The Bindi or tip is as old as tradition and as new as the times. What women of this sub-continent wore in the center of their forehead, has now become a fashion statement setting a global trend.

Nowadays, with changing fashion, women try out all sorts of shapes and designs. It is, at times a straight vertical line or an oval, a triangle or miniature artistry ('alpana') made with a fine-tipped stick, dusted with gold and silver powder, studded with beads and crusted with glittering stones. The advent of the "sticker-bindi", made of felt with glue on one side, has not only added colors, shapes and sizes to the bindi but is an ingenious easy-to-use alternative to the powder. Today, bindi is more of a fashion statement than anything else, and the number of young performers sporting bindis is overwhelming even - in the West.

The sticker-bindi comes in attractive designs and vibrant colors decorated with crystals, beads, wirework and bells; some are truly exotic creations. In India, conservative women still use the age-old kumkum or sindoor for making a bindi.

Famous celebrities and Pop Stars have further promoted this expanding phenomenon of the Bindi. Madonna was the first celebrity who gave the bindi its newfound status and set a global trend, when she wore a bindi in her album 'Frozen'. Now you even see people like Liz Hurley and Cherie Blair adorning bindis with their exquisite Indian outfits.

( http://nation.ittefaq.com)