Hello, I’m Padma

I live in Chennai, and every morning before the street wakes I draw a kolam in rice flour on my doorstep. My mother did it, and her mother. I have been drawing at this step for thirty-four years, and no two mornings have been the same.

The letters follow the year. Each month there is a pattern, drawn step by step, and the festival that belongs to it, from Pongal in January to the dawn kolams of Margazhi in December. I teach the practice, patiently, and I leave the rest to you.