Diwali Happiness

Its been quite some time since my last post!

Diwali preparations, family and friends kept me busy. Colorful rangoli, tasty faral and pretty patterns all around, what more do you need for a Happy Diwali!

Happy Diwali

Its Diwali, time for colors, lights, joy and cheer! Also time for colorful rangoli...
This is the rangoli I made today in my porch. Currently, I'm working on some traditional Jaipur patterns and the same influences my rangoli pattern too :)

May this Diwali bring you lot of new business and success..
Wish you a very happy and colorful Diwali!

Chaitrangan Rangoli

Chaitra, the first Marathi month, starts from Gudi Padwa. It ended yesterday with the amavasya. Chaitra marks the beginning of spring. It is one of the holy months marking the birth of many gods and goddesses like Goddess Durga (Durga ashtami), of Lord Rama (Ram Navami) and that of Lord Hanuman (Hanuman jayanti).

In marathi culture, there is a tradition of worshipping the chaitra-gaur for the whole month. It is actually the pair of Gauri and Lord Shankar commonly called as Chaitra Gaur or Sheetala Gaur. And during this month, these motifs are drawn as rangoli in the courtyard. 

These are 51 Shubha Chinha or the auspicious symbols. The story behind these is…

… Lord Shankar in an outburst of emotions and in a furious reaction had the toxic venom, his body and mind became livid. Over regretting, he did many things to keep himself calm and cool… he wrapped a snake around his neck as the snake is supposed to be cool, he took support of the moon over his head etc. In spite of doing all this, his furiousness still resided and he was in need of something more. This time it was when Gauri said that, she will give Shankar the tranquility he required. She herself should be cool, quite and composed first then to give it to Shankar. As it is always said, one needs to be full to give others the fullness. Thus cool and soothing and fortune providing things were worshipped and used. And all these motifs drawn as rangoli represent Gauri’s doings for Shanker. These are 51 motifs which include, the Gauri-Shanker, Ganpati, jhenda, gudi, toran, shankh, saraswati, gada, gay-vasru, nag, mor pankh, basri, Om, swastika, go-padma, garud, hatti, tulsi, shivlingam, panti, kairi, kela, khan-naral, haldi kunku karanda, trishul, surya, fani, aarsa, damri, kasav, sanai-chughade, kamal, dhanusha-baan etc. (all names in Marathi)

It is the commencement of spring and the raw mangoes. It is during this month when haldi-kunku is a function celebrated by Marathi women and a mouth-watering preparation of raw mango with dal called as kairi chi dal and panha (a raw mango drink also called as aam panna in hindi) is made to feast the taste buds!!

Along with these rangoli motifs, the kairi chi dal and panha form a part of my interest!!! :)

Happy Holi

Aarti is back after a real short blogging month but a long travel month of February. After visits down south to Chennai, Chettinad, Karur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, then Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Jalna and Solapur and connecting with friends form up north from Delhi, Chandigarh, Panipat and from Calcutta in the east, Aarti has had a totally “India is my country Month”!!

It is Spring and Summer and time to celebrate new beginning and to celebrate colors… being a Holi week, Aarti wishes everyone a very Happy Holi!

Images: Rangoli market, Kolhapur

May the canvas of your lives be painted with the most vibrant colors

and with joy and peace at every step!!

Thematic Rangoli: Save Water

Wishing all of you a very Happy and Colorful Diwali!!

During the festival of lights; during Diwali, the rangoli just cannot be missed. Apart from food, rangoli was (and still is) one of the subjects of my interest. During my school days I always tried to be creative in some or the other way to make my rangoli different from others in the apartment. Thanks to my dear Aai (mother) for giving me full freedom in my naive creativity then!! Unfortunately, I haven't documented any of my rangolis before this and I really miss that!... for having done not the regular traditional patterns but some very creative stuff for which I fall short of words!! I can just say that joining the dots becomes really boring. I remember how I learnt doing the rangoli, filling colors in my own crude way and then finishing it in a more cruder way!! Oh! This is getting too nostalgic now...but I'm liking it! Or should I put it as 'I'm lovin it!' I had also done a huge peacock rangoli for which i had won a second prize in school and my uncle had gifted me some valuable money for having done real fabulous work!! Ok! enough of self praising...

Since yesterday, Aai is after me saying, "Aarti, tomorrow early in the morning you have to do the rangoli in the porch", and she has repeated this for more than ten time and I am not exaggerating!! Well... well... then today morning I successfully did the rangoli part of my job and came up with a design shown in pictures below...

Weird, is it?!! May be! Or very creative!! Confused??!!!

Thanks again to Aai for supporting my sooper creative thoughts for this rangoli! I just do not know why I thought of this but it just occurred to me like a spark and without giving it a second thought I completed it. And I am telling everyone passing by this piece of my art that, “Save Water- is the theme of this rangoli.” and no need to explain further… :D :D :D

Not bad! Not bad! Some kind of thematic rangoli!!