A French city’s mayor sends invitation to the team to take part in kite festival.
Team Mangalore, a group of hobbyists who are into kite flying, will again dazzle the skies of Dieppe—the windy town in South France—for 10 days during an international kite festival.
France is organising the festival, which will start on September 8. This time, the mayor of Dieppe, Sabastian Jurmail himself has sent an invitation to the Team Mangalore. “It is such a pleasure that people of France and the international community of kite-flyers consider Team Mangalore as official representatives of kite-flying community of India,” Sarvesh Rao, the group’s leader, told DNA.
“The beauty of the French kite festival is that it is always based on a theme. This time, the theme is five elements, which we know as Panchabhootas,” Rao said.
He recalled that last year’s theme was unidentified flying object. “Our Pushpaka Vimana, taking it from Ramayana and other legends, had hooked the international kite flyers,” he said.
This time, Team Mangalore has got a special request from the organisers. One of the team members, Dinesh Holla, has been asked to put up an art exhibition exclusively on kites. “I have laid out 35 artworks to be exhibited in the festival, which includes a section on ethnic designs,” Holla told DNA.
Team Mangalore was the only team representing India in the festival. The other members of the team are Pran Hegde and Shashank Shetty.
In France, one of the kites Team Mangalore will be displaying is Pakshiraja Garuda, which is 18 feet wide and nine feet long. The team will fly their special kites, such as Yakshagana, Kathakalli, Gajaraja, Charlie Chaplin, Avatar Bird, Bharatnatya and Pushpaka Vimana. Their other kites too showcase the cultural diversity of India in general and coastal Karnataka in specific. This is the fourth time the team is participating in the international kite festival at Dieppe.
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