A few weeks ago, we were invited to a friend's son's arangetram. Whether or not the word 'etram' (ascension) applies to all art or just 'arangu' (dance), I'm not sure, but in this case, it was a debut music concert...so I suppose apply it does. The instrument was the mridangam (South Indian drum), accompanied by the mandolin, violin, veena, and the Jewish harp.
But for some high school students playing tennis, the surroundings were quiet. No one would have guessed that inside, a carnatic music concert was in full swing (yes, we were late). A dark theatre scented with jasmine...the rustle of deeply hued saffron, crimson, peacock blue, deep purple Kanjeevaram silks...and an audience thoroughly enjoying the reverberations and following the beat with their own thaalam.
As we walked up to the high school auditorium, kolams adorned the path. Our sons were intrigued by these patterns on the ground and they tried identifying images in the kolam. South Indian kolams integrate flowers, birds, and fish into their design...and while fish look more or less the same regardless of the species, the flowers and birds are peculiar to India. And so our elder son pointed out a 'Lily' (not the Indian Lotus), while the younger one mistook conch shells for snails. At least the parrot was correctly spotted, by its unmistakable hooked beak and its beady eye...!
In the USA, one sees kolams drawn with sidewalk chalk or just a vinyl pattern stuck on. The ones above seem to have been made with rice flour paste, with chalk highlights in pink.
In Madras, most Hindu homes have a kolam in front of the compound gate and the main door. The kolam is drawn afresh every morning for it gets stepped on and blurred as the day progresses. Kolams are meant to invite prosperity into one's home. To discourage evil spirits, all lines in the kolam are unbroken in a neverending knot, a talisman as it were.
During my childhood, white rice powder was popularly used to make the pattern. The artist would gather a sizeable pinch between her thumb and forefinger, from a screw of paper, and steadily release a trail to form a line. To draw another line, she would gather another pinch and so it would go on.
"Why ricepowder?", I asked a friend once. "To feed the birds and insects", she replied. Her mom told us it was a good idea to keep the ants at bay. So, drawing a rice powder kolam is shooting 4 birds with one stone - positive energy, starting afresh every day, doing one's bit in feeding other creatures, and protecting one's homes from invaders of different kinds. I've heard - never seen them myself - that during festivals, entire streets are covered with kolams, in the agraharams near the Mylapore temple - drawn quickly and surely in the morning, on sunny days - of course, necessitating kolam contests!
Last year, when visiting the Museum of Art in Hong Kong, I saw this...
I was reminded of the Indian kolam and its unbroken lines...
It appears the Chinese endless knot is a Buddhist auspicious symbol, introduced to China by Indian Buddhist missionary monks 2,500 years ago. The 'endlessness' of the lines represent the Eternal Divine, while their fluidity symbolizes the everpresent change and the ephemeral nature of time. Nothing is permanent. In the manner of the Thai Buddhist sand paintings that are destroyed upon completion, so also does a kolam fade away through the day, only to be reborn the next.
At the end of the concert, my friend's guru blessed the performers and spoke of 2 ideas - abhyaasa (practice) and vairagya (a state of non-attachment). In other words, to practice those principles and values in one's life so as to move onwards in the spiritual journey towards the Eternal Divine (in Islam, we know this as jihad, or the constant 'battle' to live life ethically)...and to avoid stagnation as a result of too much 'attachment' to one's surroundings/relationships.
Today businesses are told to "practice, practice, practice" those management principles, processes and strategies that make them optimally efficient, and to remain non-attached to any situation that makes them too comfortable for their own good. Vairagya helps in keep things in check, and reminds a business to exercise agility as and when needed to re-align itself to the immediate market pulse and greater macroeconomic forces. To change its 'thaalam' as per the beat of its external and internal factors, and thus perform successive arangetrams in the theatre of the global marketplace.
But for some high school students playing tennis, the surroundings were quiet. No one would have guessed that inside, a carnatic music concert was in full swing (yes, we were late). A dark theatre scented with jasmine...the rustle of deeply hued saffron, crimson, peacock blue, deep purple Kanjeevaram silks...and an audience thoroughly enjoying the reverberations and following the beat with their own thaalam.
As we walked up to the high school auditorium, kolams adorned the path. Our sons were intrigued by these patterns on the ground and they tried identifying images in the kolam. South Indian kolams integrate flowers, birds, and fish into their design...and while fish look more or less the same regardless of the species, the flowers and birds are peculiar to India. And so our elder son pointed out a 'Lily' (not the Indian Lotus), while the younger one mistook conch shells for snails. At least the parrot was correctly spotted, by its unmistakable hooked beak and its beady eye...!
In Madras, most Hindu homes have a kolam in front of the compound gate and the main door. The kolam is drawn afresh every morning for it gets stepped on and blurred as the day progresses. Kolams are meant to invite prosperity into one's home. To discourage evil spirits, all lines in the kolam are unbroken in a neverending knot, a talisman as it were.
During my childhood, white rice powder was popularly used to make the pattern. The artist would gather a sizeable pinch between her thumb and forefinger, from a screw of paper, and steadily release a trail to form a line. To draw another line, she would gather another pinch and so it would go on.
"Why ricepowder?", I asked a friend once. "To feed the birds and insects", she replied. Her mom told us it was a good idea to keep the ants at bay. So, drawing a rice powder kolam is shooting 4 birds with one stone - positive energy, starting afresh every day, doing one's bit in feeding other creatures, and protecting one's homes from invaders of different kinds. I've heard - never seen them myself - that during festivals, entire streets are covered with kolams, in the agraharams near the Mylapore temple - drawn quickly and surely in the morning, on sunny days - of course, necessitating kolam contests!
Last year, when visiting the Museum of Art in Hong Kong, I saw this...
It appears the Chinese endless knot is a Buddhist auspicious symbol, introduced to China by Indian Buddhist missionary monks 2,500 years ago. The 'endlessness' of the lines represent the Eternal Divine, while their fluidity symbolizes the everpresent change and the ephemeral nature of time. Nothing is permanent. In the manner of the Thai Buddhist sand paintings that are destroyed upon completion, so also does a kolam fade away through the day, only to be reborn the next.
At the end of the concert, my friend's guru blessed the performers and spoke of 2 ideas - abhyaasa (practice) and vairagya (a state of non-attachment). In other words, to practice those principles and values in one's life so as to move onwards in the spiritual journey towards the Eternal Divine (in Islam, we know this as jihad, or the constant 'battle' to live life ethically)...and to avoid stagnation as a result of too much 'attachment' to one's surroundings/relationships.
Today businesses are told to "practice, practice, practice" those management principles, processes and strategies that make them optimally efficient, and to remain non-attached to any situation that makes them too comfortable for their own good. Vairagya helps in keep things in check, and reminds a business to exercise agility as and when needed to re-align itself to the immediate market pulse and greater macroeconomic forces. To change its 'thaalam' as per the beat of its external and internal factors, and thus perform successive arangetrams in the theatre of the global marketplace.
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