In my childhood in Kanke, Ranchi, one of our favourite pastime was Patangbaazi पतंगबाज़ी (Kite Flying). We used to call this 'Guddi Urana' गुड्डी उड़ाना . Unlike other sports and pastime, Kite Flying needs a lot of upfront preparation and the skill of flying a kite successfully and cutting other kites 'Guddi Ladana' गुड्डी लड़ाना (Kite Duels), is a fine art and science. It is not everyone's cup of tea.
Patang/Guddi पतंग गुड्डी
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Lataai लटाई
This is where the thread is wound and as the kite flies higher and higher, the thread is let go.
Uchka उचका
This is the bigger form of Lataai and it serves the same purpose.
This was used by the more professional patang-baaz. We would not be able to get this in Ranchi. We used to especially buy it from Patna City (old part of Patna). These were really big, some as long as 5 feet. To make them heavier we used to slide iron nuts into its sticks. To be honest it used to be so big and heavy that I always struggled with it, hence ultimately the more practical Lataai found favour with us kids.
This is the tread or the string which connects the kite with the Lataai. In my childhood बेलचा (Spade) brand dhaga was the one we coveted.
Manjha मांझा
Now this is the interesting part.To win the kite duels (पतंग लड़ाना ) and to cut the rivals kite, the string needs to be extra sharp. And to do this Maanjha is applied to the string. This is a very elaborate process, like coloring cloth which in old days was done by the rangrez रंगरेज़. I will talk about this in detail below.
Guddi Larana
This is also called Patang-baazi. It is said that this was the favourite pastime of the nawabs of Lucknow. But it is now as popular among the commoners.One person will deliberately entangle his kite in another's kite and will try to cut the string of the other. In turn this person also runs the risk of his own string getting cut in this duel. It is a combinations of the skill of kite flying as well as the quality of the 'Maanjha'.
My Memories of Patangbaazi
A Guddi (Patang) would cost 10, 20 or 25 paise depending on the size & quality. They will come in all hue & colour.
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Depending on the colour and the design they had names like Ekranga एकरंगा , Adhkapari अधकपारी etc etc.
After buying a patang, the first thing to do was to 'Kanna Marna', this was to tie the thread to the wooden sticks in the kite. Then it would be knotted to the rest of the thread in the Lataai.
There were many other technical terms associated with the flying of the kite -
Kanni Marna कन्नी मारना - This is to correct the kite always moving in one direction.
Latt लट्ट - This the kite rotating while you gibe dheel ढ़ील
Dagg डग्ग - This is the kite swaying from side to side while in air
I forget many other fascinating terms we used..................
There is no need for Maanjha if you are flying the kite just for fun and there is no intention to get into 'Guddi Larana'. But it was considered infra dig if your dhaga had no Maanjha. You would not be considered a real patangbaaz without the Maanjha. It is like claiming you you are a good cricketer without ever having played with a leather ball !!
So the day of the Manjha would be planned with 3-4 of my other friends/patangbaaz. They were typical characters from Chooritola Mohalla, one was called Jumma....another one called himself Oonus (real name Younus!!).........Maanjha has to be done in a group, it is such a elaborate activity. It was no less than cooking a elaborate meal.
Typical ingredients for the Maanjha will be collected in advance -
1. Fused Tube lights, Light Bulbs
2. Arrowroot, we used to call it Ararote अरारोट
3. Sabudaana साबूदाना
4. Rice
5. Eggs
6. Bhindi (Ladies Finger)
And there would be a couple of secret ingredients also which like a Michelin Star chef, we would never make public !
The tubes, bulbs will be covered with cloth and would be broken with a stone and then the glass pieces will be ground further on a sill-lorha सिल्ल लोढ़ा. After all glass gives the cutting edge to the Maanjha hence it was the most important ingredient,
All the others like ararote, sabubaana, rice, eggs etc would be boiled with water to make the super glue mixture by which the glass powder will stick to the string.
For this purpose some kids used secret ingredients which will give them the 'cutting edge'. One of my friends Munna, once gave out his secret ingredient - it was Aloe Vera plant !!
Anyway, once all these ingredients are ready, applying the maanjha on the thread will start. We used to select 2 light poles to do this. This would be a relay activity. The person with the lataai and the thread will go first, then behind him would be the person applying the 'super glue' to the thread and immediately behind would be the person applying the glass powder. The last man in the relay would the one applying the 'Bhindi' to the thread. This was done to smoothen the glass powder on the thead, it would do the work of 'surkhi'...........I told you this was a super slick operation !!
This whole thing was quite a sight !
Round and round we would go around the two poles with the thread hanging and drying. This will go on for 5-6 hours till the thread of every participant is covered with maanjha and it left hanging between the poles. Once the drying is over, then everyone would take turns in wounding their dhaga back in their lataai.
I was never the assertive type, and hence my thread would invariably be the one at the end. Once by the time my turn came to wound the 'Maanjha- waala' dhaga into my lataai, it was late evening with darkness descending. A cyclist came and didn't see the dhaga in the darkness and went right through it, falling down in the process and also destroying all my dhaga with the 'maanjha'. Once the dhaga breaks, that causes a knot, and a knot (गाँठ ) is the death knell for a patangbaaz.
I was totally crestfallen and cried at the cruelty of fate !!
But this incident apart, I fully indulged in the thrill and joy of cutting another ones patang, running after a cut 'patang' to 'looto' it. The pride one felt when ones patang would fly so high and so far in the sky that it will become a tiny speck, was unimaginable.
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