Khari Baoli is a wholesale grocery and Asia’s largest wholesale spice market. In operation since the 17th century it is situated very near the Delhi Red Fort. Here you’ll get crowds of people brushing against you as we hop, skip and jump to get through the market. We finally decide to take a breather and go to the roof top of our friends building, and we get an overview of the market’s magnitude looking in both directions.

To appreciate the work and skill of flying a kite you should watch these 3 videos. Here is a rooftop at Khari Baoli grocery market and a young Indian boy is flying a kite some several hundred meters away. You can see his ability to control his simple paper kite. I signal to him to fly it my way and he does.

“Go Back Simon” was the slogan in protest against the Simon commission in 1927. Patriotic Indians at that time used the kites as a medium of protest. Kites with the slogan “Go Back Simon” written over them were flown in the sky.

Ever since then, kite flying has become a tradition for Indians on Independence day to celebrate independence from British rule. With the unfurling of the national flag on 15th August, Delhiites also get busy with kite flying as an expression of freedom, happiness and patriotism.