Uttarayan (The Festival of Kites)..... Fly With Your Ambitions In The Sky Of Your Dreams

Tomorrow is 14th Jan ...Called Uttarayan
Lemme give some brief introduction of this festival those who don't know.

Uttarayan (known as Makar Sakranti in other parts of India) is the day when the sun starts to travel northwards marking the decline of winter. The days become longer, the skies clearer and the breeze cooler. A feeling of anticipation, joy and jubilation grips all who celebrate the occasion of thanksgiving and merry-making.

Gujarat celebrates 2,000 festivals every year! Among these, the festival of Uttarayan is one of the grandest and stands tall. In Gujarat, Uttarayan is a holiday when every family can be met outdoors. People of all ages fly kites from dawn to dusk. Crowded rooftops, fun-loving rivalry to outdo each other in kite flying skills and delicious traditional Gujarati feast are the hallmarks of the day.

(Ref: http://hinduism.about.com/cs/festivals/a/aa011103a.htm)

I am really missing this as i am in Bangalore and can't go to home to celebrate these wonderful festival of fun and joy.So thought let's share some of my memories of this festival.

Still i remember the days of my childhood, when me and all my langotiya friends used to celebrate this festival with full of passion and enthusiasm. Really those were great days of my life.I could never wake up early in the morning but day before Uttarayan , i could not able to sleep( dreaming about kites and plans for next day), sometimes i used to wake up at 3 am and go out to check whether people has started flying kites on their terrace :). I was staying in government quarters ( we called it colony), so every block (consists of many quarters )has one huge terrace. We all friends used to gather any one of the terrace to fly kites. Sometimes we try to choose that terrace from which we can see good girls :) haha and show them our kite flying skills.

In my colony ( known as Karjan Colony), everybody right from small kid Chuunu to old person Chunnilal dada :) is fond of this festival. Everybody want to reserve their space on the terrace as early as possible in the morning. Some children used to start flying kites in early morning at 3,4 am. ( But there was real enthusiasm and passion in them to celebrate this festival which we can't see in today's youth to do their work ;) )

Kite Flying is not as easy as it looks , particularly when your small kite is in the crowd of thousand giant kites. But it's really nice scene to see the sky with full of kites with different colors and ya it's always fun with different size and varieties of kites with different logos ( like Photo of Actors Actress, Political Parties Symbol of Bhajapa's kamal and Congress Punja , and ya sometimes lovers used to express feelings by displaying their loved one's name or some funny messages which seems strange in today's world of SMS).

Basically u can perform 2 task while flying kites 1) Dheel ( releasing thread) 2) Khench ( pulling threads) to cut other kite's thread. It's like real battle in the sky of kites. And those who can survive their kites they are the winners :) But it's not only about battle but to have real fun.

Some persons in my colony are really famous for their unique skill in this festival like one boy Zahir he was very gud at khech (pulling), when his kite is der then other kites can't stay more . And ya Chauhan uncle was well known for his unique skill of shouting when he cut someone's kite. ( Kaypo Kaypo Kaypo Kaypo.......this shout would continue for 5-10 mins untill the person who's kite has been destroyed by him will realize this fact). Sometime small child scared because of this shout :) lol . People used to wear funny glasses with funny caps to impress girls on their terraces (assuming they look smart, but they looked really funny ).

All the terraces were full of crowd, music systems and food. Ya how can i forget about the delicious items we used to eat like Chiki, Laddus, and lot more.My group used to gather at my friend's terrace which is surrounded my lots of gud blocks(buildings and off course girls ;) ). We used to fly kites in group so evey body help each other and ya when we cut somebody's kite , we used to shout together to make everybody(specially girls on that terrace) realize here we are :). In the evening , people used fire crackers, dance on the terraces to say good bye to this festival. Some children are so addicted to this festival so even after this festival they used to fly kites for 2-3 months untill their mom tell them Chunnu, Munnu now start preparing for exams otherwise ur dad will give you surprise gifts :)

The only sad part about this festival is accidents ( because of manjas(thread) made of harmful materials). Even the flying birds got lots of injury because of this threads on this particular day. And ya one has to take care while flying kites on terraces, lots of incidents happened of falling down from terraces. So people should take care of all these stuffs and celebrate this festival carefully.

Moral of the story :Nowadays every body is busy with their personal and professional life so can't get time to celebrate such a festival. But one can learn a lot from this festival .Every festival in india gives some useful message in your life. In Uttarayan we used to fly kites in the sky and fly them in different directions to survive it from others kites. Similarly the thread of your life is in your hand and you can fly it in wt aver direction you want (bad, good, stable, adventurous). You will get lots of obstacles ( like other kites in the sky),who try to manipulate your ambitions /goal (like your kite who want fly in the sky of your dreams) but you have to be firm with your destiny(Kite's direction) and have to fight with all obstacles.

“You are where you are today because of directions you have chosen of your life yesterday; if today isn’t the best day of your life, choose directions of your life today that will change your tomorrow!”

Happy Utarayan to all of you. Wish you can

Fly With Your Ambitions In The Sky Of Your Dreams