Lata's blog

I just wanted all of you to know that I'll be taking a week's break (from today), and I'll catchup with all of you in a few days...

The voting for the Diwali Rangoli Contest is now over. We are busy tallying and tabulating the votes. The results will be announced on the 11th November 2008, 10:00am PST (11:30 PM Indian Standard Time). Thanks for your participation and patience.

Welcome to the 2nd annual Diwali Rangoli Contest. We have received 140 submissions from 87 members.

All the entries submitted for the contest have been assembled in this page here. The images are not grouped in any particular order.

To those contestants who had their signatures on their rangolis: We've removed the signatures from the images (very carefully) just for the time being, and would like you to know that after the voting is over, your images would be saved up in the gallery with your signatures intact. To keep the voting fair, the author of the rangoli is not shown. We will reveal the authors once the voting is complete.

Our contestants have shown great commitment in creating these beautiful rangolis. Each contestant has put his/her heart and soul in it, and we owe them all a fair voting. We would highly encourage everybody to browse through all the entries and vote for them. Click on a thumb to view the larger image of the rangoli. Right below the large image view, you will find a five star voting widget. Vote for the rangoli by clicking on the stars.

The vote for a rangoli is based on a scale of 1 to 5 stars; 5 stars being the "most beautiful" and 1 being "better luck next time!". The final tally of the votes would take into account the number of votes, as well as the no of stars each rangoli gets. Your vote should register immediately. The polls will be open for 3 days. One of our members, user Ganga, out of her excitement, has offered a share to the prize pool. If anyone else wants to do the same...you are most welcome! The top three winners would be receiving 50/30/20 percent of the pool.

We thank you all for participating in this rangoli contest and wish you all the very best! May the best rangolis win...

Barack Obama has been elected the 44th president of the United States of America. This is a historic day and goes to prove that anything is possible. Obama has fought and won this campaign on the message of change. We sincerely hope that he is able to bring about all the positive changes that this country and the world desperately needs!

An excerpt from THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Sunday, November 2, 2008, Jeff Canning...

Why Tuesday?, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in New York City, has been working to reform America's voting system since 2005.

"We rank 139 out of 172 countries in voter participation worldwide, and we spend billions more than any other country on our elections," said Barnett Zitron, managing director of Why Tuesday. "Whether it's moving it to the weekend or making a national holiday, there is no silver bullet to making it more productive. But it will be better than the archaic design developed when America was based on an agrarian economy."

Bye bye Diwali and hello Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody! Now that we’re done celebrating Diwali, we can get ready for celebrating Halloween. Every year it occurs on October 31st. Halloween is celebrated in many countries of the world, and most predominantly in countries like USA, UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Indians like us, who live in the States are used to observing Diwali, Halloween and Thanksgiving in the Fall season.

The kids have a gala time preparing for Halloween and planning their costumes. In the evening the children have a good time going out for trick-or-treating visiting the houses in their neighborhood with bags in search of candies. In my home, I jokingly address Trick-or-treat as going for “bhiksham dehi”!!. This year, one of our family member is going to be dressed as a character from the Harry Porter book, and another is going to be a bloody Vampire…I meant a Vampire with a bleeding mouth...or is it the teeth...well, you get the picture...need I say more?

May this Diwali be a new beginning of peace, prosperity and happiness for you!

We have well over a 1000 kolams and rangolis in our web site. With so many rangolis to view and enjoy, we have added a new feature to bookmark your favorite rangolis. When viewing a rangoli, you will find a link below "Add to favorites". Click on the link and the rangoli you are viewing will be added to your favorite collection.