Bygone Days - Preparing For Kite Combat!!
Kite flying and the preparatory work that went into getting the “maanja thread”!! Amongst all the childhood activities, this was the most long drawn and challenging one! And, an expensive one too.
While technicalities relating the kite itself were minimal, getting the ‘maanja” right was a big and critical task. Maanja was the concoction that was necessary to make the thread to fly kites strong. Key ingredients for a strong maanja were finely ground glass and ‘vajram’. The first requirement was soda bottles, since the glass that soda bottles were made of were the strongest. Or so we believed!! And finding soda bottles free was quite impossible, so we had to make do with buying them from the local ‘kaka’ shop – the chipped bottles came relatively cheaper. Vajram was a thick brown colored dry material, which was available in the form of medium thickness slabs. When boiled with water it became wonderful glue that helped to bond the fine glass onto the thread.
The two popular options in threads were thread number 40 and thread number 10, and if memory serves me right, the most wanted thread brand was called ‘spade’. Number 10 was a thinner but stronger variety of thread, while number 40 was a thicker thread.
The hunt then was to find a tin and cycle tyres. Kissan jam came in tins, and more often than not the search was for this tin, which was about four to five inches in height. Yes, we did go around the neighborhood looking at the waysides and trash bins for this important item. During luckier times, one of us had managed to retain a tin when the jam bought at home was transferred to a glass bottle. Kissan jam tins were rated as the most appropriate size! Baby-food tins were found more easily, but these were too big in size.
Once we were lucky to locate a good tin and some cycle tyres, off we headed to the local graveyard. What could be better than graveyards that had smooth, well polished stones that covered graves to get the process of grinding the soda bottles to fine glass powder? Other requirements were a thin but reasonably strong piece of wood, a safety pin and three stones that could be used to hold the tin, and to have the fire set between them.
The stone covering the grave was first washed and cleaned so that there was minimal dust getting mixed up with the glass powder. A cloth was wrapped around the soda bottle before it was gently broken into the smallest pieces possible. These small pieces were then laid out on the smoothest grave stone we could find. Then began the painful and long but enjoyable process of grinding the bottle pieces to fine powder. This was the most time consuming part of getting the maanja thread done. The process was akin to the olden day household chore of grinding spices to fine paste on a rolling stone, and how we wished the grinding stone at home was available to do this very difficult activity!!
After a few hours of diligent work, the glass powder was in place. It had to be sieved through a fine cloth to make sure it was virtually as fine as talcum powder.
The fire was then set by lighting up the cycle tyres. The tin got half filled with water and small broken pieces of the vajram were set to boil. The ‘expert’ among us would check if the mix of water and vajram was right. The stick was dipped into the boiling concoction and the sticky liquid was tested by rubbing it between fingers. More vajram pieces were added to get the right blend. Once this was done, the finely ground glass powder was added and had to be continuously stirred. Once it was felt that the right mix of glass powder, vajram and water was in place, we added color powder. This was to give color to the white thread. This became another technicality when we mixed two different colors to come up with something different from the run of the mill colors! Rumours had it that there were some ‘secret’ ingredients that added more strength to the maanja leading to a stronger thread, but no one was willing to share any information. How could one share this information? At the end of the day, the victory lay in two kites getting into a ‘deal’ – the threads flying the kite getting into combat in air, and the stronger thread cutting the other thread!!!
Once the maanja was ready, the safety pin was tied to the end of the stick and the thread was run through the small hole at the end of the safety pin. One guy had to hold the tin with a piece of cloth – hot from having been under fire. Another had to pull the thread, which now ran through the maanja in the tin. A third guy had to hold the thread up, away from the rim of the tin, with a piece of cloth that had some more fine powdered glass. The ‘leader’ was the one who stirred the maanja with the pin attached stick, and he diligently moved the stick around the maanja in a circular motion. The person pulling the thread had to do walk forward at a measure pace, and at the end of the some distance he would have to hold the thread and wait for the maanja to dry on the thread. Some guys used to run the thread around an electric pole and come back, but we kids never did that since the part of the thread that ran around the pole ended up as a weak spot, with the wet maanja tending to come off when it came into contact with the pole!
The leader would stop stirring when the thread runner had stopped, and as everyone waited, he would check if the maanja had dried. The leader would also do a visual inspection to make sure the maanja was evenly spread on the thread. If there were weak spots, some maanja was “manually” applied to the weak spot.
The guy who pulled the thread would actually tie the end of the thread to the “lottai”!!! The lottai was the wooden equipment into which the thread was wound and stored. Those too poor to buy a lottai, ended up using a stone and winding the thread around it in the form of a ball. The lottai had a thick round wooden stick, about a foot in length, with two circular pieces of wood that were fitted at about four/five inches from the end of each sides of the stick. The edges of the two circular pieces of wood were again connected by several other pieces of rounded wood. The maanja thread was carefully wound over these several pieces of wood, and evenly spread. One end of the lottai stick was cradled at the elbow, the other end of the lottai was held between the thumb and index finger. While the thread was guided by the other hand – normally the left hand, the right hand thumb and index finger rotated the rounded wooden stick to move it in a circular motion; the left hand moved the thread evenly across the lottai!!
So, after a good four to five hours of effort, the maanja thread was finally ready!! Time now for combat with other kite flyers!!!!
The ‘maanja expert’ was normally the kite flier, and the next important chap was the guy who handled the lottai, especially during kite combats.
After the maanja was done, the left over maanja if any was given away to those who had helped through the maanja process. Of course, it could not be given to any enemy groups!!!
While technicalities relating the kite itself were minimal, getting the ‘maanja” right was a big and critical task. Maanja was the concoction that was necessary to make the thread to fly kites strong. Key ingredients for a strong maanja were finely ground glass and ‘vajram’. The first requirement was soda bottles, since the glass that soda bottles were made of were the strongest. Or so we believed!! And finding soda bottles free was quite impossible, so we had to make do with buying them from the local ‘kaka’ shop – the chipped bottles came relatively cheaper. Vajram was a thick brown colored dry material, which was available in the form of medium thickness slabs. When boiled with water it became wonderful glue that helped to bond the fine glass onto the thread.
The two popular options in threads were thread number 40 and thread number 10, and if memory serves me right, the most wanted thread brand was called ‘spade’. Number 10 was a thinner but stronger variety of thread, while number 40 was a thicker thread.
The hunt then was to find a tin and cycle tyres. Kissan jam came in tins, and more often than not the search was for this tin, which was about four to five inches in height. Yes, we did go around the neighborhood looking at the waysides and trash bins for this important item. During luckier times, one of us had managed to retain a tin when the jam bought at home was transferred to a glass bottle. Kissan jam tins were rated as the most appropriate size! Baby-food tins were found more easily, but these were too big in size.
Once we were lucky to locate a good tin and some cycle tyres, off we headed to the local graveyard. What could be better than graveyards that had smooth, well polished stones that covered graves to get the process of grinding the soda bottles to fine glass powder? Other requirements were a thin but reasonably strong piece of wood, a safety pin and three stones that could be used to hold the tin, and to have the fire set between them.
The stone covering the grave was first washed and cleaned so that there was minimal dust getting mixed up with the glass powder. A cloth was wrapped around the soda bottle before it was gently broken into the smallest pieces possible. These small pieces were then laid out on the smoothest grave stone we could find. Then began the painful and long but enjoyable process of grinding the bottle pieces to fine powder. This was the most time consuming part of getting the maanja thread done. The process was akin to the olden day household chore of grinding spices to fine paste on a rolling stone, and how we wished the grinding stone at home was available to do this very difficult activity!!
After a few hours of diligent work, the glass powder was in place. It had to be sieved through a fine cloth to make sure it was virtually as fine as talcum powder.
The fire was then set by lighting up the cycle tyres. The tin got half filled with water and small broken pieces of the vajram were set to boil. The ‘expert’ among us would check if the mix of water and vajram was right. The stick was dipped into the boiling concoction and the sticky liquid was tested by rubbing it between fingers. More vajram pieces were added to get the right blend. Once this was done, the finely ground glass powder was added and had to be continuously stirred. Once it was felt that the right mix of glass powder, vajram and water was in place, we added color powder. This was to give color to the white thread. This became another technicality when we mixed two different colors to come up with something different from the run of the mill colors! Rumours had it that there were some ‘secret’ ingredients that added more strength to the maanja leading to a stronger thread, but no one was willing to share any information. How could one share this information? At the end of the day, the victory lay in two kites getting into a ‘deal’ – the threads flying the kite getting into combat in air, and the stronger thread cutting the other thread!!!
Once the maanja was ready, the safety pin was tied to the end of the stick and the thread was run through the small hole at the end of the safety pin. One guy had to hold the tin with a piece of cloth – hot from having been under fire. Another had to pull the thread, which now ran through the maanja in the tin. A third guy had to hold the thread up, away from the rim of the tin, with a piece of cloth that had some more fine powdered glass. The ‘leader’ was the one who stirred the maanja with the pin attached stick, and he diligently moved the stick around the maanja in a circular motion. The person pulling the thread had to do walk forward at a measure pace, and at the end of the some distance he would have to hold the thread and wait for the maanja to dry on the thread. Some guys used to run the thread around an electric pole and come back, but we kids never did that since the part of the thread that ran around the pole ended up as a weak spot, with the wet maanja tending to come off when it came into contact with the pole!
The leader would stop stirring when the thread runner had stopped, and as everyone waited, he would check if the maanja had dried. The leader would also do a visual inspection to make sure the maanja was evenly spread on the thread. If there were weak spots, some maanja was “manually” applied to the weak spot.
The guy who pulled the thread would actually tie the end of the thread to the “lottai”!!! The lottai was the wooden equipment into which the thread was wound and stored. Those too poor to buy a lottai, ended up using a stone and winding the thread around it in the form of a ball. The lottai had a thick round wooden stick, about a foot in length, with two circular pieces of wood that were fitted at about four/five inches from the end of each sides of the stick. The edges of the two circular pieces of wood were again connected by several other pieces of rounded wood. The maanja thread was carefully wound over these several pieces of wood, and evenly spread. One end of the lottai stick was cradled at the elbow, the other end of the lottai was held between the thumb and index finger. While the thread was guided by the other hand – normally the left hand, the right hand thumb and index finger rotated the rounded wooden stick to move it in a circular motion; the left hand moved the thread evenly across the lottai!!
So, after a good four to five hours of effort, the maanja thread was finally ready!! Time now for combat with other kite flyers!!!!
The ‘maanja expert’ was normally the kite flier, and the next important chap was the guy who handled the lottai, especially during kite combats.
After the maanja was done, the left over maanja if any was given away to those who had helped through the maanja process. Of course, it could not be given to any enemy groups!!!
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