In this story of community, set in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India, everybody in Keshav’s neighbourhood turns benefactor by adding to his kolam (a pattern drawn in front of a house, typically with rice flour) and creating a wondrous design at the end of it.

The book begins with a boy named Keshav and his mother Sarasa, who is well-known and well-liked for the deftness of her kolam. One day, when she falls unwell, Keshav takes it upon himself to make a start. He draws a small dot with a circle around it. He goes to bed; little does he know that the neighbourhood is up for some time after.

Rani, who was closing her flower shop across the street from his house, thought she could add a bit to the kolam. She creates a curly pattern of squiggly lines around a set of dots, next to Keshav’s dot. This is followed by an addition from the hand of the municipal sweeper (whose name we don’t catch), succeeded by an intervention from their neighbour Alamelu mami, concluding with a final flourish by Gopal the milkman early in the morning.

When Keshav wakes up, his eyes light upon the grandest surprise!

Brought to life with Shobha Viswanath’s words and Leeza John’s illustrations, the many details that capture aspects of life in Tamil Nadu are truly heartwarming—from the Tamil signage on shopfronts, the spines of books, the architecture of the traditional houses on the street where Keshav lives, to the manja pai (yellow bags) that are given to visitors as return-favours at weddings.

Do look out for the mini-narrative of the pigeon-cat-dog chase as the pages turn, too.

The note at the end of Keshav’s Kolam speaks about how the kolam takes on different forms across India, the significance it holds in south Indian tradition, and lists the many forms that it takes in the hands of a skilled artiste.

Keshav’s Kolam
Written by Shobha Viswanath
Illustrated by Leeza John
ISBN: 9789391790158
Publisher: Karadi Tales

You can buy a copy here.

Karthika Gopalakrishnan is the Head of Reading at Neev Academy, Bangalore, and the Director of the Neev Literature Festival. In the past, she has worked as a children’s book writer, editor, and content curator at Multistory Learning which ran a reading program for schools across south India. Prior to this, Karthika was a full-time print journalist with two national dailies. Her Twitter handle is g_karthika.