The arrival of March brought a lot of excitement and happiness on everyone’s face. Arrangements were made for the Basant festival, keeping in mind the theme of the festival of spring and kites. The roofs were decorated and music was played loudly Colour was added to the atmosphere by the colourful kites that people of all ages had bought. Food was prepared in order to enjoy the festival fully. Asher was also waiting for this day, when it finally came, he was pleased and excited because he was very passionate about flying kites. He went with his father, uncles and cousins to buy kites.

Before the day of Basant, Asher’s mother advised him to be cautious while flying kites, and fly the kite in a way that would not bring any harm to others and himself. She warned him to be careful in flying or chasing the kite and avoid going to the rooftop to fly it. Instead, he should just do it in the open ground near their house.

Asher assured his mother that his conduct would not harm others, and he would be careful about himself too.

However, almost everyone who had an open rooftop had made the arrangement to gather there with friends and relatives, and fly kites and enjoy themselves. Along with kites and its strings, there were trays of food and drinks to add to the festivities.

Asher, along with his father, also went to the roof of their house. His father selected for him a medium-sized yellow kite and gave him instructions about the direction of wind, the right time of dropping the string and not to go closer to the roof’s edge.

Asher listened carefully at first, but later when he found his cousins were flying larger kites, he brought his own kite down and went to select a large kite for himself. He was not even aware of how to handle and tackle large kites, but he wanted to show off.

Initially he managed to fly this kite and at the same time he cut someone else’s kite. Asher was delighted and this boosted his confidence so much that he now considered himself to be an expert at flying a kite.

Later, he cut another kite and the kite dropped. Asher jumped with delight and forgot about his parents’ advise. He was consistently looking at the kites and without giving attention to where he was. Soon he reached the edge of the roof without realising it.

His father saw him close to the edge and called out to him to move back but the warning was lost in the noise of the people and music playing.

Suddenly, the string of the kite got struck between electric wires. His father screamed as he ran towards Asher but it was too late. Asher pulled the kite’s string to free the kite, but just then there was a loud blast and sparking from the wires and a scream from Asher.

He fell down due to electric shock and lost consciousness. Luckily, he didn’t fall off the roof and soon Asher’s father took him to the hospital. Asher’s family was very worried and his mother was even crying. When finally, the doctor came after treating Asher, he told them that Asher was very lucky to not have broken any bones and he would recover in a few days.

The doctor also told Asher that he was lucky to not have fallen off the roof otherwise he would have been seriously injured, like some of the other cases they had treated that day who were also flying kites from the rooftop Asher, at that moment, realised what a wrong practice it is to gather on rooftops to fly kites and even in narrow lanes, where accidents frequently happen due to this wrong practice. He also felt ashamed that he did not pay attention to his mother’s instructions and thus faced the terrible consequences.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 6th, 2021