Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Sankranti - Pongal

Today was a day off of work, a harvest celebration in India called Pongal. It is also called Sankranti. I think Pongal is the name used here in AP.

So, when I came back from the gym, there were various people trying to fly kites in the neighborhood. I joined them, only to have everyone in the family disappear one by one. It ended up being me and the driver, Subu, as well as some other guys from the neighborhood.

We got our kite up a few times, but the wind was a bit low and the kite got snagged in trees time and again. But, it ended up alright.... here are the snaps.



First, here is a daylight snap of the Pongal rangoli that Monga made for us.



^ Aidan with the crew trying to figure out how to get our kite to stay up consistently.



^ We got it off the ground.



^ Then it got some real height.



^ Jonah enjoyed it. He is also handsome in his kurtha, so I took the picture.



^ Things devolved when the kite biffed for the third time, so we brought it home.



^ But Subu was a man on a mission, he came in the house about an hour later and brought me up on the roof.



^ It achieved heights that were unparalleled. And there wasn't a kid in sight.

Subu inspired me with his persistence, patience and creativity. He's an awesome driver and a good guy. And the best kite flyer in the family. ;-)