Celebrating Uttrayan- Gujarati Kite Festival- Day 1: January 14th 2015.
The last two days have been unbelievably amazing and yet a contrast so diverse from each other. The majority of you reading this blog will not possibly be able to comprehend what Bruce and I have experienced during this major Indian festival, but I would like to try to walk you through the previous two days of our lives just to give you a little insight. I have divided my Uttrayan blog into Day 1 and Day 2....not because it goes on and on and I wanted to bore you but because we celebrated the two days in entirely different ways both of which were something we'll never forget and I wanted you to be able to read and experience through my blog how amazing this place is and how passionate the people are. We've never experienced anything like this before....The culture, the acceptance, the passion!
A little background on Uttrayan (Kite Festival): Usually held around the 14th January each year and includes two days of public holiday. Uttrayana is the day when the sun starts to travel towards north as a sign of coming summer. People fly kites from their rooftops in celebration of the festival and we have been told that the flying of kites signify releasing any bad luck from the previous year. The state of Gujarat is the only state of India which partakes in this extraordinary festival. It's the party of all parties.....I honestly believe if you think you can party....you have not partied until you have done so for Uttrayan in the Gujarati state of India and may I remind you that Gujarat is a dry state, so no alcohol is involved.
Our day started slowly at the hotel. After breakfast we went to the hotel rooftop and was a little disappointed by the lack of kites in the sky. We'd been promised a sky full of kites and we could see maybe five at best count. We had been invited to an expat party late afternoon and hoped the kite situation might accelerate as the day went on. We visited our house where we will move in in a few weeks time and climbed up onto the rooftop to see across the sprawling Vadodara city. Still not a lot was going on around 2pm but we could see things were starting to happen slowly. We walked the streets and found a few locals starting to get into the spirit. A rooftop of young teenage boys beckoned us up onto their roof however we declined as we had plans an hour later.
Our French friends, Andree and Herve met us at our hotel where we walked to the party location only three blocks from where our hotel is located. We were greeted by our French hosts Valerie and Gregory and taken up onto their rooftop to fly kites of our own. As expat after expat started to arrive, our rooftop party grew in number to about forty- fifty people. Kids, teenagers and adults all had fun flying kites, laughing, talking and bopping away to the pounding enormous speakers spilling out mostly French music across the suburb of Alkapuri in Vadodara.....this added enormous atmosphere to our party. We duelled with the neighbours as to who had the loudest music yanking the volume to an all new high......Mixed music genres graced the suburb louder and louder as though we were all doing battle amongst the various cultures.
We flew kites, lost kites, sliced other peoples kite strings with the glass tethered strings and of course reviled in glee at doing so, nursed string cuts on our fragile hands, wrapped fingers in tape to protect them from new cuts. It was indeed a lot of fun. The kite flying continued until dark with kites of every possible colour bobbing, weaving and soaring in the sky. Birds precariously navigated kite stings as they flew amongst the ever growing amount of kites in the vivid blue toned sky.
The deep orange sun hazed by smoke began to set gifting us with a sky washed with a velvety deep tangerine colour I've only ever experienced in India. As dusk crept in, we began to see floating fireball lanterns grace the skies of Vadodara. There must have been literally millions dotting the sky as far as the eye could see. We released a few from the rooftop also, they can be difficult to initiate but once you've mastered the art, the lanterns glide higher and higher in the direction the soft breeze takes them. Whilst there were a few released in Alkapuri, Old City Town seemed to have the majority of action off in the distance along with continuous fireworks around the outer perimeter of the city, many kilometers from where we were but they were still impressive to watch from a distance. The lanterns slowly glided across the city like slow flying gold stars. Due to last years fire problem from this ritual, the lanterns were banned this year.....but hey! This is India and if you want to light a lantern to release it into the sky well go right ahead...besides how can you prove it's yours when there is about three million others floating past. Some of our friends had attended earlier parties in Old City Town where they said the atmosphere was electric even early in the day. It was from then on, our ambition, to make some friends in Old City for next years Uttrayan festival to experience such local involvement.
After many hours sitting, watching, meditating and just enveloping the infectious atmosphere of Gujarati's biggest festival, we went back down to their penthouse unit for a potluck dinner. We had all brought a contribution to the event to share with each other. As Bruce and I are still slumming it at the Hilton, we took pre-purchased Indian sweets as it's a little difficult to cook in your hotel room.
We had a great night meeting up with existing friends and also making new friends from the expat society. We left the party at around 9pm and returned to our hotel by foot. The streets were quiet with one or two motorbikes. Looking up we could still see lanterns floating effortlessly over the city and the sound of music and fireworks blaring from every direction.
Our plans for the following day were to be with one of Bruce's Brisbane co-workers,Hanoo, an Engineer who is in Vadodara for two weeks. We thought we'd show him some Vadodara city sites. Our plan was to visit the Palace on Thursday mid morning......Day 2 instalment of this blog To Be Continued! .....you won't be disappointed.
Thanks to Andree for some of the photos.
Rolls of kite string for sale.
Kites for sale in shops.
The rooftop the young boys invited us onto to fly kites but we declined due to commitments.
A young boy on our new house rooftop.
Herve, Andree and Merryn.
Kite string for sale
Valerie and her son trying to catch some wind.
Just posing for the camera.
The two of us.
Hanoo and Bruce
Friends getting into the spirit
Merryn about to launch her first kite
Launching
The beautiful golden colour only India knows how to display at sunset.
Up up and away
Go Andree!!
Some of the special kites (photo courtesy of Baroda Photography).