The first rangoli below has six birds around a six-petal flower. The floral patterns between any two birds can be considered to represent the tails. If we add a few lines of the head, the crest is displayed.
Let us discuss in brief the kolam art since it is Women's Day special and this art form is usually associated with women i.e. in many parts of India,
every day early in the morning thousands or lakhs of women draw these patterns early in the morning.
Why kolam and what it means to me.
Drawing kolam which means beauty in symmetry in Tamil is a form of meditation. Imagine the situation early in the morning when the whole area is quiet except for the melodies sung by the birds. That is the best time to meditate.
What I do is, when I bend down to draw the pattern at the entrance, I am completely engrossed and am completely focussed on the pattern being drawn.
I am lost in thought about the pattern being drawn with the result I have no other thoughts which lasts for a minute or so.
I remember Swami Vivekananda in his book on meditation and its methods instructs us to slow down or stop the wave of thoughts. This I achieve some extent through kolam.
These few minutes I allocate to do my style of meditation.
Why kolam daily
In villages, towns and few decades back in the cities too, the courtyard was with mud and not with cement or any other finish.
The breeze and the vendors erased the kolam by the end of the day. Maybe because of these vagaries of nature, this art was practised with rice flour so that ants and other insects could have their food.
In our country this is also considered a Dharma.
However, by twilight the design drawn in the morning gets erased partially or fully. So, a fresh rangoli has to be drawn next day at dawn.
So, draw a kolam daily and meditate while drawing or through drawing has been my early morning routine for several decades except for occasional misses due to circumstances beyond my control.
1) Women's Day rangoli kolam
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| Freehand bird rangoli design with colours |
2) Women's Day kolam designs
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| Simple and awesome peacock rangoli with colours |
The pic above shows four "swans" swimming in water. The central square with petals inside with
semi circular patterns on all four sides -
I have used them in quite a few free hand rangoli designs. I sprinkled a few colours here and there. I did not fill the colours.
We all know that Women's Day is celebrated on 8th of March every year. Since this blog is primarily on rangoli designs, I use the same theme to give ideas on how to celebrate Women's Day with rangoli. In my opinion there is a lot of common between Women's Day and birds.
Birds represent freedom, peace, liberty. They may also stand for grace, strength, patience and love. Obviously, all these qualities are found in women. So, I thought birds rangoli would be a suitable theme for celebrating this occasion.
This post is also a tribute to the millions of women who every day early in the morning, at dawn, draw at least a simple kolam at the entrance of their homes despite the hectic schedules they have day in and day out - as a home maker or as a working woman 🙏🙏
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