While in school, the arrival of a circus in my town excited me. A caparisoned elephant or a drummer went around the town informing that a circus had pitched tent in a local maidan. Boys rushed to the ground to gape at the tents.
A huge colourful canopy flanked by two smaller tents and fluttering flags invited the kids. A few elephants tied in the open, swayed their trunks. The roar of a tiger or lion thrilled us. I went home and pestered my parents to take me to the circus. For some reason, my father was not enamoured of a circus. He was happy to part with a few rupees, provided I went to the circus with my friends. On a holiday, I went to the circus with my classmates and enjoyed the show with a stick of ice-cream and a packet of groundnuts.
As the crowd poured in, a band played music. A boy who boasted of having seen five circuses described the pattern of the show. The trapeze or the tigers and lions scene would be at the beginning or the end of a show. It all depended on whether cages were in place in the ring or the nets meant for the safety of trapeze artistes were in place at the beginning of a show.
Lions and tigers were lined up in the ring by a girl holding a whip. She made a tiger stand on two legs. Tigers were made to jump through a ring of fire. Clowns pranced around. When a joker hit another buffoon with a wooden ladle, water jetted out of the buffoon’s ears. I never took my eyes off the ring as the mirth conjured by the jesters continued.
Girls on cycles displayed amazing dexterity. Their cycles moved backward and forward. Bicycles were driven with the front wheels lifted in the air. Five or seven girls rode on a cycle. Invariably, the following day, some of us tried to imitate the acrobats and bent the forks of our cycles or bruised our knees.
Jugglers entered the ring, juggling hats, bottles and balls. A juggler drank two beakers of green and pink coloured water. After some time, he blew off green colour water first and then pink coloured water. When we boys tried the trick, water never came out of our stomachs.
Three motorcycles zoomed inside a dome without colliding. Acrobats displayed their skills on bars and the trapeze. In between, elephants, dogs, horses and birds put their talents on display. When the show ended, I went home with a heavy heart for I had to wait for a year or more before another circus came along. Alas, such shows have passed into history today.