Deepavali and family: Spreading the festive joy

Five-year-old Vaishnavi Ira admires a beautiful kolam as her parents Veitha Sangari Ponnasammy (left) and Sasitharan Batu Mele look on. Photos: The Star/Izzrafiq Alias

Veitha Sangari Ponnasammy is certainly in a cheery Deepavali mood. When we met recently at her home in Shah Alam, Selangor, she was intricately outlining geometrical line drawings of a kolam, and arranging diyas (clay oil lamps) surrounding a kuthu vilaku (brass oil lamp).

“It’s part of our family tradition to decorate the kolam using rice grains and rice flour in our porch during Deepavali. It is believed rice flour – eaten by birds and insects – symbolises reverence for all life. It is also a sign of invitation to welcome guests into our home, most of all Goddess Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity,” says Veitha, 33, a business development manager, as she uniformly drops rice grains through her thumb and index finger to form a rangoli (an Indian traditional art form) motif around the kolam.