jkmrao's blog

Here is a 6 x 6 dot pattern (or 1 to 11 straight diamond). With a dot pattern like this, if we join in the usual way, we will get six lines (please draw it and convince yourself that it is so). What I did here was - I drew purple lines through orange dots like the two sides of a right angled triangle. These lines are like walls (or mirrors). When we draw lines around the points, we cannot penetrate these walls. With this type of restriction, we get only two lines (the yellow and pink).

Let us consider a knotted pattern (chikku kOlam or melikala muggu) with r points in the row and c points in the columns. This is thus a rxc kOlam.

Normally to draw rangOlis, we use dots for reference. These dots are either arranged in a square or hexagonal pattern to give straight and staggered appearance. Today I drew a rangOli with dots that are nither square nor hexagonal. These dots are arranged in a trapezoidal fashion with less space at the top and more at the bottom. With a 3x5 arrangement of such dots, I drew a sOnA pattern with one line and with four such made a sOna square with two lines. In this arrangement, you will see that the whole pattern looks like four towers of a temple.

Now and then, I have mentioned the name of Bangalore Nagartnamma in some discussions. Bangalore Nagartanamma was born in the family of a dEvadAsi. She was an accomplished dancer and singer. She knew several languages like Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil besides her mother tongue Kannada. She is known famously for the following: She edited and got published by the vAviLla book publishers the Telugu epic called rAdhikAsAMtvanamu or iLAdEvIyamu written by muddupaLani, a concubine of the tanjAvUr king. It has some erotic verses in it.

This entry has reference to the pattern posted by Mrs suguNA at http://www.ikolam.com/node/20752?p=10760 . I am considering only the square pattern for this discussion. This is also a sOnA square with a 2x3 pattern. Four 2x3 single line patterns are placed perpendicular to each other when viewed successively. For the sake of elegance I introduced a gap between the patterns (that means one more sequence of dots) and also a gap between the patterns and the outer border. That means what is 7x7 square has become 10x10 square in my case.

Valentine's Day is the Western version of hOli or kAmadahana (next month in the Indian calendar). For details of the observance of this tradition go to - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day . Always without fail on Valentine's day, I am reminded of the mnemonic coined by Annie Cannon, a Harvard astronomer - O Be A Fine Girl/Guy Kiss Me Right Now Sweet. The first letters of this are the names of stellar groups. Well, astronomy and Valentine's Day have a common thread

Glued to BBC and CNN throughout the day Wonderful to see the climax of the peaceful winter revolution. Here is a tribute to one cradle of civilisation to another! The coat of arms of Egypt is an eagle holding a scroll with the name of the Arab Republic of Egypt. On the breast is the Egyptian tricolour in red (the period of monarchy and British occupation), white (the peaceful revolution) and black (the end of oppression) and the eagle itself is represented in white and gold.

The last week was notable for two events - one is the pro-democratic struggles in Egypt and another the birthday of a distinguished member on ikOlam. How to connect these two was my problem. In ancient Egypt Horus was the God of sky and his eyes are supposed to be sun and moon. His father was Osiris and his mother was Isis (a goddess of Nature and a frequent entry in crossword puzzles). His uncle Seth killed his father in a treacherous fashion. He avenged this deed by killing Seth with the help of Thoth. There are many variations of this story.

About a pattern of soumya vijay that attracted my attention.

On the occasion of the Indian Republic Day (26 January) I am posting arabinda ghOsh's translation of a Tagore poem modified here and there along with Mrs indrANi nandi for the enjoyment of readers.

aaji bhaaratEr mahaamaanabEr saagar-teerE