uttarayan

thinking about whats happening in India today:

Today and tomorrow is the Indian festival of Uttarayan or Makar Sankranti.

Its the day when the sun starts its journey northward, so summer is here to come soon. We, especially people from very close to the tropics believe that the sun rays on this particular two days are very nourishing and (sometimes stated as 'magical' in scriptures). We spend the whole day on flat terraces sun bathing and flying kites (called 'patungs' in Gujarati & Hindi), some also take part in the international kite flying festival hosted in Ahmedabad - a city very close to where I come from.

we have kite flying battles and the hang chinese lanterns on the kites and fly them when the sun goes down. Its a really pretty sight, during the day time, the sky is full of colourful kites with lots of different artistic 'tails' and at nights people gather around near town lakes to watch the reflection of the stars and the lanterns in the water - if anyone of you happens to travel India nearer to new years in the coming years - please dont miss this!

So, although, there is much less sun here, more snow (!) and not many kites in the sky, I tried to get out and see the sun - well, got to see some glittery fog!