Kite Day

Today is Kite Day -- Makar Sankranti. All the schools and most businesses are closed today. This is one of the few Indian holidays that is solar (rather than lunar) based, so it falls on either 14 or 15 Jan every year. For India, it's also the official start of "spring", although it's really the dead of "winter". (Seasons are different here. I should make that the topic of another post.)

Preparation for Kite Day begins about a week ahead.

Scaffolding for kite booths being set up along the Gunjan market road.

Setting up the next day. The wrapped bundles contain hundreds of kites each.

The market is busiest in the early evening. This is the evening before Kite Day and everyone is buying their kites.

The booths go on for about 200 m.

This year, I bought kites. I was astounded by how cheap they are. I also found out you buy them in packets of five identical kites. Five kites for 20 to 40 rupees (35 to 65 cents), depending upon the size. I did buy one expensive kite (150 Rs, $2.50) -- it's much bigger and fancier.

A selection of the kites I purchased. The lady beetle kite was the expensive one. I had to buy it to take back to "Lady Beetle Manor" in Virginia. Maybe it will scare the real lady beetles away! I declined to purchase a Narendra Modi - Barack Obama kite. (All the kite-wallahs thought that as an American, I needed that kite.) 

Kites and a few birds.

Most of the kites end up like this -- in a tree or in power lines. The power has been on-and-off today as the power company tries to keep up with kite-compromised power lines.

All the dangling kite strings are dangerous to both people and birds. Much of the string has finely-ground glass on it -- the better to cut off a competing kite. But it also cuts through birds and even the occasional motorcyclist. Every year a few motorcyclists are killed by kite string.

Once again the Jains set up their emergency bird hospital on the street in Vapi.