Happy Tamil Year

மன்மத ஆண்டின் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள். இந்த ஆண்டு முழுவதும் உங்கள் மனங்களிலும் இல்லங்களிலும் மகிழ்ச்சி பொங்கி வழியட்டும்

Today is the first day of Tamil calender. "Chithirai thirunaal", Chithirai the first month in the tamil calender. The name of this year is "Manmatha", Its the 29th year of 60 years cycle. There are many references in the Tamil literature for the Tamil new year which starts om 14th April, some literatures date back to 3rd century. On this day we start we start our day with prayers getting blessing from elders and later a full course lunch with the family.

I prepare an elaborate meal with Vadai as a starter, minumum two vegetable curry as side dish, sambar, rasam, appalam, buttermilk and payasam as the show stopper. I love to eat my meal served on a banana leaf. The aroma from the banana arises when the piping hot rice is placed..

For this occasion I made this sikku kolam. Tried my best to present in my style, adding extra elements around the kolam.

The dot pattern - 15 dots to 1 dot in descending order placed in straight pattern

I always choose the bottom most dot as the start point for all kolams, an easy way to start. Fix the bottom most dot as (0,0) then draw a chuzhi (a round) around the dot with the coordinate (1,1). Now extend the line to (0,3) and turn the line towards the (1,3) point. Draw the line to (2,2) to form a chuzhi and another chuzhi (4,3). This is the basic formation of this kolam. Finish drawing the outer strand.

After drawing the outer strand the remaining dots are joined together by drawing squares connecting 4 dots at a time.

Now the extensions are drawn to the main kolam and later with colours.