Festive spirit filled the air as pookkalams (flower carpets) in attractive colour combinations adorned the atrium of Brookefields Mall as part of the Onam celebrations.
The flower carpet contest for homemakers, working women and students was organised on Thursday at the mall by Brookefields with The Hindu as the media partner, Radio City as the radio partner and D.A.R Jewellers, Canon, Toonz and Max as gift sponsors.
Simple concentric circles and triangles, complicated patterns and picturesque themes like boat racing and coconut leaves were part of the designs. Eight teams with two to four members each took part in the event.
Winners
“We wanted to do something related to Kerala's culture and so decided to include traditional boats in the design. We are very happy that our pookkalam was chosen as the best, said Sharanya R., Saraswathi, Radha and Vijeshwari, who won the first prize. Good colour combination and presentation helped them beat the other teams, said P. Chandrashekaran, Joint Secretary of Chitrakala Academy, who adjudged the competition.
The team of Bindu Jayan, Suma Sen, Jaya Ramesh and Megha Sen from R.S. Puram won the second prize.
“We had the confidence that we had done well. More than winning prizes, we wanted to participate and have fun. Unlike other teams that chose circular designs, we went in for rectangular pattern covering the whole area allotted to us and decorated it with small lamps,” they said.
The third prize winners, Indu Pradeep and Prasanna Ravikumar from Ganapathy, said they wanted to do something different and interesting and so made a design with banyan leaf and flute at the centre and filled the outer layers with the colours of the Indian flag.
Mr. Chandrashekaran said that the winners were chosen based on the design, colour combination, presentation and creativity.
“The winning team had used the colours wisely adding a three dimensional touch to the design.”
“The participants have used nice patterns and a variety of flowers. Some of them have presented it very neatly," said Kousalya Anandan and Chitra Venkatakrishnan, who came from Podanur to witness the competition.
