Kite Story When we think of Hyderabad, it is always 'Biriyani' that comes first in our mind, but, the city has got many more famous things and one such is kite flying. It is beautiful to see the creative, artistic kites flying in the sky, all over the city during Sankranti / Pongal. This is a story of a Hyderabadi boy, who tries to fly his kites higher than his competitors. Karthik, a 5th grade studying local boy, was really fascinated to fly kites, asked his father that he would like to fly a kite. Father gently refused him and advised him to play something else. Listening to that, Karthik was upset and watched the kites from the window, the whole afternoon. In the evening, father had arrived with sweets and Karthik and his brother quickly opened sweets, had each one and the father asked Karthik to check his new dress in the pack. Karthik enthusiastically opened the pack and to his surprise, it was a kite and a bundle of thread. Karthik was over joyous to see it and ran back and hugged his father very tight and kissed him. The father, helped Karthik with piercing the thread into kite and Karthik, his brother and father reached the terrace. Father asked Karthik to hold the thread bundle and he held the kite at bridle point and was waiting for wind. When there was a sufficient wind, he properly lined it out and released it. The kite began to dangle slowly and fly high with the wind. Father held Karthik's hands and taught him how to release the thread slowly, so that kite flies higher and higher. Karthik's kite reached higher than all other neighbours. He was really happy and enjoyed every second of flying his first kite. He was completely lost himself and his eyes were on the kite and were moving along with it. After sometime, father taught him to roll-back the thread, so that he could get the kite back. Soon after he got the kite back, he safely placed it in his cupboard. Karthik had a great time and his holidays were finished and it was time to go back to school. He explained everybody in the class, how he could fly his first kite. He was so happy and was eagerly waiting for next holidays and he even had a dream of time-travelling, skipping the days and enjoying his next kite flying. Every now and then he used to check the kite, to make sure it is not damaged and place it back. Finally, time has come again, for his next kite flying, father brought him a new thread bundle. Karthik was more enthusiastic than his first time. It was in the morning, he took the kite and the bundle along with his brother, went to the terrace. This time, his brother released the kite and Karthik was slowly releasing the thread and the kite began flying high with wind. His joy lasted no longer, as the kite was old, paper was torn apart and kite dangled and flown a distance, before it fell far away. Disappointed Karthik, explained what had happened to his father and asked him to buy a new kite. Father asked him to bring him a newspaper, sticks from a broom and a glue bottle and he taught him how to make a kite. He and his brother took the kite began flying the kite and they were very happy to see the kite flying high and suddenly there was another kite flying higher than their kite. After flying for sometime, Karthik's kite was torn and stuck on a tree. Seeing that the whole gang on the other building made fun of Karthik. He was very hurt by that and explained to his father. Father said to him "Failure is not fatal. Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker and it should challenge us to new heights of accomplishments, not pull us to new depths of despair and from a honest failure, comes a valuable experience.” Karthik didn't completely understood what his father had said, but, he could feel the warmth and inspiration to fight back. On the next day, he and his brother were on their way to a shop, they happened to find a wall poster detailing a kites competition on the following Sunday and entry fee is Rs. 20. Seeing that both of them ran back to home and asked their mom for Rs. 20. She gave the money and both ran to the competition desk, paid them the fee and got their names registered. In the evening, both reached the terrace, practised flying the kite high and the opponent group also joined and within no time, they were succeeded in cutting Karthik's kite. Karthik, this time was not upset, but began thinking where exactly it went wrong. Observing that, father said him "Sometimes, you need to play low, analyse your opponent and raise and remember, appear weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak; this is a competition of survival and not of flying high and if you want to win, keep your kite survive till end". Listening to that, both prepared a kite with bamboo sticks, instead of coconut sticks and practised flying low and move the kite fast both horizontally and vertically and they had practised a lot. It was the judgement day and Karthik took a red-coloured paper (His favourite colour) and prepared a kite with bamboo sticks. The competition began and there were 20 kite flyers and all were elder to Karthik. Karthik tried flying as low as possible, while others were trying to cut each others' kites. After an hour, there were only 5 kites left and Karthik still continued to fly low. The rest four were still trying to cut the kites and finally there were only 3 kites left, including Karthik's. The other two opponents decided to take on Karthik's. As soon as they came close to him, he tried flying even lower. Karthik was weak and he decided to appear strong and took his kite higher than others. While trying to cut Karthik's kite, their kites got tangled and out of which one was survived and it was the opponent from the neighbour building, who used to bully Karthik. The opponent's was lower than Karthik's and had more advantage to take on. They tried to cut the kite twice and due to which his kite was slightly torn apart and Karthik remembered his father's words "Survival is important". He began escaping from the opponent and tried flying lower than opponent. He continue to escape and finally, when he had a chance he could take on the opponent and tangled it and tried damaging the paper with bridle point, flying both horizontally and vertically and unable to withstand the force, the opponent's kite torn apart and fell. Karthik was the winner and both the brothers came back home with huge smile and joy, as if they had won the world. Karthik gave the prize to his dad and said "We have won". Dad responded "This is your first lesson in your life, never feel low for what you don't have, you should always think to create wonders out of nothing and once again, remember, pretend strong, when you are weak and weak, when you are strong".

Dedicated to all the loving fathers, the first heroes of their children