A day before Makar Sankranti, the streets of Begum Bazaar, Koka ki Tatti, Gulzar Houz and Mangalhat are awash with myriad colours as display kites are plastered everywhere. Fluttering among the kites is a pamphlet with a veiled threat: “Ensure a safe and jail-free Sankranti”. Gangs of young men throng the street loudly talking and planning which kites to buy but missing from the street are colourful spindles of thread.
Hush-hush
Standing by the roadside with his collection of kites is M. Ramesh, who has come from Yousfuguda Checkpost. “I have purchased a dozen paper kites for ₹300. We are thinking about which manja to buy. My brother has gone to get it,” he says.
A few minutes later, a young man returns with a small package in a white plastic bag and the brothers zip away.
While the shops are festooned with colourful kites and the wooden spindles (known as charaks), the manja is not to be seen. “We don’t have thangus (Chinese manja),” says the owner of Satyanarayana Kites in Mangalhat.
The shop owner in Begum Bazar gives a similar response. But the Chinese manja is available. The trick is to hand over ₹300 for a small spindle, and ₹800 for a bigger spindle, and the customer is escorted to a different place and handed over the goods either covered in paper or in a plastic bag.
Secret stocks
According to information, many sellers have hired separate premises to stock the manja which has been banned by National Green Tribunal as well as the Telangana government.
One of the fastest selling item is a fat bundle with some Chinese lettering and ‘Red Panda Industrial Use’ in English. “There is no point in chasing these manja sellers. They are procuring the goods from big dealers in Musheerabad and Begumpet. Unless they are stopped from selling this stuff, it will go on. Just as gudumba ban was implemented, this also can be stopped,” says G. Ranaveer Reddy of Mangalhat Police Station.
Demand and supply
“I had called a meeting with the kite sellers and 55 people turned up. We counselled them against selling the manja, gave them pamphlets and warned them. But this is a demand-supply thing,” says Mr. Reddy reeling out statistics of the arrests they have made.