Lahore, on a roll
// January 29th, 2005 // All
I’ve always thought Lahore is the coolest city in Pakistan. What with its exuberant, vibrant people, the delicious Punjabi sugarcane (this isn’t a euphemism, the sugar cane really is phenomenal) and the mind bending food.
Basant has of late, become quite an institution, as the Guardian reports:
Lahore buckles up for thrills and spills of kite carnival
Declan Walsh in Lahore
Saturday January 29, 2005
The GuardianThe city spread beneath his feet, Muhammad Faisal steered his kite across the evening sky like an old master, swooping and spinning with an artful flick of his wrist.
On the next rooftop his neighbour was also out, as were hundreds of young men across Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province, their kites silhouetted against the sunset. It was a spectacular sight, Mr Faisal, 25, agreed, but nothing compared with next week’s Basant carnival.Then, he said, the streets would fill with partygoers, a million kites would flutter overhead and the real games would begin.
“The idea is to knock your opponent’s kite out of the sky,” he explained with a wide grin. “It makes me very happy.”
Five million people are expected to throng Lahore next weekend for Basant, the spring festival of Hindu origin that has become Muslim-majority Pakistan’s most riotous street party.
Glamorous stars of Lollywood (as the local film industry is known), wealthy business families and tens of thousands of the city’s poor will cram on to rooftops to celebrate under a sky of fluttering kites.
Although marred by the gratuitous ‘objectivity’ the article goes some way to show how recognized the festivities have become.
Party on Lahore..
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