Monday, October 12, 2009

Go Fly a Kite



One of my favorite memories as a young boy is of making kites at the community center across the street. It was always an activity I looked forward to even though every kite would invariably wind up a jumbled pile of tissue paper, string and thin sticks.

Reading this article from MSNBC and watching the above video reminded me that it's often the simplest things that bring the most pleasure...
As we mulled over which kite to buy, customers came and went, approaching Zalgai’s counter. A handsome little boy with big round eyes stared at us while his father bought string. An elderly man eyed the spools hanging off the ceiling.

"Life here is much better since the Taliban left Kabul eight years ago," Zalgai said as he watched the brisk business. Moreover, the uptick in violence during the last several months in Kabul hasn’t affected his sales, he said. "My business seems more influenced by the seasons..."

...Iqbal strung up our new kite and, with Sohel, promptly took it out for its maiden flight as the sun dropped and the wind picked up.

When I stepped out onto the rooftop to watch their progress, the new kite was no longer – its pink corner shredded from a close encounter with a nearby satellite dish – and Iqbal was trying to scotch-tape it back together. Shortly after, the pair returned indoors, breathless with their fingers bleeding from the cutting sharpness of the string.

"Well, we got it up pretty high," said Sohel. "But we lost it."

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