Krishna's rangOli

I am narrating a story that may be taking place everyday in many houses. The mother gets up in the morning and goes out to decorate the front yard with a beautiful rangOli. The child follows her and wants to help the mother :-) His (her) help consists of coming in the way of the mother’s efforts, stepping on the rangOli dots or wiping them with his (her) tender hands. Finally, the mother has had enough of this. She takes the child and ties the child with a loose string to the nearby pillar. In order to see that the child does not cry, she leaves a bit of rangOli powder near the child and asks him (her) to decorate the floor. Shortly, both the mother and the child finish their chores and look at their creations proudly. The child announces that his (her) rangOli is more beautiful than the mother’s. The mother nods her head in assent and unties the string and lifts the child and showers him (her) with tender kisses and goes inside to narrate this to the child’s father. In the Telugu poem below, I have changed the cast slightly. The universal mother is Yasoda and the universal child is Krishna. It is written in the metre utpalamAla, a common classical metre in Telugu and Kannada. The baraha transliteration scheme has been used. Even though there is no such rangOli poem in leelASuka’s Krishna karNAmRuta, there are similar poems on Krishna. cukkala~M beTTe naMdasati suMdaramai yudayAna, kRuShNuDO cakkani chEtulan duDuva, cappuna talliyu kaTTa~M drATitO, mikkili yuktitO mruggu niDe mellana, nayyadi cUDa neMtayO cakkani daMcu~M jeppu hari callaga nellara~M gAcu~M gElatOn చుక్కలఁ బెట్టె నందసతి సుందరమై యుదయాన, కృష్ణుడో చక్కని చేతులన్ దుడువ, చప్పున తల్లియు కట్టఁ ద్రాటితో, మిక్కిలి యుక్తితో మ్రుగ్గు నిడె మెల్లన, నయ్యది చూడ నెంతయో చక్కని దంచుఁ జెప్పు హరి చల్లగ నెల్లరఁ గాచుఁ గేలతోన్ While Yasoda was arranging the dots in the morning Krishna was messing it up with his hands Enough of this The mother ties him with a thin rope Following his mother He too draws a pattern slowly but cleverly Not only that He proudly proclaims Mine is better than yours May those hands of the little Hari protect one and all with peace and prosperity Enjoy! Regards! - mOhana