# 22 - The Kite Flyer - II

An hour into it and the job was still half-done. The real ordeal was yet to begin; getting the kite to fly. Bhanu again had to furtively observe other guys how were they dealing with it. After spying for some fifteen minutes he decided to give it a try.

Somehow the final stage didn’t turn out to be as tricky as he had expected it to be. There was a gentle breeze blowing that day, which is a favorable condition for kite-flying. After some trial and error, and with a little help from his sister, the kite was up in the sky.

Bhanu’s sister just couldn’t stop beaming with joy. She clapped and laughed, and clapped and laughed. She was jumping up and down. She ran to the house and shouted at the top of her voice ‘maa patang ud gayee’. The mother also came out and the little girl pointed the air-borne kite to her.

Bhanu had waited so long for this moment. Finally his kite was a part of the sky now.

But somehow he felt hollow. Not even for a second he cherished looking at the kite flying in the air - his kite flying in the air.

It was his sister’s innocent joy that forced him to realize that he was also supposed to enjoy the moment. He again glanced at the kite but this time with a different perspective. It was a beautiful red kite. It had two small yellow circles on it and a long purple tail. He had written his name in golden letters on it. He had chosen this kite after rejecting nearly hundred other ones. It had a perfect shape and balance - though difficult to handle, but still very stable. It suited his style of kite-flying - he smiled at himself thinking he already had a style also.

Something was still missing. He wanted something extra. The idea of holding the dor for the whole of afternoon and evening was just not palatable for him. He was losing his interest in this sport, and started to think what to do next. Unable to find anything worthwhile to do, he put a stone on the dor so that the kite could not to pull more dor from the charkhi, and he stood aside. The gentle breeze kept the kite up in the air. He felt that the kite did not need him any more. His sister too had lost interest in the kite. She was busy playing with the neighbor’s cat.

Bhanu was still observing his kite in the sky when he saw another kite come very close to his. He looked around to see whose kite was that. Everyone in the field knew that he was the youngest kid who was learning kite-flying, and that he was using saddi. It was an unsaid rule that no one could fight with these kites. If even Bhanu knew this rule, he assumed everyone else also to be aware about it.

He took the threat very lightly. The next moment his kite was freely swinging in the air; it was no longer connected to the charkhi. A tear rolled down his cheek.

Sadly he picked up the charkhi and started to wind the dor. His sister came running towards him and helped him in whatever way she could.

He couldn’t stay in the field any longer. He gave one last look at his kite. The kite was swaying in the sky and it flowed along with the gentle breeze without any fixed direction. A bunch of guys were already running after it. It was a matter of prestige for whoever would get hold of it. Though they had to run like a wild cat running after the mouse, one of them finally did get hold of it. He wondered what that guy was going to do with this one. Bhanu knew he already had seven more as he was his neighbor.

Not able to stay there any longer Bhanu decided to come back home.

Seeing Bhanu disappointed with the whole affair his mother promised to buy a new kite for him. With a heavy mind he spent the rest of the day lazying around and finally went to sleep in the evening.

The next day was a Sunday. His father got up early and went to the market to buy some kites and manja for Bhanu. He guessed his mother must have asked his father to do so; since she had refused to buy manja she must have thought this was the reason Bhanu’s kite was down so soon, and so she was just trying to cheer him up by letting him use manja.

As soon as Bhanu saw his father coming home with manja and kites, he forgot everything about what had happened the day before and in the afternoon he was again out in the playground. Within no time his new kite, the green kite, was in the air. But today he had different ideas. He was going to fight – kite with kite. In only five minutes he had his first victim. The blue kite of the boy with red cap was down. Bhanu had started to enjoy the game now. Another ten minutes, and Bhanu’s second kite was also down.

But this did not dampen his spirit. Bhanu took out one more kite. The kites were nothing more than a two-rupee fancy for him. He had become a kite flyer!

He got both his sense of purpose and his smile back. He felt proud and walked like a king of the field helping other boys with their kites.

Out of the corner of his eye, Bhanu would still see his red kite, with his golden lettered name on it, and with two yellow circles and a long purple tail, flying high in the clear blue sky, and often changing hands.


© 2007 Ankur Shanker
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