Patang Ka Patinga!

“Do chaar patang aap bhi udaayiye...”

The title was so tempting ( http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/faith-and-rituals/happy-uttarayan )

Mushkil yeh hai ki

at a time sirf ek hi udta hai, hath doe hone par bhi....

Two patang/s on the sky, one in each hand... soch kar hi thakaavat mehsoos hoti hai!

The skill of kite flying gets tested only when there is hardly a wind... Take off problem! We get to see the 'frustration' expression on a kids face when they run to and fro in vain.... They give up for a while, only to try sending their hopes to soar sky-high, yet again!

In that movie 'Gods must be crazy part -3' the chinese hero demonstrates, how to fly a kite when there is hardly a wind... And chooses a tough kite... the parachute! And his partner is hoisted on to the chute... the take off is managed with the help of a bird that runs at a great speed... The hero sits on the back of that bird, spurs the bird to run fast... he holds a strong rope, the other end attached to the chute, and the still air around is made to work!... the air tries to block the chute which in turn spreads its resistance, rising higher and higher while avoiding the air-block!

And this hoisting this parachute was to take an aerial view and search for something, they were hunting for... to save the effort of a strenuous walk-around-and-search.. it was a desert, and they were stranded... no water or food... maximising of available resources, was the concept!

For me, the concepts came the hard way!

Born in a southern family, grew at a city where the sky is littered with multi coloured kites during the season...

The earliest attempt was to pick up a discarded kite... there was a string attached, and no claimants for that kite lying on the road side... I just tried, running to and fro, holding the farthest end of the string attached to that kite, about 15 feet of distance between me, and my hope-to-soar...

I felt it as a success! The kite rose up to my height, and thereafter just kept circling at that height... now the increase of speed in running only improved the revolutions, not the height! (I was too small to know the reasons, or even that this was not the limit!.. For me, at that age, that was the geo-stationery-orbit for my satellite! Only that, I was keeping a watch on the satellite, not the other way!... But yes, my being was at the 'orbit' a very small orbit—itself!

My dad took pity, he saw that there was no harm buying a 'good' kite... not a discarded one... after all the kids take the 'in-thing' around... So, the smallest satellite was financed, and the thread was just the ball that my mom had preserved from grocery packs (the 'packing' was old news papers twisted into a cone, and the mouth folded, tucked, and a coarse thread wound liberally around the cone.... (this packing was 'good only till you reached home'... the only 'qualification' that a grocer's assistants needed was speed at making such cones, winding the thread at maddening speed.. the coarse thread would break off, if the hold was not gentle!)...

But for a kite, that coarse and used thread was fragile, and heavy.. the curve due to gravity pulled down the kite instead of trying to persuade, and inspire the kite to lift off! (spiritual practices, if coarse, and fragile, burden and fatigue the 'spirit' though feigning to be 'with the spirit's spirit-of-game'!

Now, the assembling of the kite was not so perfect.... my dad had crossed that age, when observation of trifles are afforded that purity, unaffected by 'pre-judice'... so the finer points of that shorter length of thread at the upper junction of stem, and the longer thread down below, knotted at an optimum distance from the kite, etc escaped his grasp.. All I could do is just to keep looking at what the financier is doing (banker provided by nature---dad), and hoping that he 'accidentally' manages to do the right thing—almost like praying that our Finance Minister takes proposes a right kind of budget, against all known parameters (of his being 'elected' ), which defy a sensible logic, that it is sheer unfounded wishful thinking, nothing more!

'Your work it out on your own'... was the implied message, when dad's supervision ended... And financing of the 'project-kite' was all that remained to remind me 'did I not buy you a kite?' (The still-born 'projects' of politicians continue to serve the publicity-stunts....!)...

Discarded or looted kites were not 'tolerated' at home... It was like opposing charity from capitalistic west, due to vague principles which are held to 'just-oppose' anything that seems-to-be ... against 'socialistic pattern of society' ....

Now I had to design my own model of cryogenic engines... The earlier models with new-papers did not lift off even... and fell flat into the nearby puddle (like our failed spacecrafts that fall into a nearby ocean, quite harmlessly)...

I learn't... the paper had to be thin, yet strong... the stick had to be flexible with strength... The thread had to be thin (less resistant to breeze, and gravity!).. so, I set about to further -fine-spinning the same coarse thread, used bits of cooked rice grains to make fine-spun thread further-compressed ...

The last bit of 'learning' happened to stay to befriend me during my spiritual pursuits...! I had climbed on to the terrace, allowed the kite to drift as distant as possible without actually touching the ground, and while I ran from one corner of the terrace to the other-diagonal-end, I managed the twin task of maintaining the grip on the thread, while also allowing the kite to draw the thread out of my palm as-and-when it tends to soar higher and higher... and then at the right moment give a tug to place it into the next orbit, where... there is a gentle breeze to keep it afloat ! Now I could leave the terrace even, and control the kite-satellite even remotely, from my 'base-station' a safer place than the terrace---the front yard of home!....

Fine tuning of practices... the thread! The slot in the sky, where the kite is assured a support from the presence of a gentle breeze.... spiritual support at a higher plane of subtle perception.... the thread, the awareness, not too tense, not too casual, not to rigid, not too loose... relaxed, and yet alert! Wah!... The un-academic idler's sport of kite-flying was not so unrewarding after all! It was just about taking it a bit intensely, despite all odds!...

psn (16th January, 2014)