Yesterday was the kite flying festival throughout Gujarat (Dhaval's state in India). Dhaval had been hyping this up like it was really something to see. I wasn't so sure. I mean really, how much fun can you have just flying kites? I can say that you, my friends, have no idea! Sri, you're really missing out on this one being from south India!
We got up at 8:30 and went to the roof of Dhaval's house. Dhaval laid out a stack of about 50 kites. These are just cheap little paper kits with two small sticks for a frame. They're pretty delicate. The kite string, however, is not for amateurs! Dhaval said it is nine pieces of string woven together which are then coated with some kind of colored glass substance. To combat against injury we wrapped our fingers (thumb and first two on each hand) with that white medical fabric tape. Apparently unless you're used to doing this you can cut the hell out of yourself. And Danielle, you prolly shouldn't read this at work or you might get in trouble. Now that we were taped up, we were ready to fly.
When you look out into the sky there are literally hundreds of kites up when the wind is good. Kids are everywhere on the ground and just about any rooftop that you can find there will be people flying kites. Getting these damn things up was harder than it looked. Dhaval got the kite up pretty easily and was off flying. Apparently the game just begins with getting the kite up. I watched Dhaval maneuver his kite near another in the sky. When he got to just the right spot, he leaned the kite, yanked the string, shot the kite up in the air and immediately screamed LAPEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTT! Apparently lapet (sounds just like it looks, LA-PET) roughly translates to roll up your string and get out of here. He had flown his kite near another and used his to cut someone else's string! And now I see the fun in the Kite Flying Festival!
After a few tries, I got the hang of it and was finally able to fly. Not to mention these little kids putting up a kite easily were making me look foolish for not being able to do it myself. And they were on the ground while I was on the 4th story of a house! So the kite goes up, Dhaval's cousin from the US, Vedant, is holding my roll of string while I'm flying the kite out. I'm trying to get the feel for flying these things. It's really not bad. Wherever the nose is pointing when you pull the string, that's the direction it will dive. After a few minutes of flying around, I got close enough to another kite. Some erratic movements and yanking on the string and BAM! LAPEEEEEEEEEETTTT!!!! I cut the other kite's string! Ah, the glory! The Power! I ruled the sky! And then 15 seconds later I hear the battle cry come from the rooftop behind us. Dhaval's damn neighbor cut down my kite! Oh well... time for breakfast.
After eating, we had another go at kite flying. There were decidedly fewer kites up now as the wind was dying down. We made some fun of cutting down others' kites and having ours cut down. Rolling in your string after your kite falls really sucks.
The rest of the day was pretty easy paced. A huge lunch was served. This was a Gujarati special dish of winter vegetables. As I've said all along, the food is pretty damn good here. After lunch we watched a movie in the theater. Hotel Rwanda. Pretty good movie and it helped to pass the time.
After the movie we made another go at kite flying/battlingtothedeath. The wind had changed directions so we now had the advantage over Dhaval's neighbors. It was relatively low, though, so it was much harder to fly. The same routine went on for a couple of hours. Dhaval had family arriving all day so different people were coming to the rooftop to see what we were doing. Some were intrigued and wanted to fly, others were laughing at our lack of skill. After a little, as it was getting closer to dusk, I heard a BOOM like a transformer blew across the street. So they mix fireworks in at the end of the day? AWESOMESAUCE! Kites started to diminish as it was getting too dark to see. Fireworks, on the other hand, were increasing. Lots of random booms from rooftops around us. Then the bottle rockets. Then the big stuff! Quite a few displays went up from those artillery cannon fireworks where they launch way high up in the air and burst into a big display. This made for a very relaxing end to probably one of the most simple and fun days I've had in India.
Oh... and since we don't do anything like this in the US, I'm thinking about starting the 1st Annual Kite Flying Festival in Baton Rouge next year. I'll have to look into the weather/wind conditions this time of the year but I'm thinking it would be perfect for the second Saturday in January. The Indian festival is always on Jan 14 but ours would have to fall on a weekend to get people involved. I'm sure I can find the kites and string somewhere nearby like Houston. Or I can see about getting Dhaval to have some shipped from India. Regardless, we're totally doing this!
We got up at 8:30 and went to the roof of Dhaval's house. Dhaval laid out a stack of about 50 kites. These are just cheap little paper kits with two small sticks for a frame. They're pretty delicate. The kite string, however, is not for amateurs! Dhaval said it is nine pieces of string woven together which are then coated with some kind of colored glass substance. To combat against injury we wrapped our fingers (thumb and first two on each hand) with that white medical fabric tape. Apparently unless you're used to doing this you can cut the hell out of yourself. And Danielle, you prolly shouldn't read this at work or you might get in trouble. Now that we were taped up, we were ready to fly.
When you look out into the sky there are literally hundreds of kites up when the wind is good. Kids are everywhere on the ground and just about any rooftop that you can find there will be people flying kites. Getting these damn things up was harder than it looked. Dhaval got the kite up pretty easily and was off flying. Apparently the game just begins with getting the kite up. I watched Dhaval maneuver his kite near another in the sky. When he got to just the right spot, he leaned the kite, yanked the string, shot the kite up in the air and immediately screamed LAPEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTT! Apparently lapet (sounds just like it looks, LA-PET) roughly translates to roll up your string and get out of here. He had flown his kite near another and used his to cut someone else's string! And now I see the fun in the Kite Flying Festival!
After a few tries, I got the hang of it and was finally able to fly. Not to mention these little kids putting up a kite easily were making me look foolish for not being able to do it myself. And they were on the ground while I was on the 4th story of a house! So the kite goes up, Dhaval's cousin from the US, Vedant, is holding my roll of string while I'm flying the kite out. I'm trying to get the feel for flying these things. It's really not bad. Wherever the nose is pointing when you pull the string, that's the direction it will dive. After a few minutes of flying around, I got close enough to another kite. Some erratic movements and yanking on the string and BAM! LAPEEEEEEEEEETTTT!!!! I cut the other kite's string! Ah, the glory! The Power! I ruled the sky! And then 15 seconds later I hear the battle cry come from the rooftop behind us. Dhaval's damn neighbor cut down my kite! Oh well... time for breakfast.
After eating, we had another go at kite flying. There were decidedly fewer kites up now as the wind was dying down. We made some fun of cutting down others' kites and having ours cut down. Rolling in your string after your kite falls really sucks.
The rest of the day was pretty easy paced. A huge lunch was served. This was a Gujarati special dish of winter vegetables. As I've said all along, the food is pretty damn good here. After lunch we watched a movie in the theater. Hotel Rwanda. Pretty good movie and it helped to pass the time.
After the movie we made another go at kite flying/battlingtothedeath. The wind had changed directions so we now had the advantage over Dhaval's neighbors. It was relatively low, though, so it was much harder to fly. The same routine went on for a couple of hours. Dhaval had family arriving all day so different people were coming to the rooftop to see what we were doing. Some were intrigued and wanted to fly, others were laughing at our lack of skill. After a little, as it was getting closer to dusk, I heard a BOOM like a transformer blew across the street. So they mix fireworks in at the end of the day? AWESOMESAUCE! Kites started to diminish as it was getting too dark to see. Fireworks, on the other hand, were increasing. Lots of random booms from rooftops around us. Then the bottle rockets. Then the big stuff! Quite a few displays went up from those artillery cannon fireworks where they launch way high up in the air and burst into a big display. This made for a very relaxing end to probably one of the most simple and fun days I've had in India.
Oh... and since we don't do anything like this in the US, I'm thinking about starting the 1st Annual Kite Flying Festival in Baton Rouge next year. I'll have to look into the weather/wind conditions this time of the year but I'm thinking it would be perfect for the second Saturday in January. The Indian festival is always on Jan 14 but ours would have to fall on a weekend to get people involved. I'm sure I can find the kites and string somewhere nearby like Houston. Or I can see about getting Dhaval to have some shipped from India. Regardless, we're totally doing this!
@JT: I did not miss out anything. Even in Southern India, this is pretty standard...I did it all the time, though I sucked. But, me and friends used to do this and yeah, it was awesome fun. We can totally do the kite festival here
ReplyDelete@All: the string that JT is talking about is very true. There is a lot of art/science that goes in making that and it cuts like a bitch. We used to travel far to get the right string..
I know I would be down for that here in the US, sounds like a blast!
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