Mahesh stores 2

மகேஷ் ஸ்டோர்ஸ் - 2

In Chennai, the odd sprinkler of kite will appear on the sky, late July or August and soon it will occupy the entire clear blue skyline of Chennai or the old Madras, especially around North Madras, where I grew up. My so called Maa Niram (euphemism for brown skin) would become an African by the time the season was finished, which was the month of October or November, depending on the day Deewali falls. The last day of the season would roughly fall on the weekend after Deewali, as a kid, I would be loaded with tonnes of thread and stacks of kites, caught in our catchment’s area.

Kite flying was a sheer delightful past time or a hobby and for some or most in North Chennai, used to be a pride issue. Neighbours became enemies overnight, thick friends became thinner, girls were won or lost, you become nomadic or forgotten in your own household, become thick skinned and in the process become a Delhi erumai or a bullock!

Wars were fought over the kite deal fights and stakes were from nothing to five thousands of rupees! Kids have lost their lives, broken their backs or various bones, cut their necks and the jugulars, broken their roofs and also their neighbours, made everyone mad and insomniac around them. We dreamt and breathed kites for those annual ritual of four months.Many of us also became Super-men or Spider-men during this time, without ever watching or reading about those heroes! There were plenty of self inflicted paranoid cut wounds in our fingers, boasting our proximity to the Maanja nool!!

To be continued....