At Jaipur’s Handipura Kite Market, Saleem Qureshi, 59, is sitting at a low table, painstakingly assembling an azure and red kite by hand. The process is tedious – first, he cuts and crafts delicate kite paper to fit the fragile wooden kite frame. Then, he must attach strips of paper to other parts of the kite, its body and even its tail. Then he attaches the bridle line, or the manjha, to the delicate kite.
Each kite takes 10 minutes to assemble, and Qureshi, who has been doing this for the last 45 years, makes 150 kites a day and gets Rs 500 for his efforts. As Makar Sankranti draws near, business is picking up but Qureshi wants to make sure this line of work stops with him.
“I’m the third generation of my family doing this. I’ve been making kites since I was 11,” he says. “The job is time-consuming. Sitting on the floor every day to barely make Rs 15,000/month is something I don’t want my children doing.”
“High investment and poor returns have meant that more and more of the younger generation are staying away from the industry,” Abdul Hameed, a kite wholesaler. (Express photo)
Saleem isn’t the only one facing this predicament. With Sankranti round the corner, the Jaipur kite market is abuzz, but even as kite makers gear up to make their biggest sales of the year, their hopes are speckled with a degree of uncertainty, arising primarily out of the future of the business.
According to kite makers and traders, although business has picked up post-pandemic, the rising cost of raw materials and labour prices have meant that Jaipur’s traditional kite makers in Handipura are now calling it quits.
“Previously there were 120 workshops in Handipura. But high investment and poor returns have meant that more and more of the younger generation are staying away from the industry,” Abdul Hameed, a kite wholesaler.
As a result, close to a third of the shops closed. And among those left, several male kite makers left to take up other jobs in what was previously a male-dominated industry, leaving the womenfolk to take up the work and manage shops instead. Now there just around 10 male kite makers left in the area.
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According to the city historian Vinod Joshi, kite flying was made popular here by Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II, the ruler of Jaipur from 1835 to 1880, who brought this tradition from Lucknow. His kites are still showcased at the City Palace Museum in Jaipur.
“The exact history of the establishment of Handipura market is not recorded but it can be assumed that with the popularity of kites in the city the traders from Uttar Pradesh came here and settled down. Jaipur has a vibrant history of kite flying. There used to be many ustaads (masters) of kite flying in Jaipur who used to fly one hundred kites at a time,” he said.
But Handipura doesn’t just host Jaipur’s kite makers. Every year from December to February, kite-makers come down from various parts of UP, especially from Bareilly, to rent shops and sell their products.
Bareilly kites, according to traders here, are the most popular – with smoother frames and finer paper, called ‘Katema Kagaz’. Kite makers and traders claim that it’s this that keeps them longer in the sky.
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“Bareilly kites are good quality, higher in price and in demand,” Saleem says.
Every year from December to February, kite-makers come down from various parts of UP, especially from Bareilly, to rent shops and sell their products. (Express photo)
Typically, Jaipur kites cost between Rs 3 and Rs 30 while Bareilly ones range from Rs 8 to 70. A major difference between the two are the manjhas. While the Bareilly one has a softer bridle line with a wooden spool, the Jaipur one is made of plastic, with “Chinese manjha” coated in glass or metal powder to make it sharp.
“Before the Chinese manjha got in trend, Manja of Bareilly was sold all over India in high demand,” Mahfooz Amin, a 56-year-old kite trader from Bareilly, says. “Although Chinese manjha is banned, many shopkeepers still sell it. The Chinese manjha is made on a machine which is cheaper but dangerous because it can cut people. There have also been instances of children getting electrocuted when the manjha touches an electric wire.”
Shopkeepers say the pandemic severely affected sales, but business is now picking up.
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Abid Bhai Patangwaale, who owns a kite shop in Handipura, says he hopes to do good business this year. “The season is good with orders arriving from all over the country. In Jaipur, Sankrant is a big festival. Most of the shopkeepers are expected to get at least Rs 2 lakh profit from December and January sales,” he says.
Despite this, however, shopkeepers admit the times as stressful. “The business is not as it used to be. The majority of the kites do not send for more than Rs 10. We do not make enough profit to buy ghee but enough to buy dal roti,” Abdul Amin says. “There’s just enough money to buy dal-roti but not enough to buy ghee.”
“High investment and poor returns have meant that more and more of the younger generation are staying away from the industry,” Abdul Hameed, a kite wholesaler. (Express photo)
While the Bareilly manjha has a softer bridle line with a wooden spool, the Jaipur one is made of plastic, with “Chinese manjha” coated in glass or metal powder to make it sharp. (Express photo)
Every year from December to February, kite-makers come down from various parts of UP, especially from Bareilly, to rent shops and sell their products. (Express photo)