JOIN USEven before Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the tricolour at the ramparts of the Red Fort here 69 years back, kite- flying has been a favourite sport for the people of Old Delhi.
The tradition of kite-flying has sustained the business and families of kite-makers for generations. However, for the last few years, sale of kites and related items have seen a steady decline. The winds of change are at work.
Even the diehard Old Delhiwallahs grudgingly admit that the next generation is more interested in spending spare time chatting online or playing games on their phones than running up to the rooftops to fly kites, as the old-timers used to do in their childhood.
This year, despite Independence Day just a fortnight away, kite sellers in Lal Kuan are wondering whether they would be able to match the sales last year.
“A few years back at this time we used to sell 500 kites per day. This year our sales have come down to 200 kites,” says Liyaqat Ali, a kite-seller in Lal Kuan.
Kite-selling season starts on June 1 and ends with the Independence Day celebration. However, according to Ali, even in July this year the sales are still to pick up, deepening the creases on his forehead.
Most of the sellers here are from Jaipur and come to the capital’s biggest and oldest kite market for a period of three months to sell their wares.
“We make kites at our homes for nine months, and sell them in the remaining three months,” Ali says.
Ali’s family is in the kite-making business for the last five generations. Although his sons are educated he feels they should know the family business as well, as their prospects of landing a decent job are quite less.
Phone addiction
Counting the arrival of mobile phones and computers as reasons for killing the young generation’s interest in the old ways of entertainment like kite-flying, another kite seller Nitin Gupta says kids now don’t want to do any physical exercise.
“They just remain glued to the phone screen or the computer screen. In kite-flying the whole body, especially the arms, get exercise. But now due to this net-addiction they have forgotten how to use their body muscles,” Gupta adds.
Gupta also says that now the old havelis of Old Delhi are giving way to flats and apartments where there is no concept of rooftops. Without rooftops where is the fun in flying kites?
“Do you remember when was the last time you went on the roof of your house?” Gupta asks.