I love to fly kites, not‎ that I am an expert. To me the experts were my grandfather,father and my uncles, who were to the very young Pinakin the invincible Supermen of those childhood days....

Sankrant was always a great ‎occasion as we all flocked to grandparents' "Damini sadan" in Bombay. A minimum purchase of 100 to 200 kites was normal along with manja of different styles. Kite flying was taken very seriously and the preparations were on war footing, what with all uncles and aunts (and there were so many) joining hands with grandpa in tying the "kanna" to so many kites on the previous day itself. No time to lose on war day...

I now wonder how so many kites could be flown from one terrace. The cacaphony of "khaalaas..!", "kapyo chhe..", "are are firke pakad", "manjo lapet..", "patang apav..", "pech lagee.."......and more were all war cries.

And this happened over and over over the years..and later we used to visit my brother in law at Surat where we were treated to a sumptuous lunch at his friends bungalow" agasi"during the fierce battle for sky space..

This year we went‎ to our friends' in Baroda. Here kite flying is a two day affair, on 14th and 15th Jan. During the day there were many kites all around just like in Bombay,Surat or Jaipur. But just at around sunset there started appearing those chinese lanterns floating in skies all over. At some point one could see thousands, like in some Spielberg movie flooding and vying for attention, all moving with wind pushing the stars in opposite direction visually. This dream sequence was further adorned with firecrackers, the likes of which I had not seen before.

Someone also narrated a story of strange custom in Khambhat where people come with fewer kites and lot of manja, say upto 2500 metres. There no one could use pulling (khench) but could only use releasing ( dhil) ‎ and could be hammered for breaking the custom....and after sankrant all would go to sea, fly kites using left manja and leave them there.....

Now that we are returning, our friends have packed some pendas from Duliram and some bhakarwadis...and you are awaited at Jaipur for some more kite stories...

Pinakin

15/01/2015