KITE FLYING IN SIKKIM: A LOST JOY

by Kesang Pakhrin:The history of Kite can be traced back to thousand of years ago that originated in China. The Kite during those days was used as means of sending message during the time of war. Some other sources also list uses of kite for measuring distances, testing of direction of winds and signaling for military operations. It has its own story and carries its own significance from places to places.

In India, the kite further evolved into the fighter kite known as the “Patang”. Here, the annual kite running competitions are held every year on the day of Makar Sankranti. Kite festivals are held at different countries, which is of ritual significance for the people of the respective countries.

Now coming back to our state Sikkim, I often wonder and look back to the day when I was a kid. The winter season of December and January, time for winter vacation for every school, used to be full of fun and enjoyment. Flying kite, it was how we used to spend most of our holidays. Kite, popularly known as “Guddi” in Sikkim, is flown from roof tops of the building and open spaces like fields or playgrounds.

Not only kids, even their parents especially the fathers were also involved in flying Guddi. The main enjoyment in flying kite was in Kite Fight, known as ‘Pench’, where we try to cut each others kite with the use of a strong thread known as ‘Manja’ which is attached to a wooden device known as ‘Lattai’ used to release and roll back ‘Manja’ letting it loose at high speed or by pulling the kite in a fast and repeated manner. 

We could see many colourful kites in the open sky and imagined even we could fly like kite, soar high and touch the sky. But as of now, we can hardly see any kite flying in the sky. Even this winter vacation, there was any kite flying. Earlier, each and every toy shop in “Thado Line” used to sell kite at 1 and 2 rupee each for kite made of paper and plastic respectively. Not only market, kite was available at ease in every village. Self made paper kite was also seen in abundant manner. As of now, there are hardly any toy shops at Thado Line those sell kites anymore. When asked a toy vendor why don’t you sell kites these days? He simply answered “there are no demands for kites these days. Nowadays kids enjoy and get themselves involved in playing video games and computer games rather than flying kite”. It was a tough task for me finding any kite in the market of Gangtok and Deorali. Alas, in my desperate effort for finding kite in market, I was compelled to make kite out of news paper.

Well, here we have forgotten one of the ancient sky sports that we have inherited from the past. Though kite flying is still prevalent in many parts of India, it is a forgotten story in Sikkim. The kids here are more interested in electronic and computer games rather than flying kites. There will come a time when our kids will see kites only in books and stories or television. Though flying kite is only used as a means of entertainment and does not carry any important place in our customs or traditions as far as Sikkim is concerned, we should also not over look the importance it has carried since ages and ages in the world scenario.