Rangoli

    On the night of the Indian holiday Diwali, festival of lights, Nidhi taught me to make a Rangoli, often know as a Mandala. We drew out the lines, then sprinkled colored rice and semolina flour mixed with finely powdered dye inside the pattern to create what became a beautiful flowerlike design. We lined it with marigolds and lit candles around it that night and in the morning it was washed away, as mandalas always are, a tribute to impermanence and non-attachement.