Inspiring women "Janaki Gopalan"
My immense pleasure as soon as I reach Chennai is to read "The Hindu" newspaper. One year, I came across a few lines mentioning the publication of a kolam book. Next day I went to CP Ramaswami Aiyer Foundation in Alwarpet, bought the book, and contacted right away, the artist Mrs Janaki Gopalan.
Apart from collecting year after year kolam designs along the lanes of Mylapore or in Tamil villages, I like to learn drawing also. I may never become as skilled as many of the women I met but I enjoy assembling dot after dot a symmetrical canvas, and join the little marks until imaginary flowers or powdered birds arise from the ground. My favorites are line kolam with double or shaded lines. Their basic structure alternate from an austere square to a wavier one. I understood that they respectively belong to two different traditions. The Shivaite kolam are strict parallel lines akin to a zen garden that is raked to represent ripples in water. The Vaishnavite ones undulate and form curly ribbons hosting flowers, fruits, or birds at times with a baroque touch.
My immense pleasure as soon as I reach Chennai and my hotel is to read The Hindu newspaper. One year, I came across a few lines mentioning the publication of a kolam book. You can imagine how excited I was. Next day jumping in a rickshaw, I reach CP Ramaswami Aiyer Foundation in Alwarpet, bought the book, and contacted right away, Mrs Janaki Gopalan.
Her daughter to whom I had phoned, arranged a meeting, and took me by bus to her house. At the gate, one of the most elegant Vaishnavite style kolam I had ever seen, welcomed us both. I was struck by the perfect symmetry and the translucent lightness of the lines. Pineapples and pomegranates were sitting on the four corners. Birds reaching out from blooming flowers connected leaf-like patterns. Curvy lines alternated with exquisitely decorated pots. The concave square in the center appeared fluffy, flimsy almost frivolous as the four lines delineating its body zigzagged softly.
I had rarely seen such dexterity and artistry combined. I learnt a few designs; she drew for me with her magic hand, and I am still dazzled by so much poetry and creative expression.
The following book echoes her unique talent to create exclusive patterns, and the feelings that flood her heart in the morning.
