Dot matrix

This post is not about dot matrix printers. It is about the 'kolams'that are drawn in front of households in tamil nadu or rangolis as they are called in other parts of the country. There are several varieties of kolams and the 'pulli' kolam used to be particularly mind boggling.And the dots are joined together in a matrix, hence the terminology 'dot matrix' to depict our good old kolams.
Community newspapers have been spearheading 'kolam drawing competitions' in the neighbourhood areas. Usually they are the kolams which rely heavily on use of colour.Few contestants resort to the dot matrix, as it does not lend itself to many innovative designs by the artist.A recent rangoli contest was open to all irrespective of age or gender and the sponsors were disappointed that not a single male candidate turned up.Their surprise it seems stems from the fact that while typical female bastions of cooking, sewing, washing do have male participants, why not for an artistic endeavour?
I remember a friend who remarked that men will attempt to do any job as long as it gets paid; and when there is a job which does not get paid then it gets assigned to a woman. Hence there are male cooks, male washermen and men tailors;all of them take it as job and get paid for doing the same. But where these jobs have to be done for free(read in a household) then it is the woman who is best at it!
Now, coming back to the main subject of kolams;It is practised quite extensively in tamil nadu.Every festival sees the frontyard of every household decorated with large rangolis with or without dot, with or without colours.Pongal celebrations witnessed a riot of colour in our neighbourhood with larger and larger beautiful designs adorning the streets.I recall the words of a colleague from the north who felt south indians are still preserving Indian culture; when i quipped her why does she say so; she immediately remarked about the rangolis in front of every house.
I know a friend whose mother(well past 80 years)is into drawing kolams in her spare time.Like a school kid she has a stack of 40 page unruled notebooks with her. she draws rangolis in that notebook and readily gives it to any visitor to their house. It is her souveneir to the modern woman!Till the net comes out with rangoli patterns, her simple drawings will elicit appreciation.
When we were children, mother had taught us standard kolam patterns(part of culture training in households)and we had daily practice sessions in the frontyard of our house. A cousin used to be particularly innovative and i used to unabashedly copy her patterns, of course after a gap of a few days!One aunt used to be particularly good in the dot matrix variety and we used to look in awe as a grand pattern will slowly evolve. We used to waste many a paper trying to copy those intricate matrices;till we declared that she was beyond compare!Festival days used to be special as the rangoli patterns have to be particularly large, and depicting the essense of then festival.
When we were in MCC campus, we had a professor of statistics as our neighbour. He used to be fascinated with the kolam patterns , so much so that he spearheaded a new branch of study and research titled 'automata theory'
oh for days of stressfree mornings and drawing of kolams for hours on end!