The kite festival Vokatta 2014 took place at Eco Tourism Park on a recent Sunday amidst massive crowds and very many kites dotting the sky. The festival went international in its second edition this year and fliers from around the world showcased their fancy kites in the sky.

“We want kite-flying to become a festival in the state, to be celebrated as jubilantly as Durga puja or Holi,” said Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, founder and managing trustee of Benchmark New Town Kolkata International Kite Festival Trust, that organised the fest.

For those who missed the spectacle, here are some of the biggest draws —

Octopus

All eyes were on the cute purple octopus with 40ft-long tentacles floating in the sky. “I had at least 500 people coming and asking me the height, weight and price of this kite,” smiled Jamshed Turner of Jeem Kite Club, Ahmedabad. The face of the octopus was open on the top and that let air gush in and lift it in the sky. “But I had to make sure there were tiny holes at the bottom of the tentacles to let some air out. Else the kite would be too strong to control and would lift even 10 people holding on to the strings,” said Turner.

The kite is tailor-made in China, to Turner’s design and cost him $1,200 when he bought it in 2010.

Fish

The New Town sky had many a fish floating about. This one in the picture above was from Anand Kite Group, Ahmedabad. “We first sent up a 12-ft x 10-ft Dracula kite that was open on top and had air entering it. This was the parafoil kite on whose line we attached several fish-shaped kites, around 2.5-ft x 1.5 ft in size,” said Mahesh Chavda from Anand Kite Group, Ahmedabad. Members of the club make and sell these kites online too. “A set of one Dracula kite and 25 fish kites would cost around Rs 15,000.”

Fliers from Malaysia too had got similar fish kites. “We had packed many more kites but our luggage has got stuck in transit,” rued Azemi Arrifin.

Miniature kites

While other fliers tried to launch the biggest kites, Arjun Khatri, of Mumbai’s Golden Kite Flying Club, took pride in flying the tinniest. Visitors thought his 2 inch long kites were just for display but he wowed them by flying the little kites all morning. “I feel bad refusing children when they ask us to let them fly our big kites. So now I make miniature kites that all can fly,” he smiles, showcasing all his miniature kites. His smallest is 1mm and he even offers you a magnifying glass to see it. “Ten such kites will fit on a fingernail.” Perhaps his were the only kites at the festival that were shaped in the traditional diamond shape.

Mahabali

The king in the sky was the mythical Mahabali, whose visit to earth is celebrated in the festival Onam in Kerala. “We want to promote India’s heritage through kites,” said Rajesh Nair of Kitelife Foundation in Kerala. The 13-ft kite was a cut-out of the king holding a mace over his shoulder. Nair’s other kites depicted theyyam, the Keralan art form of worship and most of his kites were made of recycled materials. “Instead of using ripstop fabric, the usual kite material, I’ve used discarded blouses to make the Mahabali kite,” he said. Despite kids wanting to fly the kite, Nair would not let them. “It’s too strong. Even I fly them only after tying part of the string like a belt around my waist.”

Superhero

The superhero in the sky was flown by Bob C. of the UK. “I wish the wind was stronger as then I could have flown him much higher,” said Bob. “I’m only releasing about 100m of string for most of my kites today but if the wind was stronger they would have flown at least 200m high.” Another popular kite flown by Bob was based on the ancient Greek sculpture of Discabolus where a man is shown about to release a discus in the air. But in place of the discus he cut out a wheel in the kite that spun against the wind. “The wheel makes it tougher to fly but it adds to the appeal,” he smiled.

American acrobatics

American Barbara Meyer, the vice-president of the International Kite Federation, flew several fancy kites but was all praise for Indian kite fighters. “Any kite flier in the US who practises kite fighting dreams of coming to India. But they know that they can’t win against the fliers here,” she smiled. Meyer is an expert kite acrobat and can fly kites with more than one string attached to them. This is a popular routine in the US where the flier handles all the strings and makes the kite roll, flip and dance to music.

Zero-wind kite

This was a kite that used the hot-air-balloon principle. “The edges of the delta-shaped kite (picture below) are inflatable and once the sun heats the air up it rises even without any wind,” explained Johan Van Eeckohut of Belgium. It weighed only 2.5kg and was easy to manoeuvre. “This kite even talks to you,” said Johan, pulling the string and making the kite flap its sides. “There, it says ‘hello’.” Johan invented this 10m x 5m kite two years ago and is a huge draw at every festival that he attends. The black, yellow and red in the kite represented the Belgian flag and the blue background was for the sky.

Eye in sky

Visitors may have been busy clicking pictures of the kites, but there was one kite in the sky that helped click pictures of the visitors. “Kite aerial photography,” explained Nicholas Chorier, the Puducherry-based French kite and photography enthusiast (picture above). “I’ve been working in this field for five years,” said Chorier, handling the string of the kite with one hand and camera remote with the other.

His camera was attached to the string 30m below a hexagonal kite. This shape, based on the Japanese Rokkaku kite design, is most stable and helps click sharp pictures (picture above). “I am extremely careful when lowering the kite and never fly in places with manja kites around,” he says. “I click when I think the frame is right and the medium captures some breath-taking images.”

Pictures by Amit Datta