MillenniumPost
Bengal

Hidco to organise kite-flying competition for senior citizens

Kolkata: Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) is set to organise a unique kite-flying competition on Wednesday, in which senior citizens members of Swapno Bhor and Snehodiya at New Town, will take part.

Hidco will give kites, latais and suta to the participants. The competition will start at 3pm and the winning candidate will be given a token prize.

The function has created great enthusiasm among the residents of Snehodiya and the members of Swapno Bhor, all of whom are senior citizens. Senior citizens through kite-flying are trying to go back to their young days when kite flying on the Viswakarma Puja day was almost considered to be a must in Kolkata and the districts. Kite-flying in Howrah and Hooghly districts were held on the day of Poush Sankranti.

In Kolkata, till the late 1980s, people from different ages took part in kite-flying. In Kalighat, opposite to the house of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee there was a famous kite-selling shop called Debalaya.

Two kite-selling shops in Central Kolkata, the more famous one being Ghuri Ghor on Creek Row, still sells kites but the number of buyers has gone down drastically. The famous kites were named as Mukh Pora, Chandial and Pet Katti etc.

Kite-flying was hit badly after old buildings in the city were demolished to make room for high-rise apartments. The owners do not have any access to the roof and from the mid 1990s the number of kites that were seen on the sky fell drastically.

It was Wajid Ali Shah, the deposed Nawab of Lucknow who came to Kolkata and settled in Metiabruz introduced kite-flying in Kolkata. He used to fly colourful kites and the papers were imported from Germany.

Well-known singers Manna Dey and Mohammad Rafi were also avid lovers of kite-flying.

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