BHOPAL: Makar Sankranti, the festival to celebrate sun’s transit into the Makara (Capricorn) zodiac sign, was celebrated in Bhopal with great zeal. At Mandakini Maidan in Kolar, a grand event was organised by Alaukik Seva Sameeti, where a huge Tricolour kite was the major attraction.President of the committee, Vijay Shankar Dixit said, “The kite promoted the idea of unity and patriotism. The kites have exclusively been imported from Lucknow whereas the strings from Bareily.” The committee trained about 100 students from Vindhyachal Academy School, Kolar to make the special strings (manjha) for kites. The programme was followed by a competition among 48 professional kite-flyers of the city. The competition was judged by Lakshmi Narayan Khandelwal, who has been judging the event from more than 20 years.Public relations minister PC Sharma was the chief guest. Speaking on the occassion, he said that the committee is doing a great job maintaining the ‘Ganga-Jamuni sabhyata’. Arif Masood and Sanjay Shukla were also present. In another kite-flying event held at Kaliosot, women participated in with enthusiasm. The all-women event aimed at spreading awareness about women empowerment and to promote gender equality.Women in the age group of 25 to 60 years participated in pairs and we’re awarded under three different categories. Before the competition the participants were given three-day training by Rajesh Hura, a businessman.Dressed in traditional attire, the women offered each other til laddoos. The event was coordinated by Rekha Singh and Shweta Singh. Apart from the designer kites, cartoon characters like Doraemon, Angry Birds and Barbie also found place high in the sky. The sky of Bhopal was bright and colourful due to huge number of kites flown from every corner on the occasion of Uttarayan.

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