NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 12, 2002: Jaiprakash Gupta is a seller of kites, though his business nowadays is not flying high. Gupta is quick to point out the reason for the downturn in the kite business. “It is not about the money, people have money to spend. It is just that their interests have changed. Children would rather fly kites on the Internet than on their terraces.” This year is not seeing the usual pre-Independence Day rush for kites. Buyers, coming from as far as Bombay and Ahmedabad, usually flood the wholesale kite markets of Lal Kuan, Chandni Chowk, the whole month before August 15. Today only the sellers are there. “Till five years back, every shop had a sale of about 20,000 kites per day but now if we even sell 2,000 kites it is enough,” says M. J. Qureshi, who has had a wholesale kite shop in Chandni Chowk for the last 25 years. Kite-flying originated in China. In India, it dates back to the time of the Mahabharata, with current kite flying festivals including Basant Panchami, Raksha Bandhan, and Makar Sakranti.
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