Kites of character

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.