As the sun descended, it was a great sight to see the eight-metre long ‘Ganapati’ inflatable kite of Maharashtra’s Fly 360 Kite Club flying in the middle and being flanked by Kathakali kites of ‘One India kite team of Kozhikode’ and Team Mangalore on either side. A host of kites featuring Octopus, cats, fish, and cartoon characters namely ‘Incredible Hulk’ and ‘Tinkerbell’ also filled the sky on the Tannirbhavi main beach on Saturday, February 10, evening.
As many as 40 kite flyers, including 13 from eight foreign countries, took part in the 7th edition of the two-day International Kite Festival, which got underway on Saturday. The event is organised by Team Mangalore in association with ONGC-MRPL.
The strong wind made it hard for the Ashok Shah-led Fly 360 Kite club from Dahanu to launch the ‘Ganapati’ inflatable kite with ‘Octopus’ as the pilot kite. As the wind started to move across, it was challenging for Mr. Shah and his team to adjust the two big kites and launch it within the limited space available at the venue.
Similarly, international kite festival veteran Abdul Rauf and his Mumbai team also faced problems flying their ‘101 butterfly’ train kite and 35 star train kite.
The 67-year-old Liannawati Lie and her son Wenas Ongkowinoto from the Art Kite team of Indonesia enjoyed the strong wind and it helped their inflatable kite featuring an 8-metre-long Tinkerbell fly majestically. The team will display six unique inflatable kites featuring a Lion, Octopus, and other animals. Alex of Ukraine and Nee from Thailand from Cat Kites team displayed their inflatable kite featuring four cats and a tadpole.
Ali Westhill-led One India kite team from Kozhikode displayed an inflatable kite 35-ft-long Kathakali made of cloth. The team also displayed a 25-ft-long cat kite. The team will be displaying a 60-diametre ‘Circle’ kite, a ‘Mandra’ show kite and Duck Kite in the festival.
Team Mangalore displayed their oldest and biggest Kathakali kite. It also displayed ‘100 Kathakali’ train kite. Few ‘stunt’ kites, which do manoeuvrers in the sky similar to fighter jets, also flew. People purchased kites and flew it along with their children.
The event was formally inaugurated by Health and Family Welfare and Dakshina Kannada District in-charge Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao. He flew kites that had flags of ‘Constitution Preamble’ and of ‘Constitution awareness jatha’. Mr. Rao was accompanied by Deputy Commissioner M.P. Mullai Muhilan and Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal.
