Courtesy Wikipedia

Kite Runner – ‘Kite’ reminds me of the book ‘The Kite Runner‘ by Khaled Hosseini (also adapted into a film of the same name). It is a story of a boy born into a rich family in Afghanistan in 70s who now lives in USA. He let a terrible thing happen to his best friends during childhood. Several years later, he gets a chance to redeem himself and in the process, visits war-ravaged Afghanistan. Kite Running forms an integral part of the story and several pages of the story are woven around Kite festival, children and adults flying kites, kite flying competition and running for the kites that befall during the competition. The protagonist gets a second chance, but the story almost makes you wonder, will Afghanistan get another chance.

Makar Sankranti – ‘Kite’ also reminds me of the festival of Makar Sankranti in India. The festival signifies the beginning of the harvest season in India and is called by various names in different parts of the country – Makara Sankranthi, Pongal, Tilgul, Yellu-Bella, Lohri, Maghi, Uttarayan etc. During pre teens, I used to stand on rooftops with a couple of friends (in fact every male tween in the neighborhood) and practice flying kites just as the New Year arrived. On weekdays, we used to practice after coming back from school – 3:30 to 5pm. And on the weekends, the entire day, probably just after ‘Shri Krishna’ on TV. Flying a kite was particularly difficult on cloudy days – January being the coldest time of the year no sun overhead meant a temperature of 12/13 degrees.

A day before Makar Sankranti, which is usually around 14^th January, we used to buy several kites, long threads and ‘Manjha’ (pronounced Mun-jhaa and means glass lining some part of the thread) materials. Manjha is an art and is necessary for executing the kite cutting techniques – pull and release. Don’t know whether the art (of buying, sharpening the thread and flying kites) has changed these days – I know kites are even available online these days, but buying kites from the shops is an experience to cherish. Note to self: Write a full post on ‘Kite Flying in India‘ soon.

This time around, I was fortunate enough to witness Austin Kite Festival (I missed Mardi Gras!).

Austinites celebrate Kite Festival on the first Sunday of March every year at Zilker Park, thus called Zilker Kite Festival. Well, it’s a coincidence that Austin Kite Festival started on the same year as Oscars, in 1929. It is organized by The Exchange Club, which is an ‘all-volunteer, national service organization for men and women who want to serve their community, develop leadership skills and enjoy new friendships’. It seemed that the festival is immensely popular among Austin families – and also among tourists since it is open to all and free.

People: Several hundreds of people – families, singles, couples, young and old, gathered in an open ground. Kites of plenty of shapes, sizes and colors could be seen on the sky. It was an amazing sight to see kids not even 10 years of age flying huge kites. A few guys looked pro – their sleek kites were flying the highest. What amazed me was that no one tried to cut the flying kite of others. The Kite competition was a test of high-fly skill rather than a combat. And this was such a huge difference from the way kite flying is done in India. Even a no gooder like me could fly even lame kites pretty high and cut the thread of another high flier. Sigh!

Everyone wasn’t flying kites though. Those who weren’t, engaged in a variety of activities. Some watched other fly kites. Some others were busy in wall climbing, rotating rings around their waists (don’t know the term for this) or getting tattoo/mehndi/henna applied on their bodies – some on palm, others on the pelvic or tailbone area. Few spread out sheets on the ground and were eating or just lying around. Others were busy checking out different food stalls. I checked out a chickenkebab from a Turkish stall – kebabilicious. And it was delicious.

If you happen to be around Austin at this time of the year, do visit Zilker Park on the first Sunday of March for the Kite Festival. And a must see is the mass kite ascension at 3pm.

More Links

• Blogs – Bashhh,
• Pictures – CityNoise, atxbill @ flickr,
• Videos –Zilker Kite Festival 2009, 2008, 2007, launching the mother of all kites,
• Others – Kite links, @ About.com,  Berkeley Kite Festival,

Train journeys in India give you terrific insights – into the look and feel of the places your train travels by and the people in those places.  After a train journey, especially a longer one, you get a feel of the way people look, speak, behave and live in several parts of the country.

As an ode to this experience, I’m hosting ‘The Great Indian Train Journey‘ event at my blog this February. So, write your train experiences in India at your blog and let me know. Here’re some post ideas – your travel to home during summer holidays at boarding school/college, your first local train experience, 5 things you love/hate about Indian Railways, why you love travelling in sleeper class more than AC-2/3, or vice versa, vendors at railway stations, Indian Railways as a cultural change agent etc. For some more ideas, you can read my posts on Indian Railways. On 20th February, I’ll post a round up of this event with a link to your post.

Rules of the event:

1. Event period 26th Jan to 15th Feb 2009
2. Write about your experience with Indian Railways in your blog, post it during the event period with the event logo and a link back to this page.
3. If you’ve already written about the same, please re-post it during the event period.
4. Email your entry to aamikalyan@gmail.com, with “TEM Feb – The Great Indian Train Journey” in the subject line with following details: Your Name, Blog Name, Blog URL, post title, post URL, photo (photo is optional)
5. Last date for the entry is February 15th, 2009.
6. You can send multiple entries.
7. If you don’t have a blog but wish to participate in this event, send your entry with your name, picture (optional) and post title to aamikalyan@gmail.com on or before the last date. I will post your entry as a ‘guest post‘ with your picture (if you send it, that is) in my blog and include it in the round-up.

Acknowledgements

• Event idea – Sudeshna
• Event Rules idea – Srilekha