AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 168 of 332 be added liberally, to give Manja the ‘cutting edge’ for the kites’ aerial fight with the opponent groups. The recipe was not necessarily vegetarian, as things like white of the eggs, blood of the lambs etc., were added for flavour. Obelix, of Asterix fame, may have even added carbolic soap and un-plucked chicken, as he once did for Ceaser’s feast! “Sangu” mark thread held the monopoly for the base thread. Coming to the crux of the matter, it was colour, colour and more colour all the way. If the walls of the shops were adorned with new kites for sale, the floor of the shops used to have a wide spread of Manja ingredients. Each gang used to have their own QFIs (Qualified Flying Instructors), teaching the greenhorns among them the art of yawing, pitching, diving and attack of the enemy kite, with the sole intention of cutting the enemy’s Manja! When a ‘kill’ is achieved, the acoustic assault in the form of the winning gang’s war cries, laced with choicest expletives for the opponent, used to be heard for a few kilo meters in the neighborhood! Having a kite and Manja good enough? A big NO. You need an expert to connect both through a knotting technique called “soothram”, that controls the elevation, cruising comfort and the kite’s battle readiness. This is a value- added service offered by the shop keepers for a fee! So popular was the sport, that it was not unusual to see the local politicians posing with the kite flying gangs in the vernacular Newspapers. On a Bhogi or Pongal Day, the sky was a beautiful, panoramic splash of colours with hundreds of kites taking flight, with a few with tails stuck to them for remaining steady, and the ones without a tail criss-crossing energetically! So much for the colourful kite flying in Chennai! Tops, Marbles & Gilli Dhanda When the Kite season died down, the Chennaites needed to slowly ease into other pastimes, such as Tops (Bambaram) or Marbles (Goli) or the ever so popular Gilly – Dhanda, with the first two named adding much colour. These were individual games restricted to one’s own Streets, unlike Kite Flying where sky was the limit. The tops came with two flavours – Mono and Multi, referring to the number of colours on the devices’ top surface. No marks for