Famous kite-maker ready with I-Day collection

Come Independence Day, the messages one associates with the occasion will not only be in people's hearts, they will also be soaring through the air in the colours of the Tricolour, thanks to a kite-maker from Amritsar and his special August 15 collection.
"I have been making kites for the past two months for Independence Day. Most of my kites carry pictures of freedom fighters and national leaders. They also carry small messages that we should always remember the sacrifices made by our freedom fighters," Jagmohan Kanojia told PTI today.
The 48-year-old kite-maker said he had made kites no longer than an inch in size, which were more like showpieces, to those as big as 10 feet in length.

This year, Kanojia said, he had made 10 feet-long kites bearing pictures of freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh.
"I have made several kites in the colours of the national flag, which carry messages for the youth like 'give up drug addiction'," he said.
This time, some of his kites will also carry messages that pay tributes to the five Indian soldiers killed along the LoC recently.

"Several of my kites are beautifully decorated with pictures of our former Presidents and Prime Ministers," he said.
Mahatma Gandhi, Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose, Rani Laxmibai, Balgangadhar Tilak and Chandrasekhar Azad are some of the greats whose pictures adorn Kanojia's kites.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and former President Pratibha Patil, too, have their pictures on some kites.
For Kanojia, it all started as a hobby in the early 1990s after he watched a kite-flying competition on TV.
He claims he has earned several accolades in the country for his kites, including the distinction of being the only person in India to have made kites of 10,000 different designs.