Join the dots with Chennai’s “Kolam Gayathri”

Gayathri Shankarnarayan has created a body of work promoting kolam among children with special needs and friends living abroad

The entrance of Gayathri Shankarnarayan’s house at Fifth Cross Street in CIT Colony is incomplete if you do not see an elaborate kolam design. Sometimes, the 57-year-old is seen humming melodious tunes while doing the white lacy drawings. Fondly known as “Kolam Gayathri” in her neighbourhood, this kolam artist with a Ph.D. in music has been on a roll.

On November 8, she was honoured with the Arivu Kalanjiyam Award by VIT Chancellor G. Vishwanathan and High Court Judge A.A. Nakkiran, which she considers as her most prestigious award. On November 10, she received the Kalaam Nambikkai Virudhu from food writer and TV show chef Mallika Badrinath (the award is also known as Star Icon of India).

Kolam is like a life cycle for Gayathri. “When created, it symbolises birth, it matures as the day progresses, and it dies when cleaned for the next design,” she says.

Fascination for these lacy designs with rice flour started when she was a school student. She would take longer routes to school, pausing to admire the kolams outside each house in her neighbourhood in Sengottai.

“I developed my love for kolam by watching my mother create those intricate designs,” she says. “I attended a government school, where I had eight subjects and each notebook would be filled halfway with kolam drawings. My teachers would scold me but it still feels nostalgic when I reflect on those times. My mother tells me that when I was five, I used to draw kolams at our veranda.”

Her fondest childhood memories are of Margazhi, when neighbours would eagerly plan the kolams that would decorate each house the next day.

She later trained to teach kolam to children with autism during her degree days. “At that time, I knew little about psychology, but through the training, I realised how kolam could serve as therapy for children with special needs,” says Gayathri who has worked with Lotus Foundation to teach children on the spectrum.