Photos

Here in the heart of the old town of Kasur, heavy winter rains had turned this small channel into little more than an open sewer. No person feels responsible for dealing with litter, so the stagnant water becomes a breeding ground for water-borne disease and an eyesore.

To the left, young men are measuring off lengths of string or wire to sell to kite-flyers. The cord could be ordinary string, string coated with a slurry of fine glass shards for cutting the string of competitors, or even fine copper wire. Spring is in the air and that means Basant.

Basant (Vasant in Sanskrit) is originally a Hindu festival in honour of the goddess Saraswati to celebrate spring. Prior to partition in 1947, the population, e.g. in Lahore, was almost equally split between Hindus and Muslims. With partition, of course, nearly all Hindus chose to move to India. They left behind Basant. Basant is celebrated almost everywhere in Pakistan, and even into Afghanistan.

Next to cricket, kite-flying may be the second most popular recreational activity for males in Pakistan. Unfortunately, there are often many accidents: young men stepping off roofs, copper wires landing on power-lines causing electrocution and power outages, wires becoming entangled across streets and garrotting motorcycle riders who move too quickly to stop.

What these men do not know is that in 2005 the authorities would ban the celebration of Basant and make kite-flying illegal. Of course, almost any day, you can see young people flying kites, and no one is going to stop them.