A rangOli story - Part V

My chikkammA had an interesting theory! She believed that sItAdEvi, wife of SrirAma, had superlative skills in rangOli. While she was in asOkavana as a prisoner of the ten headed rAvaNa, she had to spend her lonely days thinking of her beloved. She used to recollect the happy days of their togetherness, her childhood in King janakA’s palace, her first vision of Rama, her marriage, her honeymoon days in ayOdhya, her exile to the forest, her idyllic days in panchavaTi on the banks of the gOdAvari, her sighting of the golden deer, the treachery of Ravana and her present stay in the garden of Joy watched by countless women. One of the watchwomen trijaTa took a liking to her and with the necessary things she provided, Sita used to draw rangOlis depicting the story of Rama. It is not her sons kuSa and lava who first sang the story of Rama, but it is she who first drew on the floors of aSokavana the story of her beloved husband, the scion of the dynasty of Raghu. Some of these beliefs of hers used to get reflected in her rangOlis too. When she was happy she used to draw rangOlis based on the theme of Krishna like peacocks, flowers, etc. But when she was sad, I used to see her draw Sita’s mazes, big dense trees and such other motifs associated with Ramayana.

Chandru used to pass a joke about me and my rangOlis that became popular with time. As I did read an abridged version of Dickens’ book “A Tale of Two cities” as a non-detailed text in my SSLC class, I could also chuckle with it! One day when we (that is, the women in the neighbourhood) were all discussing about festivals, dishes, rangOlis, etc. Chandru said, “Lalita, you’re the incarnation of Madame Defarge. She used to record the French revolution through her knitting and you, let me add you’re a kinder and gentler incarnation, record our family history through your rangOli patterns”. As if I haven’t heard him, I said, “Chandru, you’ll become a very good story teller and your apprenticeship here will help further those skills.” He did not understand what I meant and was staring at me. “I, a story teller? That is impossible, I want to become an engineer or a scientist.” I replied,“Those who congregate around women and listen to their conversations acquire enormous narrative skills which may be useful in writing short stories and novels!” The women around began to laugh and his face became red and he ran away.

I still remember the rangOli I drew on the day when we sent Chandru on his way to the college, a vINA with swans on either side.

... to be continued