The Killer Kites

“And kill them too,” Mr Right quipped. “That’s why local administration and courts have joined hands this time not to allow basant revellers to show their skill in kite flying.”

“Too bad,” I moaned. “Kites are flowers of peace. We must promote a sport, which brings the people together to celebrate a joyous occasion. It’s part of our culture Sir. Kites add colour 
to atmosphere.”

“You mean red colour,” Mr Right had a sarcastic look in his eyes. “This is colour of blood. Now it’s being used as a weapon to slaughter people. My God, with the glass-coated and metallic strings these kites now serve as 
floating daggers.”

“Still I don’t believe banning a traditional sport is a solution to any problem,” I argued. “They should punish culprits for turning kite strings into instruments of murder. But every step should be taken to promote this national sport specially after the recent debacle in cricket.” “Don’t worry,” Mr Right said. “We will regain supremacy in cricket, provided our players eat vitamins not the cricket balls.”

I said, “Nobody can eat the kite, that’s why I support it. If we prohibit kite flying we would be following the Taleban who had banned the sport during their rule in Afghanistan.”

“It was a good step and a bad step at the same time.” Mr Right said.

“What do you mean?”

“It was a good step because their action nudged Khalid Husseini to produce his novel, ‘The kite Runner’. And now the Taleban must be hating Husseini more than they hated kite flying.” Mr Right explained. “And it was a bad step because they did not know how kite flying can be used to kill people. Had they known this many of their suicide bombers would have turned into kite flyers and kite runners.”

I protested. “I totally disagree with you, Sir. An activity, which stands for the people’s expression of joy and freedom, has been turned into a controversial sport because of wrongdoings of a bunch of irresponsible elements. In fact, the administration should be blamed for not curbing 
these elements.”

Mr Right smiled. “Yes they can be curbed if everybody in towns and cities and houses and offices decide not to talk about kites.”

“It means that everybody is irresponsible. Do they include all those who are opposing or favouring it?” I asked. “Do you think they include even the benevolent governor who is keen to fly the basant colours to boost the morale of the people at the risk of 
being ‘handcuffed’?”

“Yes,” Mr Right continued. “They include all champions of ‘free speech’ who are out to defy every legal or moral authority to disturb social harmony. The irony is that all of them are ‘kite-flyers’ but they don’t know it.”

“Kite flyers?”

“They have tongues as sharp as glass-coated strings which cut throats of rivals,” Mr Right observed.

“In that case, basant never comes to an end in our country and opposing sides continue to fly their kites and cut those of rivals while kite-runners sprint in all directions to grab their 
trophies,” I said.

Mr Right laughed. “You gave a good description of our political scene. We have a continuous kite-flying contest between the champions of democracy and justice. First we had a ‘dog fight’ between lawyers and the ruling party over the restoration of chief justice. After the day was won by the kite flyers from the PML (N), new skirmishes have been taking place between the kite flyers of the PPP and those from rival groups. And nobody knows who will finally win the tournament.”

“Basant this year has coincided with a new test of skill between kite flyers of the PPP and those from judiciary,” I said. “The tussle between judiciary and executive has not only raised political temperature but also plunged the nation into an abyss of confusion. God knows what is going to happen and who is going to benefit from it?”

“It’s easy to predict,” Mr Right said. “Among all kite flyers, the Nawaz group has the largest number of kite runners under its wings. They are waiting to scoop the trophy once the PPP tri-colour starts plunging to the ground.”

Najmul Hasan Rizvi is a former Assistant Editor of Khaleej Times. For comments, write to opinion@khaleejtimes.com