Independence Day on Pitara Kids Network

The Joy of Flying

Sat, 29 Sep 2001 20:16:46 +0000

Come Independence Day and the markets are flooded with kites. The sky looks like an ocean swarming with tiny tadpoles swimming across from one place to the other. Colourful tadpoles, though!

Although kite flying has been popular in India for hundreds of years, historians believe that kite flying originated in China almost 3,000 years ago. There are many stories, which talk about the origin of kites. One of them goes like this:

The Joy of Flying [Illustrations by Shiju George]

There was a king in China who asked his army men to tie him to a kite and fly him off to the enemy’s territory. The moment he reached above enemy territory, he shouted out that if anyone came out of their palace they would be killed.

Chattering Kids and Teacher's Tape

Fri, 08 Dec 2000 19:38:32 +0000

July 8: It happened in a primary school in the city of La Plata, Argentina. There were 70 bright-eyed children in one class. Seventy chattering children, all seven years old. A school rehearsal was on for Argentina’s Independence Day celebrations. And the teacher tried her best to see that they kept quiet during the rehearsal. But, the children did not.

Chattering Kids and Teacher’s Tape [Illustration by Sudheer Nath]

The teacher lost her cool. She stuck tape over their mouths to make sure they did not talk. Indeed, they could not. We do not know whether the rehearsal went on after that. What we do know is that the teacher is facing charges of cruelty to children for taking such an extreme step.