IKOLAM CHENNAI MEET

March 28, 2009 – 11 am to 5 pm Venue : Lakshmi Raghu’s residence - Chennai 26. Members who attended the meet : Rajamma who came all the way from Singapore Akila who made it from Pondicherry Jaya Mohan (Rajamma’s younger sister) from Tambaram Jaya Chandrasekaran (Jaya Mohan’s sister-in-law – new member) from Vadapalani Brindha Nagesh & Thangamani aunty (Brindha’s mother-in-law) from Besant Nagar Asha Nagendran from T Nagar Subashini from Tambaram Sumathi from Anna Nagar Judy from Arumbakkam Nirmala (Judy’s neighbor – yet to join ikolam) Mani Vasuki from K K Nagar Vijayalakshmi from Ashok Nagar Lakshmi / Bharathi / Pinki / Sudha from Vadapalani And last but not least Pavan (Lakshmi’s son) and Raghu (Lakshmi’s husband) from Vadapalani As we entered as usual Lakshmi left us dumbstruck with her wonderful lace kolam which she will upload separately. When we entered Pavan left us dumbstruck with a wonderful banner and another beautiful “Pookolam” by Lakshmi & Bharathi – which was indeed a very warm welcome. First of all we had a self-introduction session where each and every member gave some basic information about themselves (of course which will take a little time to sink in due to the initial excitement of meeting everyone). Lata came on video conference and spoke to all the members. She later called couple of times on phone also and spoke to us. Thank you Lata for your participation on this wonderful day. We will not forget today. Thereafter we asked Thangamani aunty to light the traditional “Kuthu Villakku” while Bharadhi rendered in a lovely voice “Maha Ganapathy”. Then with a soft soothing classical instrumental background we started our discussions. Rajamma told us a story that was supposed to be of the origin of Kolams or Rangoli related to Krishna and Subhadra (Krishna's sister) as believed by the Kannadigas. Lakshmi then said that this is why the Kannadigas put kolams for 4 months starting from Kannada & Telugu month Ashada (Aadi ) to Karthigai which relates to this story too. Rajamma gave some small tips on how to entice the younger generation to draw “Maakolams” and pass on this beautiful tradition to the young ones. Lakshmi, showed all of us the big print out which Mr. mOhnaji had sent which was a write up about rangolis which was passed to everybody who went through it with a lot of interest. In fact some even wanted to know if Mr mOhanji would send them a separate copy which we said would be arranged. Brindha brought a “masala petti” with different colour kolapodi which was of a wonderful texture and we got to know the secret too. Instead of using the usual rangoli colours for mixing with the white kolapodi she used fabric dye (since she is from Salem) due to which she could get a nice blend of lovely colours and a fine texture which was so very easy to spread. Rajamma also told us that there is some kind of nylon kolapodi (but which is extremely expensive) that is available in Bangalore which enables her also to put fine lines due to its texture. Then Thangamani aunty started a demo on how to draw double line kolams which came to her with ease. The next demo took our breath away because Bharathi drew some flowers just pushing the kolapodi out of the way with her fingers (in the literal sense) and seeing this everyone tried their hand at. Thangamani aunty experimented a very colourful kolam using earbud (which Rajamma suggested was used for this type of kolam also to give a finer finish). Lakshmi showed us how she dishes out those intricate lace kolams with a small sample. Then Raghu (Lakshmi’s husband) brought out a glass bowl filled with water and we saw a live demo of ‘Rangoli on Water’ which was simply superb. First the bowl was filled with water – then using a tea strainer Lakshmi sprinkled a thick coat of distemper (talcum powder can also be used here) on the water and then with colour powder she started drawing a rangoli. Akhila could not resist her temptation and she dipped in to complete the rangoli. Next came a brass “Thambaalam” which Lakshmi smeered with oil for ‘Rangoli under Water’. She then drew a kolam on the oil coated base, dropping oil little by little to wet the entire kolam and once this was done she very slowly poured water into the place to cover the kolam while everyone watched in silence. Actually after the kolam is drawn it should soak in oil for at least 10 to 15 minutes before the water is poured so that the kolapodi does not dissolve in the water but since we did not have too much time Lakshmi started pouring the water immediately and one side of the kolam got erased. Akhila could not resist trying another “Rangoli on Water”. This time they used Cinthol powder and we had a lovely “Manam veesum azaghiya kolam” followed by Asha learning how to use the tea strainer to sprinkle the powder with Rajamma completing it with a cute and simple rangoli. Lakshmi called for a break and lunch was served. We had such a massive spread of chappathi, aaloo, channa, kesari, pachaparuppu sweet dish, milk sweets, murukku, salad, curd rice, pickle and fruit salad with ice cream. A real feast for all of us. Rajamma brought some lovely chocolates from Singapore which she distributed to all of us during the meeting. After lunch Asha got ready to leave so we sat for a photo session where about 6 cameras captured the entire group. Pavan and Raghu very sweetly obliged to be photographers and took lovely pictures of our group. Then we generally sat and chatted, I gave a very tiny demo on photoshop because we were running out of time and members wanted to leave. Then I suggested that we try and meet more often, maybe contribute a small amount every month which can be deposited into a bank account and those funds could be used towards expenses for our future meets. We could also probably arrange an annual kolam competition and give prizes, etc. All the members have been asked to put their thinking caps on for a couple of months and come up with various ideas on how to develop more activity in Ikolam. Lata we would be happy to have your suggestions too. Not only Lata but other members too can come up with suggestions on more useful activity. We also thought of teaching each other whatever craft we know and share our knowledge with everyone. Our meet started at 11 am and before we realized it was 5 pm. One by one everyone started to leave with Lakshmi sending off everyone with a small “Thamboolam” bag. Lakshmi, Raghu and Pavan were excellent hosts – not to leave out Bharathi and Pinki. It was indeed a very enlightening experience and I can vouch for everyone that they all had a splendid day. - by Judeline D Introduction
Rangoli Demo
Water Rangoli Demo
Lunch