"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
Vātsalya is a selection of handpicked designs from the author’s collection of rangolis, which she has created over a period of time. They have been made with great love, care and attention to details for special occasions like the birthdays of family members, anniversaries, festivals like Diwali, Dussehra, New Year, etc. They take hours, and in some cases, days to make and is a process the author terms ‘immensely enjoyable’. However, since the lives of these rangolis are very short, this book is created to give longevity to these designs, and in that process, be used as a coffee table book, adding aesthetic value to the décor of the place or perhaps inspire other artists in any way possible.
Featured in this book are mostly freehand rangolis along with some traditional kolams with a twist, galicha (carpet) rangoli design, portrait rangoli and pookalam.
This book is intended for aesthetic use, and this is not a rangoli tutorial book.
Mahalakshmy Manoj Nair
Mahalakshmy Manoj Nair was born and brought up in a simple middle-class family in Chennai. She had the good fortune of experiencing the rich South Indian culture. She was introduced to the art of drawing kolams at a very early age. It was her duty to draw kolam every morning and evening in front of their house during her childhood. Later this interest intensified and she started experimenting with various kinds of rangolis and today she specializes in freehand style rangoli.
Among all forms of creativity, she finds making rangolis the most satisfying as she feels that whatever design that she could create in a paper, the moment she translates it into a rangoli, it comes alive. When she strategically places diyas around a rangoli, it gets elevated to a whole new level.
Colours fascinate her and she always keeps trying various colour combinations in rangolis and gets excited to see the outcome. This process of playing with colours and creating a design from scratch and decorating it with diyas has become such an incredibly satisfying experience for her that she easily calls it her passion. The whole process is meditative for her and in that sense, it is her spirituality.
For any comments and suggestions, please write to mahalakshmy_m@yahoo.co.in
