Kolam made our day....

Yesterday was another normal day at office for me. What distinguished it from the rest was the Kolam a.k.a Rangoli competition in which I was to participate along with 9 other team-mates from eBay project. Now, Kolam is an auspicious art of decorating courtyards and houses, hand drawn mainly by women for festivals/special occasions. Cognizant, my office, has the tradition of celebrating the major festivals in their true spirit and this time too, for Pongal, it was no exception.

I have been drawing odd Rangoli patterns in my house for Ganesh, Diwali and other festivals; not anything great or so but yes could execute it finely. So when one of my friend approached me for taking part, I was pulled instantly by the idea. Our team was nominated and we had started gathering the required items from few days - colours, Pongal pot, glitter, lamps, etc. One of my friend had also gone to the extent of getting a coffee decoction for filling in the Kolam Pongal pots (clay-color). That meant, taking the used coffee powder and heating it in microwave for getting a dried decoction... Sounds innovative...isn't it? And it did prove to be at the end...

The competition was of 1-hour duration, 10 members each with 8*8 floor space dedicated for each team. We had shortlisted some 3-4 Kolam designs from the Internet and infact finalised the main one at the last minute! Someone cited the Murphy's law to make matters worse - "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Ha ha... as it is, many of our members were caught up in their deadlines and just few of us had to begin the design with the rest following us.Finally, it commenced. All other teams were also actively involved. We began putting the Kolam, first with lines of dots and steadily joining them to form the pattern. It consisted of a central floral disc surrounded by Pongal pots all over.

Additional note: On Sankaranti/Pongal day, in South India, sweet rice known as 'Pongal' is cooked in a new earthenware pot and placed where the puja is to be performed. Fresh turmeric and ginger are tied around this pot. Then a delicious concoction of rice, moong dal, jaggery and milk is boiled in the pot on an open fire. According to the ritual, this Pongal rice is allowed to boil and spill over. Once the rice is cooked, it is tempered with cashew nuts and raisins fried in ghee. When the Pongal dish is ready, it is offered to the Sun God on a new banana leaf along with other traditional delicacies, like vadas, payasam, etc.

Coming back to our Kolam. The pattern was interlaced with some zigzags, flowers and sugarcane stalks to symbolise the true Sankranti spirit. The initial coloring was shabby; we didn't have a strainer and was lacking finesse. Luckily, someone managed to get one, hands started working more efficiently, hues of red, blue, green, orange, brown, pink, magenta, green started falling in the right place and we could feel we are nearing our target. Before the buzzer hooted, we also managed to draw butterflies all around with 'C' symbol (standing for Cognizant) and filling them with sugar-coated saunf - it turned out to be a brownie for us! Two sugarcane stalks at either side, wax diyas placed and lighted strategically, clay Pongal pot in center filled with cotton to resemble the sweet dish.... last-minute touch ups and whoa!!! It was ready.... All of us were surprised that we had finished with such a neat and clean design, especially, since we had almost limped initially to get a basic framework ready.

We moved around to see what our competitive teams had done and few of them were indeed fascinating. One of them had depicted the Sankranti flavour too well - rustic setting, farmers, bull, sugarcane stalks, harvest... We were slightly dejected on seeing it since we knew it was a sureshot winner but were amazed by their team work. Some others had also done a good color combination, finesse and usage of rock salt with colors which added a dazzling effect to the pattern. Many employees had assembled to see the end-designs and we eavesdropped to hear some nice comments on ours too :) Judges began their rounds and we explained what our design meant... of Cognizant spreading the festive spirit, prosperity and happiness... blah, blah... Surprisingly, they were impressed by the overall theme, usage of coffee decoction and saunf :) Well, all done and awaiting the results...

It was post 18:00 p.m. when we were done and most of us had gone back to work. Two of my friends and me were relatively free and stayed back to hear the results with much anticipation. Ang guess what! When we were announced as Winners in the Second position, our joy knew no bounds... I enjoyed every bit of the exercise and am now a little more confident that I can participate in Rangoli competitions in the future...Lets see what gift awaits us :) It seems some WAH points may be under way... but by then I must have already left the co :(