Meet Chennai’s best kolamnists!(Times of India---chennai times page no.1&3... date..24/01/12)

Hi friends enjoyyyy

The finals of the Times Margazhi Kolam Contest at the Marina beach witnessed an enthusiastic turnout.
Srinivasa Ramanujam

Judging a kolam design can be quite difficult, especially in a contest — it has to be traditional and modern at the same time. That was one of the challenges before singers Anitha Kuppusamy and Pushpavanam Kuppusamy on Sunday morning at the Marina beach, where they went through several beautifully-done kolams at the
Times Margazhi Kolam Contest.
A couple of hours earlier, several enthusiastic Chennaiites had assembled at the venue armed with kolam maavu and other materials. Braving the early-morning fog, they started working on the kattam they chose, in a bid to display their artistic skills.
“Ours is a unique concept,” said one participant, even as her sister decorated the edges of the kolam, “We’ve tried to incorporate the social message of eye donation through our kolam.” One kolam came up with the concept of national integrity, with the Vandhe Mataram being prominently featured, and another used only natural ingredients in their display.
All these just added to the challenges in front of the judges, who took three rounds to inspect the kolams before zeroing in on the top three. “The first thing we looked at was whether they’d finished within the stipulated time limit,” explained Anitha, “Then, we had to check if the kolam was within the border mark.”
Given these stipulations, the judges picked Rajani, Gowri Chandrasekar and Vanitha Prabhu as the top three. The winners will get silk sarees worth 25,000, 15,000 and 10,000 from the prize sponsor, Kumaran Silks. “But you are all winners,” announced Kuppusamy to the crowd assembled, “The fact that all of you came here on a Sunday morning to draw kolams means that you’re all very talented.”
COLOUR CODED!
Srinivasa Ramanujam

Do you know why we draw kolams in front of the house every morning? Any visitor to the house, even if there’s something negative on his mind, will feel better and enter in the right frame of mind after seeing it,” explained singer Pushpavanam Kuppusamy, before he announced the winners of the Times Margazhi Kolam Contest.
The ace singer, who was swarmed with people requesting autographs, went ahead to elaborate how, in villages, the kolam would be an indicator if the ‘girl’ was good for marriage. “One look at the kolam and people could understand the gunam of the girl who had drawn it,” he said.
The singer appreciated The Times of India for taking up this initiative to promote an art form that was decreasing in popularity. “This is much needed in this time and age,” he said, “I hope a lot of people take up to kolam drawing in the future.”
If one witnessed the crowd at the Marina beach for the Times Margazhi Kolam Contest, they’d be rest assured that the city is buzzing with people interested in taking to kolams and blending tradition and modernity in it.

JUDGES SPEAK

It’s good that you took more than three rounds to judge the kolams — at least you’ll lose weight,” exclaimed Anitha to her husband. Their casual banter and exchange on stage had the crowd assembled in splits. But when it came to announcing the winners, the judges patiently explained the reasoning behind it. “Most of the kolams are very good but we have just three prizes and we judged based on the appeal they have aesthetically,” she said. And once the winners were announced, a section of the audience had a request to the husbandwife duo — that they should sing a song! Unperturbed, Kuppusamy flashed his mobile phone — only to get his sruthi right — and proceeded to deliver a fast-paced number that everybody in the audience appreciated. THE WINNING KOLAMS