A dream job!

We will continue to use these expressions. A strict disciplinarian will be called a “ringmaster”. A coalition Government surviving precariously will be described as a “circus act”. When we are strained to do something, we will call it “jumping through hoops”. These expressions will live on, but circus and its complete ramifications will be lost to the future generations.

Evidently, the Circus industry is on its last leg. It is tough to see it survive in the present hostile landscape- with a diminishing spectator base and the exorbitant costs involved. Back then, the epitome of entertainment was Circus. It brought multiple elements together, literally under one roof!

When seen through a child’s lens, it was a fascinating spectacle. There were lions that perched on stools like docile house-cats, elephants that played football, monkeys that rode bicycles and parrots that spoke. With an array of hoops set ablaze and the audience in a hush, tigers jumped through them effortlessly!

Once the animal act was over, a magician regaled the crowd with his tricks. And soon enough, a bunch of clowns provided comic relief! Dressed in multi-colored clothes, with a cherry-red nose and a ready smile, the clown endeared himself to each child.

And then, there were acts of dare-devilry- a motor-cyclist who raced inside a spherical glass-ball and a deafening cannon-shot that ejected a gymnast to the far end!

The grand finale was the trapeze act where acrobats swung from one end to the other with aplomb in a show of acrobatics that defied imagination!

It is mind-boggling to imagine the logistics involved to run this show. How did they move the animals from place to place? How did they feed them and train them?  Where did they find circus recruits and how did their lives pan out?

Other ideas may cloud our mind now on the ethical questions related to the use of animals for entertainment. That is a fair point, but it is equally unfair to use today’s yardstick to size-up events from a different time and age. Decades ago, it was the only entertainment. It worked because it was still a real world; a world yet to be taken over by cinema and yet to be held hostage by gadgets and virtual reality.

As an IT professional, a common interview question is this one- “What is your idea of a dream job?” Of course, we reply on conventional lines. Someday, I hope to look at the interviewer straight in the eye and with a dead-pan expression confess, “Yes! I had a dream job! It was to join the circus as a clown, with a powdered face and a cherry-red nose!” I wonder how the rest of the interview will go!