Proving the maxim that you can take some things entirely too seriously is this news report out of Pakistan:
The deaths and injuries were caused by stray bullets, sharpened kite-strings, electrocution and people falling off rooftops yesterday at the conclusion of the two-day Basant festival, said Ruqia Bano, spokeswoman for emergency service in the city of Lahore.
The festival is regularly marred by casualties caused by sharp kite strings or celebratory gunshots fired into the air.
Kite flyers often use strings made of wire or coated with ground glass to try to cross and cut a rival’s string or damage the other kite, often after betting on the outcome.
…
Police arrested more than 700 people for using sharpened kite strings or firing guns and seized 282 illegally held weapons during this year’s festival, said Aftab Cheema, a senior Lahore police officer.
Back off man, or I’ll cut you with my kite!
Kite flying is serious business in Pakistan:
Flyin’ High: Kite Flying from the Silk Road to Roosevelt Avenue
Actually it is so serious that only adult men can do it.
Why do people take pointless things seriously when there isn’t always money or some other benefit involved? Competitiveness only for competitiveness’s sake is pointless and often inconvenient, and in my view spoils the fun by tieing things down to rules and causing dispute
Well, in this case there was money involved, in the form of bets. And when someone can win something you can bet there will be cheating involved. It’s just economics at work.
I think I really need to finally get around to reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini…
Kite Runner was a good book. Depressing…but good. And the actual practice of kite combat is pretty damned neat in my view. Takes a fairly boring activity and makes it interesting.