Kolam-- A Creative Process

In the wee hours of the morning when the whole household is asleep, the lady of the house wakes up washes her face and comes to the threshold of her house. She sprinkles the water in the floor and cleans it thoroughly. If the floor is made of mud sometimes cow dung is mixed with the water and the ground is cleansed. In the modern apartments the floor is cleansed through wet wiping. When we go through the villages it is a great sight to see the women sprinkle the ground and clean it.

When the ground is still wet, she takes the rice powder in her hand in between her thumb and the index finger, bends forward in an angle and starts to draw the kolam. It is sometimes abstract with straight lines connected artistically. Or the rice powder, with the skill of the lady, turns into flowers or peacocks or some intricate concrete designs. There is a strong cultural practice of drawing a kolam, before anyone leaves the home for the day’s work.

If there is a puja in the house or marriages the floor paintings become very intricate and elaborate and red sand paste known as kavi is also used in it. Rice is also soaked and ground into paste and the paste is used for adorning the floor with kolams for long term effects during such occasions. 

Whether done with the rice powder or the rice paste, it is considered inauspicious for a home to be without the kolam, and mostly the lady of the house takes the responsibility of doing it. 

Whatever may be the purpose, once done, the kolam does not belong to her. Sometimes during the passage of the day nobody really looks into it. It seldom gets appreciated. It is often trampled again and again with the foot or totally destroyed by the little pranksters. Or suddenly the rain comes and rubs off all the kolam. This is what life teaches us too. Whatever may happen to the kolam, she is again up in the next dawn, even before the whole house wakes up, with the water and the powder in the hand to draw again and adorn the floor going by her emotions to draw various things and taking pride in it. She is the sole creator and sometimes the sole appreciator of her artistic work. Maybe the concentration that she puts in it, makes her ready for the whole day of happenings inside and outside the household. 

If we can notice it is the only time she is with herself beyond the boundaries of time and space, it is just her and her fingers creating a treat, and when she finishes she just leaves it and comes to the real world and moves on with her duties. She is least bothered about what may happen to the kolam after that. Maybe she learns her life skills from an early age from this process adorning the floor with the paintings.