WHENEVER ANYTHING WHICH MAKES HAPPINESS;
MOST SABRE RATTLING STARTS FROM QUARTERS,
THE FESTIVAL OF BASANT MAKES MAULVIS QUIVER,
NOT ONE CAN EVER GO TO HEART OF REAL MATTER.

The Quran has splendid stories to tell. Even hadees tell us a lot about things which are hidden from the eyes of the pseudo Islamists. To them Islam is about suppressing happiness. Anything which makes you happy, dancing, music, arts and everything pleasant is repugnant to those who teach us morbidity of religion. Never understand the difference between Deen and Mazab. Here we are talking of a Kite flying festival which happens every year at the advent of Spring in Lahore. But Kite flying was an everyday normal activity.

To degrade it, the first sign of pseudo scholars’ morbidity is to classify Basant as a Hindu festival. Let me make something clear. Spring is the time of rejoicing. Winter is over and with it things blossom again. It is the best time. Flowers burst forth in a beautiful display. Birds start singing again in ecstasy. The farmers celebrate Spring with the harvest season. Some societies indulge in Music and dance. Basant  in Hinduism is not a religious festival. It’s a celebration of Spring. When Allah’s creatures rejoice in Spring, so does humankind in various forms. One form which was taken in Lahore was to coincide it with the festival of kites flying.

A historical leap in studying Basant Panchami is to go back to the times of Hazrat Nizamuddion Aulia, the famous Saint of the region, and the Star of Delhi in all ways. The Saint was advising ways to make things secular so that both nations, the Muslims and Hindus could unite in some ways. One way out was the making of the Urdu language. The job entrusted to Amir Khusro to blend Persian and Sanskrit in new form and Urdu was born. In the same way  the saint united two Nations in moments of rejoicing. There came the joining of two traditions, yellow harvest colour  and the beat of qawalis. To this day Basant there is a secular activity.

The scene of Delhi was interpreted in other areas in other ways. Although kite flying is part of Basant there. It came much later in a subdued way of square kites flying in sky. This flying is meant as a relaxation exercise, we call it locally “Kichean”. We can compare this practice with the rest of the world. We come across no record of kites in Mughal period. Even the mention is not there. A study of kite flyings in whole world  can be noted. England has a long record, as we have paintings of 18th century showing same. Spool and square kites with long tails too. America tells us of Benjamin Franklin’s discovery of electricity  by flying kites. Even in our region different areas, different handling of same. Take Malaysia for instance. Comparing kites can be informative. We see that there is resemblance but there are differences too. The differences are not that many but are related to the type of winds in Malaysia and the type of winds in Lahore. The Lahori patang is an evolution of the patangs from Malaysia. The Lahori patang is not made of RICE PAPER, but of GUDDI KAGHAZ and that is why its shape can be different and in all ways, it can go so far away, as to touch the skies themselves. Most Kites of the world have a limited span of flying distance, but not the ones from Lahore. We have seen them recede into the skies all the time, at times even clouded by the clouds themselves. The extent where even their visibility is gone. Here we have to seek historical references for same.

There is a reference in a travelogue of a German traveler, Baron Charles Hugel in Lahore, in which he tells us about the celebrations of Basant by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1836. With this he adds an interesting thing. He saw the ridiculous way the young men ran after the CUT KITES in the sky, with DANGS (long bamboo sticks) in their hands. A practice which was seen to the day that RAW started the campaign against Kite flying in Lahore, and ruthlessly brought it down, with use of their own agents in the bureaucracy of Pakistan. More on that later.

Nur Ahmad Chisti was a prolific writer of Lahore, and in an unpublished manuscript (which Imtiaz Ali Taj Sahib later saw in print), he narrates BASANT IN LAHORE around 1850s A.D. The most interesting thing in his writings is that although he talks of so many details about the festivity of Basant in Lahore, in no way he relates it to the ACT OF KITE FLYING at all. At some other place we will write about the details of Basant in Lahore, but it was more of wearing Yellow clothes. Chisti says that Basant happens in Lahore like in India on the 3rd of Jamad ul Sani, and the festival is of many days. The routine is presence of people at Mazars of Saints and graves of their loved ones. In Lahore Basant was celebrated at the Mazar of Madho Lall Hussain, and both Hindus and Muslims used to celebrate Basant there, as Madho and Lall Hussain were two lovers of medieval times and that is a separate story in itself. Chisti talks of the prejudice of the Hindus who shifted their Basant festivities to the Samadh of Haqeeqat Rai and left the Muslims in lurch. The Muslims started assembling at the Sarai of Muhammed Sultan Tekaydar. Mind you, no reference of kite flying at all. And there is the first sign that Muslims not knowing how to celebrate Basant, mixed it with kite flying and started a new trend in Lahore. We can presume the answer that bored young boys turned to kite flying to make it their day. Tea time scholars cannot understand the concept of two nations at work here.

A clear line is found. Chisti tells us of this SPECIAL GROUP OF KITE MAKERS AND FLYERS in a separate note and does not relate it to Basant. He says this group of people make and sell kites in Winter, and in Summer, they make bamboo cages and traps and sell SURAQS that is Red Robins of Lahore, who actually migrate here from Russian areas to this day. Suraqs and Choomonas (bird rearing) is another passion of Lahore, and Suraq fighting is there to this day as an entertainment. An impossible task to train the little red bird to fight with another red bird, often to death itself. There is every possibility that this group of people had migrated to Lahore from other areas, and may have been gypsies of some order. The link of this gypsy group may be linked to Malaysia itself. But that is a separate research experience. All this analysis is being DONE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY.

There is mention of Lucknow style of kites and kite flying even in Lahore. A Gudda with a small “par” at lower end. More usually plain thread was used for flying in olden times. Tangles were very civilized if any, as are the people of Lucknow famous for sensitivity. Compare it with Amritsar and the Sikhs rejoicing in harvest season. They forgot the word Basant and added the word LOHRI to their festival. Same thing, even kite flying at present. But again the value of Spools to their handiwork. But in all ways the concept Amritsar stole was from Lahore itself.

FESTIVAL OF BO-KATA IN DISGUISE OF BASANT AND EVEN LOHRI:

Kite flying got tremendous changes in the city of Lahore. Spool use as a carrier of string lost its count, as Lahore made the innovation of “Pinas”. An image of Pinas is given. A tightly wound kite thread in different direction in form of “Piris“. The biggest innovation is that to make a kites tangle successful, need for sword was there. This came in form of innovation of powdered glass and making a paste out of it by mixing it with local sarehayss (glue), obtained from the bark of certain tree. Even eggs of eagles were put in the paste in olden times to make it smooth to the use for hands. The shape of kites took many forms. Guddis both big and small (some with small tails, some with long tails called machars), Guddas both big and small (the smallest Gudda was called Pad); (the addition of humour as Machars related to sound of mosquitoes by the small guddi, and Pad related to sound of fart created by flying that small gudda. Patangs various types including a more elongated one as “Kups”, and even Flying Lanterns holding Diwas in them, known as “Burgs”. Different designs even got different names, a certain designed Guddi is called a “Pari”. A shaped Patang called Tira. Various designs got various names.

There were unwritten laws related to flying kites. The dos and don’ts. If you did the unthinkable, aggressive people would call at your door steps to give you a literal thrashing. One such action was related to “Hath marna”, which was to take a lesser flying kite, under a long distance kite, and pulling it with full vigour, to make the other cut away. The Art of PECHAS soared to new heights. But the most sophisticated was the flying of Patangs at Minto Park, the place of Yadgar Pakistan. Every Sunday serious Pechas with contesting parties, resulting in Trophies, or even financial bet between two parties. The standard of Minto Park Patang was the highest as well as their used thread. The epitome of kite flying, peaceful and done in full grace on the ground itself. All year round this went on in utter peace.

The artist Abdur Rahman Chughtai was not only a kite flyer, but also a kite maker. His Patangs were not only famous for excellence, but also beauty. He innovated many naqashi designed Patangs. More usually the “Pan wali” became  famous to this day for its beauty. These were made with Burma bamboo, and German gudi kagaz. The thread was either J.P. Coats number 8, or Deer no 12 Gutermann Goeinginger made in Germany. But his field was not Minto Park but the Mian havelis in Baghbanpura, seat of his many Mian friends. In fact not long ago Mian Majeed Professor of Photography at NCA boasted that he still preserved some of the Patangs made by Chughtai artist. I am not a Kite maker, but a kite flyer all my life. Kite flying was not a Basant occasion but an everyday activity after school and after home work. It brought us many things but it was the most economical  way to seek happiness in Lahore. Not expensive toys or chatting at Facebook and Whatsapp, but taking the kite high in the air to contest with another one. Bo kata filled the sky of Lahore not on Basant but every day. And those who had no money to buy Kites or Strings, did other things. One was use of tangle with KATIS. A kati was a small stone tied to a length of string and both opponents used the katis to cut the other kati. Again a competition and a healthy one. If even that was not there, then two boys simple handled a small piece of string and grazed it with string of the other person. It was called a Khasra competition. Believe it was pure fun for boys. It was a way of life in Lahore. This was resented by India who put RAW on the game to make things like Cricket and Kite flying hell for us. The Indian James Bond Ajit Duval probably planned the ruin of our kite flying by exporting for first time Indian thread to Lahore. Referred as Chinese thread in Amritsar. The Chemical as well as the stretchable thread came into existence. With it the use of steel wire at first few feet of the kites thread to facilitate Chamorna. That is to fly a kite in desire to catch another kite in the air and bring it home. A great endeavour. The result the wire fell on electrical wires and created booms in Lahore. The bad end had started.

Everything has been stolen from the common many. Lahoris are  harassed in all ways. Under economic stress and lack of democratic rule, and at the mercy of political thugs. They are slaughtered everyday. The curtailing of kite flying was slaughtering all the happiness of the poor people. It has transformed into an activity of normal people to the recluse of the dirty rich. Not being able even to afford kites and strings, their faces have left smiles which were habitual to them. The common many wants to shout BO KATA on their own, and have nothing to do with 900,000 cars which entered Lahore on the three days of so called Basant. I saw not even one Patang in the sky. I saw ridiculous Pinas and useless strings and hardly any refined Manja. But Lahore will not take it lying down. The germ is there again. Lahore will shout again. BO KATA IS IN THE AIR!