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Laughter livens up their day
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Cheering, clapping and watching with wide-eyed wonder despite the sweltering heat beneath the tents of the Rayman Circus in SIAA Grounds in Chennai, the children joined the dwindling audience to applaud.
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A little clowning gets them going.
IT WAS on for over two hours and they forgot their problems, worries, care and status in a less than sensitive society. They were children from Vidyasagar, which cares for spastics, kids from Don Bosco Anbu Illam, Korukkupet and from the Jawaharlal Nehru Society for National Integration besides children of convicts too.
Cheering, clapping and watching with wide-eyed wonder despite the sweltering heat beneath the tents of the Rayman Circus in SIAA Grounds in Chennai, the children joined the dwindling audience to applaud.
It's thanks to P.K. Madan Gopal, the owner of the circus, ``who was great to let us bring our children to see all for free, despite the fact that the business is pretty dull these days'', says Gundu, Secretary General of the Jawaharlal Nehru Society for National Integration.
Running Anjaan, meaning ``Unknown'', a home for the less privileged children, she is offering to help organise such programmes for the orphanage homes (Tel: 4839077).
Amrita and Lakshmi from Vidyasagar could not contain their enthusiasm and began dancing to the martial music played by the orchestra for the march past by the circus girls in white, who carried colourful flags. They had to be nudged by their guides to remain seated.
The little boys and girls from Don Bosco Anbu Illam, dare not take their eyes off the amphitheatre when men dressed in white were doing acrobatics up above. Their hard work was no match of course for the cheerful swinging by two clowns who insisted on joining in.
The twist dance with hoopla, by a little girl who also did a fire number was inspiring and she got a good applause from the half-empty theatre after she gracefully signed out with a bow.
No circus is complete without some clowning. Though there was the usual patting, jumping and kicking about, Lal Mohan and Ganesh Tiwari were kind enough to get off their circle to shake hands with the irrepressible viewers from Vidyasagar.
Comedy was the hallmark of the afternoon's show and to enjoy a good laugh - one child even removed his shirt; the clowns were too much for him. What else could he do when a red-nosed tiny man in colourful, joyous attire just whistled around him? A taller guy grabbed each whistle from him, but like a Houdini in reverse, kept proffering whistle after whistle, till he was whisked away bodily.
The comical water act also got them going. Every cup of water was gulped down and when patted on the head, it came out as a fountain. The spurts were timed to the patting for even greater effect.
There were the usual animal rounds, including Dalmatian dogs and donkeys. Horses were the four-legged creatures that surprisingly drew an enthusiastic audience reaction. Even when the show was going to wind up with the noisy globetrotting on motorbikes, those who were getting restless or had enough of the fun were chaperoned out of the theatre to get a breath of fresh air.
``Circuses nowadays are a dying trade'', laments K. Shivadev, especially with the Supreme Court ban on performing animals. True to what he said, a pair of lions and tigers was just there outside and caged-up entertaining visitors by sheer presence and not by performance.
By Akila Dinakar
Photo: S. Mahinsha
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Life
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