CHENNAI: From kottu kolam to katta kolam and suzhi kolam, Leela Venkatraman tries to master almost all the challenging variations of kolam. She spends more than an hour every day, innovating kolams using complex patterns, dot grids, curves and strokes. At 79, her child-like enthusiasm and passion for this tradition is inspiring. In her bid to preserve this tradition, she teaches and motivates youngsters to explore kolams — with joy.
“At different stages of my life, different people have inspired me to improvise my skills with kolams. The first one was my mother. I grew up watching her adorn the entrance of our home in Aranthangi with unique kolams. I used to try them on a slate with a chalk piece. Slowly, I started drawing them on the floor and got better at it during my teenage years,” she says. Leela used to walk around the streets and take a mental picture of the kolams outside the houses in her village. After observing them keenly, she used to recreate them adding her unique touch to it. “I never liked copying kolams because I always looked at it as an opportunity to get creative. Later when I got married, I moved to Vathirairuppu near Srivilliputhur. There during Margazhi, I used to get up at 3 am and draw kolams. The neighbours appreciated my designs and my husband encouraged me to experiment with more precision. I was even requested by some people to draw a kolam every day at a Perumal temple that was closer to our house,” she says. Her love for patterns got her the moniker ‘Kolam Maami’ in that locality.
After her husband’s demise in 1978, Leela moved to Madurai where her mother and brother lived. She spent more time engaged in tailoring, embroidery and kolams. “In those days, Tamil magazine Mangai used to publish a column displaying kolams, every week. My mother and I used to send entries to it, regularly. SV Thambirasu, the man-in-charge of the column once visited Fatima College to conduct a workshop on kolams and we went to meet him. We were surprised to see him take lectures on kolam, like it was a Science lesson. He then asked us to visit his free five-day kolam workshop that was to be held at the Meenakshi Amman Temple. That gave us a whole new perspective on how to come up with better kolams with complicated designs,” she shares. At this session, Leela drew about 1,008 kolams near the Swami Sannadhi. Now for 40 years, during Navaratri or some other festival, they paint or repaint kolams inside the temple.
Leela, with a group of women led by Lalitha Sankar, has travelled to temples across south India, to paint kolams inside the premises. “In the last four decades, we have travelled to hundreds of temples to draw kolams including ones in Tirupati, Chennai, Srirangam and Kanchipuram. Even now, we travel at least five times in a year,” she says.
By charging a minimal fee, she also conducts kolam classes in her home. “Kolams are a wonderful way to unwind after a long day. It reduces your stress levels to a great extent. I hope the next generation recognises its significance and continues to practice it,” she says.
Apart from drawing kolams on the floor, Leela also uses embroidery or fabric colours to create kolams on clothes. In 1987, she created a kolam with one lakh dots, on a big piece of cloth. Later in 2003, the same kolam was recreated and painted on the floors of Meenakshi Amman Temple, during Navarathri. “I never stop practising new kolams. I wish to create a bigger kolam of more than one lakh dots,” she says.
Keeping the tradition alive
Leela specialises in creating ilai kolams, kottu kolams, kattu kolams, suzhi kolams, manai kolams and achu kolams. By charging a minimal fee, she also conducts kolam classes in her home.
1987 she created a kolam with one lakh dots, on a big piece of cloth. 1,008 during a workshop in Meenakshi Amman Temple