One of my top fans on Facebook shared through her comment that her son around 10 years old has developed an interest in kolam art and is trying out the designs I share in my videos. I felt elated.
I am trying to keep in touch with current generations through kolam. When the next generation also, it is called Gen alpha I am told, shows an interest in this art,
I am sure kolam will be safely preserved as it has been for centuries.
Recently, I have started sharing the photos of kolam I try at home (as practice, not all of them are shared as videos or on Blogger) as my WhatsApp status. WhatsApp offers music also.
I add Carnatic music or relevant Tamil film songs. There is a great welcome among my contacts. They say they are eagerly waiting for my status update.
I do it usually between 6 am and 7 am in the morning. Some of them say it is meditative too.
I have shared four
simple easy rangoli ideas for the festival. Instead of the usual innovative rangolis with tools that we see, I, belonging to the traditional school of kolam art, have shared traditional
kolam with lines and patterns.
However, first things first, a colourful diya rangoli without dots for festive decoration.
If you would like to try a dot wala rangoli - here is one with 7 by 4 dots in the second image - called the mango leaves or mavilai kolam - mavilai means mango leaf in Tamil.
After drawing the pairs of leaves in 6 directions add the additional patterns shown with colours.
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| Colourful rangoli design with diya patterns as border |
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| 7 dot rangoli in white |
Hope you will like them. Feel free to add a few colours here and there to get unique and different patterns.
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| Old fashioned rangoli in white |
Rangoli tips for those who are visiting the first time - Kolam is drawn with thin lines, thinner the line the more beautiful is the art. To draw thin lines, take minimum quantity of rangoli powder, a pinch will do.
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| Bina dot rangoli with white powder |
To get bright lines add rice flour to white rangoli powder in the ratio 1:3, one part rice flour for 3 parts of powder.
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| Perfect straight lines will make the pattern more attractive |
Symmetry is the beauty of this art; it is achieved manually without the use of tools. I am sure you will agree that the designs shared here have a reasonable magnitude of symmetry. It is aesthetic too
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| Simple butterfly rangoli with lamp patterns |
Recently, my husband and I have been travelling a lot within Tamil Nadu. Our places of interest are only temples, Divya Desams, Padal Petra Stalam, Subramanya Temples and Amman temples. Also, Brindavans and Adhistanams of Gurus.
After reaching a city like Trichy or Kumbakonam we start early in the morning so that we can cover as many temples as possible. In Tamil Nadu temples are open between 6 am and 12.30 pm in the morning.
As it is the city or town and its outskirts has a divine atmosphere at 6am, calm, quiet with a cool breeze. In addition to these while travelling by car, watching women draw kolam early in the morning gives a nostalgic feeling and lends more divinity to the atmosphere.
The advent of artificial intelligence is a welcome sign so far as kolam is concerned. I think, though I have not tried, AI can we lots of novel ideas to create traditional kolam. Some may be challenging also. I trust AI will complement humans so far as kolam art is concerned. It cannot replace completely because only we can draw at the entrance of our homes.
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