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This team flies high

Team Mangalore is off to France to participate in a kite fest

DRAMATIC VISAGE One of the kites being taken to the Dieppe festival is the Rainbow Owl

When you tell a certain section of the people to go fly a kite, they will gladly do so instead of taking umbrage. Kite flying has become a serious occupation for the young and old alike and once the monsoons end the easterly winds starts blowing, people head towards the beaches in Panambur and Thaneerbavi with their rolls of maanja and kits of different colours and shapes.

This time, serious kiters from the city, calling themselves Team Mangalore, are headed for Dieppe in France to take part in the week-long International K ite Festival to be held there starting today. The team leader, Sarvesha Rao Boloor, is all excited over his team of four enthusiastic kiters, the others being Gurudutt Bantwalkar, Vasantha Kumar Sanil and Girish Panambur Venkatraman. This time the team is carrying three different and newly designed kites, one of which is named Devi, an authentic Indian theme kite. The visage of the Devi prominently drawn on imported nylon fabric depicting the Bengali artistic splendour in multi colour.

The second kite is called Rainbow Owl and is just that: a colourful creation shaped like the nocturnal bird. As both these kites are large, they can be immediately recognised by onlookers even while high up in the air.

The third kite carries the theme Live and Let Live, which is also the theme of the festival: this kite is specially made for the festival and depicts the theme that focuses on the environment. It has an image of a deer with tears symbolising the plight of the wild animals and their home — forests. The tail is a banner in French with the message: Live and Let Live.

The members of Team Mangalore had worked day and night to creating these striking-looking kites. Thankfully they had the help of artist and wildlife enthusiast Dinesh Holla in their Mission.

Sarvesh Rao told MetroPlus the festival organisers invited the team to bring along their other favourite kites and so they have decided to take along their Kathakali and Yakshagana theme kites to show them off to the French.

The Dieppe kite festival, which attracts enthusiasts from over 35 countries, is spread over eight hectares of greens between the town and the sea, forming a kind of natural amphitheatre.

Team Mangalore is a hobby group of kite makers and flyers. Founded in 1998, it has carved a niche for itself at all international kite festivals besides participating in kite festivals in various parts of India. It has over the years used the medium of kites to introduce our rich cultural heritage to the world.

The kites crafted by the team are inspired by the traditional folklore and theatrics of the south west coast of Karnataka and Kerala. The range includes Yakshagana, Kathakali and Bootha Kola in this series. Each kite is a handcrafted appliqué work made of rip-stop nylon and bamboo. These beautiful kites have been conceived, engineered, designed and crafted by Sarvesh Rao, Prashanth Upadhyaya and Dinesh Holla of Team Mangalore under the guidance of artist Ganesh Somayaji.

The team's motto is "Spreading happiness through kites" . True to its spirit, it holds kite workshops for children in various schools and camps. Till now, more than 500 students have been trained by it.

Team Mangalore has been organising kite festivals on the shores of Panambur Beach near Mangalore every summer.

M. RAGHURAM

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