Out last day in Punjab and we planned on visiting a local village and meeting the local people. We were lucky enough to be visiting on the Lohri festival. The Lohri festival is the celebration of the end of long days during the winter and the harvest of the winter crops. The festival is celebrated by flying kites during the day and eating puffed rice and popcorn. In the evenings, families that have welcomed a new baby during the year or have had a family wedding will have a big bonfire to celebrate their first Lohri.
It was amazing how many kites you could see throughout the festival. Our driver, Atinder was telling us how dangerous it has become. The kite string being used is now mostly coming from China, even though it has been banned from being imported, and it is so strong and it doesn't break easily. This means that there are stings caught between trees, houses, power poles etc that can be dangerous for people on motor bikes, kids running around etc. We got caught in a number of strings during our walk around the city and village.
On another note, there was a couple of very sad stories over the festival throughout India where people had died flying kites. Many people fly their kites from the roof top of their houses and a number of people, including children had fallen from the roof to their deaths.
We spent Lohri visiting a local village outside of Amritsar walking through the village, flying kites with the locals and seeing the daily life in country Punjab. I hope you enjoy the photos.
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| Such a different view in the nearby villages |
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| Wheat and mustard seed crops in the winter and rice in the summer |
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| Water Buffalo are beaconing more and more popular for milk as they are more robust and hardy in tough conditions |
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| This guy is off to feed the buffalo - no quad bikes to help |
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| This little sweetie wanted to fly a kite too |
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| This is actually a water tank - the owners didn't like the look of the standard tanks, so they covered is with a 'bird' |
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| Most of the farming is still done by hand, employing many people within the village |
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| our bullock ride in to the village |
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| Max flying a kite for the Lohri festival |
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| Cow manure drying out to be used for fuel |
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| Such narrow little lanes in the village |
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| Raw Sugar Cane juice……. not good !!! |
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| Max on the smallest tractor EVER ! It was used in the small organic farm where we had lunch |
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| Lunch !! All made from the farm ingredients - Full Vege ! |
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| 6 degrees in the water and Max needed to swim - CRAZY! |
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| We found an indoor cricket net - how surprising ! |
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| not sure how far this guy will be getting today ? |
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