Fly away

Sadly I had to say goodbye to Dave and Whinonah on Friday as they were leaving on Sunday back to Australia, after a year of travelling the globe. Bumping into them a month back in Jaiselmer was one of the highlights of my trip. Thanks you guys for letting me be your third wheel, its been a blast

So this weekend I headed up to Vadodara (Gujarat) to see my family and my cousin Seema who flew in from Atlanta, visiting India for the first time in 14 years. The other reason was to witness the festival of Uttarayan (Makar Sakranti) which marks the shifting of the sun towards the north signaling the end of winter and the onset of summer. Days start getting longer and the skies clearer s the gods awaken from their slumber.

But ask any person on the street whats the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word 'Uttarayan' and 99.9% will say 'Patangs'. Patang (kite) flying is synonomous with this holiday. Similar to the way you see stores in October start stocking up on Christmas ornaments and trees, the streets of northern india are filled with Patang shops - small, big, massive ( bigger than me) in all different materials, colors, of course some sporting the faces of your favorite bollywood or cricket star, others have long flowing tails, while others sport new technology and have flashing lights for when the sun goes down.



On January 14th you'll find the streets eerily quiet, no kids playing cricket, no bikes, no ricks. As you slowly lift your head up to the sky you realize that everyone has taken to the skies. The rooftops are filled with families and friends from as early as 5 am to atleast midnight. Rooftop parties with food, music, and of course piles and piles of kites. Sounds like a lot of fun, but its also quite serious. Kite flying is no joke - if you're not careful someone will take advantage of your ameteur skills and cut your string. In the skies the kites take on personalities of their own and without knowing your opponent you are on a mission to bring down any kite that gets in your way and to prevent anyone else from cutting yours


Something else that you'll also notice around Uttarayan is the sweet smell of brown sugar and nuts - that would be the aroma of freshly made chiki (brittle)... peanut chiki, sesame chiki, coconut chiki, you get the picture... i swear i have consumed more sugar in the past 3 days than i usually do in a year. But hey its tradition and I can't go messing with that now can I.