Meraki ✨

~~ to do something with soul, creativity and love; to put something of yourself in your work.

Diwali rangoli was a big deal in our household and neighnourhood like the most of India.
Almost a week before Diwali, every evening, there would be beautiful rangolis in the doorways (aangan) of all houses in our lane in Dhule.

People would take evening walks to just take a look at everyone’s rangolis.
It was a vibe. Evenings during Diwali week with rangolis, diyas and decorations are indeed a core good memory of all of our childhoods.

Teri meri ek zindagi 🪔

Prerna and I have been very active participants of the rangoli tradition, growing up.
I liked drawing in general, but Prerna’s interest has been only in the rangoli aspect, she isn’t very keen on drawing and painting otherwise.

It was a whole process – clean the area infront of the house with a broom, sprinkle water over the area (this was the fun part) and finally start with your rangoli.
While making the rangoli, you also needed to defend your rangoli from people entering and leaving the house, vehicles passing by, wind and the most difficult – stray animals from our lane (dogs and cows).

When Prerna was very young she would also insist to draw the Rangoli during the Diwali week.
But she was too young for the job, so Mahesh Mama and Aai would clear up and prep a different area infront of the house (aangan) for Prerna.
Her private rangoli, it was very cute. She was very young.
Aai would arrange a small separate rangoli making kit for her, she would be very particular about the colors.

Little hands, big powers! ✨

I moved to Mumbai for engineering in 2010 and I would not come back home for Diwali for the next 4 years. Diwali was just before the engineering end semester exam and I would use the vacation days to study in hostel.

So Prerna eventually took over the responsibility of the Diwali rangoli. Trust me it was a very big deal.
Prerna started with her ‘Main Diwali Rangoli’ when she was only about 10 years old and of course she did an excellent job every year!

I don’t know how she learned and when she learned. I didn’t teach her nor did anyone else in the family.
She learned by just observing, she would look up designs and re-create them on her own.

She would be very excited about her Diwali rangoli. Her task list would be to –
– Do the research before hand and finalise the design.
– Make sure to start in time to complete before the Lakshmi Puja.
– Make sure nobody accidentally stepped over or runied the rangoli even slightly.

Prerna would ask everyone at home to checkout the Rangoli once it was done.
She would make sure everyone saw it before the Puja no matter how busy they were.
We all absolultely adored the rangolis and the artist both. They spread colors, joy, love and light to everyone around.