Lahore’s ancient kite festival returned after a nearly two-decade ban, and younger generations are having to learn the near-forgotten art.
Bashant dates back centuries; participants battle to knock each other’s kites out by cutting their strings. But the sharpened, toughened strings used caused injuries and deaths — particularly to motorcyclists — and participants occasionally fell off roofs; in 2007 the festival was banned.
This year it returned cautiously, limited to three days and with rules governing kite size and where they can fly. One veteran kite-flyer saw a child struggling with a knot: “He was completely out of his depth,” he told Al Jazeera, “[and I realized] that people growing up in the last two decades have no clue at all.”