OUR KITES... AND THE STRING, THE WIND AND THOSE TREES





Pic.: Pradeep Nanda
Late, last night, my wife read out to me a beautiful short-story which she had just received on her mobile…

A little boy and his father were flying a kite. Suddenly, the boy started complaining to his father that the string was not allowing him to let the kite soar free and high. The father cut off the string, immediately… The kite, now, began to go the way the powerful wind carried it… and, finally, it nosedived somewhere afar where the boy and this father couldn’t reach!

The boy was heart-broken!

The father, who wanted to teach his little-one a very valuable lesson, pulled his son very close to him and said, “Son, many a time, we all think that we can go about our lives without anybody’s supervision, direction or control. We want full freedom; we want to fly high and high without any check; we do not like any rules and  regulations… yes, we complain about our ‘stings’… that  keep us under control… We want our strings to go… And, look what happens!”

“Happy Makar Sankranti”… The sender had wished.

It was midnight…

I remembered another kite story – ‘THE BOY, THE KITE AND THE WIND’, by Al Andrews. I had read it so many times just to relive my own innocence and, yes, to keep my faith in ‘the winds of life’ alive…

I remember my dad, every time I read this story… He flew his own kites, and so many of them got caught-up in those trees… But, he had more faith in the wind than the faith he had in those trees… So, he bought for us – his sons – kites and said - “Go, fly them high.”

We did… Many of our kites did not come back… They got caught-up in those trees… But, then, we, too, kept our faith more in the wind than we did in those trees… We bought kites for our children and told them - “Go, fly them high.”

And, I know, our children will do the same… No matter whether their kites will come back or not!

I only hope, that we all will remember to thank – forever – not only the wind and the string… but, also, those trees…

For, in life, we need all of them…

Don’t we?

Happy Makar Sankrantii to you all…






GERALD D’CUNHA

 Video: YouTube


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