The 125 ft-long rangoli that greeted visitors at BF Park on Tuesday night was the creation of a 44-year-old mother from Maharashtra.
Madhuri Satish Suda had never made a rangoli more than the traditional 2ftx2ft ones seen in homes till she entered a contest well after her marriage. But she has to her name rangolis that are of record proportions, compared to which the Salt Lake one must have been a walk in the park for her.
On November 11, 2011, she created one spread over 1,01,111 sq ft in her hometown Amravati. “It had 11 messages on issues like save the girl child, save water, eye and blood donation.”
If that was the biggest, the next year, on December 12, she created the longest — all of 59,000 sq ft. “Both took me nine and half hours,” she says.
In 2013, she incorporated live action in a programme she held in December called Dance with Rangoli. “I am a dancer too. I have won a state-level competition for mothers. Geetaji (Bollywood choreographer Geeta Kapoor) handed me the prize.”
“My father used to make rangolis at home. I was so interested that by the time I was in Class II, I had learnt enough to take over from him. But it wasn’t before my marriage that I took this up seriously,” said the slightly built woman with a beaming smile.
It all started when she competed in a district-level contest in Vidarbha in 2001 where she beat 600-odd participants to the prize. What tipped the scale in her favour was her idea to incorporate a message on pulse polio immunisation through the medium. “If writers can give out messages through their work, why can’t I?”
Such was her talent that in 2003 she won about 200 prizes in a calendar year. “After that, people told me not to compete any more.”
Since then, she has been setting the bar higher and higher for herself to cross. When she is not creating records, Madhuri judges contests and holds workshops across the country. “I was in Calcutta last year for one in Burrabazar.”
Other than rangoli, Madhuri is also into shaping clay images, creating murals and ceramic artwork, as well as make-up. “When we brought her home, I had no idea our bahu was so talented,” said father-in-law Jagadish Suda, who accompanied her.
Her husband used to help her earlier. Since he died two years ago, daughter Pragati has stepped up. She is now in Class IX and already a star in school because of her rangoli.
If Madhuri has one dream it is to do rangoli in a stadium. “Any stadium where Sachin Tendulkar has played would do,” she smiles.
