With her colourful hairdo and sprightly energy, 67-year-old Endang Ernawati stood out among the evening revellers on Kozhikode beach. Little girls flocked around her for selfies. Behind her, adorning the skies of Kozhikode, were the traditional train kite of Indonesia and a massive fish kite, drawing quite a crowd.
Ms. Ernawati is no ordinary kite flyer. With 30 years of kiting experience and having participated in all major kite festivals of the world over the years, she is the founder of Museum Layang-Layang in Indonesia, one of the best known kite museums in Asia. “Kite flying is part of our culture. I started the kite museum 14 years ago with an aim to preserve the traditional kite models and skills from different parts of the country,” Ms. Ernawati told The Hindu .
She was in Kerala to take part in the Malabar International Kite Festival that concluded at Bekal, Kasaragod, recently. She had been keen to visit the Kozhikode beach that is to host the Calicut International Kite Festival in September. “This beach is amazing and it has what it needs to be a good kite-flying destination. But the wind is poor in the evening. We have to fly the kites earlier in the day,” she said.
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Ms. Ernawati has been to India earlier, for the Gujarat International Kite Festival in January, and was amazed to watch every one in the city engaged in kite-flying.
“I don’t find that kind of enthusiasm here. You need to nurture that culture,” she said, as her train kite, a formation of around 100 kites on a single string, soared higher than the tallest building on the beach. The members of the One India kite team and the Incredible India Women’s Kite team, who hosted her in Kozhikode, tried their very best to control the heavy fish kite, which did not rise above ten feet and fell every now and then.
The control gradually shifted from the hands of the professional kite flyers to the crowd that had gathered around, with everyone wanting a taste of the kite-flying experience. “I take back my words. This is the enthusiasm I was looking for,” said a beaming Ms. Ernawati.
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