Advertisement
Published: January 17th 2007
Edit Blog Post
kite flying boy
This actually wasnt from the kite festival, but it fits anyway! Woohoo, we found a new Varanasi... we checked into a new hotel in the vain hope that it was our last one that was prolonging the illnesses but this new one is super duper! We're 4 floors up, so it's quite a bit of trecking to and fro but it's worth it for the hair raising fifth flight up (there's no barrier between us and pretty much the ground floor) as when on the roof, you can see the whole of this side of varanasi, and as we discovered, this is where the real town is. All this time we'd been wandering about the underworld of the street level, with all its grime and filth and cows, but up on the roof tops, there's such happiness and freedom. People work, fly kites, mess around, sleep, everything, but no hassles.
The kite festival was on the 14th but even before that, up on the roofs the town was alive. The first day we watched while a few rooftops away a couple of men made matteresses by collecting the huge piles of kapok into big cloth sacks, sewing them up and then batting them with huge sticks into flat, softish sleeping pancakes. Then
the other day, I spent a huge amount of time watching 2 other men transform a piece of long cloth into a beautiful sari with painted emblems all over.
On the morning of the 14th, we were woken really early by crazily loud indian pop music blaring over the roofs and a feeling of tremendous excitement. We went back to sleep though cos we were grumpy. But when we finally got up and climbed onto the roof, the city was completely alive with kites and families. Everyone was up there, fathers wwere showing their tiny tots how to fly these small paper squares, teenagers were posing with theirs, mothers and grandmothers were watching and chatting and there was such a wonderful feeling of happiness and love. The best bit to me though was watching all the women. In the underworld of the street, we dont see many women generally, but it seems its because they're all up there on the roof. Its such a laid back place to be, and a sunshiney place where kiddies can wander around, tottering over all the hazards that would be condemned in britain like huge drops to the ground with no fences. women chat
Across the Ganges
The other side of the ganges, where all the kite catchers jump with their sticks and bring washing in and play with the babies, and older kids bring their homework up to do. We've spent such a long time up on roofs, in rooftop cafes as well as our hotel, and we've taken hundreds of photos but you'll have to wait for mine from that day as they arent on the right card yet. I do think though that every country should have a national kite day - where everyone, whoever you are flys a kite all day, that's it, just fly a kite, lets go fly a kite up to the highest height etc etc.
As the sun began to set we got a boat across the water to take photos of the town with the sun behind it, but on the other side, there were men with long poles, running and trying to catch things in the air. At first I thought they were trying to catch birds, but it turned out they were nicking the kites that were flown too far - they can sell them on, or just fly them themselves but that seems to be a sport in itself!
Munna told us that it's quite normal for kids to
Across the Ganges
The other side of the ganges, where all the kite catchers jump with their sticks have cuts and scars on their forefingers from reeling the kites in. All the kites have glass in their string which is there to try to cut the string of rival kites, but if you reel it in really quickly, of course you get cut. I'm a bit confused by this because I've seen the string on sale, and it looks normal enough to me but apparently the glass pieces are tiny (so then how do they cut you?!)
But the scariest part of this kite flying extravaganza is that there is also a game to be had in trying to pull kites in from the sky, particularly ones which have been cut short so they're floating freely and looking for a new owner. Imagine running along watching these things and trying to jump and catch them - not much in the way of bearings, but then imagine doing that 4 or 5 floors up, over roof tops which are higgledy piggledy, some massive drops to the ground below, argh, its horribly to watch kids doing this, but its even worse when you find yourself almost jump off the roof to catch a kite. we really should tie ourselves to
Bob shave black and white
Bob having his first shave something!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.034s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0167s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
ant
non-member comment
can't believe you're called watto
All these years I've worked with you - and I never realised you had an alter ego called watto. Oh well. There's that song - if this old world is getting me down then something something up on the roof. You know the one? Sounds good, glad you've found a safe place in the wasteland.