Strings and Kites

This post was supposed to be a ‘K’ post for BlogchatterA2Z challenge about my experience with kites. It is still about kites. However I will also talk about strings and kites together since it is an S post. I was crazy about flying kites during my preteens. I eagerly waited for the perfect dry windy season just after peak winters.

Strings

Strings were a ‘thing’ about kite flying, since other flying kites may cut you off if you did not have sufficiently protective ‘manjha’ coating on your strings.

How to make a Manjha

I have learnt an amazing way to put manjha on my kite strings. First of all, the thread must be balanced, not too thin or thick else it will be difficult to fly the kite. Cotton threads are best suited for this. In many places, synthetic threads are also used. For abrasive, powdered glass is required.

Fuse tube light bulb worked best for me. For adhesive, a handful of ‘sago’ was boiled in water in an empty milkmaid tin can to make a viscous fluid. Tin can is a must. Fine shreds(powdery) of glasses were added and mixed thoroughly. Done! A few hibiscus leaves were put inside for what reason I don’t know. But, it was believed that it increased the ‘sticky’ ness of the mixture. These were all done outdoors in over firewood.
Now, the tough part was to put it on strings. After several failed attempt to put it uniformly, a ‘dada’ near our neighbourhood taught me a lifesaving hack. Punch a hole just on the side of the tin-can with a nail. Insert one end of the string from above the can to the hole using a thin twig passing through the magic mixture. Bring it out and start rolling in a ‘Latai’.

It’s a cumbersome process and most people won’t use it unless passionate about kite flying and winning the occasional kite battles.
Later unwind the strings and wrap it over two adjacent tree trunk; let it dry throughout the day.

Dangers involved

The output is: -a deadly twine which can destroy other kites in a kite battle. You can even cut your hand if not handled properly. To make it more deadly, I used more glass shreds. The point is- Your thread should never be cut by others. It was a silent competition. 😀

During those days we used to get one kite for a rupee. But, I did some research on the available kites and then designed a kite which was highly controllable as well as fast.

One must understand the kite they are flying. Each one is unique. The main hack lies in the folded twine pasted horizontally in the kite. With a slight tweak as per your requirement, it can work wonders. Plus, the angle at which the noose is tied to the kite (very important). The noose will dictate whether your kite will be stable yet aggressive or stable and lazy. Like, at one point of time, I could fly even at an angle to the wind direction and reach my kite to my desired destination.

My first enterpreneurship

So, considering all these, when I made my own kite, they were hugely popular among my neighbourhood peers. Kids younger and older to me, used to buy it from me. One rupee for a readymade kite. My cost for making a kite was 0.25 paise and some effort. Not a bad bargain! I also used interesting colour combinations in my kites.. some inspired from available shops. Some designed completely by me. Each colour kite had a different mood and feel while flying.

Red-green, green-red, solid red (most favourite and fierce), yellow-purple (my best creation ever so far) were some of my favourite combinations!I sold this one for Rs. 3/-. Since, multiple persons wanted to buy them. I ended up selling it to the one who offered me triple plus he was also my next door (4 doors apart to be precise: D) neighbour.

There are some fascinating kite tales in my life and some dark ones too. I will share them sometime later on if my readers are interested.

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z and this is the S post.