Mangalore, January 21: The skies on Saturday afternoon literally flirted with the eyes of thousands of people who thronged Panambur beach, as the two-day international kite festival got off to a flying start.
The kite flyers from various parts of the nation and seven foreign nations like United Kingdom, France, Lebanon, Kuwait, Holland, Lebanon and Indonesia, were seen busy flying various types of kites.
The inaugural function was conducted in a different fashion as all the participating countries came together near the stage. The chief guest of the event was Seemanth Kumar Singh, Commissioner of Police, Mangalore City. After a brief photo session and invocation the Commisioner was guided to a central stage. Along with the organizers led by chief organizer Giridhar Kamath, Seemanth Kumar Singh flew a special kite dedicated to the Police Commissionerate.
Expressing his joy Mr Singh said, “This festival is a symbol of peace and Mangalore City must benefit out of it in terms of tourism. I hope the numbers will increase next year and the foreigners have been kind enough to participate in this unique event. I am grateful to the organizers for having made a kite in the name of our department.” Also present on this occasion was ACP Puttamadhayya. As a symbol of respect a 1 minute silence was observed in memory of the labourers who died at the MRPL blast.
The foreign participants were more than delighted to fly their kites. The French couple of Marco and Saundarine showcased a Revolution kite. Marco said, “We have been to other festivals as well like Ahmedabad and Mumbai, but this one is very well organised. This place is nice for a festival.”
Another participating country Lebanon had two flyers come in. Rami Ilaha said, “We have been to Ahmedabad, Belgaum and the skeleton of our kite is made from carbon graphite and hence it is light in weight. Our kite is in the shape of a duck and it is our favourite hobby.”
Another interesting team was the one from Kuwait: Tariq and Mohammed Salem. Both had very interesting facts about their kites. They said, “Our kite is already in the Guinness book of world records and our kite is the symbol of our national flag. Its strings weigh around 100 kg and it needs three tractors to fly it. We also have another kite called the Monta-Ray which is bigger than this one, but it is unofficial and still not entered the record books.”
Local hit Team Mangalore also had its kite flying high with pride. This team already has been to eight countries till now.
Mr Giridhar Kamath said that they have sponsored some of the foreign teams and they have enjoyed the hospitality of Team Mangalore.
A major attraction was the techno savvy Prithiviraj, an assistant professor at NITK, Surahtkal who had fixed his indigenously built remote controlled camera attached to a kite which showed the ground below on a screen in his hand.
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