As I was coming up the stairs to my apartment, I saw my neighbor creating a rather large kolam. Asking what the special occasion was, she told me that today was the Karthigai Deepam, a festival of lights celebrated in the Tamil month of Karthigai. In some households, the number of lamps lit are double the amount from the festival of Diwali, with the number of lamps doubled each day until Karthigai Deepam. Unlike Diwali which is celebrated throughout India, Karthigai Deepam is uniquely Tamilian.
After my neighbor deftly transformed the dotted grid of 8 points across on each edge of the hexagonal design and 15 points in the middle using fine rice flour, she placed five small oil lamps on the design. Because the family was in mourning (he
r father-in-law passed away one year ago), the design wasn’t as large as it normally would have been. In villages, she explained, the creation of the kolams becomes quite an affair, with a sense of competition to see who can create the largest or intricate kolam.Invited inside her apartment, she gave me a sweet bowl of rice (which looked like Rice Crispies) cooked in jaggery (unrefined sugar made from the sap of palm trees) and shredded coconut. As I enjoyed the sweet treat, she turned on the TV, on which a live special celebration in Thiruvannamalai was taking place. As I had visited this holy place this August, I was particularly fascinated by how the huge temple grounds had been transformed into a near carnival
-type atmosphere, illuminated with strings of white lights, fireworks, and mobs of people. My neighbor recalled the time she went to the event, uncomfortable with the sheer number of people. This year security was tighter, in light of the recent events in Mumbai. On the zenith of the hill I had ascended a few months earlier, a large torch was lit. Here it is believed that Shiva’s jothi (light of fire form that Shiva assumed) is visible on this night.
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