A joke on kolam
"Kolam" refers to decorative artwork drawn on the floor in front of houses and in front of deities
in puja rooms. Most often finely ground rice flour is used to make these drawings on wet/moist ground
previously sprinkled with water (or dilute solutions of cow-dung with water that gives a darker background
to the mud floor). Colouration of the artwork with colour powders adds additional charm.
Kolam is a cultural tradition of South Indian families going back to many
many generations. Young girls learn many of these artwork from their mothers, grandmas, aunties etc.
The drawing starts with a a certain number of dots and straight/curly lines going around these dots.
Many of these are completed with a single line going in an elegant but zig-zag away around the
entire set of dots. The tamil month of "markazhi" (Dec/Jan)
is particularly important when fairly large size Kolams are put in front of the houses, with
additional decoration of yellow flowers of pumpkin placed in the middle of the kolam. Drawing Kolams in front of
the houses is very much in practice in south Indian villages. But unfortunately the practice is
becoming nearly extinct in cities where more and more are living in high-rise
appartment buildings.