How to win women's hearts

Swastika ashoka chakra looks very nice.
I have to catch up with your questions (my Read me post), and other posts mOhanaji, I plan to do so in the weekend (at the moment I'm just acknowledging it quickly).

mOhanaji .. my views..... just for fun... & am sorry for this story !!!!!!! All ladies pl excuse me..
Mr. Peter was fishing near the sea. Suddenly, a goldfish was caught in the hook. The fish granted a boon to Peter in order to be left unhurt. Peter asked, "Can you build a flyover across the Atlantic connecting UK and USA? It will be of immense help to meet my daughter quite often." The goldfish pondered over this for a moment and replied, "It will be quite difficult, have you any other wish?" Peter then said, "Okay, can you tell me as how to understand a woman's heart?" The goldfish immediately replied, "Don't you have a simpler wish? Alright, how many lanes do you want for your highway across the Atlantic Ocean?" Peter was dumbstruck!

Thank you mOhanaji.

I’m going to try to answer to some of the questions that you had posed here, Mohanaji, and I’ll try to do that to the best of my ability, from what I know, and from what I’ve learned so far.

Your assumption about the general membership is correct, majority of the members are women. It is easy for me to answer some of the questions based on women, because I’m one of them. And some points that I mention, are going to be the obvious ones too.

Women like colors, and white is one of them. Women also pay attention to the themes, and the season, and they tend to look forward to the major festivals. This is because they are in charge, get to plan everything for the big day. They plan ahead with things like the color of the clothes they need to buy, the dishes they would like to make, and of course the home décor has always been the women’s domain, predominantly. Women like colors, provided it is presented in a neat and pleasing manner. And, we are also particular about the combinations. Not all combinations work. About your question about the rangoli in plate; it could’ve been seen as a permanent project, or maybe it was not considered as a rangoli since it was not done on the floor, like we usually do for Diwali. And we are talking about an entry for the Diwali rangoli contest, so, there is a basic assumption, or an understanding that the entry shown would consist of a rangoli done on the floor.

Let’s talk about the rangoli done with Kanakambarams and chrysanthemums; again, this has to do with the theme. The season was the Diwali season, the theme mentioned for the contest was Diwali. The rangoli in question looked like the onam-poo-rangoli. And, maybe, this didn’t score much because the style, the type of arrangement of flowers made it look Pookolam/pookalam meant for Onam. Women are particular about that, and so am I. Here is an example for the sake of correlation. You would hardly find a tamilian lady wearing a Kerala style saree, on Diwali. We may buy it in general, but, somehow the Kerala style saree would not fit into the theme of Diwali. Maybe the same applies to the rangoli meant for Diwali-decor too. I’ll be quick to add that, I love almost all unique things that represent Kerala, including the Athapoo/Pookalam.

Women like flowers, but they also know what flowers work best in any given occasion/situations. Here is another example; most south-indian women love to wear flowers in their hair. Flowers like Jasmine and Roses work well, and so do the Chrysanthemums and Kanakambarams. But, certain flowers are preferred over others, for some situations. For instance, when south Indian ladies attend marriages, they prefer wearing jasmine strands and maybe mix it up a little with some Kanakambarams. You wouldn’t find women who prefer mixing jasmine with chrysanthemums, not specially while attending ceremonies. And the single rose, is mainly worn by “younger” women/teens. That’s what I’ve heard on this matter.

Regarding the outpouring on the Ganesha rangoli; please see the rangoli, and it contains a clue as to how it might’ve garnered more views. And the previous formula wasn’t changed. We might tweak it a little in future, by making it a two step process or so, but more on that later.

Coming to your final question - how to attract women's hearts so that more women are tempted to view a rangOli and vote for it. Here is my take on it: Make a rangoli which fits into the theme. If the contest is for Pongal, you might want to include elements that represent Pongal, if the contest is for Diwali, the obvious objects may be things like lamps, and then you have the universal elements like flowers and beautiful birds like peacocks; elements that naturally evoke feelings of beauty in one’s mind, no matter what colors are chosen, and they could be used in all occasions. The design should be well defined with steady bright strokes that give off a crisp look. If colored, it should contain colors that work well together, planned out in paper in advance, so you know how it might turn out. Women also look at the effort factor. If the rangoli is an elaborate one, done painstakingly over hours, then it is obvious by the looks of it. People notice details and gauge, even if it is not mentioned in the description.

Women give more importance to the novelty of a design. If the design is a familiar one, then women would want you to do something with it that makes it novel. Do something with it which is different, maybe experiment with unusual colors, do some extensive borders with, find a way to present it a bit different. It is not the maximum or the minimum usage of colors, but the beauty of the combination that counts. The finish should be beautiful. Plain looks don’t score well. Unfortunately, the novel factor wins over the holy looks too. Holy might work well for festivals that are only spiritual, maybe Shivrathri, Kandashasti…and such. Again, I ‘m only writing what I’ve learnt/seen so far. Other women might have different ideas.

Speaking about seasonal representations, let’s talk about your beautiful pine cone entry, I know it is too late to talk about this, but nonetheless; I’m sorry you felt a bit sad about the count of votes. (Again, more on that later).Elements such as pine cones, corn, and squirrels are all fall related. Of course there are lamps too. My guess is; maybe, at another perspective, it comes across more as an American Fall celebration, and a little less as a Diwali rangoli? I’m not sure as to how many of our members living in India might be familiar with our American Fall theme objects. Maybe, the viewers expect a single main piece as a rangoli, instead of a collage type of a representation. Again, this is just my guess about all the different factors that you’ve talked about in your comment mohanaji, and I’m only one among many of those XX