Basant Banned

Yes, Basant has been banned. I wish this ban had come earlier and four lives would have been saved which were lost when the recent Supreme Court Ban was relaxed on the request of the Punjab Government. As the News, Lahore reports it, four people had their lives cut off by the kite wires. A four-year-old boy’s throat was sliced open while sitting on a motorbike with his dad … another small girl fell victim to the killer thread (preferred by some people to cut kite strings of other kite flyers, it’s a sort of a competition, as one kite is, in a way, battled against another kite). A WAPDA (Water and Power Development Authority) lineman was electrocuted. There have been several other people lying in hospitals injured from the dangerous kite strings. Children (normally those who can’t afford to fly kites on their rooftops) running across roads, their eyes fixed to the sky, trying to catch a kite just after it has been cut, are a common site in Basant days and run an extreme risk of accidents every year. There are instances of children falling off their roofs. But well thank God the ban finally here. I myself love the site of the blue sky filled with all these kites of varied colours; it’s a brilliant site. I wish people were made to use harmless threads and that traditional kite flying were revived but nobody follows the law here (metal strings were being sold even after the introduction of strict laws banning them) and nobody is made to so the ban is I think the only option at the moment. The government will be trying hard to enforce the ban. I could still see a few kites across the sky, yesterday evening. Can’t wait to see what happens on Sunday, whether people are going to fly or not (some people have begun gambling on the likelihood of Basant)

Meanwhile a 5.2 magnitude earthquake shook northern areas on Friday claiming the life of one person.