Saturday, October 11, 2008

Kites

I went to one of the beaches I usually go to whenever I want to take a long walk and exercise my eyeballs ...hehehe. Instead of bikini-clad beauties sunning in the sun, my eyes caught the attention of kites merrily enjoying the breeze. I was reminded of the days when I was still in grade school when one of my greatest joy was to fly a kite or even just a "boka-boka" (a poor excuse for a kite made of folded ruled pad or bond paper). Yes, fly a kite tied to a string sharpened with "bubog" (mixture of glue and finely powdered chinawares or light bulbs) and maneuver it to cut the strings of other kites flying nearby or be the victim of my aerial aggression. It is a kite combat that we play, sometimes the participants, willing or unwilling, do not even know each other. It is game where you are in, if you are flying a kite and you do not reel it in when an intruder kite approaches.

I wonder if this "kite fight" is still played in Pinas nowadays? I have not seen it here. They just fly their kites to show-off the different ways they can make them, get them up in the air and make them do things I cannot imagine a kite can do. Wonderful! However, it cannot match the thrill I felt when I made my own kite (from bamboos and apple wrappers), flew it and participated in the "kill or be killed" game LOL.






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice!

There is supposed to be an annual kite festival here in Manila, but haven't gone to one. Problem is, it's not well-publicized; thus, easy to miss.

I do believe that 'kite fights' as you've described are very much alive with Manila kids.

This post, by the way, reminds me of the novel, "The Kite Runner."


Cheers!

Eric

Anonymous said...

Thanks for dropping by. It is good to know that the "game" I used to participate in as a kid is able to survived the onslaught of technology.

I'll have to watch less tv and start reading more. I'll have to look up "Kite Runner" although novels are not my priority reading interest. You can probably deduce that from the way I write LOL.