Strangers Nos. 17 and 18

This is Indriani and Suttimetta. In India, it is a common practice for women to get up early in the morning, sweep and wet the pavement in front of their homes, and then, using rice flour (or chalk), create a design called a kolam. They are generally all different, usually symmetrical, and as far as I can tell, each woman creates roughly the same design every day, though I have observed fancy variants using colored rice flour on special occasions.

The designs for the kolams are often handed down from one generation of women to the next. I came upon Indriani teaching her granddaughter – Suttimetta’s older sister – how to make the kolams, but once I started talking to them, the older sister went inside.