01-13-2005, 05:21 PM
Jan 14th is celebrated as Uttarayan. In gujarat (and ahmedabad in particular) on this day it is considered as kite-flying day. Boy and how .. <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I used to prepare for this right after diwali. Suddenly after diwali you will find street corners being occupied with people who "colour the thread". The "coloring" process is basically applying a coat of mixture that consists of color, egg, water, glass (god only knows what). Threads could be different kinds too. Thicker, thinner and so on.. Colored threads from Bareily are considered very good. There is a mkt for kites where one can pick up the latest cool kites.
The begins the practice period. Every evening I would go home and fly kites. At times there would be nobody else but me. Then idiots like me will look for fellow-idiots and practice kite-fighting (?). I am not going to even to try explain this one but very briefly you try and cut the thread of the other guy's kite. On success, you are allowed a full-blown battle cry. If you have seen Hum-Dil-De-Chuke-Sanam and heard "kapyo che" song you will know what i am talking about.
Wily characters (never me) also employ shady techniques like tying 2 small stones at two ends of a thread. Then when some guy has his kite really deep into sky, when one is good at it, one can throw the thread-with-2-stones so that it gets entangled with the other guy's thread. The weight of the stone will bring the kite down. Some sadistic guys(not me) derive immense pleasure from this. Some bania-types just waiting for this oppurunity cut the kite (which is probably still flying) along with lots of thread and keep both of them.
Night time is time to fly white kites. And what we call tukkals. A tukkal is like a lamp, except its made of paper, and there is a small candle-stick in the lamp. When your kite is sufficietly "deep" (?) you can tie these lamps to your thread. People tie as many as 10-15 and its an awesome sight. But wait its not that boring. When you decide to fly tukkals you need a couple of guys flying tukkal-less kites to protect yours. A big kite with tukkal is taken as a challenge by some who walk a long ways and try and sneak in their kite and cut the tukkal-wali kite. Doing this can result in immense pleasure resulting in sleepless nights... <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Anyways all this practice goes on till uttarayan, when people stay all night tieing a piece of thread to the kite's structure. I wont bore you with the details. Suffice to say it takes a minute or two per kite. And some guys dont want to waste time doing this while they could be flying kites.. <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
On the day of Uttarayan, people start early. Like 5AM. Everybody goes on their terraces along with their sound systems with microphones. Some even rent them. And probably the only day you can start your day without "sujalam suphalam" and with "jumma chumma de de" - one eye on the kite and the other on the girl next door. This goes on whole day and night and people eat Undhiyoo (recipe in cuisine thread) and khichado and chikki. By evening cool guys have started doing ishara to girl next door. Obsessed guys are more interested in kites onlee (not me). Night brings out the tukkal-flying skills as explained above.
Night time is also the window of oppurtunity to get rid of the leftover firecrackers from diwali. UNLESS if there is an Ind-Pak cricket series coming.
If you are living in an area which has both hindus and muslims, you can safely multiply the fun times 10. <!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I used to prepare for this right after diwali. Suddenly after diwali you will find street corners being occupied with people who "colour the thread". The "coloring" process is basically applying a coat of mixture that consists of color, egg, water, glass (god only knows what). Threads could be different kinds too. Thicker, thinner and so on.. Colored threads from Bareily are considered very good. There is a mkt for kites where one can pick up the latest cool kites.
The begins the practice period. Every evening I would go home and fly kites. At times there would be nobody else but me. Then idiots like me will look for fellow-idiots and practice kite-fighting (?). I am not going to even to try explain this one but very briefly you try and cut the thread of the other guy's kite. On success, you are allowed a full-blown battle cry. If you have seen Hum-Dil-De-Chuke-Sanam and heard "kapyo che" song you will know what i am talking about.
Wily characters (never me) also employ shady techniques like tying 2 small stones at two ends of a thread. Then when some guy has his kite really deep into sky, when one is good at it, one can throw the thread-with-2-stones so that it gets entangled with the other guy's thread. The weight of the stone will bring the kite down. Some sadistic guys(not me) derive immense pleasure from this. Some bania-types just waiting for this oppurunity cut the kite (which is probably still flying) along with lots of thread and keep both of them.
Night time is time to fly white kites. And what we call tukkals. A tukkal is like a lamp, except its made of paper, and there is a small candle-stick in the lamp. When your kite is sufficietly "deep" (?) you can tie these lamps to your thread. People tie as many as 10-15 and its an awesome sight. But wait its not that boring. When you decide to fly tukkals you need a couple of guys flying tukkal-less kites to protect yours. A big kite with tukkal is taken as a challenge by some who walk a long ways and try and sneak in their kite and cut the tukkal-wali kite. Doing this can result in immense pleasure resulting in sleepless nights... <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->Anyways all this practice goes on till uttarayan, when people stay all night tieing a piece of thread to the kite's structure. I wont bore you with the details. Suffice to say it takes a minute or two per kite. And some guys dont want to waste time doing this while they could be flying kites.. <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
On the day of Uttarayan, people start early. Like 5AM. Everybody goes on their terraces along with their sound systems with microphones. Some even rent them. And probably the only day you can start your day without "sujalam suphalam" and with "jumma chumma de de" - one eye on the kite and the other on the girl next door. This goes on whole day and night and people eat Undhiyoo (recipe in cuisine thread) and khichado and chikki. By evening cool guys have started doing ishara to girl next door. Obsessed guys are more interested in kites onlee (not me). Night brings out the tukkal-flying skills as explained above.
Night time is also the window of oppurtunity to get rid of the leftover firecrackers from diwali. UNLESS if there is an Ind-Pak cricket series coming.
If you are living in an area which has both hindus and muslims, you can safely multiply the fun times 10. <!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo-->