Early in the morning and around sunset, the skies above north Indian cities are speckled with paper kites flown from the rooftops by groups of eager children. Playing ‘patang’ is not for the faint-hearted. In Amritsar, as elsewhere, it’s a fiercely competitive sport, the object of which is to cut the line of your opposition, setting his or her kite circling to earth – achieved by caking the lines in a mixture of glue and ground glass. Join our guide for an introduction to the dark art: learn to prepare, launch and manoeuvre a ‘patang’ above the city’s skyline.