As the winter sun brightens Lahore rooftops on Friday morning, the city is once again ready to embrace the Basant frenzy after around a two decades long hiatus, with colourful kites adorning the clear sky, contrasting its usual blandness.
The Basant celebrations this year, however, appear to be teetering on the edge as the Punjab government has declared the event as “sensitive”, given the scale of participation and emotional attachment of people to the festival which is returning to Lahore after a hiatus of 18 years.
A large number of people from different parts of the country and abroad have travelled to Lahore filling the hotels and guest houses to their capacity and pushing the rents exorbitantly high. Many other are staying with their relatives and friends, multiplying the Basant joy.
From Friday onwards, Lahorites will be displaying their characteristic zeal, crowding rooftops and streets, fully utilising the three holidays announced by the Punjab government for the Basant celebrations.
As the formal buying of kites and dor’ (twine) began just six days ago, the manufacturers could not match the massive demand, leading to the sky-rocketing prices of the available stock, which prompted the Punjab government to direct the deputy commissioners of four other districts to allow manufacturing of permissible’ kite flying material after registering the makers.
This`permissible’ material was supposed to reach the eager customers in Lahore through the already registered traders and sellers.in Lahore through the already registered traders and sellers.
Youths and children are thronging the markets, particularly in the narrow streets of Walled City to buy kites and `dor’, but their excitement is marred by the reports that the sellers have been left with little stocks which are being sold at exorbitant prices.
A kite buff, Muhammad Nasir, says he has been running from one bazaar to another to buy quality twine and `permissible’ guddas, only to find the material was available at mind-boggling prices – a ‘dor’ Pinna ranging between Rs10,000 and Rs25,000 and kites from Rs500 to Rs1,500. “Basant this time belongs only to the rich,” he laments.
