JOIN USHomemaker uses rangoli to make learning attractive
For 60-year-old columnist Kusum, rangoli isn’t restricted to pujas. “They have a far wider scope,” she believes.
The homemaker has come up with rangoli patterns using alphabets and numerals with a motive to teach children in a fun manner.
Kusum, who is also a veena player, began her artwork in 2016. She has so far come up with more than 400 designs.
She has always been an admirer of the rangoli designs, but her interest spiked when her mother asked her to continue the tradition of drawing rangoli in front of their ‘tulasi brindavana’; her mother is her inspiration.
“The idea of making these patterns using numerals and alphabets hit me while I was in the middle of another regular rangoli pattern,” she says.
Through these designs, she hopes to kindle children’s sense of creativity. “The toddlers will easily identify the colours and at the same time learn the letters. Colourful drawing sheets of alphabets and numerals in pictorial form will have a positive impact on their learning habits,” she opines. Her ideas are original. “I do not like taking ideas from the Internet. It is not ours if we source it from elsewhere,” she adds.
Kusum does not intend to publish her artworks on any social media platform. She instead is coming up with a book consisting of all her designs.
“Parents and children can keep my designs as a reference and come up with their own. If the children are first introduced to the pictorial charts, the usage of the regular charts will be easy to teach,” she adds. Thick drawing sheets, decorative stickers of the alphabets and numerical sheets are all that a child requires to create these Rangoli designs on their own, according to Kusum.
“Children suffering from dyslexia and colour blindness also find these alphabets and numerals in rangoli pattern charts very helpful,” she says.
She can come up with two to three designs per day. “It all depends on our interests. If I am in a good mood, I can create three-four designs at a stretch,” she adds.
Kusum has now come up with Rangoli designs using alphabets and numerals in various forms, be it school charts, T-shirts, clay models, coffee mugs, bookmarks, greeting cards and more.
Her creativity knows no bounds. “I have done my part of work. I am now waiting for my book to come out. I will be happy to help the kids in the learning process,” she said, when asked about her further plans. Kusum also reveals that her family encouraged her to take up this initiative and that without their support, she would not even have attempted this.