Drawing Mandala during lockdown

For the creatively talented among us, being quarantined spells an opportunity to focus on creating the best.

Meet 46-year-old Ramya Sangameshwar hailing from Hyderabad, who has found a wonderful way to engage herself during this lockdown. As a homemaker and mother, she is always busy with the household chores. She now wishes to explore herself and rediscover her creative talent in doing Mandala artworks.

Ramya was always fascinated with the beautiful intricate patterns of Mandala art. She says, "I saw a Mandala drawing done by a friend and got inspired by it. Then I wished to try it out. At first I hesitated and almost gave up, but then my daughter encouraged me to give it a shot. It seemed like I was rediscovering myself after many years. It gave me immense pleasure and joy and hence I continued drawing."

She believes that this pandemic is the best time to follow your passions that have been unexplored in day to day busy life. While complained about boredom in this lockdown period, Ramya used the time to create Mandala art products. "All this was possible only because of her love for art," she says.

In April, she says she started doing this Mandala art as an hobby simply because she enjoys doing it and finds peace in it. For drawing these, she refers to beautiful designs that she finds on the internet or those made by her friends and attempts to draw them and modify it a little.

Though she is not specialised in this art, she believes that she is an amateur who just started to discover the joy of doing Mandala art. With every drawing of hers, she finds some improvement from the previous ones, as she tries out more complex and intricate designs.

One does not have to be an artist to draw Mandala art. All you need is interest and patience.

However, when she started drawing the mandala art during the lockdown, she did not have access to special art supplies. She mainly used the tools that were available at her home itself, such as markers, sketch pens and gel pens. She uses the colour black more significantly.

"Mandala is all about circles, and Mandala also means 'Circle'. It involves a lot of circles and other patterns which are symmetrical. They are pleasing and calming to the eye. Drawing Mandala art requires a lot of focus and mindfulness. It involves being conscious and awareness about every pattern. Drawing symmetrical designs is rhythmic and is thus very much like a form of meditation," adds Ramya.

Mandala art can be a huge stress buster as it makes you focus on the present and forget the anxieties of the past and future. It can be therapeutic in many ways as it fills the mind with rhythmic, positive thoughts.

Most of the mandala patterns and designs that are popular in the modern world trace their roots back to the Tibetan Buddhist cultures. Mandalas are a tool to view the spiritual universe and represent the cycle of occurrence, reoccurrence and existence.

She started feeling a little more confident once she started drawing. After receiving encouragement and praise from family and friends for her art, she is more motivated to draw. After every art piece of hers, she feels more fulfilled, happy and enjoys every moment of it.