Barack Obama has been elected the 44th president of the United States of America. This is a historic day and goes to prove that anything is possible. Obama has fought and won this campaign on the message of change. We sincerely hope that he is able to bring about all the positive changes that this country and the world desperately needs!
An excerpt from THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Sunday, November 2, 2008, Jeff Canning...
Why Tuesday?, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in New York City, has been working to reform America's voting system since 2005.
"We rank 139 out of 172 countries in voter participation worldwide, and we spend billions more than any other country on our elections," said Barnett Zitron, managing director of Why Tuesday. "Whether it's moving it to the weekend or making a national holiday, there is no silver bullet to making it more productive. But it will be better than the archaic design developed when America was based on an agrarian economy."
Bye bye Diwali and hello Halloween!
Happy Halloween everybody! Now that we’re done celebrating Diwali, we can get ready for celebrating Halloween. Every year it occurs on October 31st. Halloween is celebrated in many countries of the world, and most predominantly in countries like USA, UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Indians like us, who live in the States are used to observing Diwali, Halloween and Thanksgiving in the Fall season.
The kids have a gala time preparing for Halloween and planning their costumes. In the evening the children have a good time going out for trick-or-treating visiting the houses in their neighborhood with bags in search of candies. In my home, I jokingly address Trick-or-treat as going for “bhiksham dehiâ€!!. This year, one of our family member is going to be dressed as a character from the Harry Porter book, and another is going to be a bloody Vampire…I meant a Vampire with a bleeding mouth...or is it the teeth...well, you get the picture...need I say more?
May this Diwali be a new beginning of peace, prosperity and happiness for you!
We have well over a 1000 kolams and rangolis in our web site. With so many rangolis to view and enjoy, we have added a new feature to bookmark your favorite rangolis. When viewing a rangoli, you will find a link below "Add to favorites". Click on the link and the rangoli you are viewing will be added to your favorite collection.
Onam is the biggest festival of Kerala and it is observed by malayalees living in all parts of the world. This year, Onam falls on the 12th of September. One of the important feature of Onam is the making of Pookkallam also known as the "carpet of flowers", to honour the spirit of King Mahabali. Pookkallam is a Rangoli designed on the floor and the materials used are different kinds of flowers along with a few kinds of leaves. Water is sprinkled now and then on the finished design, to keep the flowers fresh.
I've always been a fan of the beautiful cream colored sarees that the ladies wear for the occasion. Ikolam has many members and friends who celebrate this festival, and we would like to invite them to share pictures of their celebrations (events/music/dance/boat race/games) and pictures of pookkallam.
Wish you all a happy and a prosperous Onam!
I have created a large collection of animated versions of kolam and rangolis over the years. I have been playing around with creating videos of the process of making kolams and just created couple of videos of some of the simple kolams and added them here: http://www.ikolam.com/video. These videos are hosted at YouTube; you could view them at the ikolam channel at YouTube too.
We plan on adding more videos in the coming months. If you have videos that you would like to share with all the kolam/rangoli fans, please send it to us.
Buddha Purnima (Buddha Jayanti) 2008
Buddha Purnima falls on the 20th of May for the current year - 2008.
Buddha Jayanti (or Buddha Purnima) is the birth anniversary of Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha is the founder of Buddhism. It falls on the full moon of the fourth lunar month (month of Vaisakh in the Indian calendar, either in April or May). On Buddha Jayanti, the buddhist monastries all over the world offer prayers and recitations of Buddhist scriptures at Buddha's altar throughout the day. People visit Buddhist temples/shrines and listen to the holy chantings, and also offer alms to the monks.
