Just thought of sharing a poem on rangavalli :-) The original is in Telugu in the famous kanda metre.

జలమున వ్రాసెను గాలియు
లలితముగా రంగవల్లి రచనల నెన్నో
వెలిఁగెడు తరంగవల్లిగ

SAtavAhana hAla was supposed to have ruled the southern India in the early centuries of the Christian era. He is said to have written 700 poems in prAkRta. Unlike most poetic works of that era which dealt with gods and kings, these dealt with the themes of love, nature, union, separation, etc. I was trying to imagine how hAla would have written his poems in the modern era. Enjoy!

Here is a kannaDa song on neela kamala (blue lotus)

nIlakamala mAlegaLanu
ninage nAnu pONisiruve
nIla nIradAMga bArO
ninna mogava nanage tOrO
nIlakamala mAlegaLanu...

I stitched garlands of blue lotus for you
O dark coloured one
Come here and show your face

nIla gaganavannu nODi
ninna rUpa nenapu nanage
nIla girigaLannu nODi
ninna baNNa nenapu nanage

Where are the snows that were piled high touching the mail box?

Where is the white mantle that covered everything as far as the eye can see?

Where is the look of whiteness that adorned every nook?

The snows have melted, the cold is gone, the whiteness has evaporated!

Tender green shoots, lovely flowers of all hues

and the shrill cries of the song birds fill the scene.

For those who are interested, I am just giving an example of how I did the recently displayed paDikOlam (made on 20 Feb 2010). The accompanying picture will guide you. I have skipped some of the intermediate steps. Fig. 1 shows the symmetrical hilly pattern I created. This was rotated by 60, 120, 180, 240, 300 degrees and assembled on the outside of a hexagon as shown in Fig. 2.

Yesterday, I gave an account of the colouring problems we encounter when creating patterns that can be drawn on a hexagonal grid. Today I am going to deal with the problems we face when colouring basically a square pattern. These are evident in the enclosed picture.

Many a time, I commented about symmetry and colouring on this site. In fact, it is possible that a few people might have got irritated with me and for the sake of politeness kept quiet. Today, I want to give some examples for keeping symmetry in tact while colouring. You can see in the accompanying picture four smaller pictures.

Under the starlit skies

when we were together

I looked at you

and I looked up at the moon

I looked at you

and I did not look up at the moon

Love engulfed me

Love engulfed us

and that was years ago

Today

under the same starlit skies

I looked up at the moon

and I looked at you

I looked up at the moon again

Thoughts engulfed me

Before we survived the 30 inch snowfall, the blizzard hit us, the fifth we experienced during our stay in this country. It was indeed ferocious. Imagine nearly 100 million people imprisoned for nearly 48 hours in their own homes at a stretch. Our county seems to be one of the worst hit in the area. It is not the snowfall, which too was considerable, more than 20 inches.

హిమబిందు himabiMdu

ఏ దూర సాగరపు వారికణాలో E dUra sAgarapu vArikaNAlO

ఆవిరై ఒక మేఘమాలికన aavirai oka mEghamAlikana

తూలికై tUlikai

గాలిలో తేలుతూ gAlilO tElutU

గాలితో తూలుతూ gAlitO tUlutU