There’s something magical about kites. 

They dip. 

They dive. 

They soar.

And when you let go. They disappear.

Today is Sakranti, the festival of the kites. This festival is held on January 14th each year. While in India, the preparation for this festival begins much in advance. And, no festival is complete without delicious food. So while the grown-ups would get cooking sesame laddoos, kids get busy buying and preparing the kites.

First, let me admit, I suck at flying kite. But that doesn’t in any way dampen my enthusiasm for this festival or for that matter any festival. I’m a sucker for festivals.

Getting back to the festival of kites, I’ve always been fascinated by these colorful flying things. The art of flying these simplistic paper diamonds is an elaborate science. I know this fact because as a kid, I saw my cousins preparing for the kite festival and the jargons they used made me feel clueless. Though I took pride in recognizing a few. As a novice, I was allowed to hold sadda, a simple cotton thread, and not the manjha, which is a specialized glass powder coated thread used to cut other kites while kite fighting. 

That said, my cousins still involved me. My duty was to hold the spool/spindle and keep my eyes and ears open. And, when they said, “Dheel de, dheel de”, which means letting out the line so the kite can go higher up in the sky, it made me feel I had a super important job. My other role was to give my cousins a break by holding the thread when the kite was way up in the sky happily gliding and floating. Perhaps at that moment, it was no longer a thrill for my cousins, so I got a chance to hold the kite and immerse myself in the moment of looking at the kite playing hide and seek with the clouds.

It’s been years since I’ve been in India for this festival, but it just seems like yesterday. Memories so fresh and fragrant in my mind, like flowers in a bouquet. Every year, my cousins share this festival’s pictures and videos as I rejoice in the memories of the bygone days. So much has changed. The type of kites has changed from being simple to big and intricate, but one thing that remains constant is the festival fervor.

This is the video of the streets in Jaipur during the kite festival-

Dipped in deep colors

a whimsical spectacle in the vast blue

like a ballerina

dancing to the tunes of wind

the kite

turns

twists 

and twirls.

It sweeps.

swoops, and 

soars.

Held just by a thin thread

And, when let go

it vanishes

in the vast blue.

Aren’t we all like a kite?