LAHORE, March 18: Kite sellers in the Walled City are facing severe difficulties in making both ends meet under the current kite-flying ban as they are switching to new professions in an atmosphere of uncertainty.

Muhammad Siddique, 52, popularly known as ‘Papa’ to the residents of Mochi Gate, who has been flying kites for as long as he can remember, used to run a kite-store, now closed, known as Papa Gaddi Frosh. He explained: “My father, Latif, brought kite flying into the area and was known for his skill which he passed on to me.”

An amateur competitor in the sixties and seventies, he settled down to run his family kite store which sold materials as well as ready-made kites, and in 2002 pioneered a bamboo kite which, he says, set a trend across the whole of Punjab. He claims it is the “safest” type of kite.

Though kite-flying is in his blood, Papa says he won’t be encouraging his son, Atiq, aged 20, to continue with his profession. “There is just too much uncertainty right now, and Atiq is better off completing his accountancy studies,” he said.

The Lahore Kite-Flying Association recently estimated that the ban is costing Rs200 million annually to the 500,000 families involved in the kite-flying business, which the city government’s administration has no plans to lift anytime soon.

Wasim, who used to be a professional kite flyer, would fly on behalf of clients who had the financial means but not the skill to fly for themselves. “At the time it was very profitable – in three of four nights we could earn enough to last us the rest of they year,” he said.

Another professional kite-flyer, who asked to not be named, claimed that he once made Rs80,000 in a night, before retiring due to a throat injury sustained by a chemically-treated glass twined kite. Wasim too has had to change his profession, and now works as a clerk, as have all his friends who at one-time formed a kite-flying ‘gang’.

“One day we hear the ban is lifted in one city, the next day it is again banned. We don’t understand what logic the government is following, and there is now no future in this field,” added he. An atmosphere of fear now grips former and current kite-flyers in the walled dity. Approached for interviews, several kite flyers declined to speak and one told Dawn his friends were arrested by the police shortly after granting a detailed interview to a leading Urdu daily.

Basant took place unofficially last Saturday, but celebrations were muted. In spite of all this, Papa remains hopeful that things can one day change. “What we need to do as a community is to come together, with all the stakeholders, and discuss ways to tackle these issues, like the chemically-treated kites. Maybe then our skies will once more be filled with kites in springtime.”