My interpretation of tradition

For those of you who are guessing, that modern art has become indeed very modern, lemme eplain...

This was the diagram that i created for my niece's birth ceremony (called chhatti). My niece (cousin brother's daughter) born on the 18th of April, had to have a birth ceremony done to her. To mark the birth of a child, the child's paternal aunt is suppose to make this masterpiece and apply kohl to the new born. For the same purpose I flew into Bangalore last week and did the needful. This was indeed my maiden experience at doing this ceremony, and believe me I was very excited about both the application of kohl, and the creation of this piece of art (which is very evident from the fact that i have decided to dedicate a post to it).
For those of you (and I guess that's most of you) who dont understand the gibberish smeared on the yellow chart paper, let me bridge the gap between the traditional drawing requirements and my artistic talents.
To begin with, the borders' zigzag lines are nothing more than aesthetic designs. They have no significance whatsoever, they are just meant to beautify this piece of art, and mitigate the meaning engraved in it(not intentional though). Beginning with the distorted H like things on the top. They are seven in number, and are supposedly Siva mai's 7 houses (now please dont ask me what that means, i have no clue!!). I did try to find out who this siva mai was, whose houses i have been bestowed to architect. But i am sorry, i didnot get any conclusive answers from the elders around me who were chaperoning me to create this. Some hints that did come up were, that she is Lord Siva's mother, or may be Godess Parvati (Lord Siva's wife)...nobody could say for sure.
In the next line, there are a series of things, to begin with there is the moon & the sun (which is diagramatically not so difficult to decipher). The reason for making these is that it conveys that we pray to God that the light of the sun & moon always illuminate the child's future.
Shifting a little down from the line, what I made was a lipstick. Being a female child, all necessary accessories that she may need in the future are drawn, and God is prayed to make them available to her. Now I really wonder whether this Godess really knows what a lipstick is, and whether my drawing conveyed the exact message. If it didnt then i hope she is reading this post ;)
Anyways, even if she is not reading this, the girl may end up having ample lipsticks(its common these days!!), which can help her develop into a hot babe. Vaise I some times wonder if this prayer of making lipsticks available in order to make girl child babe types really works. What makes me doubt it is that, even my mom must have had this diagram made from my paternal aunt...then how come i never became the hot babe.....?????
Coming back to the series of items in the long line, the next is a vermillian case (sindhauda, as we call it), it is suppose to be a storage case of vermillion, which is suppose to be the most important accessory of a married Indian woman. Makes sense, to pray to God to make this available to the girl in the future.
Next, what looks like a sharp-toothed lethal weapon, is actually a comb. Again an accessory. Infact this time a unisex accessory, though more frequently and needfully used by girls.
Next, is an isometric view of a cuboid, with some ray-like things emanating from it. This actually is a mirror. I could have well put that as a question in paanchvi pass se tez, and had the contestant out of the competition!! But come to think of it, a mirror is difficult to depict diagramatically, lest it is concave or convex, and u have to draw some ray diagrams associated with it.
Right below the mirror is a palanquin (doli), which is usually associated with a girl's wedding in India.
Right of the mirror, is a kohl case (kajrauti, as they call it). Kohl is a dual purposed accessory for a girl in the Indian society. Not only does it beautify one's eyes, it also protects one from evil eyes. But i really wonder how many girls in our generation would use a kajrauti like that for accesorizing themselves with kohl.
The next is a flower, which most women like, so assuming the new born will have future liking for it, it is there.
The last two items are beetle leaf (paan)& supari. Now thats pretty contraversial. I mean, parents dont really want to push their kids towards any habit forming edibles. Having drawn this is like an open invitation to the new born to adopt habits of the nature of consuming tobacco, smoking, drinking etc. Anyway, why it is there is because a beetle leaf is considered very auspicious in hinduism. So hopefully if we manage to convey the message in the latter format, the child may avoid habit forming substances like beetle leaves.
Since I had ample blank space below these items i just made a garland, and i guess that did help beautify the whole chart.
All in all, I thought it was a very stupid exercise to do. Though I thank my niece for coming into this world and giving me the joy, along with the experience of something as stupid as this!!