Desi Tamasha

Kite-flying

It was a perfect day for kite-flying. The weather forecast had predicted a thick cloud cover for today, but all I could see were a few wisps. No complaints of course.

We had a lot of kites this year - like a couple of hundred - and so we even tied kinya on a few a couple of hours in advance. The best firki, according to Samip, was the one Pranav had brought from Ahmedabad - "Dragon: Made in China" with colorful Chinese writing on it. A huge firki, but with such little dori on it that we'd felt distinctly cheated in the beginning, until it proved worth the 150 rupees Pranav had paid for it.

30-40 people came, and it was the best Uttarayan we've had in the last few years, even without the music that Gaurav never quite managed to provide. He brought khaman instead, but then came an hour late because of that.

Manish was his usual self, refusing to fly a single kite or eat any chikkis, but enjoying himself nevertheless. Samip and Priyank worked pretty hard at their "khainch" but I suspect they could have cut as many kites through prudent "dheel" also. Bunch of my co-workers showed up too, and they all got pretty good at flying kites and taking paich's with the others. They didn't quite figure out how to scream when they won a fight though.

The kids who came to our party had a blast. The other kids on the field, flying kites with nylon lines, had a horrid time though. One mum even forced Samip to "say sorry" to her brat for cutting his line.