Splash of colours

WITH A flair for drawing and painting since childhood, Suchitra Govindarajan trained for a couple of months in using coloured marble powders to create attractive designs on the floor, when she was in Gujarat.

This year for Navarathri, she has ``painted'' Goddess Saraswathi, which took her nearly four days to complete.

Earlier, such coloured `kolams' were done with natural colours like turmeric powder for yellow, lamp soot or charcoal for black, mixture of lime and turmeric for red, powdered dry leaves for green etc. Chemicals have now replaced the natural colours.

The image of the Goddess, that conforms to the style popularised by Raja Ravi Varma, measures 6 ft x 4 ft.

The colours, which are available in Baroda, are oil paint powders mixed with fine marble powder to make it convenient to handle while drawing the rangoli.

To draw detailed figures of deities requires immense patience and concentration.

Many women have developed this into a fine art. Suchitra's equally talented daughter, Ranjani has drawn a smaller image of Anjaneya carrying the Sanjeevi mountain.

LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN

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