بو کاٹا: Forbidden Norm

“GILGIT (Pakistan)”

Photo credit: Muzaffar Bukhari

✍”Think ” at least once a day about life… Your life.. our life .. others life like a chapter of a lifelong syllabus that needs to be rehearsed on daily basis. And always “close” the chapter with a rigorous conclusion or else a study without a conclusion is a total waste.

This excercise will gonna open many new hidden secrets of life, like the real treasured secrets. Some would be strange infact very strange and some would be very minute, hence overlooked. These itsy-bitsy are the real secrets having happiness inside.

Chasing happiness has always been a goal for me and this led me to reach at a conclusion. Allow me to share it with you.

“Happiness resides in small things”

(Counter arguments are welcomed?)

This is not just a statement but I can justify it. All those moments that are so tiny in essence always leave a smile on our faces … a pure unfiltered smile, leaving a spark of happiness inside. Those micro moments can be ; a surprise birthday, a surprise gift, sudden rain in hot summers and a beam of sunlight in cold winters , finding lost money, meeting an old friend , an unexpected word of appreciation, and so on and on.

But if I talk about those macro moments such as grand cultural festivals having joyous impact on national level , it won’t be wrong if I say that we don’t have any mentionable festival to treasure. As a nation we have very few occasions to cherish , except some which are based on religion and a few related to independence of the country.

Sadly on top of that we as an entity rarely seek festivity as a choice.

One such festivity lies in between the Earth and the sky, in a colorful paper , whirling with a string held deftly by the hands who know how to live in moments.

Flying kites always remained controversial. There is a time when lahorites and karachites are madly in love with kites, roof tops are hired, food is served and the competitions are arranged to herald the spring and blossom.

(Photo credit : Muzaffar Bukhari)

It’s main objective is to slice the string of the flyer’s kite and sending the vanquished aircraft to the ground with an outload cry of “Bokata “…. And everybody becomes ecstatic with endorphins at their peak .

And there are other times when government ban it officially because of deaths caused by strings made of chemicals, and people running this business or flying kites are being arrested to cover up the government’s inefficiency.

Flying kites need part science part art. The craft speaks of its flexibility and balance of bamboo frames, maintaining tissue- paper skin intact, the quality of the string and of course the skill of the flier’s to maintain to the vicissitudes of the wind.

There is no doubt , such activities are a true source of joy when they are harmless to the lives of all living beings. But when it comes to the lives of precious human souls there should be no compromise. But this is not the solution to ban the festivals out of such concerns, except to regularize it properly.

We have a scarcity of festivals in our lives and we really need it , because level of stress is increasing on every coming day to keep pace with fast forwarding lives and hence we are facing depression and other psychological disturbances. We need recreational activities in our lives to have smiles on our tiresome faces.

I have few very humble suggestions :

? We at first need to accept basant as our culutral norm . Though it belongs to ancient China inheritly, we do have our contribution in keeping it alive.

? We need to demarcate it with religion. It has nothing to do with the sanctity of religion. Basant was banned in Afghanistan in Taliban Regime. They did it because of religious concerns. We have to be vocal of cherishing it as merely a cultural norm.

? Government needs to regularize it properly by making laws for it. The factories using chemicals in making kites should be taken as a serious offence against law and be punished accordingly . Laws are just the paper work untill their implementation is not followed. A proper mechanism can be introduced to officially anounce this festival with all the strict rules and regulations.

Only then we can celebrate it wholeheartedly. A sweet melody beautifully sung by Fariha Pervaiz came to my mind.

??? Dil HOA BOKATA

Happy reading ???