Skip to main content

Kite Day!

I Love Kite Day! Yesterday was Kite Day (or Basant Panchmi). It's one of my favorite holidays here! We have videos and other things from previous Kite Days, so if you want to know/see more, check out the previous Kite Day Blog Posts. They actually don't celebrate this holiday in the Capital, but they do in M-town and the state it's in :) Soooo, yesterday we went to M-town to fly some kites and visit some friends!

Now, with Kite Day, there are people that fly kites and there are people that are Kite Runners... People usually fly kites on the roof of their houses, and the kite runners get the "cut" kites that are floating around and getting stuck in trees (that's why they are holding those branches in the picture below).
On kite day, everyone that flies kites gets a stack full of tissue paper kites. You tie on regular string and you also tie on sharp string (some of the strings are even made of glass)... Then you get your kite high up in the air (so high that you can hardly see it) and try to cut other people's kites out of the air... and if you cut someone's kite you yell out (in Hindi) - "I cut your kite!"

Houses are really close together, so it's really a lot of fun! Everyone is out and flying kites!
Here's a picture of me and my friend Jaya :)
These kids were trying to fly some kites - I thought they were cute :) Here's a picture of Me, Jaya and Choti (the girl on the the left).
Choti's sister is the girl (bride) on my blog header in the middle dressed in red.
Aashini thought it was soooo much fun! (I'll have more pictures of her on the baby blog) :)
Here is Mayank, Sunny & Adam :)
OK, so before we left that area of town to go to another area, we went back to Jaya & Mayank's house. When we got there, there was a Monkey in their house... Monkeys are very scary and gross! Everyone is afraid of them... and rightly so!
Here's a monkey (below) in case you don't believe me! Anyway, we spent a little time trying to get the monkey out of their house :) In M-town there are tons of monkeys during the "cold season" (they migrate). Adam and I were watching them try to get the monkey out, and then in the tree we were standing under, it started "raining" on us... no... it wasn't rain... we both were urinated on by a big huge nasty monkey... NICE!
Next we went to the Kumar's house. We lived with the Kumars when we lived in M-town. Here's a picture of me with Mona Didi and Shakshi.
They have a ladder on their roof and Aashini LOVED it! It was SUPER windy! So it wasn't the best day for kite flying, but it was still really fun! If you notice, Mona Didi is wearing a yellow Sari. You're supposed to wear yellow on Kite Day because around Kite Day, the Mustard is blooming and their flowers are yellow... it celebrates the changing of seaons and the upcoming harvest.
So, later that night we went back home on the train. Here's a picture in the M-town Train Station :) Our train was about 30 minutes late, and then our taxi got a flat on the way home... so we got home pretty late, but it was a great trip!
And another picture for fun :)
If you want to see more pictures check out: Facebook Pictures (you don't have to have facebook to see the pictures) :)

Comments

Laura said…
How fun, too bad they don't celebrate Kite Day in the city! I guess republic day comes the closest to it.
Erin G said…
too fun! I read about this in Kite Runner (like everyone else in America), so I knew they did it in Afghanistan, didn't know your country too. I need to go read your other blog posts about it.

Your outfit is GORGEOUS, by the way. and it looks comfy too!

I'm pretty sure "getting peed on by monkeys" should have been included in your post about things you missed about South Asia!!
Bri said…
AWESOME!!! LOVE THE PICS!
Emily said…
1. Looks like a great day! I'm jealous of the weather you must be having right now.
2. Why does Sunny look familiar?
3. Shakshi has grown a LOT!
4. Monkeys...blaahh! I can't believe you were peed on!!
5. I like your suit! Is it new?
allhisblessings said…
I'm trying to imagine coming home to a monkey in my house. Especially that one. Crazy!!
Anonymous said…
Did Jaya ever get on with an airline? What happened with her aunt? Is she the one I am thinking of?

Popular posts from this blog

Dusshera 2012

This year, our neighborhood was quite active for Dusshera.  At one end of our street, one of the major political parties here, set up a Dusshera celebration.   Here are some guys putting the effigies together and filling it full of fireworks! They had quite the political statement for their celebration.  (Basically that expensive water, fuel, electricity, diesel, gas, etc and FDI (bringing in foreign companies like Wal-Mart) are like Raverna (the demon god)... and are the evils of today....)  Here's their set-up at the end of our street.... you can't see it very well, but they had all three effigies there that they burned....  They burned VERY quickly at this one... So quickly that by the time I pulled out my camera, it was already on the ground!!  Our street looked like those CNN videos of rioting cities :) haha!!  There was burning stuff all over the street :)  Many people will get a piece of the leftover wood/bamboo to keep in their house for the comi

Funny Things 2 - American Fair Edition

We just got back from Roadtrip #8 in Macon, GA. It was an awesome trip!! So, before we head out on the next trip, we went to the North Florida Fair! The fair is always famous for it's fried foods... they fried everything!!... They had fried/breaded zucchini, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Onions, green tomatoes, okra, pickles, etc :) I had a lot of it too - YUM! Now, I'd heard of fried Snickers & twinkies (which they had) but they also had FRIED OREOS & PEANUTBUTTER CUPS :) The fair was cool. They had a shark show and a sea lion show... but our favorite was the pig races :) haha!!! It was hilarious!! Aashini was close up to the race until the pigs came - then she crawled up into Adam's lap really fast :) (as seen below) :) Pig races! haha! Cracks me up!

In Thailand!

We flew to Bangkok, Thailand today! The flight went well :) Aashini cried a little, but did awesome! We got the bulkhead seat and they even had an extra seat next to us! Aashini really only set in it for a pic or two, but it was fun anyway :) You can see the Buddhist monk in red behind Aashini. The guy that set next to us was a Monk also, he was actually the translator for the Dalai Lama ! Cool hunh? It was funny because he was typing on his laptop the whole flight (and Aashini was grabbing at his robe - haha!) This picture below cracked me up so I had to post it :) When we got here we had to go get a few things at the grocery store :) Aashini went to her first grocery store in the Middle East, but this was her first time getting to ride in a cart!!! She LOVED it!! She was swining her legs, babbling up a storm and looking at everything! Thai people LOVE babies!!! She got a lot of attention today! I have a feeling she's going to get a lot of attention the next coupl