Rishabh had told us we'd be meeting at the Shivaji  Statue outside Palm Grove Hotel at Juhu from  4.00-4.30, and I only got there around 4.20. I got a  bit delayed since I was coming with Leo and Mayank,  two friends from London, and we stopped off to buy  kites in Bandra, from that small street near Lucky's  restaurant near the station. 

 One can buy kites from anywhere in Bombay around Makar  Shankrati, but this is my favourite place since its  where a lot of the kites are made and some of the main  wholesalers are located. So there are huge piles of  kites of every possible colour and design, with reels  and reels of manja (kite flying thread would on wooden  spindles). 

 For Utraan/Makar Shankranti (can any Gujjus or  Maharashtrians on this list tell me if these festivals  have any significance other than wanting to fly a kite  in the great winter air?) they make pandals with kits  displayed at every corner. Many of them are so  elaborate one can hardly imagine flying them. 
 You can buy simple diamond shaped kites in just one  colour, hawk shaped kites, kites with a tail, extra  large kites, kites made from several colours, kites  with designs (hearts were popular, maybe a sign of  Valentine's Day), kites with faces on them, kites of  different kinds of paper. With some difficulty we  selected pink kites only, bought the special, extra  strong, glass treated manja the kite seller insisted  on and were off to Juhu. 

But when we reached we found almost no one there.  There was Rishabh, suitably dressed in a sleeveless  T-shirt, the better to display his kite flying biceps,  and there was M. and A. and after a bit Zach joined us  and that was it. Rishabh was walking up and down  making lurid threats about GB members who promise to  show up and then don't. Ashwin, who was getting the  kites was unavoidably delayed, so our kites were the  only ones at hand. Finally we decided to go and fly. 

 I'm going to say here that while I had thought the  kite flying was a good idea, the nearer we came to the  event the more I thought we'd just be making fools of  ourselves. Talking about it before the event we  realised that almost none of us seemed to know how to  fly kites, perhaps in line with the general  uselessness most of us display at most physical  activities (note, I didn't say _all_ physical  activities). 

 And if we failed we failed on Juhu beach in front of  all the hundreds of people out for the evening. Added  to which there didn't seem to be much breeze and there  were only a few kites in the sky. When one of those  pony cart guys came by and suggested we get in and let  the kite fly behind us to get it up in the air, I was  almost tempted for a moment. 

Luckily one of us M. knew about kites and showed us  how to tie it to the manja. To start with we selected  a big beautiful pink kite with large stylised eyes on  it. M. showed us how to tie the manja - all of us  crowding around saying "wow! that's where the hole goes", trying to pretend it was the kite and not M.

That we were interested in - and then with one of the  others holding the manja, M. ran back and threw it up.  And it flew! It was amazing! That first pink kite just  caught a puff of air and soared up in the sky. Rishabh had to use those biceps in earnest to prevent the manja spinning out of control. We all took our turn with the kite and it was amazing, the sort of strength that frail pink diamond of paper had, pulling so hard at the string stretching so far below. It was a fantastic feeling with our pink kite with the eyes looking down at us over Juhu Beach, way above any other kites in sight.

 Then - danger! A small, aggressive white kite appeared and made jabbing darts at our pink beauty. Of course, we all got hyper, "what should we do, what should we do, cut his string, how do we do that?" We looked around expecting some big, nasty kite flyer who we could take on directly. Immediate collapse: it was being flown by small girl, although helped by an aggressive red shirted guy, who was trying to cut our kite. M. took hand again, and tugged our kite a bit down and then suddenly brought it down on the white kite. And cut! The manja we had bought stood us in good stead and it was the white kite that got cut. Round One to us!

But the victory didn't last for long. I'm not sure what happened. Had the kite just got too far away, or did someone cut it without our realising it, or did the string snap? Suddenly the manja went slack and our beautiful pink kite broke free. The only consolation was that no one else captured it. Instead it just flew away, till it dipped beyond the horizon out of sight. At this point we were suddenly joined by a whole lot of new people. Ashwin finally appeared armed with more kites and his bf Zoraster. There was Joy, Ab-., S. and later D. and An-. joined us, and it all started getting real fun. Everyone was making jokes about the kite flying, dodging the horses that were running around the beach, and letching at all the cute guys, many of them all wet and shirtless from the sea, all around us.

 This distraction probably started affecting our kite flying though, because things started getting harder. The fancy hawk shaped kites we had bought (because Leo, who's got a Bollywood fetish, thought their shiny, glittery pink paper was the most appropriate for Bollywood heartland), proved too heavy to really get far off the ground. Other kites didn't go up too far, or just fluttered around, and worse, Mr.Red Shirt came back for revenge and this time was happily cutting away our kites.

 Finally the sun went down and we were about ready to leave up. We had one last kite which M. launched and was trying to get up a bit higher when Mr.Red Shirt darted in. As the tried to get his kite to cross our manja, M. suddenly brought ours down on his. And both kites snapped after that, causing both of us to lose our kites. But at least this ended with battlefield honours distributed equally.

 After this we thought we'd treat ourselves to bhel, so we went to one of the stall nearby and duly stuffed ourselves with bhel, pani puri and ragda pattice. We were just standing there finishing the food and chatting and looking at the big swing boats, and the Ferris Wheel (and the cuties who were climbing up and down them, propelling them by aheer muscle power).

 Then Rishabh suddenly got excited about going on the Ferris Wheel and before we knew it we were sitting two abreast and holding on for dear life to the guard rail in front of the seats. Before getting on I think most of thought only kids would get affected by it. But when they started spinning the wheel and going faster and faster, I can guarantee you we were all affected by it Perhaps its because it was so rickety, with no frills and all the dangers evident. Perhaps it was because it was large enough to raise you a decent height, but small enough to make you always aware of the ground, but when it went over - I can say it was pretty scary! And since, as I said, I wasn't the only one who found it scary, you can imagine what a sight we made: 12 literally screaming queens on a Ferris Wheel in Juhu... we got plenty of attention.

 And thats about it, except to say this was one of the most fun GB meetings in ages. Many thanks to all those who come and may we have many more!