News
When a 30 feet long, 3D Axolotl took flight: Story behind Valvettithurai’s winning kite
For the past two months, Yogarasa Prakash, 28, and his close circle of friends had a ‘secret operation’ unfolding late into the nights on the beach of Valvettithurai.
With the Northern coastal village in deep sleep mode and empty narrow lanes that lead to the coast of Palk Straits, they used to carry their massive – 30 feet long- 3D kite, designed by Prakash for test runs ahead of the kite competition on Thaipongal day.
His friends were told of an informal non-disclosure agreement- not to reveal anything about his design of his kite, a design based on Axolotl, an endangered species found in the Mexican sea.
The winning creation
At the kite festival on Thaipongal day, his design won first prize out of around 60 entries, earning him a one-sovereign (8-gram) gold chain.
“I couldn’t believe that we won the first prize. It was an effort of four years and I continuously took part in the competition. My family and friends, in particular, made this happen,” Prakash told the Sunday Times after winning his prize amidst a cheering crowd as thousands of onlookers witnessed the magic in the sky.
His creative design, mixed with technology- totally depending on wind power, was designed in a way, that the kite- Axoltol grew its own tails, gave birth to a new born – all happening in the sky with adjustments and techniques he controlled with threats on his hand.
Taking shape: Putting it all together in his hous
“We had around 15 test runs as we had to make many adjustments, alignments of threats on separate kites that were within the body of mother axolotl to release once up in the sky,” he explained.
The panel of judges commended the creative design that made use of technology too.
Prakash, who works in a welding shop, uses his spare time to design kites. For this year’s competition, he also designed another massive kite—an airplane that drops relief packages—which took third place.
“My family was very supportive and I used the space in our living room and garage to house these massive designs. It was a bit difficult when painting them but they supported me to the end,” he said.
The biggest challenge, Praksh said, when it comes to designing his kites is sourcing good quality light weight bamboo sticks. He and his friends spend two whole days around the Northern coast from Valvettithurai to Kankesanthurai (KKS) searching for bamboo sticks that had washed ashore.
The kite festival in Valvettithurai dates back to the 1960s. This coastal town was well known for sea trade for centuries with countries in the Southeast Asian region, including the then Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Singapore, and Cambodia. It was this same town of shipbuilders—famously known for building the Annapoorani, which sailed to Boston, USA, in 1938
V. Maheswaran, 58, a kite enthusiast himself recalled his young days when the area was well known for massive kites without the tail pieces. “We have a rich culture of kite designing here and many people come here from various parts of the region to see the kites. Personally, I believe the quality of the designs have gone down but I am glad some youngsters have taken to designing kites creatively with the support of community organisations,”
The kite festival draws crowds from the region
Since the end of the war in 2009, the Valvai Vigneswara Community Centre in Valvettithurai has hosted the annual kite festival to keep the tradition of kite designing alive in the village.
The community centre’s treasurer Vimalathas Kavichelvan told the Sunday Times that the organisation supports this initiative with contributions from the public, the diaspora and well-wishers.
“Every year, we try to make the competition more colourful. This year, we included ‘technology’ as a key aspect in the judging criteria to encourage more designers to use their skills in the designing process,” he said.
Apart from the top three prizes of gold chains and coins, at least Rs 1.5 million was distributed among some 60 kite designers who took part in this year’s competition based on the points they received from the Judges.
Australian High Commissioner Matthew Duckworth and Indian Consul General in Jaffna, S. Sai Murali were the chief guests at the kite festival.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!