Author: Mini Kapoor
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: January 23, 2006
Introduction: Pak SC manufacture, flying of
kites but people get ready for Basant
Way past midnight in this sleepless city's
bustling food street in Gowalmandi, the Nite Kite Shop is running up brisk
business. Visitors take, breaks between handis of brain curry and glassfuls
of salty tea to pickup mementos. There are just a few cities around the world
that have a knack for celebrating themselves. Lahore is one of them, and akin
to the miniature carnival masks of Venice, it sums up its unique joie de vivre
in colorful kites. At the Nite Kite Shop, they come in small sizes and diverse
colours.
So, it this it then? Will Lahore hereafter,
now that Pakistan's Supreme Court has made an unambiguous statement by banning
the manufacture and flying of kites, be content with these flightless souvenirs?
Will those cries of "bo kata" as a kite flyer snaps an opponent's
string be echoes only from the past?
No, chirp the busy attendants, the date is set. Basant has been postponed
to March 5, to avoid an overlap with Moharram. The festival, they say, is
on. The Punjab government and the Lahore City District government are all
set to appeal to the court to relax the ban for a few days around Basant when
it takes up the case once again on January 25.
Lahore has fought hard-or as most things go
in this city, it has lived it up exuberantly-to preserve symbols of its urban
identity. Basant, celebrated to signal the arrival of spring, has been welcomed
here since longer than anyone can remember with the flying of kites. Fundamentalists
once tried to stop it, saying it was a Hindu festival.
The court late last year took suo motu action, banning kite flying on reasons
of loss to life and property. Many kite-fliers coat the string with broken
glass or simply take metal strings, damaging electricity wires. And as they
race across rooftops, there is the possibility of electrocution and tipping
over perilously. Last year, for instance, the toll was 19 dead and more than
200 injured.
So, what is the importance of Basant for Lahore? "Massive," says
Murtaza Razvi, Lahore editor of Dawn. "The mullahs gave up on trying
to stop Basant. Zia ul-Hag did not even try."
The popularity of the festival, he explains, is reflected in the rainbow coalition
that has formed to ensure its preservation.
"The nazim and the Pervez Elahi government feel people are going to defy
the ban, so as a face-saver they are seeking an exception of 15 days a year."
And President Pervez Musharraf, notes Ejaz Haider, news editor of The Friday
Times, has been winning popularity with Lahoris by speaking for Basant.
The real pressure on the streets has come with those associated with the trade.
On December 9, for instance, when the court upheld the ban in Lahore,
hundreds of men, women and children involved in kite manufacture gathered
outside in a protest that turned violent. "Lahoris," says Razvi,
"saw it as a Lahore-specific ban."
On and before Basant, many rooftops in and around the Old City are taken over
by corporates and event planners for lakhs of rupees.
Among the most prized properties then is Lahore's immensely evocative restaurant,
Cooco's Denon the edge of Hiramandi, the dancing girls' quarter, and
with its terraced rooftops overlooking the Badshahi Masjid and the Fort. "As
always, a bank will book the roof again this year," says a waiter.
So how will it go this spring? Shrugs Razvi: "Joie de vivre is a part
of this city. Even Zia could not crush it."
