects. It was a great experience and my wife Grace and I enjoyed our stay in Switzerland. The job entailed lots of travel and that was a bonus.
I retired in 2005 and we migrated to Minnesota, USA, since our only two children, (two boys, the older - Gary - being a highly respected, veteran CEO of biomedical engineering device companies; and the second - Glenn - is a biomedical engineering expert working in research and development), and grandchildren, reside there. Our grandson is a cardiologist and one granddaughter, also a physician.
Residing near the core family in the USA was merely a decision to be with our family and see our grandchildren grow, not just to not return to Trinidad. In retirement, I continued by being very active in the meteorological and environmental sciences, and did produce work and advice in these areas. In addition, over the years I have also written articles and letters to media in different countries, including TT, on pertinent topics and issues, not only weather-related. I am a strong defender of things meteorological, and that includes the Trinidad and Tobago Met Service.
My advice has been sought by a few meteorological services in consultative capacity. You may recall the energy accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima, initiated primarily by the tsunami following the Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011.
After the nuclear event, my opinion was sought on Fox News TV here in the USA about the prospects of the spread of radiation in the USA. Excerpts of the interview were played for two days following.
While my interest in meteorology remains high, I have pursued another interest that is more in line with health and lifestyle plans. When I did my first weathercast on TTT in 1972 I weighed 135 lb. When I completed my last weather report 27 years after, I was 165 lb.
The TV screen was challenged for space and by age 61 in 2003, I was hitting the scale at over 185 lb. The UN Medical Staff in Geneva, Switzerland, began predicting a range of possible health issues if I did not lose the excess avoir du pois. My wife, Grace, who kept active and controlled her weight since we met in High School, began insisting I allow her to take control, which she did. She designed a rigid regime of exercise and diet to preempt the dismal forecasts of the UN Doctors and carve a path to my good health. My exercise was primarily walking fast, and long distances on outdoor trails. Under her guidance,
I lost 30lb before I retired in 2005. When we migrated to live in Minnesota, USA in 2005, I took personal charge of my exercise regime and walked through all seasons, up to 340 days yearly, completing up to 2,500 miles annually, and my weight dropped to 140lb by 2007. During the winters in MinneSNOWta I faced temperatures down to minus 35C, with wind chills below minus 50C. It took true grit and gumption. Then I fell on the ice a few times during the winter of 2011 and the family decided I must not walk outdoors when it is icy. So, I joined a nearby gym in my 70th year.
I changed to walking three days weekly between April and October (warmer) and doing gym on the other days. Grace is with me always at the gym, and several times on the walking trails. At the gym my weight increased a bit as I am getting a bit muscular. I weigh 145lb today and I feel strong, healthy and positive. News of my distance walking have spread to several colleagues, friends and relatives.
Some call me Mahal, after the famous Trini walker of yester years. But there was a difference over the past 5 years since I started walking between 3am and 4am, in predawn dark, giving me free reign in our safe and well-lit community, and at a rate of 4 mph. When it dawns, I hit the trails around the lakes here and I would complete between 12 and 20 miles, up to three times weekly, before breakfast. On occasion, and for special reasons, I have completed walking marathons in the past few years.
How long can I keep this up I have no way of predicting but I see no way that I will give up my current lifestyle. We no longer diet – we eat sensibly. Just say we eat with moderation in moderation. Over the years I used to cook occasionally for the family. In retirement, I do all the cooking. Grace cleans, does laundry and instructs me. We limit oil, fat and carbohydrates. We burn lots of calories daily through exercise and maintaining a high metabolism. We do not eat out, not at McDonalds or in restaurants.
​I do not eat it if it is in a pack. I drink only water, not even coffee. Of course, we cook versions of TRINI MEALS but we eat based on the saying, IN THE MORNING EAT LIKE A KING, FOR LUNCH EAT LIKE A PRINCE, BUT FOR SUPPER EAT LIKE BEGGAR. Earlier this year our gym chose Grace and me as the Valentine's Day couple.
I keep active around the house as a handyman, landscaper, fixer of anything, so call me a Jackofalltrades. I remain alert and physically strong, lifting heavy things and taking them up the stairs. I am pushing the envelope and trying to show that being 75 is not as limiting as many think. It has been a wonderful life, one that has been rewarding in many ways. The one I wish to mention is the public recognition of my work in weather; that approval helped me improve and to fine-tune my talent.
There were times when I might have invited opprobrium, but the kind people stressed my strengths, abilities and talent, and led me to believe in myself. This went on for the period 1972-1999, when I was the public face of the TT Met Service, and I definitely appreciate the public esteem and kindness over that time. To find that some people remember me on TTT, or from having met me in my public role, is most touching.
The internet is a wonderful means of communication and from time to time I am regaled with funny stories or pictures reminding me of my weathercasting days. The one that keeps recurring carries the headline RAIN IN DEY MUDDA ASS TONITE.
Did I say that?
Let me tell you what the true story is.
While standing by to get the Floor Manager's cue to go ON AIR, and waiting for a commercial to finish, I was asked by the crew leader to give a final test on the microphone.
We were always joking and kicksing during breaks so I tested the mic by speaking and summarized the forecast by saying IS RAIN IN DEY MUDDA ASS TONITE.
It was a test, not on air. But the Director had the channel ON AIR.
Blooper? Not really. This was in July 1994, if I recall well. DJs and Calypsonians made mincemeat of that and I got news from several people over the years, of the line becoming mostly famous, rather than infamous.
But I know I am not remembered for that only. I keep reading of Trinidad's excessive floods resulting for heavy and persistent rainfall, and causing havoc and suffering. Rainfall is an act of nature. I also venture to say that some floods due to heavy rain are unavoidable eventualities.
The sheer volume of water is way too much for the natural drainage systems. But the latter are modified by man, his public works, engineering, construction of buildings, roads and pavements. In the process the ground component of the water cycle is severely corrupted and even annulled in places, causing general incapability of the landscape to cope with heavy rainfall, and leaving many people quite vulnerable to property damage and loss of life.
I am certain everybody knows the cause of the problem; I am also certain that the solution is known to authorities with the appropriate responsibility. However, it takes care and understanding of the related issues, and a will and intent to solve the flooding problem.
Posturing in government, among officials and regulators prevents flood mitigation. Evidently, there is need for a comprehensive analysis of every square foot of ground to create a data system to help analyze the related hydrological issues peculiar to localities. It means measuring and documenting everything from land shape and form, geology, tree and shrub cover, drainage, human dwelling and agriculture etc.
With that in hand, and with a knowledge of the historical behavior of heavy rainfall in locations, planners can then define what public and environmental works are required to prepare the area from severe flooding. And too, what regulators must insist residents do to prevent and/or cope with dangerous flooding. I am certain that no such comprehensive endeavor has ever been made in Trinidad.
Indiscriminate and unchecked land development, along river basins and on the hill slopes have aggravated flooding. Any action leading to changing of the behavior of surface water flow needs to be regulated and controlled. There are regulations in the books but inadequate regulators to enforce the rules and laws. Even so, bribe-taking corrupts the system allowing for rampant disfiguration of the landscape and flooding.
Ordinary people need to take action to force the authorities to do their work and ensure flood attenuation and diminishment.   Source:  Daily Express, March 29, 2021

Jewelry has been a significant adornment for Indian women since ages. Its significance in an Indian woman’s life can be judged from the number of jewelry gifts she receives on a variety of auspicious occasions in her life and how even the poorest of women possess some kinds of jewelry they can afford. Indian women’s decorating themselves with jewelry is not only a customary tradition, but also has a lot of values attached to each and every jewelry piece worn by the women.
Why is Jewelry Important for Indian Women?
Apart from increasing the beauty of Indian women, Indian jewelry is also considered to be a matter of great security in time of financial crisis due to its good value.  To accentuate the feminism factor, women wear jewelry created with precious metals like gold, silver and diamonds. Traditionally, having a good collection of jewelry symbolizes power, good status and immense wealth of the owner. 
Jewelry and Indian women share a deep connection as its value lies not only in traditions, but also has a great significance in scientific terms. We must understand the reason behind each jewelry piece adorned by Indian women as it lies deep rooted in science. It would certainly increase our love and respect for Indian women’s jewelry.
Wide Variety of Indian Jewelry Adorned by Women
Jewelry designs are available in a wide variety in India as each state has its own culture and jewelry is made accordingly to highlight the values of those traditions. Some of the most commonly used jewelry by Indian women includes maangtika, nose rings, necklace, earrings, mangalsutra and bangles.
Now, let’s understand the significance and the logic behind each piece of jewelry worn by Indian women. Here we have a list of some of the most commonly worn jewelry pieces with their cultural and scientific significance
Tika
Tika consists of a chain with a pendant in the front and a hook at the other end.  The hook is used for holding the tika at the hair end, while the pendant embellishes the center of the woman’s forehead. A woman’s forehead, especially the center part is believed to be the place of chakra which refers to preservation. Traditionally, the chakra is visualized to have two petals where the half-male and half-female androgynous deity Ardhanarishvara resides. It symbolizes the final union where there is no division. In view of science, this union is the meeting of the male and female elements in nature at both the physical and the mental level

Nose ring:
Nose ring called as nath by Indian women is definitely the most seductive jewel piece without which a married woman’s make up is considered incomplete. It forms an integral part of traditional bridal jewelry keeping in view its conventional and scientific value. Aristocratic families get special nose rings created for the bride as it’s considered the most auspicious jewel to be worn on the occasion.
Scientifically, it is believed that women having pierced nose experience less pain during childbirth. Ayurveda considers it a valuable piece which is worn on the spot directly connected with the health of the female reproductive organs. As per a theory, nose ring is also connected to emotional, romantic and sexual propositions of a woman. It also prevents a woman from being hypnotized due to its power to control the brain wavelength.
It is one of the most fascinating jewelry pieces worn by both married and unmarried women. Available in a wide variety of shapes, colors and sizes, it attracts every woman towards it and makes an important part of the woman’s fashion accessories. Matching earrings with garments enhance the attraction quotient manifold.
As per the famous legends, evil spirits were believed to enter the body through any of its openings. By wearing ornaments in the ear, the woman attained a state of complete well being. The latest studies have also revealed that ear is a microcosm of the entire body and has an important nerve that connects cervix, brain and kidney. By applying the right amount of pressure in the right ear to which the nerve of the kidney is connected, the health of the kidney and the bladder can be taken care of.
Necklace:
Necklaces worn near the heart are believed to control emotions and strengthen one’s love. Wearing a necklace of stones is believed to bind ourselves with their eternal powers. Since ancient times, necklaces, pendants, strings of beads and elaborate ornamental collars were worn by women to bring good luck and ward off the evil eye. The necklace is also believed as a protective ornament against hypnotizing as such attempts are successfully undermined. So, this neck ornament not only adds an exquisite look to a women’s beauty, but also acts as a potent restraint against effects of evil charms on virtuous maidens.

Bangles:
Bangles, the word itself seem to fill one with the sweet tinkling sound produced by it! Wearing bangles can be easily afforded by any woman whether rich or poor as it is available in almost all metals from highly precious ones to wooden bangles. The attractive designs in which bangles are available make it even more stunning and a woman’s beauty is considered incomplete without ornamenting with it. Apart from being an important ornament worn by a married woman, this ornament also has immense romantic and amorous connotations as well. The sound of a woman’s bangles expresses her presence and her wish to gain attention. Scientifically, it is known to increase a woman’s blood circulation level and channelize the energy passing through her outer skin. This is made possible by the circular shape of the ornament with the cute tinkling sound

Toe rings:
The most eminent scientific theory behind wearing toe rings is its help in making menstrual cycle regularized which is a common problem faced by women. The nerves in toes are connected to the uterus and passes through the heart. While a married woman does her chores while wearing these rings, the friction created help in revitalizing her reproductive organs.
As toe rings are generally made of silver, it absorbs energy from the earth and refreshes the entire body of the woman by passing the energy to it.
Ring:
Wearing a ring on the fourth finger from the thumb is directly connected to the nerve passing through this finger to the brain neuron cells. With metallic friction, women attain good health and get confidence to handle life with ease. The wedding ring worn in the middle finger is believed to be directly connected with the heart which helps in controlling the wearer’s emotions. Nowadays, rings of various stones are worn by women for various health benefits attached to a variety of gem stones.

Mangalsutra:
Mangalsutra is believed to control body pressure levels and make blood circulation regular in the body of the woman wearing it. Traditionally, the bridegroom gives it to the bride during the wedding and it is worn by the married woman symbolizing feelings of love and commitment between the married couple.

Hip/Belly Belt:
Hip or popularly known as belly belts are not regularly used by women, but only during wedding or some festive occasions. Nowadays, it is also used by many women in modern designs to add to their glam quotient. Scientifically, these belts are believed to prevent saturation of fat in the waist and help in maintaining a woman’s figure. 
This describes why a woman does ‘solah shringar’ as it’s not only to add to her beauty, but for various other logical reasons attached to it.
Source: Cultural India.net February 10, 2021