Forget the blues about demonetisation, the streets of Dhoolpet, Gulzar Houz, Yakutpura, Koka ki Tatti now wear the festive colours of Til Sankranti with rows of shops stringing up colourful kites and bundles of manja to draw the attention of buyers.
The printed synthetic kites this year have taken a cinematic turn with popular movies and TV serials characters like Baahubali, Motu and Patlu, Chotta Bheem emblazoned on them.
Among the printed ones are a few kites with Narendra Modi’s face and new currency notes with the tag line of Surgical Strike, another has Aaj ka Mahanayak as a tagline.
But only a few of these kites can be spotted in Dhoolpet where the big wholesale traders get their stock from Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Surat.
“I refused to buy those kites. We used to have a guaranteed business of a few lakh rupees but now I am not sure that I will be able to sell all the inventory that I have,” says Feroz Khan at Gulzar Houz.
“They have banned tangus (Chinese manja) they should also ban cover kites (plastic kites). These are equally dangerous as they stay in the environment for a longer period of time,” he says pointing to a single plastic kite fluttering from the Kaman near his shop.
“If you are flying a kite, try to navigate a kite made of plastic. It is unwieldy,” says Raees Khan of Aghapura.
