As told by- The Rope
For most of the very young generation of 1960’s, circus was a magical term. It spelled flamboyance, romance, excitement, infallible skill and sheer courage bringing on an attack of gooseflesh, especially in highly excitable youth. People dressed in their fashionable best, went in large family groups along with their snack boxes to these highly decorative tented circuses. Most of the young could be seen, with their mouths stuffed with homemade goodies, staring wide -eyed at the performing animals and the swinging acrobats, laughing loudly at the clowns and gape open mouthed at the magician then suddenly remembering to chew the food that would try jumping out of their mouths for being neglected. The ‘Maut ka kuan’ [well of death, literally], the jugglers and the colorful ensemble of the acrobats left everyone breathless. The acts involving snakes and the wild animals were the most, awe inspiring and were watched in pin drop silence and with mesmerized respect. Most of the excitable young though, waited with baited breath for the trainer to be gobbled up by one of the big cats, be it a tiger or a lion they were not fussy. Disappointed when the cats did not oblige they looked forward to acrobats swinging high up near the tent roof to miss a foothold, which almost never happened unintentionally. All in all, amidst exclamations of wonder and delight the circus would end leaving its audiences irrespective of age, almost euphorically amazed.
After one such visit to the famous Gemini circus, the umbi-jumping duo decided that life was worth living only if one was part of a circus. They put the two heads containing their volatile brains, together and reached a conclusion- to prepare a unique but impressive act that they could show to the proprietor, the next time he brought his circus to their town. Purja, a great fan of snake charmers was more in favor of training a python and Gira a tiger. But tigers were unavailable to them and the snake charmer had been sulking since the runaway snake incidence, so the animal act option was not valid. They did practice with their bicycles but gave up soon enough realizing the battered cycles were not audience friendly. They tried juggling but the breakage of, bottles, glasses etc was not ear friendly. They tried juggling softer wool balls but they got badly tangled resulting in angry mothers. They tried juggling the golf balls but kept loosing or tripping everyone over them thereby alienating father Inc. The enterprising young cousins tried everything they could think of, wanting to be the best. After many such false starts, finally they zeroed on to acquiring acrobatic skills. Gardener’s tool shed was raided; the rope- an aunt of mine, acquired and tied about seven feet high, between two Eucalyptus trees.
“We kept our branches crossed, not knowing what was coming. They were busy the whole afternoon. Even Goltu was kept in dark.” Remembered the tree.
“The famous black umbi-jumping umbrella was brought out, cleaned and decorated with colorful buntings. They applied powder, rouge and lipstick on their faces using some unique makeup application techniques, added a generous dash of a very expensive perfume quietly sneaked from the dressing area, stuck few sorry looking feathers that were part of Purja’s dubious collection, in their shorts, wore some of their respective mom’s costume jewelry and tied colorful ribbons belonging to Sesa, around their waist and head. Purja- Gira designer outfit and makeup though unique, I have grave doubt, would have been a big hit with the acrobatic community around the world. But our two acrobats in making, though clownish to others, felt totally up market as far as their overall looks were concerned. They were almost there they felt. Only a small matter of some classy acrobatic action remained now.
“Climb up the ladder and onto the rope. Walk carefully and try not to jump like a horse. You are very impatient. I will cushion you if you fall.” Gira was clever enough to understand the risk involved hence wanted Purja to go first. “Here! You can use the umbrella to balance.”
Quickly, Purja reached the rope with the help of a wooden ladder, also acquired from the gardeners shed. He planned to rope- walk gracefully. With an umbrella held delicately in one hand, he tried balancing on a crazily swaying rope. Soon he gave up trying to be graceful, swinging umbrella like a sword he tried saving himself from falling. But the rope was having definite attacks of nervousness. Gira tried to steady it with a bamboo pole but was unsuccessful. Purja toppled, falling heavily on Gira below.
“You fool! I told you to be careful. This way, you will break my back. Hold the rope between your toes. And the umbrella is for balancing and not for poking the rope with.” Gira scolded, rubbing her back.
“Why don’t you try first if you are so smart? I know you want me to be the first one to fall. You just keep ordering. Why don’t you try walking on that thing? Then you will know that the stupid rope sways like there is no tomorrow.” Purja had taken a hard knock and wasn’t going to take attitude from Gira. This was followed by a heated exchange of some impolite words, till no one was left in doubt of what they thought of each other.
Unburdened thus, both the heads came together once again to assess the situation. After much consultation it was decided that the rope walking would be more manageable if each one of them walked from either side simultaneously. Purja took a pole and Gira, the umbrella for balancing, imitating the circus acrobats. There was only one problem though. The rope was not in agreement. It had some other ideas.
Shortly afterwards the gardener found our acrobats dangling; ribbons, feathers, jewelry et al. upside down from the rope, between two trees just as a fish on a fisherman’s rod. They were untangled and brought down. How had they managed to get tied up so badly remains, a mystery till date. The gardener guffawed loudly inviting more onlookers. It was embarrassing, is to say the least. And they never ever forgave Goltu for giggling and Pints for hiding behind the door on seeing them. It was not Pints’ fault though. He thought the bad men have come to fetch him for being naughty.
“Purja’s dad was highly amused by the sight of our friends whom the gardener ushered in his presence. He brought out his camera and captured the totally unique never till date repeated acrobatic fashion statement. By then our friends had perked up and tried salvaging their reputation by telling some far fetched tale about the jittery rope trying to sabotage their acrobatic aspirations. They were let off lightly due to the free entertainment they had provided. Lot of suspicious sniggering could be heard between the household staff and the gardener that our acrobats did not much appreciate. The rope and the ladder were locked in the shed and the keys hidden under a planter nearby. The gardener was kind of possessive of his implements, as we all know. Their respective moms were not amused by the abuse meted out to their makeup kits and the perfume bottles.”
As the acrobats stood holding their ears facing the corner, they heard Goltu pointing at them while explaining to little Pints, “Don’t be scared. These are not bad men. Look! It is only Gira and Purja. They are just dressed like bad men.” They did not much care for her tone.
“They did try a few stunts from time to time but the earlier enthusiasm was missing. Circus mania had passed.” The rope unknotted itself settling back into a neat pile as every one around it discussed the reason for the dangling duos dangling condition. It was difficult to reach any conclusion, they all agreed.
For most of the very young generation of 1960’s, circus was a magical term. It spelled flamboyance, romance, excitement, infallible skill and sheer courage bringing on an attack of gooseflesh, especially in highly excitable youth. People dressed in their fashionable best, went in large family groups along with their snack boxes to these highly decorative tented circuses. Most of the young could be seen, with their mouths stuffed with homemade goodies, staring wide -eyed at the performing animals and the swinging acrobats, laughing loudly at the clowns and gape open mouthed at the magician then suddenly remembering to chew the food that would try jumping out of their mouths for being neglected. The ‘Maut ka kuan’ [well of death, literally], the jugglers and the colorful ensemble of the acrobats left everyone breathless. The acts involving snakes and the wild animals were the most, awe inspiring and were watched in pin drop silence and with mesmerized respect. Most of the excitable young though, waited with baited breath for the trainer to be gobbled up by one of the big cats, be it a tiger or a lion they were not fussy. Disappointed when the cats did not oblige they looked forward to acrobats swinging high up near the tent roof to miss a foothold, which almost never happened unintentionally. All in all, amidst exclamations of wonder and delight the circus would end leaving its audiences irrespective of age, almost euphorically amazed.
After one such visit to the famous Gemini circus, the umbi-jumping duo decided that life was worth living only if one was part of a circus. They put the two heads containing their volatile brains, together and reached a conclusion- to prepare a unique but impressive act that they could show to the proprietor, the next time he brought his circus to their town. Purja, a great fan of snake charmers was more in favor of training a python and Gira a tiger. But tigers were unavailable to them and the snake charmer had been sulking since the runaway snake incidence, so the animal act option was not valid. They did practice with their bicycles but gave up soon enough realizing the battered cycles were not audience friendly. They tried juggling but the breakage of, bottles, glasses etc was not ear friendly. They tried juggling softer wool balls but they got badly tangled resulting in angry mothers. They tried juggling the golf balls but kept loosing or tripping everyone over them thereby alienating father Inc. The enterprising young cousins tried everything they could think of, wanting to be the best. After many such false starts, finally they zeroed on to acquiring acrobatic skills. Gardener’s tool shed was raided; the rope- an aunt of mine, acquired and tied about seven feet high, between two Eucalyptus trees.
“We kept our branches crossed, not knowing what was coming. They were busy the whole afternoon. Even Goltu was kept in dark.” Remembered the tree.
“The famous black umbi-jumping umbrella was brought out, cleaned and decorated with colorful buntings. They applied powder, rouge and lipstick on their faces using some unique makeup application techniques, added a generous dash of a very expensive perfume quietly sneaked from the dressing area, stuck few sorry looking feathers that were part of Purja’s dubious collection, in their shorts, wore some of their respective mom’s costume jewelry and tied colorful ribbons belonging to Sesa, around their waist and head. Purja- Gira designer outfit and makeup though unique, I have grave doubt, would have been a big hit with the acrobatic community around the world. But our two acrobats in making, though clownish to others, felt totally up market as far as their overall looks were concerned. They were almost there they felt. Only a small matter of some classy acrobatic action remained now.
“Climb up the ladder and onto the rope. Walk carefully and try not to jump like a horse. You are very impatient. I will cushion you if you fall.” Gira was clever enough to understand the risk involved hence wanted Purja to go first. “Here! You can use the umbrella to balance.”
Quickly, Purja reached the rope with the help of a wooden ladder, also acquired from the gardeners shed. He planned to rope- walk gracefully. With an umbrella held delicately in one hand, he tried balancing on a crazily swaying rope. Soon he gave up trying to be graceful, swinging umbrella like a sword he tried saving himself from falling. But the rope was having definite attacks of nervousness. Gira tried to steady it with a bamboo pole but was unsuccessful. Purja toppled, falling heavily on Gira below.
“You fool! I told you to be careful. This way, you will break my back. Hold the rope between your toes. And the umbrella is for balancing and not for poking the rope with.” Gira scolded, rubbing her back.
“Why don’t you try first if you are so smart? I know you want me to be the first one to fall. You just keep ordering. Why don’t you try walking on that thing? Then you will know that the stupid rope sways like there is no tomorrow.” Purja had taken a hard knock and wasn’t going to take attitude from Gira. This was followed by a heated exchange of some impolite words, till no one was left in doubt of what they thought of each other.
Unburdened thus, both the heads came together once again to assess the situation. After much consultation it was decided that the rope walking would be more manageable if each one of them walked from either side simultaneously. Purja took a pole and Gira, the umbrella for balancing, imitating the circus acrobats. There was only one problem though. The rope was not in agreement. It had some other ideas.
Shortly afterwards the gardener found our acrobats dangling; ribbons, feathers, jewelry et al. upside down from the rope, between two trees just as a fish on a fisherman’s rod. They were untangled and brought down. How had they managed to get tied up so badly remains, a mystery till date. The gardener guffawed loudly inviting more onlookers. It was embarrassing, is to say the least. And they never ever forgave Goltu for giggling and Pints for hiding behind the door on seeing them. It was not Pints’ fault though. He thought the bad men have come to fetch him for being naughty.
“Purja’s dad was highly amused by the sight of our friends whom the gardener ushered in his presence. He brought out his camera and captured the totally unique never till date repeated acrobatic fashion statement. By then our friends had perked up and tried salvaging their reputation by telling some far fetched tale about the jittery rope trying to sabotage their acrobatic aspirations. They were let off lightly due to the free entertainment they had provided. Lot of suspicious sniggering could be heard between the household staff and the gardener that our acrobats did not much appreciate. The rope and the ladder were locked in the shed and the keys hidden under a planter nearby. The gardener was kind of possessive of his implements, as we all know. Their respective moms were not amused by the abuse meted out to their makeup kits and the perfume bottles.”
As the acrobats stood holding their ears facing the corner, they heard Goltu pointing at them while explaining to little Pints, “Don’t be scared. These are not bad men. Look! It is only Gira and Purja. They are just dressed like bad men.” They did not much care for her tone.
“They did try a few stunts from time to time but the earlier enthusiasm was missing. Circus mania had passed.” The rope unknotted itself settling back into a neat pile as every one around it discussed the reason for the dangling duos dangling condition. It was difficult to reach any conclusion, they all agreed.
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