Cards that preserve culture

Chennai-based organisation Vizha brings you memories of the Tamil months and their elements with their unique playing cards Seetu Kattu
Cards that preserve culture

CHENNAI: lady dressed in an orange sari wears the strands of violet ‘December poo’ on her neatly plaited hair. This is the visual that Vizha a Chennai-based multidisciplinary team which creates and experiments with food, clothing and design presents to its viewers for the month of Margazhi. Delving into the Tamil language and culture, they have now brought Seetu Kattu, illustrated playing cards painted with nostalgic memories of Tamil months. For people inexperienced with the Tamil months and their speciality, each card unveils a story to be explored. Those close to the culture could consider these as reminders of a special time. Vizha’s Darshini Narayanan and Sanjana Susaritha Ravi take us through their creation.

Birth of Seetu Kattu
The idea came into being while researching for another product, a Tamil calendar for April 2023. Sanjana talks about the inception of the calendar, “Most of us refer to English calendars. It is often our mothers or grandmothers who refer to the Tamil calendar, only to check auspicious dates. Thus, we are, in a way, forgetting our roots. We wanted to preserve the language and bring out a calendar.” But to proceed with the same, they needed to talk to a lot of people and collect experiences.

Eventually, they found a way to make this interesting a seasonal dinner every three months with people from different walks of life, at Vizha. With three dinners and drawn inspiration, they documented information for the first nine months. Since this was a long journey and they wanted to share their progress with the customers, creating a deck of playing cards struck as an idea that can be developed easily. Darshini, who takes care of designing at Vizha, digitally hand drew the illustrations.

Illustrating nostalgia
Explaining what each month symbolises, Darshini shares, “The jars storing pickles represent Panguni, as the month is the popular time to make oorugai. During Maasi, blue water lilies are a delight to the eyes. Thai is the Pongal time, so it is represented by the sugarcane mesh. Margazhi is the time when you get the purple and orange flowers, also called the ‘December poo.’ For Karthigai month, we used a Karthigai deepam. For Aippasi, the rainy season, paper boats are drawn.

During Puratasi, a lot of festivals happen and a prominent one, Navaratri is shown. Aavani is when a lot of weddings happen. The panyola parrot (a parrot made from coloured palm leaves), a popular wedding decoration, indicates the month. Aadi month is the windiest of the year. So, a lot of kites are drawn. Mallipoo that blooms during Aani, mangoes ripening during the summer, Vaigaasi, and citrus fruits like naarthinga during the Chithirai months make up the rest.”

Vizha’s founders and friends from college, Akash Muralidaran, Sanjana and Darshini, are on a mission to build on and enhance the precious local identity. Utilising the skills of indigenous artisans, empowering people, promoting sustainability, innovating local cuisine with local produce, they are getting closer to their mission day by day.

Vizha is currently focussing on their upcoming calendar and aspires to launch it soon. Sanjana says, “Vizha means a celebration. We celebrate the bond between humans and nature. We involve our customers in the process of creating our products. We educate them and also learn from them.”

Seetu Kattu can be ordered on @vizhamedai (Instagram). For further details, contact 09025047649.

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The New Indian Express
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