for those who think kiteflying is a mere hobby for people caught in a time warp a visit to chandni chowk is a must for reality check my abba even said that kiteflying would improve our eyesight according to firoz bakht ahmed author and educationist kiteflying is an ageold tradition in delhi especially in the walled city new delhi in fact we used to have serious competitions he said people find chinese kites fascinating but they dont want to buy them with games like cricket football and even computers kiteflying has almost become a thing of the past said 55yearold naseem a resident of chandni chowk said gupta chinese kites are bigger they come in a variety of shapes from eagles to butterflies but chinese kites are not very popular though a majority of them are today busy breathing life into this dying sport this sport became even more popular after independencethe kite festival to be inaugurated by actress mahima chaudhary at india gate on saturday has made kite lovers nostalgic kites were put to an even more imaginative use kiteflying used to be one of the most popular sports however for bhai mian and his ilk the only regret is that kiteflying has been reduced to a pastime now said gupta they are so huge they require really strong winds to fly dying sport it may be but that hasnt stopped the chinese dragon from trying to make inroads a kite festival would be wonderful said 80yearold bhai mian often referred to as the godfather of kiteflying in the area we used to find it quite amusing said ahmed people would use kites to send messages to their beloved otherwise there are hardly four to five shops that sell kites roundtheyear said nitin gupta owner of the oldest kite shop in lal kuan area the confusing alleys of the area house numerous connoisseurs of the art during independence day there are about 100 shops selling kites in this very bylane they are also costlier found in the range of rs 15300 it is one of the biggest centres of kiteflying in the country