"Woh Kaata!" - Kite Flying on Independence Day!

Anirudh has been asking us to buy him a kite since quite some time now..almost a month. Whenever he would see a kite flying in the sky, he would want one too. So yesterday, on Aug 15, 2007 - our Independence Day, a day which is famous for kite flying too, we finally got him his kites. We all had a gala time flying them too! Well OK not all...it was DH who flew the kites, I only held on to the spool and either released the thread or rolled it in as was required.

Anirudh was so excited just holding on to the kites when we bought them.

We were visiting my papa and we went up on the 2nd floor terrace to fly the kites. DH first started with the tirangi patang (Tri-color kite) but he didn't use the manjha so soon his kite got cut! we were avoiding manjha just so that Anirudh doesn't cut his fingers. Here's the pic of the first kite that we flew. Its not very clear but a good memory.

But when the kite got cut, DH and Appa got excited and tied the manjha to our spool. Appa got out the band-aids to put on DH's fingers so that the manjha doesn't cut through his fingers. I don't know what the English word for 'manjha' but its basically a strong thread which is coated with some resin which has glass powder in it. So this resin helps in cutting other peoples kite's thread. This is used for kite fighting or competitions.

Very soon we all were shouting "Woh kaata" after every kite that DH would cut :D DH managed to cut 5 kites and lose 1 one. When DH cut the first kite, I saw that Betu got a bit concerned and asked "Uski kite kat gayee?" to which we answered "Yes". With a frown on his face he looked at us questioningly as if saying "Why did you cut the other person's kite?" as if it was a bad thing to do. But I just smiled at him and I guess he understood it on his own that it's a game without us explaining anything to him.

Anirudh was so so very happy flying his kite! And how did he fly his? We tied his tirangi(tri-color) kite with a simple thread and he hung it down from the 2nd floor terrace and it just moved around with the wind. And he was so happy seeing it fluttering and bobbing up and down. In the beginning he was a bit frustrated that why is it not flying up in the sky like his Papa's kite is. So we had to console him that the kite that Papa is flying is also his :D

Here's is one pic of Betu holding on to the thread of the kite which was flying high and his Nanu (my papa) is holding on to the spool! But he didn't like the thread rubbing on his fingers so soon he just gave it to us and went back to his kite :D