The
other day I was driving home after visiting my parents. It was a clear and
pleasant day with no cloud in sight. At the traffic light, I casually looked up
and saw several colourful kites undulating in the blue sky above. I was
instantly transported to an earlier time, when I was a child who knew how to
build and fly these creatures of play.
It was
a time of my life when playtime was a serious affair and involved humans and
toys, unlike present time when TV characters and cartoons have grabbed the
share. There was a season tied to every
kind of sport and playing a sport in the wrong season was a taboo. Kite flowing
was no different; it was played in the windy seasons of "Ashada" a
month in the Hindu calendar when the kite flying sport reached a crescendo.
Kites of every colour and shape dotted the skies, each sporting a personality
of its own.
The
kites in my childhood were small medium or large in size and were available in
myriad of colours. They were usually square or diamond in shape. There were
some that were irregular in shape and resembled faces of animals, but they were
rare. Most of them had tails made of paper or thin cloth which was suppose to
add stability to the kites and make them easily controllable. If you were adventurous
you could fly them without the tail but involved more skill controlling them.
Kites
were usually made from paper such as the gift wrappers and were made robust by
sticking bamboo sticks at strategic points on the paper. Finally a string or
thread called "Sutra" was tied to the bamboo sticks to provide
liftoff. This was easily said than done; it required engineering skills to get
it right and many an aspiring flier has been grounded by wrongful application
of the "Sutra". Finally you needed yards and yards of thread wound on
a bobbin to fly the kite. The thread from the bobbin was tied to the
"Sutra" and the beast was ready to fly. This is the time you offered
prayer to the Wind God to send that friendly gust of wind in your direction to
take the kite along.
Kites
in the sky are a fun to watch and they exhibit a character of their own, as if
they have inherited the personality of the flyer. For a kite fan, they are
almost alive and seem to communicate by their mannerisms. All kites announce
their existence by undulating constantly in the sky. I have seen kites that do
flip flops. Some even draw figures such as circles and ellipses.
Kites
also take part in the battle for supremacy of the skies! There are some who
impart chemical treatment on their strings and employ their kites in warfare
where kites go after each other abandoning camaraderie. The objective is to
sever the string of your opponent kite and if you succeed you win. The kites
usually take the game seriously as well and look menacing themselves.
My thoughts
once again turn towards the present and I contemplate how to thank my friend,
the Kite who has given me all those wonderful moments of childhood fun. I
decide to write this little ode, a small tribute to the undulating friend of my
past. I hope you bring as much joy to the generations that follow as you
entertained my generation and the generations of the past.
Here’s
the little ode,
Kite o kite my lovely kite, fly
far, fly high,
Where no kite has flown before,
you boldly go,
You have shown me a world, brighter
and more beautiful,
A world I want to share with one
and all,
Carry my message of peace and
love,
For the denizens of this mystical
world,
I thank thee for all the joys you
brought me time and again.
