Story of Kites

It was the evening of 16^th January, 2012 that our Sensei informed us about a Japanese Kite Making workshop to be held for 2 days in Kolkata, with kite making masters and experts being flown in from Japan. Having always watched my neighborhood skies filled with kites of various colors and fashion during the month of January with wide-eyed fascination, I was the first to jump up to inform that I’d love to attend the event. So what if I don’t actually know how to fly a kite (there….I said it!), that won’t stop me from being able to enjoy making one, now can it. Plus I also wanted to see how different a kite could be from another country, or were they all the same. The event, aptly named “Story of Kites”, was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, The Indian Museum, Crafts Council of West Bengal in collaboration with the Japan Foundation and the Consulate General of Japan in Kolkata. The venue was Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Sector 3, Salt Lake Kolkata.

I was not familiar with the venue, but that didn’t deter my excitement for the workshop and so based on a friend’s “concise” directions I set off. But as it turns out, the people from the place where I was supposed to get the final ride to the venue didn’t ever hear of the venue, Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre or EZCC. After bouncing around like a ping-pong ball from one point to another based on vague directions, which always seemed to be the opposite side of the directions given by the last person, I finally decided that I’ll try my luck with Sector 3 and find the thing myself. So, after barely holding my cool together, and walking past two traffic signals, I finally find a traffic police who has actually heard of the place and points me to the proper direction. Thus after a lot of self-control I reach the destination, half-an-hour late, to find the event already underway and all the people busy finishing up coloring their kites. Thankfully, after I explained my predicament, the kind hosts quickly found me a seat and a printed, pre-cut kite paper and two boxes of sketch pens. After some time they even helped me with the alignment of the spines of the kite and the accessories. Having almost arrived at the end of the workshop, I went for a sketching effect with my kite, along with the fact that I couldn’t think of anything else either. It is different from the more colorful approach of my three friends who also turned up there. Anyways, it was pretty fun making coloring the kite, as well as watching the various kites that the Japanese Kite masters and experts had on display, which were quite exquisite.

After the coloring, we had a group photo with all our kites, after which we were given packages of food consisting of a Cake, juice box, an orange and a lot of toffees and a break of one hour to spend before we would fly our kites. Having finished our food, me and my friends spent the remaining time speculating whether the kite would actually fly. As it turns out, Japanese kites are different from those that you would see here. For one, they have a single large hole at exactly the point of the spine’s intersection. Plus the thread given to us seemed a lot thicker, along with an unnaturally long tail. All these factors made us conclude that the kite won’t fly. Being practical we even gave one of our friends kite a spin, which didn’t fly (But that could be also have been due to the fact that his kite had a Sumo on it!). Anyways, after the break we were called out to the grounds where we were shown how to fly it. And it turns out these things really do fly. My friend also, finally managed to fly the kite. Since I didn’t know how to fly a kite, I decided to stay back and watch the sky filled with the soaring kites. One of the hosts noticed it, and asked me in English why I wasn’t flying. On telling him that I didn’t know how to, he took me to the kite master and explained the situation, who gladly took me and my kite and showed me how to fly it. Even though my kite managed to fly for about 5 seconds that was one of my happiest achievements.  The entire experience of learning from a master was quite humbling. The event came to a close after an hour of kite flying and a wide smile on everybody’s face.

We then decide to go somewhere so we could grab a bite after all the kite flying.  After the bite at McDonald’s in Mani Square, we slip into Starmark, where we spend a huge chunk of our time browsing, flipping and general chatting about books. We even managed to learn how to play Foosball! After all that we end the day, with me getting a wonderful ride on my senior friend’s bike while the others took a bus in the other direction. Overall a wonderful experience that I definitely won’t be forgetting for a long time.

Picture Courtesy Sharon.