Source: Dawn Date:06-02-05

LAHORE, Feb 5: Basant hysteria gripped the city when 24-hour festivities began early on Saturday evening with hundreds of thousands of kites dotting the sky in spite of cold weather.

The people of the Walled City and several other localities had elaborately illuminated their houses and buildings for the Basant night celebrations and arranged fireworks and traditional food on their rooftops for families and guests.

The chill in the air and light rain early in the morning could not deter the enthusiasts from going ahead with the Basant plans.

The entire atmosphere was rent with the shouts of Bo Kata. The affluent people had also arranged live music concerts on rooftops of buildings hired by them in and around the Walled City.

Many local and multinational companies had also hired rooftops of plazas and hotels to entertain their guests.

The city roads and streets have also been decorated with kites and colourful banners by the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) and private companies advertizing their products and services. As in the past, the PHA had organized music concerts and kite flying competition at the Race Course Park.

Thousands of people from various cities and abroad had already reached here to celebrate the festival, which heralds the arrival of spring.

Almost all hotels were booked to their capacity because of the influx of guests from outstation and abroad, specially from India and Dubai. President Gen Pervez Musharraf, along with his family, was also reported to have arrived in the city to celebrate Basant with his friends.

Diplomats based in Islamabad were also among those arriving in the city to experience the Basant night festivities.

"The city has literally been swarmed by the people coming from Islamabad, Karachi and other parts of the country as well as from abroad," said a five-star hotel manager and added most hotels had made extensive arrangements on their rooftops for their guests to enjoy Basant night festivities.

There was a marked increase in traffic, which moved slowly, on the city roads due to movement of the people to attend the Basant parties going on in most of parts of the provincial capital. Most restaurants remained open well after midnight as people continued to pour in for food.

Kite sellers did a roaring business on Saturday as brisk, last minute sale of kites was seen in the wholesale and retail markets of the Walled City and other areas of the city.

Business worth millions of rupees was transacted in one day as many kite sellers had completely sold out their stocks by the end of the day.

Despite the measures taken by Wapda, power supply continued to be disrupted throughout the day, especially during the night. The disruption in power supply also caused suspension of water supply for quite long hours in some localities.

The formation of 150 teams by the City District Government for checking the use of metal wire by kite flyers failed to make much impact. It may be recalled that the Punjab government had slapped ban on kite flying last year due to widespread use of metal wire and chemicals by the kite flyers. The use of metal wire is blamed for frequent power disruptions in the city during Basant festivities.