Let's go fly a kite

 

The expression ‘go fly a kite’ in English may relate to telling someone to go away. It literally meant if a person had to fly a kite, he or she would need to walk away to do so.

If the expression is uttered in a family with an Indian ethnic background, it simply means a family fun day and literally involves flying kites. Being born in India, especially in a gujarati family, my association with flying kites goes back to my early school days.

In olden days flying kites may have served  different purposes in different countries like healthy exposure to early morning sun for Vitamin D, measuring distances, calculate and record wind readings or a form of communication similar to ship flags. However, the Indian festival ‘Makar Sankranti’ or ‘Uttarayan’ is celebrated on January 14 every year to mark the celebration of the harvest festival or change of wind, end of winter. It is indeed a picturesque view in most Indian cities; a sky filled with hundreds of bright kites, terraces filled with family and friends, emotion run high as kites soar high, an air of competition and contest to show off the kite flying skills, of course accompanied with peppy music and delicious food. My personal favourite are the sesame ladoos made with jaggery.

Thankfully, I don’t have to forget all about my heritage as I moved to Australia. The local Australian city councils organise kite festivals. The scene may be quite different. It may not have the Bollywood numbers playing in the background with mouth-watering home cooked food, but the event still accomplishes the sole purpose, a fun day with family and friends and display of some real spectacular kites.

Recently, we were at the Brisbane Kite festival 2021. It was my child’s introductory lesson to kite flying. I want him to have fun with kites and with it imbibe essential life lessons. First and foremost, a kite with the right design will fly with minimum effort. Secondly, favourable wind is as critical as the design of the kite. If there is little wind, it is difficult to fly a kite. Thirdly, virtue of patience. It takes more than a few attempts and adjustments to get the kite in the air. Once you have these three, it is then building the skill to use the string correctly which can only come with experience.  

It was wonderful to see little eager minds patiently waiting for the elders to tell when the wind had picked up and then they were all set to give their kite a go.  Little do they know; life is like flying kite. Sometimes you have to just let it loose, other times hold on tight!