The kite that disappeared in the sky
View(s):By Rossana Favero-Karunaratna
Amrita loves the month of August. It is the month to play with the wind, but she was always busy. When she was small she had to help her mother, a kite seller, to make kites. She would draw nice designs, get colourful paper and find bamboo sticks.
Every year she made them better. Birds were her favourite. She could make ravens, eagles, cockatoos and parrots. She never had time to fly a kite but she liked to watch other children playing with the kites she made, making them go high up in the sky. One of them, a big green parrot, disappeared behind a cloud, never to be found. The little boy who had bought it was still crying about his loss on the way back to his home but Amrita couldn’t help thinking that the kite had gone places, where no other kite has ever gone… maybe to another planet!
“Don’t cry! Your kite went far, far away and is flying to the moon!”
That didn’t help the child to feel better but Amrita promised herself that one day she would finally fly a kite, make it go really high and enjoy every second of it.
It took nearly ten years for her dream to come true. She was now an Art teacher who never stopped making sketches of birds. One morning she decided to turn
a drawing of a beautiful orange bird into a kite. It looked amazing!
She went to the beach and holding the string firmly, let her kite go with the wind.
The wind was so happy watching her!
“That is Amrita with her kite! I will help her!”
In one minute the wind took her kite up to a point she couldn’t see it.
Everybody was amazed!
It didn’t stop there.
Suddenly, the wind pushed her.
She was lifted and started to fly. Amrita could see the beach, the people so tiny and then even planet Earth like a big ball of string!
Where was she going?
She recognized something.
She could see that green kite of her childhood, the big parrot, at a distance.
“Welcome to my planet Amrita!!
I waited for you all this time”.
The planet was so colourful, inhabited by all the kites that disappear in the sky. There were all sorts of colourful animals and creatures! Tiny elephants on top of a tree, a big friendly mouse, a huge yellow carrot… All looked so bright and beautiful!
Amrita enjoyed every moment of her visit. She had seen a place like that in her dreams. But then, it was time to go. The wind started pushing her orange kite back to the beach. After a while she found her kite on the sand, next to her feet.
Every year Amrita makes colourful kites along with all the children who come to the beach and if a kite disappears in the sky she always tells the story of the far away planet and the green parrot, so everyone can go back home with a smile.
Kites are very popular in Sri Lanka.
It is said that they were originally created in China. First mostly boys were the ones to play with kites. Now, kites are toys for every child and even adults enjoy flying one.
In Sri Lanka there is a National Festival of Kites every year as a way to generate peace and harmony within and beyond Sri Lanka.
It takes place in Negombo.