Kites fly back to Rawalpindi sky

It was a delight to see kites of all colours dotting the skies in Rawalpindi this Basant. Apart from one or two, no incident of aerial firing or injury from metallic strings was reported.

People of the garrison city have hence proved that they are sensible enough to enjoy together. Flying kite was banned after multiple cases of injuries, deaths and aerial firing in different cities of Punjab, not least Lahore.

Rawalpindi has been a different story all along, though. The city has lost almost all of its sources of laughing together gradually.

It used to have a string of cinemas. These cinemas were crowd pullers but then our film industry fell into decay. Beast-like plazas replaced these cinemas and a few of them were converted into theatres.

Side by side with it, rapid urbanisation ate up every inch of land where residents of the city could have local sports.

Narrow and twisted streets and jam-packed roads define life in this once picturesque city. For all its absurdities, the city has an incredible sky - now colourful, now cloudy and now sunny.

Though people go to the old city to enjoy the essence of Basant, I think Satellite Town is also very vibrant. Commercial Market in this area takes the cake.

It is inhabited with students and bachelors in most part. This Market houses people from all ethnicities of the country.

The young boys climb over the roofs of plazas with their rolls of strings and kites.

Old people also accompany them to relive their youth. They relate steamy tales of their youth to the kite flyers.

The discussions ultimately meanders towards the worst of inflation the country is having and the slogan of Tabdeeli (change).

Unlike the past, it was interesting to see that fewer youth jump up to advocate ‘tabdeeli’ anymore. And those that do have a weaker and defensive tone.

Houses have grown into plazas in Commercial Market but still there are some houses. As some 20 years ago, residents of these houses are still heard complaining of breach of their privacy by these youngsters who climb over rooftops of plazas. Things have not changed much there.

After flying their kites, people again have to see the ground reality. After all they cannot afford to keep their eyes fixed to the skies. They have to look at the ground to find that the jobs they were hoping to rope in are no more. Fees of the universities they study in have flown higher than their kites. They cannot afford to have regular meals while government representatives tell them the benefits of eating less.

These are the grave realities the kite flyers have come back too. This is the new normal. Apart from learning their university and college courses, they have to learn through these testing times too.

No harm in flying kites unless it hurts others. So let these young souls fly their kites and hope that their imagination too fly like their kites. Only then a way can be worked out of this impasse.