Shiraz Bashir
Basant - the kite flying festival of spring - was supposed to be celebrated last weekend in Lahore but, at least officially, it was postponed because of the tragic Lahore bombings. But Basant season is obviously here. For good and for bad.
Basant is a festival celebrating arrival of a spring season. People dress up in colorful clothes and fly Patang or gudday (Kites) of various shapes and sizes using a thoughtfully selected and prepared dor(Kite String). Some people fly kites just for fun. Others fly in serious competitions among various families, mohalas and emotions can run high.
Basant always brings childhood memories from Rawalpindi.
We use to prepare for festival by “dor sotna” (preparation of kite flying string). It starts from selecting the string first. Strings come in many varieties like number 5, 2, 12 Reech (bear), Camel brand, Air blade, 5 panda etc.
Art of “dor sotna” involves many secret ingredients like special glue, string, glass, “saresh”, color and many other secret stuff. Then “dor” is put on a “charakrhee”. After that we use to go and purchase kites of various types like gudday, Patang, Lakhnow Kut, Pari in various sizes and colors. gudday come in sizes like 2.5 Tawa, 3 Tawa, 6 Tawa whereas Patang sizes are known as Har Githhi, Panch Gitthi, 6 Githhi, 8 Githhi etc. Then dor is attached to kite using a process known as “Kanee Dalna”. It is an art itself.
On Basant day, we wear colorful clothes and climb to roofs and have Patang Bazee. Shouts of “Bo Kata”, “Aur Dheel Day”, “Nazar a Raha Hay Guda”, “Oyay Chor Maree Door ko”, “Khich Mar Na Yar”, “Neechay Say Neechay Say Paycha Laga” were norm. Due to very sharp “dor”, index and other fingers get very deep cuts. But those cuts were badges of honors and were proudly shown to people next day.
Basant is a fun filled festival. But every year many deaths occur due to kite string cutting somebody throat, electrocuting someone due to vicinity to overhead electric wires or falling from roof tops. So a great caution must be exercised so as not to lose human lives.
Credits:
1. Salman, who is a dear friend of mine from Pakistan, enlightened me on types of Guday, Patang and Dor.
2. Photos by Rehan Fazal at flickr.com
ATP’s Post on Basant from 2007:
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It makes me really wonder that some people can have such a uni-dimensional personality. Why is it that everything in Pakistan is looked from just one lens? Keep wallowing in your paranoia that the whole world is in a conspiracy against you and your religion, and sure enough, you won’t be able to see anything else. God save Pakistan!
Whether we agree or disagree to such celebrations, people don’t have much choice when it comes to have fun. Nothing is wrong with basant festival as long as we are sensibly organizing it and taking precautionary measures to avoid any mishaps. Taking it to extremes is a personal choice, not the fault of basant. If I drive recklessly or hit someone, the car/road is not whispering into my ears to do that, it’s totally my fault.
It’s a colorful and vibrant festival that speaks of life and energy. Culturally speaking, it exudes Lahori spirit which we should be proud of. I am!
Interesting…did not realize that some of us were actually against flying kites!
I’ve heard the “religious” argument before; however, not for basant but for things like Valentine’s day. Saying that you find it stupid, a waste of time, or a marketing gimmick, is okay, but saying that it is somehow a celebration of kufr, is just bizarre. I wonder if the same wahabis who commemorate the supreme tragedy of karbala by celebrating were the ones to come up with this….hypocritical, but that wouldn’t be a surprise now, would it?
For those who want to bring religion needless into everything, all I can say is “GO FLY A KITE!”
For me, Basant is about flying a kite. It does not matter to me if 1000 years ago a non-muslim also flew a kite in spring.
Dear JK; I refer to Mustafa’s comments and rest my case as far as the celebrations should be done or not against his comments. He has given details and proper references to support the claim that this event is a non-muslim event and it is especially initiated to mark the death of someone who has bad mouthed about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
I would like to comment about the punishment given by my father which you think was unreasonably harsh and unnecessary. The punishment was not harsh in any way as I was not beaten or anything I was made to go back and return the goods to make me realize that I should spend money with proper authority and if I am answerable for the money in my pocession then I should spend it with the permission to do that particular expense.
I have realized at the age of 38 now that many punishments given by parents initially seems to be “unreasonably harsh and unnecessary”, but they are alwasy meant to teach us a lesson.
I am sure my father did not know at that time the start of basant which Mustafa has explained but his actions or hate about basant as I understand was due to its expensive nature and his inability to support that unreasonable expense as he was already his maximum efforts to provide the best possible education for me and 2 or my brothers. One can argue that he would have sat with me and discussed in detail that this expense is not bearable or this habit is not good but seriously a child does not understand such things, child only wants to get his demands met immediately.
Rizwan,
Anger and hatred for kite flying depends on who you talk to.
Some people think it is a Hindu festival, so they call it unislamic. I personally hate it for other reasons. My uncle was an expert in kite flying; he used all the same terms mentioned by the author. One day during basant, while coming back from his friends house after a day of kite flying, he saw something that made him give it up. It seems a father and his son got hurt while riding on a motorcycle. The father got cut in the chest and neck, but the son got cut in the neck mostly. The motorcycle also crashed because the father lost control of the bike. From my uncle’s account, the father also had one or multiple fractures in his left leg and the son was hurt as well. Both were entangled in the ‘dor’ and bleeding, people were frantic in trying to help them but could not stop the bleeding. Next day we found out, through the newspaper, that the son bled to death and the father barely survived. From that day on my uncle gave up this filthy habit, something he had been doing for almost 20 years.
Oh! By the way the little boy was 4 years old, and the first child.
Every year you hear these stories in the newspaper and I wonder, must every one see a gruesome death like this to change this habit?
Also ask any one employed by WAPDA, if you live in Pakistan, how many people get electrocuted (not just deaths, shocked as well).
It is a fun habit, I admit to flying kites & enjoying it. But those few hours of pleasure are not worth someone’s life ( or mine).
So, my reason for hating it is the useless anguish caused by it.
“I have never understood why there is such anger against basant and kite flying… I can understand that it is dangerous but the anger seems to be deeper.”
This shows general level of illiteracy of Pakistani society. If you knew history, you would understand resentment against Basant. Do you know that Basant is a celebration of kufr? Next time think twice:
Here is the link:
http://www.yanabi.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid= 105&threadid=27661&highlight_key=y&keyword1=basant
The Kites of Blasphemy
By Syed Mohammad Anas
Basant is celebrated in Pakistan with great fervor and the interest in celebrating it seems to be increasing every year. The celebrations have reached the point that invitation cards are printed out. It is celebrated on different days in the country so that “the spirit of Basant” is kept alive nationwide and people can participate in it on a national scale. The night of Basant is reminiscent of ‘Qiyam-ul-Layl’, in the sense that people do not sleep on this night. But the ‘ibadah’ is of a different kind. Reputed hotels have their rooftops booked for the whole night. The whole night is spent in flying kites, merry-making, with Indian music blaring on loudspeakers in the background.
Like many of our rituals, its origins remain largely unknown to the majority of people. But there is no denyng that this is a dangerous activity. It causes severe damage to life and property. Many lives are lost and the country suffers damages going into hundreds of thousands of rupees every year in accidents related to it. A few years ago three grid stations caught fire on this occasion because of short circuits caused by metal wires used in kite flying. Yet, the government promotes the celebration of Basant with an almost religious intensity.
If people ever do stop to think about how Basant originated, they assume it was a Hindu festival to mark the change of seasons. That Muslims should be participating in a pagan celebration would be bad enough. But the reality is starker than that. Are you ready for this? Here is an account of its origin from Dr. B.S. Nijjar’s book, “Punjab Under the Later Mughals.” According to him, when Zakariya Khan (1707-1759) was the governor of Punjab, a Hindu of Sialkot, by the name of Hakeekat Rai Bakhmal Puri spoke words of disrespect for the Prophet Muhammad and his daughter Fatima, Radi-Allahu anha. He was arrested and sent to Lahore to await trial. The court, acting according to the law, gave him capital punishment. The non-Muslim population was stirred to request Zakariya Khan to lift the death sentence given to Hakeekat Rai but he did not accede to their request. Eventually the death penalty was carried out and the entire non-Muslim population went into mourning.
As a tribute to the memory of this blasphemer, a prosperous Hindu, Kalu Ram initiated the Basant ‘mela’ in (Marrhi) Kot Khwaja Saeed (Khoje Shahi) in Lahore. (This place is now known as Baway di marrhi.) It is the last stop on the route of Wagon no. 60 from Bhati Gate. Dr. B.S. Nijjar states on Page no. 279 of his book that the Basant ‘mela’ is celebrated in memory of Hakeekat Rai.
The ignorant crowds and their equally ignorant vocal advocates may ask “Hey, what’s wrong in a little fun?” But should they continue to fly the kites of blasphemy?
(References taken from Salim Rauf’s “Waah re Musalmaan.”)