A six-member team from India will hold a kite flying demonstration at Katara beach side on Friday, between 3pm and 6pm.
"We are performing in Doha after a recent show in Dubai as part of the UAE National Day celebrations," team leader and professional kite flyer Abdulla Maliyekkal told 'Gulf Times'.
The One India Kite Team will conduct the demonstration between 3 and 6pm. Maliyekkal and his team has performed in many places including Pasir Gudan near Kuala Lumpur, 10 provinces in China, including Weifang, Wuhan, and Beijing, in addition to Indian destinations such as Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Udaipur in Rajasthan, and Ahmedabad over the last few years.
Maliyekkal said their kites, each costing about $4,000 were manufactured by Peter Linen, a professional kite maker from New Zealand, who has made similar kites for many professional flyers across the world.
If the response is good in Doha, the team members plan to hold a kite festival here, preferably in April. "Our team is affiliated to International Kite Federation, China, and working in professional partnership with the Asian Kite Federation and One World One Sky USA," said Maliyekkal, who says Katara has provided the facility free of cost to his team considering the enormous interest of the country's residents in kite flying.
"What we would like to show at the demonstration are the strides made by professional kite flyers at different levels over the years," he said while adding that kite flying still remained at its infancy in many countries and youngsters remained content flying kites from their rooftops.
"If the weather conditions are good, we would be able to give a good demonstration," Maliyekkal hoped. The team members are Riyas Nishad, Bilphin Rose Baby, Rathees Hashim, Sajid Thoppil and Shumaiz Shamseer.