Ali Fraz Rezvi

Priti David

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“Patna used to host week-long tilangi [kite] competitions. Kite-flyers
from Lucknow, Delhi and Hyderabad were invited. It was a festival,” says Syed
Faizan Raza. He is speaking as we walk along the Ganga, the expanse of water
reflecting the open skies where he says thousands of kites were once at play.



An old-timer from Doolighat which
lies on on the banks of the river in Patna, Raza says from aristocrats to tawaifs, people from all social classes
patronised the sport. He reels of names – “Bismillah Jan [tawaif] used to provide patronage, and Mir Ali Zamin and Mir
Kefayat Ali were some of the well acclaimed ustads
[masters] of patang-saazi [making kites] and patang-baazi
[the sport of flying kites].”  



To supply the sport, the area
between Patna’s Gurhatta and Khwajakalan at Ashok Rajpath (a distance of around
700-800 metres) was once filled with kite traders, their colourful wares
fluttering invitingly outside shops. “The thread for kites in Patna were
thicker than the usual threads, and a mix of cotton and silk, popularly known
as nakh,” he adds Raza. 



An 1868 copy of Ballou’s Monthly Magazine mentions Patna as being famous for kites.
“Anybody desirous of making his fortune quickly should naturalize the Patna kite
in this land. Every tenth shop in the bazaars is a kite shop, and you would
think that the whole population fly kites. The kite is diamond shaped, light as
a feather, has no tail and is flown with the lightest possible silk cord.” 



More than a hundred years later, many things
have changed, but Patna’s tilangis retain
their unusual feature – they are kites without tails. “Dum to kutte ka na hota hai ji, tilangi ka thode [tails are for
dogs not for kites],” says kite craftsperson Shabina, laughing. In her seventies,
she stopped making tilangis some time
ago when her eyes grew weak.

Patna
continues to be a hub of kite-making and supplies – kites and related materials
go from here to all over Bihar and to neighbouring states as well. Both paretis and tilangis
travel to Siliguri, Kolkata, Malda, Ranchi, Hazaribagh Jaunpur, Kathmandu,
Unnao, Jhansi, Bhopal and even Pune and Nagpur.

“Tilangi
banane ke liye bhi time chahiye aur udane ke liye bhi [You need time to both make and fly kites],” says Ashok
Sharma, quoting his late father. “Today, time is the rarest of the rare things
in this city.” 



Sharma is a third generation tilangi (kite) maker and seller. His
century-old shop with its mud walls and mud roof tiles lies in the heart of
Patna city, 100 metres from Bihar’s oldest church – Padri ki Haweli at Ashok Rajpath. He is also one of the few masters
of making paretis (bamboo reels that
hold the string attached to the kites). The manjha
or nakh – thread for kites are now
Chinese and factory-made, and thinner and lighter than earlier. 



Seated in the front, Sharmaji’s his hands are busy as he is rushing
to finish an order from a village for 150 paretis
that must be delivered in an hour. 



Making paretis
– bending and tying the stiff wooden sticks – is a skill quite different
from making kites, and one that few can do, and Sharma is well known for his
expertise. Unlike some of the other tilangi
craftspersons, he does not subcontract the making of the kites or reels, preferring
to sell what he makes.

The small room filled with tilangis and paretis is in darkness, the only light coming from a small opening
at the back where his 30-year-old grandson Kautilya Kumar Sharma is working on
accounts. Although the craft has been in the family for many generations,
Sharma says his sons and grandsons are unlikely to continue making it.



He was a child of 12 when he started
learning to craft tilangis and paretis. “Dukaan pe aa kar baeth gaye, phir kaesa bachpan kaesi jawani? Sab yahin
beet gaya. tilangi banayi bahut magar udayi nahin [I started working on the
shop floor as a child and my youth also passed by doing this work. I made many tilangis but never got to fly them] says
the veteran maker of kites.    



“Kite-making was supervised by the nobles and
aristocrats of the city. Their patronage was a boon for kite-makers,” says
Ashok Sharma. “The kite-season in Patna used to remain at its peak until
Mahashivratri. But these days it’s difficult to find a customer on Sankranti
[harvest festival when kites are traditionally flown].”

A tilangi is shaped like a rhombus or a diamond. Decades ago, it was
made with paper, but now all production has completely shifted to plastic, and
the price has dropped to half. Paper tilangis
tear more easily and are more expensive to make as paper is harder to handle. A
basic paper kite sells for Rs. 5 while a plastic one is priced at Rs. 3. 



Sizes vary from the regular 12 x12
and 10 x 10-inch ones, but 18 x 18 and 20 x 20 are also made. Prices start
rising as sizes increase and designs get complex – specific cartoons or movie
characters or dialogues raises the price to upto Rs. 25, but for orders outside
the state, prices can go as high as Rs. 80 to 100 rupees with specially
designed sheets and even the quality of teelis
and khaddas improving, as also lei (glue made with cooked rice). 



At Sanjay Jaiswal’s tilangi workshop, a wood-cutting machine, multiple bamboo sticks,
and other material that goes into making a tilangi,
are scattered around the 8 square feet room with no windows.

“We don’t have a name for this
workshop,” says Sanjay who goes by the name Mannan. It’s not a problem that
bothers him as he’s probably the largest supplier of of kites in the city. “Be-nam hai, Gumnam thode hai [we are
unnamed not unknown],” he says laughing along with his workers who are all
around him. 



Located in the Gurhatta area of
Mohalla Deewan, Mannan’s workshop is primarily an open area with a shed of
asbestos supported by bamboo poles, and a small room adjacent to the open
space. He employs around 11 workers and also subcontracts some of the jobs to
women “who work from their home as per the requirements.” 



At 55 years, Mohammad Shamim is the
senior-most craftsman here. From the Chhoti Bazaar area in Patna, he says he
learnt the art of kite-making from an ustad
(master) in Kolkata. He has worked in Kolkata, Allahabad, Mumbai and
Banaras and returned to his city in search of a permanent workspace. 



Pasting teelis as he speaks, he says he has been here for the last 22
years. He is considered an expert at bending the stiff bamboo sticks and
pasting them on with glue. Shamim manages to make around 1,500 pieces in a day,
but it’s a race.



“Koshish
hota hai ke din ka 200 rupya tak kama lein to maheene ka 6000 ban jaayega.
[the aim is to make 200 rupees a day which works out to 6,000 rupees a month],”
says Shamim. For 1,500 kites, he pastes the teeli
and then secures it with tape by evening. “Is hisaab se 200-210 rupya ban jaata hai [In this way I can earn
200-210 a day],” he adds.  



When PARI visited in May this year, outside
temperatures were already above 40 degrees Celsius. But fans were ruled out
given the fine plastic sheets used to make kites need to be held down.

Sunil Kumar Mishra who is cutting
the plastic into small squares, wipes off the sweat with a handkerchief. “You
can’t take care of a family with what you earn by making kites. None of the
workers here are making more than 10,000 [rupees] a month,” he tells us. 



A resident of Hajiganj mohalla, he
grew up watching kites being crafted as the area was once the centre of the
city’s kite-making community. Watching and making kites as a child came in
useful after his job selling flowers dried up during covid-19, and he could
then switch to making kites. 



Although Sunil is a regular employee, he too is
paid on the number of kites. “Working from 9 in the morning to 8 in the night
everyone is trying his best to make thousands and thousands of pieces,” he
adds.

There are a large number of Muslim
women who craft kites –either whole or parts of it – in their homes. Aisha
Parween learnt the art of tilangi-making
to support her family of four. For the last 16 years, Aisha has been turning
out kites from the one room-kitchen set-up she shares with her two children and
husband. “Not long ago I used to make more than 9,000 tilangis in a week,” she recalls. “Now getting an order for 2,000
kites is a big deal,” she adds.



“A tilangi is made in seven parts and each part is done by a separate
worker,” says Aisha. One worker cuts the plastic sheet into multiple squares as
per the required size. Meanwhile two workers are cutting bamboo into small teelis and khaddas - one is long and thin while the other one is comparatively
thicker and smaller. Another worker will paste the khaddas on the cut squares of plastic and pass it on to a worker
who pastes the curved teelis. 



Finishing it all up are the last two
craftspersons who check and add a layer of sticking tape before passing it the
last worker to make holes and tie the strings called kannas.

The plastic cutters earn Rs. 80 for
1,000 kites, while those how cut bamboos earn Rs. 100. The others in the
assembly line-up earn around Rs. 50 for the same number. A group of workers can make 1,000 kites a day, working from 9 in the morning for 12 hours, with
only small breaks in between. 

“A total of seven people makes a
single tilangi which is sold in the
market for two to three rupees,” Aisha points out. The total cost adds up to
Rs. 410 for 1,000 kites and the money divided between seven people. “I don&#39;t
want Rukhsana [her daughter] to get into this kite-making business,” she says. 



But like many other women artisans,
she is happy to earn without leaving the house, but says the earnings are very
low, “but at least the work was regular in the beginning.” Aisha was paid
Rs.180 for paste khadda and tying the
kanna for 2,000 kites – both tasks
for 100 kites taking her around 4-5 hours to complete.



Tamanna lives in the same area of Deewan Mohalla
and also makes tilangis. “The reason
this work is done [largely] by women is because it is the lowest paid jobs in
the kite industry,” says the 25-year-old. “There’s nothing special in pasting khadda or a teeli, but a woman gets 50 rupees for a 1,000 khadda while a man makes 100 rupees for a 1,000 teelis.”

11-4-AFR-Patnas_kite_makers-caught_in_a_crosswind.jpg

Aisha’s 17-year-old daughter
Rukshana is a khadda-master – she
pastes the thin bamboo sticks onto the slippery thin plastic sheets. Enrolled
in Class 11 in school, this Commerce student finds the time in between to help
her mother with kite-making.  



She learnt the art from her mother
at the age of 12. “She used to play with kites when she was young and was good
at it,” says Aisha, who goes on to say that she now actively discourages her
from flying kites as she says it’s more of a male sport. 



Aisha is arranging freshly made tilangis near the entrance of her rented
room in Sheeshmahel area of Mohalla Deewan. Rukhsana is busy giving the final
touches to the kites. They are waiting for the contractor Shafique to arrive to
collect them.  



“We received an order for 2,000
kites but I forgot to inform my daughter and she made 300 extra pieces with the
remaining materials,” says Aisha. 



“But there&#39;s nothing to worry, we&#39;ll
use it for the next order,” says her daughter, Rukhsana, overhearing our
conversation. 



“Only if there is another order,”
says Aisha.



This story is supported by
a fellowship from Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation (MMF).

Patna’s kite makers: caught in a crosswind

గాలివాటుకు కొట్టుకుపోతోన్న పట్నా గాలిపటాల తయారీదారులు

காற்றில் சிக்கிய காற்றாடி செய்பவர்களின் வாழ்க்கை

ਪਟਨਾ: ਤੇਜ਼ ਬੁੱਲ੍ਹਿਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਫਸੀ ਪਤੰਗਸਾਜ਼ਾਂ ਦੀ ਡੋਰ

ଦୁଃସ୍ଥିତିରେ ପାଟନାର ଗୁଡ଼ି କାରିଗର

പാറ്റ്നയിലെ പട്ടം നിർമ്മാതാക്കൾ: കാറ്റിലുലയുന്നവർ

ಪಟ್ನಾ: ಅಡ್ಡ ಗಾಳಿಗೆ ಸಿಲುಕಿದ ಗಾಳಿಪಟ ತಯಾರಕರ ಬದುಕು

ઉલટા પવનમાં ફસાયેલા પટનાના પતંગ બનાવનારા

उल्टा हवा मं डोलत पटना के पतंग बनेइय्या

অনটনের দমকা হাওয়ায় ভোঁকাট্টা পাটনার পতঙ্গসাজি

বিপাঙত চিলা সজা শিল্পী: চিলা উৰুওৱাবলৈ মানুহৰ আহৰি নাই

باد مخالف میں الجھے پٹنہ کے پتنگ ساز

मुश्किलों की आंधियों में घिरीं पटना की पतंगें

पेंच में फंसके, कटल जा रहल बा पटना के पतंग

Patna

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Patna’s kite makers: caught in a crosswind

The sport of kite flying is supported by a complex craft – a seven-step process that calls for different skills and materials. The capital city of Bihar is a major supplier of tilangis (kites), and the ones made here have a distinct identity, but the sport itself is in decline

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