Gujarat: Kitists fly past a knotty problem

AHMEDABAD: For Minesh Gajjar, a resident of Satellite, visiting Raipur on the eve of Uttarayan is a ritual that he and his family have followed for over two decades. “The festival is not complete without shopping for kites, manja (glass-laced thread), tapes and so on,” says Gajjar, an engineer. “But this year, we are also shopping for pre-tied kites to save time.”

The skill of knotting manja to the kite to which the string is attached (“kinya” in Gujarati) is considered to be at the heart of the kite-flying art. Those good at it might not be aware of the science of lift, drag, or air surface tension, but they make the perfect knot — identifying the ‘zero’ points ( “shun puravvi” in Gujarati) — for horizontal balance to keep the kite afloat for hours.

Paavan Solanki, an Amdavadi kitist who is an advisor to the Government of Telangana for its kite festival, said that enthusiasts like him learnt by participating in the annual ritual of preparing kites with kinya. “The season of kites used to arrive shortly after Diwali for many of my generation,” he said. “These days, few children have terraces to practise or enjoy the hobby. Perhaps it’s the reason why many can’t fly kites.”

Hiral Choksi, a kite shop owner in Raipur, said: “Now, with families shrinking and a majority of youth unfamiliar with the art of shun puravvi, we have observed that normal kites and those with pre-tied knots are selling in equal proportion this year.”

Kaushik Modi, a wholesaler of kites, agreed. “For a kodi (a bunch of 20 kites), the normal price range is Rs 70 to Rs 85. One has to add Rs 10 to Rs 15 extra for the knots,” he said. “There is a clear demarcation in demographics — those above 40 still prefer to tie the knot themselves whereas youngsters want it ready-made. The trend was not evident five to seven years ago, but now the majority of queries are for pre-knotted kites. So we now have almost all variants with kinya available.”

Moreover, children and youth don’t have enough time for the sport — that is reducing the number of ‘experts.’ “These days, we hardly see a large number of kites except on two days of Uttarayan,” said Virendra Bhavsar, a resident of Kalpur. “The festival has retained its importance as a family event: complete with an undhiyu feast, music and blaring horns, goggles and caps, and of course, the cries of ‘Kaipo Che!’ But we need to preserve the art of competitive kite-flying that has given us joy for so many decades.”

Tied to tradition

The city’s rich legacy of kite-flying has produced world-class kitists and pioneers such as Bhanu Shah. Paavan Solanki, who is advising the Government of Telangana on its three-day kite festival, said that five teams and about 50 kitists represent India at different events round the year. “People like me always adored kitists who brought down most kites or flew kites in any condition,” he said. “Even foreign kitists are amazed at the energy levels during Uttarayan.” He said that the International Kite Festival has provided a platform for kitists like him to get in touch with international experts and exchange designs. Solanki’s team designs kites such as the Indian variant of Rokkaku — a bamboo kite popular in Indonesia, Thailand, and Japan. “Traditions like tying a kinya properly, into which the elders initiated many like me, made us lifelong enthusiasts,” he said.

The science of flight

Getting a kite off the ground is no child’s play as the principles of aerodynamics that govern the flight of aeroplanes affect the trajectory of humble kites too. Dhananjay Rawal, an Ahmedabad science communicator, said that kites are airfoils — objects that alter airflow. “Like the wings of an aeroplane, kites are given a slight bend on opposite side of the kinya for better distribution of air on the surface,” Rawal said, adding that thus kinya is key to flying a balanced kite. “While gravity pulls the kite down (drag), the air pattern makes it soar (lift). The tension is maintained by the flying string,” he said. He said that expert kitists alter kinya’s length for vertical symmetry and a small spool of string is tied to either side of a kite or a ‘tail’ is incorporated for horizontal symmetry.

Take-off points

- According to rough estimates, the kites and manja cottage industry in Gujarat is worth over Rs 500 crore. Khambhat is known for its distinct kites whereas Surat is known for its manja. The state government is confident that both places have the potential to secure the Geographical Indication (GI) tag has has begun a detailed study.

- Kite material comes from across the country, ranging from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu and Assam to Karnataka — making the festival truly unique.

- Ahmedabad hosted India’s first International Kite Festival in 1989 at the Shahibaug police stadium. The chief guest was Edmund Hillary, the first to conquer Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay.

- Flying kites was once a royal hobby. Rulers used to order artisans from Uttar Pradesh to make kites and manja in Gujarat. At that time the shape of kites was rectangular. The diamond-shaped kites, known as ‘Indian fighter kites,’ are about 300 years old.

- The first mention of a kite in Gujarati is recorded in a 1750 work, ‘Chandra Chandravali’, by Shamal in which it is identified as ‘padai.’

- Renowned kitist Bhanu Shah believes that like Polynesian islands, the coast of Gujarat has been producing kites for centuries due to good wind conditions all through the year.