Lahorites celebrating 'Basant'
Lahorites finally got permission to celebrate Basant festival only for one day, starting from the evening of 14th and going till the evening of 15th March.
The provincial government has reportedly taken the precautionary measures. The use of Metallic and Chemical strings is still prohibited while the law enforcement agencies would make sure that kite flying near high power transmission power supply lines does not happen.
Earlier in the day there was a serious shortage of kites in the market as police had confiscated the kites in great numbers during raids a couple of days ago. People associated with the Kite flying business demanded a return of the confiscated kites as reported by the Daily Times.
The Pakiology team received a mix response from the residents of Lahore over the first night celebrations of Basant. Many people said there was no enthusiasm as it used to be in the past. According to sources, regions of Samnabad, Allama Iqbal town and Gulshan-e-Ravi have seen a cut down of atleast 50% of Basant craze as compared to the past.
Many political analysts see the sudden change in government’s stance over the ban as a political move to distract the residents from the long march which was scheduled to reach Lahore on saturday night. The march will leave for Islamabad, its final destination, on Sunday.
Historically Basant is a Hindu festival which is celebrated in the honor of Hindu goddess of music, art and knowledge. Along with Hindus of Indian Punjab, it is now celebrated by Muslims of Pakistani Punjab to mark the starting of spring. The festival is meant for happiness, joy and colors. Lahore is considered to be the epicenter of this festival as people travel from far away places towards Lahore to celebrate Basant. Kite duels is the main attraction of the event as Lahorites climb their roofs to see these interesting fights in the air. In these duels the contestants try to cut the string of their opponent by skill and trick.
The festival had been banned by the Lahore High Court in 2005 over the reason that there had been hundreds of people killed or injured every year by falling off the roof top or being cut by kite strings.
yeah thats so true but..it was not celebrated like it was done before..still people enjoyed..who were off from long march
The reason you didn’t see many people celebrate was that the city was in a state of Lock down. Basant attracts thousands of people from around the world, which didn’t happen this time.
If it was scheduled at least two weeks in advance, there would have been a greater response.
As for as the long march is concerned, almost anyone I talked to wasn’t interested in that. They just wanted to have a little fun and relieve all their stress.