The making of ಗಾಳಿಪಟ!! EXCLUSIVE

It’s pleasant. Sun rays for the first time are pleasant.


09:30am, terrace. It’s me, my laptop and the sun.


Sankranti is the day when sun is most powerful I remember ajji telling me in bed time stories. Powerful to eradicate all the worries and regrets that people have and make them feel good. Yes, I am feeling it now. No sun block No glares needed for protection; and yet, Pleasant is what I feel.


The sky is so clear too. Hold on, it isn’t. I see tiny things flying around. Different colors and different sizes they are.


“What about Colour paper?”


“Yea we have.”


“And Sticks, thread and a small cloth.”


“All there.”


I was 6yr old when this happened. I wanted to fly kite. Did not want to buy one and fly but make one all by myself and see it fly in the skies. With help of my maama and ajji, it was finally done. Now came the time for the poor Gaalipata to reach the sky. Ajji said she will hold the thread and I had to go a little far from her along with the kite and push it into the air.


While I did this, a strange thought buzzed across my mind. What if I too go with the kite? And can’t come back. Too much of Alice and wonderland that time! I had made maama and ajji spend 1 hour on the making of the Gaalipata. What reason do I make now for not wanting to fly the kite? So many questions in my innocent mind; no answers yet.


Those were the days when I used to hate milk. Not that I like now. I started shouting “Milk mamma milk”. Family was shocked. May be there were having too many questions in their mind too. All of them rushed inside to get me milk.


Not wanting to waste any time I pick up a thread nearby and tie one end to my leg and the other end to a stone next to me. Wait it’s not yet over. I now challenge the kite.

I am having milk now; once I finish it I get all the energy so that I can throw you up in the sky. You think you can pull me with you and take me away from my family. Nah! Dreams!! I have this stone to help me.

Family calls me to have milk. “I want to have it here with the kite”. I am sure family was more confused now. But I asking milk was the biggest happiness for them. They get it near me and that was the first time I drank milk within minutes.



My kite finally flew to the skies and thanks to the thread tied to the stone I stayed so much on earth.



I smell the lovely aroma from kitchen now. Amma must be done with pongal. By the way if you thought you will have a read on the making of Yograj Bhat’s Gaalipata; too bad. You can get all that and more in all the TV channels today. For here, this one is exclusive indeed; about the making of “My Gaalipata” ಮನದ ನೆನಪುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಪಯಣ :).