Addiction to indoor and online games leads to steady decline in kite flying

Kritika Tiwary / Jan 7, 2023, 08:25 IST

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The city market in Ranchi is full of different varieties of kites, but few customers are buying them because of the growing popularity of indoor and online games. The owner of the gift world shop at Doranda market said that they have been selling kites for the last 15 years, but sales have surged prior to the festival and they used to sell kites for at least six months a year, but with the increasing trend of indoor games and digital games, very few people buy kites or know how to fly them. The price of kites ranges from Rs 5 to Rs 100, depending on the size and quality. Children look for some of their favorite cartoon characters like Chotta Bheem, Spiderman, Doraemon, and Bahubali imprinted on the kites. Another retailer, Anil Gupta who owns Anil store at the upper bazaar, said that people used to buy color and glass powder around five to six years ago to make the manjha the string used to fly kites at home. However, with the popularity of kites declining, people are now opting for readymade manjha rather than making it on their own. There is no longer a need for glass powder and color kites are traditionally flown throughout the winter

Addiction to indoor and online games leads to steady decline in kite flying

Ranchi: The city market is full of different varieties of kites ahead of the Makar Sankranti celebration but not many customers are buying them — a result of the growing popularity of indoor and online games.
Atul Gupta, the owner of the Gift World shop at Doranda market, said, “We are running this shop for the last 15 years and we used to sell a lot of kits during the Makar Sankranti.The sales surged prior to the festival and we used to sell kites for at least six months a year. However, with the increasing trend of indoor games and digital games, very few people buy kites, leave alone know how to fly them. For the last five years, we are selling only 30% of the stocks during this season. Very few people buy willingly to enjoy the day of kites on Makar Sankranti.”
The price of kites ranges from Rs 5 to Rs 100, depending on the size and quality. Children look for some of their favourite cartoon characters like Chotta Bheem, Spiderman, Doraemon and Bahubali imprinted on the kites.
Another retailer, Anil Gupta, who owns Anil Store at the Upper Bazaar, said, “People used to buy colour and glass powder around five to six years ago to make the manjha (the string used to fly kites) at home. After the popularity of kites declined, people are now opting for ready-made manjha rather than making it on their own. As a result, there is no longer a need for glass powder and colour. Kites are traditionally flown throughout the winter, but today’s parents and youngsters prefer indoor games like car racing and shooting games among others.”

Earlier, numerous types of manjha, including plastic manjha, tiger, dragon and tuktuk were very popular, particularly among college students. Now, only a few people fly kites during the festival, Gupta lamented.
However, a kite enthusiast and student, Aryan Thakur, said, “Makar Sankranti is one of my favourite festivals. Earlier, we used to fly kites in a field with a group of friends two months before the festival. Following the lockdown, only a handful of my friends now fly kites a week before the festival from the terrace.”

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