Kolam by Sudha Balaji

Simple kite rangoli designs for Sankranti | Side designs for Diwali rangoli  These are simple border designs drawn on either side of a kolam rangoli.  We can draw them independently also as separate rangolis.  Since they represent simple kite patterns we can draw them for that theme also. These borders can be used to decorate our colourful Diwali rangoli or Varalakshmi Vratham mantap. I have stopped at the white rangoli pattern.  We can  add colours or we can draw the whole design in colours.  The pictures show  step by step images. The only tricks in drawing this rangoli is the straight parallel lines and connecting curved lines should be perfect.  Drawing curved lines should be done in a single  stroke so that we get a smooth finish.  If we use many small line segments the thickness will vary and the joints are also visible.  The long curved line being drawn in a single stroke. The next curved line, long one being drawn in a single stroke. We may have to adjust

Diwali recipes and snacks - aval mixture or poha mixture |  Chivda  Actually a simple recipe for Deepavali savoury or as a simple evening snack when we have guests.  It is liked by kids and  adults alike.  It has one more  strange use in our family.  It is a side dish for sambar rice or rasam rice.   Also called chivda or chivda namkeen recipe in Hindi and Marathi.  This I learnt from one of my sisters and she lives in Mumbai.  . Ingredients Poha, peanuts, fried gram dhal, desiccated coconut in pieces, curry leaves, oil. mustard, green chilles, asafoetida, turmeric powder  Let us take  thin flattened rice or poha also called Aval in Tamil  in a big cup as shown For this big cup we need one cup each of peanuts, fried gram dhal and dry coconut pieces., some cashews and curry leaves. For species we should add mustard, turmeric powder and hing. Place a vessel on a stove and dry roast the poha till it becomes crisp Add three spoons of oil and fry peanuts. The knob of stove

Quick and easy sweet appam This appam is prepared for Krishna Janmashtami as an offering or neivedyam to Lord Krishna in our family circles.. Usually prepared with jaggery,  I have done with sugar to make it easy to justify the title ! We need, one cup boiled milk, one cup sugar , one cup maida and cardamom seeds or elakkai powder . Mix all the three , sugar, maida in milk.  Wait for around 10 minutes so that the sugar is completely dissolved in  milk. Add cardamom powder ,  the image below shows what is correct viscosity of the batter to get perfect appams. Heat the stove > When oil is hot turn the knob on the stove to sim position the batter is poured in hot oil using a ladle or spoon.   When  the appam becomes brown turn to the other side .  This ensures that it gets cooked evenly and completely. One important point to be noted is that we should  fry the appam one by one otherwise they will stick together in the oil This  can also be a easy evening snack when guests ar

Decoration idea for festivals like  Ugadi , Varamahalakshmi Habba  Drawing double line kolam where the lines are distinctly visible comes with practice.  Drawing two lines of different colours simultaneously without the colours overlapping and smudging needs lots of concentration and confidence and these come with practice.   So I have placed this kolam in the category of a difficult kolam .  This star kolam also is a difficult design though small we need loads of concentration .  No wonder some say that drawing kolams is like meditation.  After drawing the star and the six lines near the six edges connecting the lines with more  lines as shown in the steps is tricky and we are likely to miss occasionally.  So this design drawn with double line , double colour may be categorised as a very difficult kolam design.   These challenging kolam can also  be drawn  before the golu for Navrathri .  I have made it more difficult by drawing rangoli on water with this technique                

This very simple rangoli reminds us of a game we used to play during summer holidays . One person draws a line connecting two dots ,  the other person does the same anywhere on the dot grid.  It continues till all the lines are converted into boxes . Whoever completed one box wrote his name or initial inside .  After completing the game we used to count to find out who had more boxes and that person won.   We used to repeat this game in a notebook endlessly.  Those were the days without mobile phones.   We had our old notebooks called "rough note books " or the incomplete note books that were used for this game.  Using a pen or pencil we used to spend afternoons playing this indoor games till the evening.  The dot pattern is 16 dots 2 rows then 14 to 2 on either side. The design is created with only straight lines connecting the dots The outermost dots are connected with step like formation The next layer of dots are connected The centre simple pattern is as

Kolam tips Tamil | Simple kolam tips  The video below is from my YouTube Channel Rangolisansdots.  Some of the tricks and tips I follow for my Deepavali and Pongal kolam are given .  The subtitles are in English  The link for the video is 👉  tips for beautiful kolam in Tamil       What is the information available in the video How to prepare kola podi for getting fine lines For three parts kola podi mix one part rice flour.  Sieve the kola maavu first .  Mix both well you will get very nice lines. How to place dots The quantity of kola podi taken should be minimum to get perfect dots.  If you take more podi the dots lose shape. For a 7 to 4 dot grid place the centre row of dots first and then the pulli above and below to ensure uniformity.  If you start from the top the dot grid may not be straight . This is more evident when  bigger the dot patterns are used. How to draw thin lines in kolam Take as little kola podi as possible only then  thin lines are easy to draw. How to draw

The harvest festival Pongal is when in the villages ,  sweet Pongal is made with freshly harvested rice, jaggery .  It is celebrated with great pomp and splendour.  A new Pot is purchased painted with designs .  Sweet Pongal is prepared and offered to the Sun God as a mark of respect and gratitude for helping the farmers in agriculture. Two fully grown sugar cane are also offered.  Kolam  are drawn in the area and at the entrance of the house also with generous use of colours  When the sweet Pongal starts to overflow everyone around shouts "Pongalo Pongal".  There is joy and happiness all around. Pongal panai kolam with dots step by step images | chukki rangoli The dot grid used is 11 by 6 Draw lotuses all around as shown in the images below Connect the lotus with petals or leaves Convert the remaining dots at the top into petals Now it appears like a crown of flowers when viewed from the top ! Using the dots at the centre, draw a Pongal pot