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

Gayathri Shankarnarayan with students from Japan at her home in CIT Colony

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.

A margazhi kolam

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.

Kolam is essentially about connecting dots, and it helps in therapy by encouraging calmness and creativity in creating patterns, she explains. Ramdev from Bharatiya Rangavali guided her through this training.

Marriage brought her to the city and she pursued a BA degree in music integrated with kolam. “I did all three degrees through correspondence while managing my responsibilities as a homemaker caring for my two chidlren and my in-laws. My study time would be from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., during which I would practise my songs and kolam patterns. It was a huge challenge, but I had the full support of my family, especially my husband,” she shares.

Receiving the Arivu Kalanjiyam Award from the dignitaries

Musicologists S.A.K. Durga encouraged her to pursue PhD, which she completed in 2012.

In 2008, she began teaching Carnatic music classes via Skype, with many of her students coming from the United Kingdom., the United States and Japan. She also conducts offline classes.

Her lessons are structured into three parts: the first focuses on the basics of Sa Ri Ga Ma, the second on small bhajans, and the third on Sanskrit slokas and bhajans. For her international students, she teaches Vishnu Sahasranama and Sanskrit. Upon completing these sessions, students receive a special gift — a kolam session, where she introduces them to basic kolam patterns.

In 2017, she applied for a Junior Fellowship award from the Ministry of Culture to study folk music in Carnatic music. Alongside this, she also completed her foundation in kolam.

In 2020, her work was featured in the invitation for the US Consulate’s Thanksgiving Event, a recognition she considers a prestigious milestone.

In addition to this, she has visited international institutions such as SPIC MACAY, a university in Berkeley, and Japan to teach kolam. She now has a group of students from Japan who regularly visit her home to learn kolam. Some of her famous works include the Chess Kolam, Lunar Kolam, Chandrayaan 3 Kolam, and Cast Your Vote Kolam. With the Margazhi season approaching, she is preparing to create kolam designs for each verse from the Thiruppavai. “I prefer using rice flour over colour as it serves as food for small insects, bending to create a kolam is a way of showing respect to Mother Earth,” she adds.

Gayathri can be reached at 98401 18711.