Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

A rare spectacle Kite flying has taken a backseat

The beach and picturesque green hills apart, Vizag, thanks to the sea, is loved for its cool breeze. With a lot of open spaces, accessible hilltops, lovely beaches and a breezy wind to boot, kite flying should have been a great past time and a competitive sport around here. Even Hyderabad has a kite-flying club and competitions to boast off. Come January, the Sankranti season, almost all over India, kites fly! So what happened to Vizag? Not a single kite in the sky! Though sorrowfully, not only in Vizag, this hobby is dying out in many Indian cities.

The few Vizagites who reminisce kite flying days in their prime, blame TVs and computer generated video games for the total lack of interest in today’s youth. But more than the TV and the computer, the blame also lies on the parents. In the rat race of ‘keeping up with the Jones’ not only kids, many parents too vie with one another buying children the latest video games, gizmos and gadgets rather than spending quality time to teach them simple, old-fashioned, yet immensely fun and gratifying pastimes like kite flying. In fact, kite flying has become so infrequent in this city, that only a few shops in the Alipuram market still sell kites and their paraphernalia. In most other ‘modern’ market areas, the shopkeepers were totally ignorant as to where one could procure them.

The ancient Chinese used kites in their warfare. One general (200BC) flew a kite to accurately estimate the length of an underground tunnel to be dug to break into a castle and end a long siege. Allegedly the Chinese also had huge kites, which carried light men and used it for spying on enemy armies. Sounds a bit farfetched, but duly chronicled is the use of kites to pass messages across enemy lines and to burst firecrackers in the air, creating panic in enemy ranks. For the Chinese and Japanese, kite flying is an activity taken seriously. Today and in the recent past kites have been used and still being used for diverse uses ranging from Science (remember Benjamin Franklin?) to even fishing!

For the few young at heart who do take up kite flying, a few safety reminders - Always fly a kite in an open area with no electrical wires or poles around, and never in a storm (Franklin was astonishingly lucky!). Never try to climb a pole, or use metal rods to extract any stuck kite; the kite-cost is not worth the possible hospital bill! Unfenced rooftops and traffic areas are danger zones. A bit of precaution, and this hobby can offer lots of enjoyment, albeit only after you get the kite off the ground and up in the air!

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail