The other day, I got this sudden inspiration to fly kites. We used to do that a lot(not lots, but ya, there were these times when we were crazy about them)as kids. And since I am pretty much jobless now-a-days, i felt that well, I want to fly kites now. So I went through my old stuff, found the 'firki', got the 'manja' too. So all I needed was a kite. We used to have two tapris(or what you ll call extremely small lane-side shops) nearby from where we got kites. I went there only to find that they had closed down in the time that went by. So well, I started hunting for more shops that sell kites. To my wonder, I didnt find a single one. Not one shop sold kite in the areas I searched.
Now this is really bad, to know that not one shop sells kites. The big bazaars and the likes boast of keeping every small thing, right from a pin to furniture to I dunno, maybe a locomotive too. But they cant keep a single simple thing like a kite, which costs between Re.1 to Rs.5 max.
And then I realized that well, if I found out a thing like this, there must be so many things which have become a thing of the past in the time between. And someone somewhere must be missing it.
And now, coming to think of it, its not just the availability stuff that's lost in between. We as people have changed a lot too. The skills that once many people manned are now a rare sight. Atleast in our generation, and here I am speaking of my peers, very rarely does anyone know how to fly kites. For that matter, none of the old games are in vogue nowadays, like bhovra(top), gotya(marbles) etc. People have moved on and these things have lost themselves on their way. Is it for the good, is it for the bad, one can never say. But as a person, I certainly wish that these things aren't totally lost, cause that will really be a major cultural loss. Something must be done to revive them. And I am happy that I can safely say that I can play all these games and can pass them on. Can you? If yes, please do.. Else these skills will really be lost in translation...