Nothing Official Here: The Kite Flying...

January 14th is a special day that sun will be entering the northern side. This day is an astrological end to the winter for us and is also very auspicious as now onward, the sunshine will help in bringing new crop and prosperity. Historically, this day has been a day to remain under the sunlight as much as possible to recollect Vitamin D lost during winter season... and thus, people in Gujarat and especially in cities like Ahmedabad and Surat go on terrace and do kite flying whole day.

For me, my first part of the day was very occupied in testing the new HD player. After lunch, I did some system designing for a new project. By late afternoon, I was a bit bored doing this technical work and I decided to take a break. Since sun was not too bright, I decided to do some photography of today's festivity and went up on the terrace Below are some pictures I took today. All from my terrace. Its going to be a long and picture heavy post!

This was how the sky and the atmosphere was when I reached my terrace... It was not enough windy for a kite flying and thus not all terraces were crowded with people. But most terraces were playing loud bollywood music through their boom boxes... All tiny dark spots in above pictures are actually kites in the sky.

This is what a typical kite here looks like. Strings are attached to two places (where there are holes)... Its an art to tie these strings to the kite and a proper length of both strings only will produce a balanced kite which will follow your commands from the other end of the string.

This is a reel of the string called "Firki"... A normal string is treated with special coating which also includes glass dust to make it powerful to cut the string of other kites in the sky.

Kite flying here is usually done in a pair. One holds the firki and the other one actually flies the kite... Here, a hubby flies the kite and wife is holding the firki...

Son holds firki for dad...

Or dad holds for son...

And in case dad is busy with something else, mom is always there :)

In case you are too small to have either a wife or a son, your friend can hold it for you...

And in case your friend is busy in any optical exercise, you are Godzilla!

And in case you are too lazy like me, there is a way too...

After a while, the cloud formation made the sky very colorful and with some tweaking in the camera, I was able to capture it too...

The kite flying is fun and its like a war... Each flier would cut the string of nearby kite with his kite's string to survive in the sky. The cut kite descends on the ground. For people in the area where it would land is a free gift from the sky!

And in case you miss catching the kite, its so disappointing... I was able to grab three moments of such disappointment...

The kid notices a cut kite passing by and he rushes to grab it...

He tries to grab the string of the kite (but fails...)

While he seems getting ready for the next catch, his sister had a great disappointment...

When you have such a big catch, you are surely happy but even kids suffer with the greediness :)

No matter how your terrace is or even if you are on terrace or not, kite flying is very fun!

Notice the bandage on his left first finger? When you engage too much in kite war, the glass dust of your own string can cut your finger.The sleeve protects that finger.

For a moment, I was worried for him when he started leaning on the railing. But he was least worried.

There were some photography sessions going in parallel too!

And a daughter trying to console an angry dad...

If hubby ignores the wife for his kite, well, she starts doing an optical exercise!

I also got some interesting pictures of what was going on down the street...

A poor woman was catching some kites she would later sell to some lazy kite fliers who want ready made kites. Did you notice though bare footed, how colorful her cloths are?

This was her daughter helping her to catch some more...

Two old women were returning home after visiting the temple nearby...

A grandma was bringing her granddaughter back to home...

This milkwoman had no off today. Look how nicely she has balanced the can on her head and the glass on top of it is actually a measure for the milk.

He was a lone kite catcher who at that time had no catch yet...

The gossiping ladies across the street :) Notice the twist of legs of the right one!

A typical "family vehicle" here in India! Though officially only two people can ride a motorcycle (popularly called "bike" here) and helmet is compulsory, no one is following that rule... Look how worry free all three of them are...

Another such family with the kid sandwiched between parents...

And how many riding this scooter??? Four? You sure? If you are, you are wrong. There is one more kid in front of the mother which is reflected in the mirror...