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Here comes the balloon man
Fashioning a variety of novel shapes
CHILDREN FLOCKED around him, pushing and jostling to have a closer look at what the man was doing. Some of the younger ones could hardly contain their excitement as they tried to elbow their way to centre of the little group.
With a smile on his face and pleasant words for the youngsters who crowded around him on every side, the "Balloon Man", was clearly very much in demand, and seemed to enjoy keeping the kids engrossingly engaged.
A large number of kids had turned up for the junior carnival, organised as part of the Independence Day celebrations, and the more inquisitive ones just could not take their eyes off the enigmatic man with the little goatee beard.
He wore a few of those long balloons too, somewhat like a cap with antlers, and that deepened the mystery surrounding him. He carried a black shoulder bag, which anyone could imagine contained a lot of interesting secrets.
Dozens of eyes watched with undivided attention as he pulled out an extra-long rubber balloon from his bag, fitted it expertly to the metallic nozzle of a pump-like appliance, and began smoothly inflating the balloon. As the air filled the sac, the balloon took on an impossibly long shape. With a little imagination, it was possible to visualize it as an extra-long drumstick or even a strangely shaped cucumber.
However, the balloon was not going to end up as an air-filled vegetable, there was to be a lot more, and that was why the children were so eager to see the balloon sculpture in progress, without missing any step.
Within seconds, the long rubber bag began to bulge with air, while the Balloon Man's fingers tested the object to ensure that it was just right to be easily manipulated. With a quick twist of his fingers, he sealed the mouth of the balloon.
Neither barks nor bites
"Make me a monkey. I want a camel. No it's for me, I want a dog,'' the youngsters kept calling out, but for the Balloon Man, it was to be a policy of "First come, first served", so that none of the youngsters felt that they were being ignored.
His dexterous fingers moved like lightning as they smoothly manipulated the balloon into a pair of small legs and a long, bulging body. A few more twists and the object became took a mysterious shape.
It did have some aspects of a doll, but what kind of doll could it be, especially one that didn't have a proper face, and a body that was too long? Maybe it wasn't human then, just one more of those creepy-crawlies.
Was it a funny kind of lizard, or even a scary crocodile? It couldn't be a snake or an eel, unless it was some strange creature with a pair of knobbly and eccentric-looking ears. Was it a bird then, a long and slim bird, but without any feathers?
Could it be a mouse after all? That would account for what looked like a long, thin tail. Maybe it was a dinosaur, that cryptic creature that was usually scary, though sometimes funny.
Nothing seemed to be right, so maybe it wasn't an earthly creature after all. Maybe it was something out of this world, perhaps an extra-terrestrial, what they called an ET. That would fit the bill. A few second later, all was clear, for the object began to look more and more like a little dog, if you looked at it with a creative eye. Now it was time for something else, and out came another balloon.
By Michael Raj A. A.
Photos: K. Ananthan
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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