Walking a Tightrope - CircusTalk

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Walking a Tightrope

Clowns, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians and dancers does this sound like a fantasyland to you? If yes, then probably you have never ever visited a fully functional circus. And when one talks about the circus, there is no way of missing Rambo Circus, one of the biggest and oldest circuses of the community.

The history of the circus is as big and glorious as the circus itself. “The circus is from the British Era. My father used to be a helper in the Arena Circus for years. Some years later, he realised that he needed to do something big and that is when he decided to take ownership of the Arena Circus and merged it with two other already running circuses. This was back in 1991. He then went on to do foreign tours with the Circus. In 1993, he suffered a heart attack and decided to return to India. All these years, I was busy with my college, but knowing about my father’s condition, I decided to join the circus. We then thought of renaming the circus and came across the word Rambo, which means strength. We knew right then that this will be the name of our circus,” Sujit Dilip, the owner of Rambo Circus, tells you.

Owning a circus back in the 90s, he says, was nothing less than having a kingdom. “We were like kings. Such was the grandeur of owning a circus. People from all over India used to visit our circus. They used to tell us that they have travelled 100 kms to come and see our circus. It felt great. It was like a festivity for people and they didn’t want to miss it at any cost,” Dilip tells you.

However, with time the circus which once worked with a strength of around 400 artists came down to merely 100. “We had 70 animals and for each animal there were a minimum of two caretakers. From tigers to lions and from elephants to chimpanzees, we had all kinds of wild animals. For each elephant, we had 3 mahouts. But now, we are left with only 100 artists. The reason being lack of funds and low exposure,” he says.

Though, the craze of visiting a circus has dwindled in the tech-savvy children these days, Dilip agrees to disagree on the fact. “The essence has not faded and it never will. Those who don’t want to visit a circus now is just because they have probably been to a bad one. People still love it as much as they did in the past. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t be here working,” he asserts…

Read the Full Article at The Pioneer

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