A coffee table book on kolams! Well, here comes a beautiful book World of Freehand Kolams that captures the essence of this live art. “I have been drawing kolams all my life, and don’t keep track of the designs I know or create. My grandchildren and children wanted me to preserve them, and that is how the book evolved,” says its author, Janaki Gopalan, who lives in Chromepet. Sprightly at 60, Janaki can execute a 100 sq ft. kolam in half-an-hour flat. Gifted with a flawless sense of geometry, her kolams retain symmetry even when they extend to diameters of 15 feet and beyond. One of her kolams has also been released as a U.S. postage stamp.
“Kolams are decorative, utilitarian, spiritualistic and symbolic,” says Janaki. Over the years, this madisar mami has been teaching kolam art to a mixed crowd — from American kids in Chicago when she visits her daughter who lives there, to Indophiles visiting the city such as French writer Chantal Jumel, and, of course, to our own city folk. As for the book, it comes with an appropriate sense of design and colour, dominated by the traditionally auspicious hue of semman (red brick powder) used to brighten up kolams on festive days. On the other hand, while individual kolams do not have names traditionally, Janaki has been adventurous and given them interesting Sanskrit names, providing short narratives to explain the significance of the various kolams, besides some background information about the tradition of kolams. And then, for those who want to try out massive kolams which look impossibly intertwined at first glance, the book offers some easy-to-draw compositional design elements that have to be cascaded to create the larger design.
Today, the daily ritual of drawing kolams is a far cry from the holistic affair it was when they were drawn with rice flour that provided food for ants and other insects. Now, for most of us, drawing kolams is more like ‘One, two, three (three dot kolams), and you go free’, as Janaki’s daughter Revathy puts it. Meanwhile, there are the chalk or sticker kolams that many of us prefer for the sake of convenience. Says Janaki mami : “Even small kolams relegated to a corner of the doorway are fine, or even those that can be created instantly through metal press containers. But do use rice flour and make fresh kolams every day…also pause a second to gaze at them. You will experience a sense of satisfaction; what’s more, its aesthetic impact will stay with you for long.”
Janaki Gopalan can be reached at freehandkolams@gmail.com
