Time to ring in the new and throw out the old… for most Indians, it is not the new year’s day but a day two weeks later that marks this phase of hope. Co-inciding with the movement of the sun northward, or Uttarayan; longer days and happier times. Worship of the sun god; thanks for making all things grow and prosper. Watching the pot of milk as it boils over; abundance and prosperity. Traditionally a time for rediscovering and acknowledging one’s roots that lie with the forces of nature. Pongal o’ pongal.
And in the north and west, the tradition of kite flying. I looked on the net and found serious history behind kite flying, but no clear significance behind the associated revelries around Sankranti time. Like many other rituals, has this just come to be? (Do drop in a comment if you know of the significance behind this).
I found many interesting explanations for this fascination with kites : while one source says that kites were not only used in receiving messages but also measuring distances in war times, another claims that people in earlier times used kites for sending messages to divine beings as they believed that gods lived in the sky.
Or does it have to do with man’s desire to fly that has existed as long as man himself possibly has?
Or in more modern times, is it an escape route from the pressures and problems of everyday existence – letting oneself go, through the kite?
Ideas as colourful as the kites themselves…
***
Shivaji park last evening resembled a mild mini kumbh mela; two young girls in similar pink and blue clothes walking hand in hand, the peanut seller doing brisk business, the girl selling balloons lending additional colour to the air, excited shouts and cheering, the DJ one corner belting out zippy remix numbers ceaselessly, brief announcements asking for Pappu (or Bunty or Chintu) to come near the stage, entire families flopped on at the grass, their kites looking as tired as they themselves… I catch myself humming aashiq banaya apne long after I leave the park, slightly irritated with myself for it, slightly embarrassed…
And in one corner of the great big maidan, totally unaffected by the general chaos all over, two budding cricketers stretching out their muscles, eyes full of dreams of the cricket “greats” Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar who started this way from Shivaji Park… Maybe they did their stretches at the same spot…?
And all this under the benevolent eyes of Shivaji Maharaj, he who lends his name not only to this park but also to most buildings and streets and railway stations in Mumbai and Maharasthra.
The kite festival that is part of the Mumbai festival was on in full swing.
Fathers running around and shouting instructions, pretending to be helping their child fly the kite but in reality loath to let go of the string. While the mothers stood by, tired and aching feet and all, holding bunches of colourful kites in their hands. Old men with the string in their hands, looking up at the sky with looks if intense concentration and absolute delight. And children going mad with undiluted happiness, in a way that only children can; not a care in the world.
Those in between with kites of different shapes vying for attention in the crowds of regular diamond shaped bits of paper and colour; the pride on the faces visible and infectious…
And professional kite fliers trying to send up a string of penguins into space…
Mumbai collectively “let go” last evening, as the sky turned from a blazing yellow to a fuller palette of mild yellows and oranges and finally assuming pink and purple tints…
Watching them all gave me a good idea about why kite flying has come to be such a loved sport…
Hi Charu
Happy Pongal to you and your family.
Great pictures of kites and of the famous Shivaji Park.
In the south, I know that it is the tradition to duel with kites. The kids rub a mixture of glass and molten sugar onto the lines in order to make them weapons of sorts. Then they purposefully try to cross lines to cut the opponent’s kite string. It sounds like fun.
Great post, Charu. I was there for a short period of time about 20 minutes. It was fun all the same. Makar Sankranti, where Kite Flying it’s way more popular in cities like Ahmedabad and Bhopal. I happened to be Ahmedabad once on the day and an absolutely display. From balconies, terraces, chajjas everywhere kids, adults everybody was out flying a kite.
Lovely pics. The pics of the sky are wonderful and reminded me of the sky in Bangalore during the SA/India one-dayer. I wish I had the camera with me then…
Beautiful pictures, lovely
Michael, thanks…. I know about the glass on the string used to cut other kites – but I read this morning that birds had died in Ahmedabad caught in these strings… sad…
Akshay, thanks… like I said, I was looking for you there 🙂
I too spent less than half an hour there but I was there towards late evening and caught a lot of the colours in the sky…
Sujatha, thanks! sometimes the sky can really suprise you…
Uma, thanks 🙂
and happy pongal to you too.
Nice photos.
Kite flying has been around almost forever it seems.Just when you think you’ve found it’s origin,another instance predating it surfaces.
It is now thought possible that the egyptians used kites to errect some huge stone monolyths.
I am a bit of a traction kite addict & use kites to maintain physical strength and mental calm.
Manja line is outlawed(or at least frowned upon) here as it causes many problems with wildlife & other non fighter kites.
I think its fine so long as they stay clear of other types of kites & take all their line with them when finished.
Good Winds
Mike
I absolutely love reading your observations about life in India and your neighborhood, and of course, the great pictures. You ought to be a writer and publish these observations!! Good Luck.
Sunil, how was your Pongal? we didn’t celebrate pongal this year at home, of course but I made do with lots of Madras Pongal memories…
Mike, true, I looked for some clear history and only found lots of vague references and speculation… I liked the bit about people sending messages to their gods through kites 🙂
and yes Manja with the glass can be so dangerous – even to human necks…
Pramod, thanks so much 🙂 I hope you keep coming back here…
Amazing post with some smashing pics! Loved it. Made me very very nostalgic indeed. I liked the “kaka’s pic the best”. I want to do exactly that at that age, with my (future) granddaughter holding the phirkee.
One nitpick, and I know you’ll hate me for it, but these things matter a lot to people (esp the man concerned since he writes in it at considerable length his autobio). Gavaskar was not from Shivaji Park. He played at the Dadar Union grounds and he considered Shivaji Park cricketers to be great rivals. Early on, he played at the Azad Maidan. He was from Chickalwadi, Charni Road.
Okay, I’ll leave before you hit me. 🙂
Yikes..typos, typos..{should be ‘writes about it in considerable length’
Quizman, thank you thank you (the second thank you was for the no-quiz this time around gesture:))
and ouch to the bit about sunil gavaskar and chikalwadi – I had no clue – in fact, I know nothing more than S.G except that he was a pro at tennis. sorry, was it basketball?
Charu
LOL. Sorry about the ACK quiz last time. We quizzers reflexively zoom onto trivia, not as a means of trying to prove our (lack of?) knowledge, but to share an interesting factoid. Did not mean to be rude.
Q, was just joking… we non quizzers instinctively shrink back in horror from quiz questions. so please to dil pe mat le :))
i loved reading this post and the picturestoo – as someone who has grown up in the shivaji park area and lived there for more than 20 years, i have seen tendulkar and kambli play at the achrekar nets at SPark … and i was about to write about Gavaskar being a Dadar Union guy when i saw the comment from Quizman. For cricket mad mumbaikars, its certainly essential to get the facts right … 🙂
Now would be a good time to go to Shivaji Park on sundays to check out the matches from the TimesShield and Kanga League tournaments …
here are links to a few more Shivaji Park photos:
Blast from the past
Connectiion to history
Republic
Budding Talent
The old guard
Dadar Chowpatty