Monday, January 23, 2006
Kite Fight
The next day I was still recovering from getting sick the night before at Paradise so I wasn't feeling so great, but we had already made plans to go visit one of our co-workers at her house for the Pongal kite festival. Despite the fact that I started out the day feeling sick it actually turned into a very nice relaxing afternoon of hanging out on the rooftop, eating great home-made Indian food and flying kites.
Flying kites here turned out to be a slightly different affair from what I was used to. The kites are fairly small and require a lot of special skill to get them into the air. In addition, you are flying it from a rooftop which doesn't allow much room to run and gain altitude, and if I didnd't know any better I'd say there was nowhere near enough wind for kite flying that day. However, there were thousands of kites in the air and none of the local residents seemed to have much trouble either flying the kites or getting into kite fights. That's right, the kite-flying festival isn't just about peacefully flying kites, it's about using your kite to cut down as many of the other kites as you can. In order to facilitate this, ground up glass is actually added to the kite string making it a hazard for both other kites as well as the fingers of the person controlling the kite.
None of the expats, myself included, actually managed to get our kites too far off the ground but our driver (same guy who took us to the Monkey Temple) was extremely impressive. He was out in the hot sun for hours and not only managed to get his kites up and flying, he even managed to get into a few kite fights and cut down 4 "enemy" kites while losing 3 of ours. I actually had one moment where I thought I finally got lucky and did the right combination of maneuvers to get my kite airborne but just as I was feeling confident that my kite was going to finally fly my string snapped and the kite went spiraling down into the alley below.
As the afternoon was winding down, the sick feeling from the night before finally left my body and I was able to dig in and enjoy the excellent home-made Indian food. I can no longer remember the name of the dishes but it was extremely satisflying, all the more so since by this point I hadn't eaten anything in nearly 24 hours.
The rest of the weekend felt pretty lazy, hanging out back at the apartments playing pool and eating out at a couple local restaurants. I should mention that we have the most amazing pool table here, the surface is perfect and the pockets are European style so the corners are much sharper on the corner pockets and wider on the side pockets. The cue points are also much thinner than I'm used to in the States so it takes a lot more skill to play well and it's much more satisfying to actually sink your intended shot. There is also an incredible snooker table in the pool room, the only problem is the pool room closes at 10pm which doesn't give much time to enjoy it after dinner.
After having a pretty relaxing weekend a few of us decided to go out Sunday night and head down to the Golconda Fort to check out the light and sound show. I actually meant to visit the Fort during the day and take some pictures but we got there just as the sun was setting so it was pretty difficult to photograph anything.
The light and sound show itself turned out to be a very interesting experience. We were seated in an area of the Fort which, had there been light, would have allowed us the view of several structures within the Fort which were for the moment invisible in the darkness. As the show began the narrator, a very popular local actor called the Big B who has an excellent voice, began a story of the how the Fort came to be built and some of the notable things that have happened within its walls. As the story progressed, lights came on illuminating the various structures, some at least a quarter of a mile away, fountains turned on and off and special sound effects punctuated the different aspects of the story. All in all it was a pretty interesting and original experience, though from what I understand light and sound shows like this one aren't unusual at the other forts around the country.
Flying kites here turned out to be a slightly different affair from what I was used to. The kites are fairly small and require a lot of special skill to get them into the air. In addition, you are flying it from a rooftop which doesn't allow much room to run and gain altitude, and if I didnd't know any better I'd say there was nowhere near enough wind for kite flying that day. However, there were thousands of kites in the air and none of the local residents seemed to have much trouble either flying the kites or getting into kite fights. That's right, the kite-flying festival isn't just about peacefully flying kites, it's about using your kite to cut down as many of the other kites as you can. In order to facilitate this, ground up glass is actually added to the kite string making it a hazard for both other kites as well as the fingers of the person controlling the kite.
None of the expats, myself included, actually managed to get our kites too far off the ground but our driver (same guy who took us to the Monkey Temple) was extremely impressive. He was out in the hot sun for hours and not only managed to get his kites up and flying, he even managed to get into a few kite fights and cut down 4 "enemy" kites while losing 3 of ours. I actually had one moment where I thought I finally got lucky and did the right combination of maneuvers to get my kite airborne but just as I was feeling confident that my kite was going to finally fly my string snapped and the kite went spiraling down into the alley below.
As the afternoon was winding down, the sick feeling from the night before finally left my body and I was able to dig in and enjoy the excellent home-made Indian food. I can no longer remember the name of the dishes but it was extremely satisflying, all the more so since by this point I hadn't eaten anything in nearly 24 hours.
The rest of the weekend felt pretty lazy, hanging out back at the apartments playing pool and eating out at a couple local restaurants. I should mention that we have the most amazing pool table here, the surface is perfect and the pockets are European style so the corners are much sharper on the corner pockets and wider on the side pockets. The cue points are also much thinner than I'm used to in the States so it takes a lot more skill to play well and it's much more satisfying to actually sink your intended shot. There is also an incredible snooker table in the pool room, the only problem is the pool room closes at 10pm which doesn't give much time to enjoy it after dinner.
After having a pretty relaxing weekend a few of us decided to go out Sunday night and head down to the Golconda Fort to check out the light and sound show. I actually meant to visit the Fort during the day and take some pictures but we got there just as the sun was setting so it was pretty difficult to photograph anything.
The light and sound show itself turned out to be a very interesting experience. We were seated in an area of the Fort which, had there been light, would have allowed us the view of several structures within the Fort which were for the moment invisible in the darkness. As the show began the narrator, a very popular local actor called the Big B who has an excellent voice, began a story of the how the Fort came to be built and some of the notable things that have happened within its walls. As the story progressed, lights came on illuminating the various structures, some at least a quarter of a mile away, fountains turned on and off and special sound effects punctuated the different aspects of the story. All in all it was a pretty interesting and original experience, though from what I understand light and sound shows like this one aren't unusual at the other forts around the country.
