[PhotoSparks] Colours, sweets and rangoli – Happy Diwali to all YourStory readers!

PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In this photo essay, we feature some of the brilliant creativity on display in the rangoli decorations of Diwali!

In the earlier 100 posts, we brought you a wide range of creative photographs from an art fair, world music festival, painting fair, telecom expo, art museum, mobile showcase, math museum, social hackathon, bookstore, co-working space, sensorium, international design week, flower show, outdoor ads, startup roadshow, computer museum, startup T-shirts, business cards, art therapy, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, Vesak, jazz festival, modern art gallery, ecopreneurs, painter-poets, health activists, eNGOs and digital innovators.

Diwali (Deepavali) is one of India’s favourite festivals, and every year the festive season is accompanied by a frenzy of shopping, sweets, firecrackers and rangoli. With each passing year, the chorus to reduce fireworks (and this year to even ban Chinese imports) seems to grow louder, along with tips on ‘guilt-free consumption’ and weight loss tricks.

‘Fusion’ Indo-Western sweets are becoming popular, with chocolate-coated burfi, besan ladoo cheesecake, gulab-jamun donuts, and chikki brownies. And even the rangoli designs are morphing in new ways with a mix of stencils and artistic lamps along with traditional chalk (see also my earlier rangoli photo essays from 2015 and 2014).

In this weekend’s feature, we celebrate the creativity of the rangoli design – and wish all our readers a happy, prosperous, colourful and safe Diwali!

Got a creative photograph to share? Email us at [email protected]!

See also the YourStory pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups,’ accessible as apps for Apple and Android devices.