A Kite Story

What is the perfect toy to have if you live on a roof? Answer: a kite! If you’ve been following this blog, you know that I’ve wanted a kite since the first day I got to Kolkata. This week I learned the word (ghuri), bought one, and flew one.

Monday was Viswakarma Puja, a holiday that is mainly celebrated by the working classes. It also is the day of a kite festival, and about a month before Durga Puja, so it starts the festive season. I asked my teachers where I could find a kite workshop (where they are made), because I like to buy things in the place that’s known for them so I can see how they’re constructed and talk to the people there. He said that there was a place in North Kolkata named Furiya Pukur where there may be a workshop. I took the metro to North Kolkata, then asked directions to find Furiya Pukur. It ended up being a small side street off of a sidewalk-bazaar lined road.

(Side story: One of the people I asked about directions was really funny. He was one of the vendors in the bazaar, I think selling juice and that sort of thing. He looked at me stunned as I asked for directions in Bengali. In English, he said, “You speak Bangla? Congratulations!” grabbed my hand, and shook it a few times. Then he gave me directions in English.)

Furiya Pukur is an alley lined with old buildings and two or three kite shops. Because it was the day of the kite festival, there were large crowds around each of the shops. I didn’t find any open workshops, but I did buy three kites, string, and a large wooden spool. Then carried all of it home on the subway, and miraculously none of the kites were smashed and destroyed.

My first day flying a kite here ended in failure, because I strung it the wrong way (I know, I know. Kite 101. But it’s different than the other ones I’ve ever strung). On Wednesday my teachers gave me another kite, a larger one with a tail, that was already strung.  I took it home and flew it. It caught the wind really quickly and I managed to fly it really high. After about 40 minutes, I decided to start bringing it back in. As I was doing this, some kids across the street, who had come out to fly kites a little bit before, got their kite near my string. The kite came up, the string of my kite, and away flew my nice big kite.

Moral of the story: Make sure you know how to fight kites before you fly a kite in a place where they’re fighting them.