Of Indian Men and Kolam
I said that putting rice flour kolam every morning is just extra work for Indian women—if the purpose of kolam is just feeding the birds, then we can just scatter raw rice for them. We can keep kolam as a cultural art rather than a cultural imposition for Indian women—one they must do daily as though they don’t have enough work. Then came the comment about me being Malaysian and how no one is forcing Indian women to put kolam daily, unlike my dad who is a “lusu ku,” forcing me to put kolam daily. Apparently, Malaysian Indians are the people who force women to put kolam daily unlike Indians. So, I should take my advice to the kuthiyans in Malaysia, it seems. The frequency of kolam in some Malaysian Indian households is every Saturday. That too, only if someone in the house is interested in the artform. Men do it too and we use chalk. The kolam lasts a whole week and is put within the house's wall compound. For the birds, we still scatter raw rice. Rare pic of a ...