Of Mandala and Musings

After a long stressful week, it is finally Saturday. Ahh, Saturdays are my favorite day of the week. It is the official start to the weekend and only brings good vibes and in my case, the smell of cakes baking in the kitchen or a movie or two, sprawled on my couch.

Saturdays make me feel myself again.

But today I was, to be honest, a little bored. Or maybe, the stress from the doings of this week hadn’t left my body yet. And so, I ransacked my brains, thinking “What do I do now?”

Until it hit me. Colouring is supposed to be therapeutic, right? I had seen Lilly Singh’s video on Facebook, something about how she was told by her therapist to colour, as it helps to relax.

(I’m an Indian, we write ‘colouring’, please do not come after me.)

But I hadn’t done even a spot of painting since 2013. And then my paints dried out, and my pastels got dirty, and I just didn’t bother with an easel and brush anymore. What was the point?

I was beginning to regret that. To have run out of colours just when I’m in the mood to create something? Not a good thing. But I was determined.

And like every Gen Z kid in the world like me, I found my solution by doing a simple Google search : “what to draw when you have no colours?”

A mandala.

Things needed: a pencil, a rounder or compass, and a marker.

Easy enough.

Don’t get me wrong, mandalas are, by no way, easy enough. And no, they are not Rangolis either, as anyone who has made a mandala or two, will let you know.

Mandalas represent the universe. It is a revered symbol in Buddhism, and the circles in it stand for life, how everything is connected and it is never-ending.

So I set out to draw a basic stencil.

A small circle, increased the radii of two more circles, a boundary circle after that, and another big circle after that. Monday had been so hectic. I had had an urgent deadline that day, as well as lectures. It was a mess. I drew the smallest circle in bold, and neatly coloured another small circle in the centre. Tuesday had been even worse. Usually, things don’t go downhill until Thursday, but Tuesday… ughh.

Why are circles so perfect? I made little flower petals on the slightly bigger circle as I contemplated Wednesday — Wednesday was not so bad, I talked and laughed and gossiped with some of my, sadly, online friends over another round of lectures.

Thursday was the absolute worst, I thought, as I meticulously darkened the spaces between the petals. So many things went wrong that day. So many things were to be done that day. Well, what’s done is done…I was so burnt out by the time I got to Friday.

Finally, Friday.

And as I added the last of the finishing touches, I thought…

I did it.