Basant makes a stunning return to Pakistan's Lahore after a two-decade ban
India Today
After nearly two decades of silence, Lahore's rooftops are alive again. Its hotels are full, and the sky is crowded with kites. The Maryam Nawaz government has lifted the ban on Basant after 19 years of restriction. Lahoris are pumped, and hotels in Androon Lahore are booked as the city welcomes its favourite festival after decades.
Actors Naseeruddin Shah, Aamir Khan, Vinod Khanna and Rekha, were among the bigwigs whom poet Muhammad Iqbal's grandson, Yousaf Salahuddin, hosted at his Barood Khana haveli in Lahore's Walled City for Basant festivities. Salahuddin regrets the lost opportunity of two decades, according to Pakistani daily Dawn. Basant, which could have been a multi-million-dollar cultural export, was reduced to memory because of a ban.
Umar Saif, a Pakistani scientist and self-confessed blue-blooded Lahori, too remembers how rooftops turned into kite battlegrounds, BBQ grills smoked till dawn, music blasted as if the entire city had decided to go live at once on Basant nights.
Saif is pumped up, and rightly so, as Basant is back in Pakistan after a 19-year ban. Expats are flocking back to Lahore. Millions of Lahoris on their rooftops would again get to chant "bo kata" (meaning hacked or cut) with every kite-war win.
The Basant festival, rooted in the Hindu agrarian and Sufi traditions of the subcontinent, marks the arrival of spring and has long been a riot of colour and joy. But for nearly two decades, Lahore was deprived of kite flying, leaving a generation that only knew Basant through photos and stories.
The festival has made a spectacular return this year.
The Punjab government, led by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, has lifted the 19-year-old ban and invested heavily in promoting the celebrations. Celebrations of the three-day festival started on Friday (February 6). Streets and squares of Punjab, especially Lahore, are buzzing. Markets are crowded with people buying kites, hotels and rooftops of the Androon Lahore (Walled City) have been booked for kite-flying.
The clip, posted on Instagram by Daksh, captures a conversation with a man who claims he and his family faced discrimination while travelling in Vietnam.
From war threats to ceasefire pauses, US President Donald Trump's phone-led diplomacy has kept the world guessing, markets volatile and allies uneasy, raising questions over whether global security is being shaped by strategy or a stream of impulsive late-night posts.
The demonstration in Salem, led by activist Parthiban and his supporters in the Sanjeevirayan Pettai area, took a symbolic turn as a household gas cylinder was treated like a deceased body.
LaGuardia collision: In the recording, the distraught air traffic controller admits that he "messed up". His colleague tries to comfort him, telling him he "did the best you could".
Seven stolen village dogs escaped suspected meat traders and were filmed travelling together along a busy highway in China.
Egypt has emerged as a key back-channel mediator, establishing contact with Iran's IRGC and proposing a five-day pause in fighting to build momentum for a ceasefire, a move that appears to have nudged US President Donald Trump to drop his threat to strike Iran's power plants, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Iran's actions in the Strait of Hormuz have stoked fears of long-term leverage over a vital global energy artery. In response, Gulf states are weighing both military and financial pressure.
Thrown over 100 metres, still strapped to her seat, she lived. As details emerge from the LaGuardia crash that killed two pilots, a chilling account and haunting audio raise troubling questions.
As the Iran war drags on, Trump appears to rewrite how it began, pointing at his defence chief. But warnings, denials and shifting claims suggest a story far messier than he lets on.
A blast from an industrial heater has triggered a massive fire at a Texas refinery
Hours after an airstrike destroyed the Qasmiyeh bridge over the Litani river in south Lebanon, India Today reporter Ashraf Wani reached the site to find an eerie, complete silence – no people, no rescue teams, only wreckage.
An Air Canada Express CRJ-900 collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport while taxiing in bad weather, killing both pilots and injuring two officers; 72 passengers were onboard.