HIS colourful rangoli are about the only things that can compete with Mohan Maruthamutu’s dazzling smile. Just like his jovial and energetic nature, Mohan’s vividly hued rangolis pretty much reflect the Deepavali mood. This 30-year-old’s artful rice grain scatterings are currently on display on the floors of Sogo, Mid Valley and other well-known shopping complexes and hotels in the city.
Yet, Mohan’s journey in life has not been an easy one. Having stopped school at age 12 due to lack of finances, the sixth child of seven siblings shares one of the most distinct memories in his teenage years. It was that of experiencing a total feeling of calm as he sat on a temple floor to arrange stray turmeric-dyed rice grains that had fallen of an altar.
“You must understand that I did not purposely seek to become a rangoli artist. It came to me. There I was, sitting on the floor and seeing the rice grains, my hand just reached out to them.
Artistic mastery: Mohan Maruthamutu creates his colourful rangoli without any chalk markings “There was no conscious planning on my part when I formed those rice grains into patterns. Now that I recall, it is rather uncanny how I took to rangoli art,” reveals Mohan who speaks Tamil and fluent Bahasa Malaysia.
Though it did not cross his mind then, the added years of maturity have convinced Mohan that divine intervention bestowed upon him the blessing of artistic skill. This is evident because he finds it very hard to draw images of any kind with a pencil and paper but when it comes to making rangoli of peacocks, lotuses and other intricate free-form patterns, it is a different matter altogether.
“All my rangoli patterns are done freehand. I do not need chalk markings,” he says.
The interest towards rangoli art could not have come at a timelier moment as Mohan, who was then 15, was still trying to come to terms with his father’s death.
Mohan’s father, a City Hall gardener, died after falling from a flight of stairs. His mother, a cleaner, was left to fend for the family and for some time, Mohan and his siblings were on the verge of poverty.
Centre of attention: The main subject of a rangoli is usually set in the middle. This one has a lotus motif. It was during those difficult years that Mohan, a former pupil of the Cheras Tamil School, used the rangoli as a form of expression.
“Rangoli drawing absorbs you entirely. There is no place in your mind for other thoughts because you need to focus your concentration on forming the patterns. Interestingly, a rangoli may have a beginning but there is no ending. You could continue with one pattern after another for the same circle. The only constraint will perhaps be space or until you run out of rice grains,” says Mohan.
Naturally, Mohan’s talents as a rangoli artist soon caught the attention of the temple’s devotees. At the age of 16, Mohan got his first paid commission to do a peacock rangoli for his friend’s brother’s wedding. From then on, his reputation grew by word of mouth.
As to whether rangoli are magical in nature, Mohan prefers to see them as symbols of impermanence and illusion.
He has heard the older generation proclaiming that rangoli can prevent evil spirits from entering the household, but Mohan personally opines that rangoli possess the power to bring joy.
He believes that due to their fragile nature, rangoli are a metaphoric representation that sees each person and physical object from the perspective of eternity as a brief, disturbed drop of water in a vast ocean.
Technique is everything: The trick is to allow the grains to trickle from the palm in a smooth flow. Reflecting on his own personal experience, Mohan, who works as a dispatch rider for a motor spare parts shop, sees this in his own life.
Though life has been hard, the present is a far cry from his poverty-stricken teenage years and today, this dutiful son can afford to tell his mother, Kalimah, 57, to rest. Mohan is also the proud owner of a new home.
His only concern at the moment is his mother’s heart condition. She had to undergo an angioplasty recently. Still, Mohan, who has been a vegetarian for the past 13 years, is confident that she will have many happy years to come.
Having the advantage of youth, Mohan is naturally enthusiastic about his future as a rangoli artist.
“I dream of starting a company specialising in rangoli creation. The only thing is to lay down a standard procedure of operation so that quality is preserved and that is something that I will have to work out,” he says.
To deepen his knowledge of the art, he is planning a trip to India for an intensive rangoli course.
“Like a painting, rangoli drawings require that the artist learn the finer points of shading, texturing and toning. My goal is to achieve a realistic image of people with the rangoli method of rice scattering,” he explains.
Mohan’s advice to the beginner is to adopt the correct hand position, which is to shape it like a funnel so that the rice grains can trickle from the palm.
The rice grains, he says, can be coloured by soaking them into a solution of poster paints or food dyes.
Doing the proper rangoli can also be an easy affair, he assures. One method is to lay a stencil on the floor and then follow the lines, filling in the spaces as you would with a colouring book. He also recommends applying glue to a surface beforehand. This is the fastest way to make a rangoli and he has seen some novices pour a surplus of rice on top of the pattern before sweeping the extra grains away, he says.
For this Deepavali, Mohan has four stencils for our readers. Photocopy to enlarge and have fun making them.
> Mohan can be reached at 016-6176765
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