Meeting Lucky the magician, again!

Lucky ‘the magician’ AKA Jadoogar Abhay Samrat has gained some weight and his voice is now heavier. He is more confident now.

I met him last in 2015 during a village annual fair in the village of Dhrang. You can read that 2015 post here.

It was again a sudden plan to go to Dhrang. Satish and I rode his bike through the scenic Kutch. The village organises a big fair every MahaShivratri in February. The fair, also called the ‘mela’ was exactly the same, the stalls were similar, the swings were in the same position as three years back. This time the kids-jumping-pneumatic-structure had mickey mouse’s photos instead of bikini photos of actresses I was privileged to witness in 2015.

Inflatable thing.
Crossing through the swarms of people and many plastic-made-in-china-junk stalls, I wondered what has happened to the country, this was one of the most remote mela I had been to where only locals visit. Still all the stalls are filled with cheap picture frames, fake shiny wrist watches and artificial fluorescent flowers. Only thing Indian was the age-old Dabeli and chaat stalls. Amid all this, I was trying to find the old and rickety magic show setup, called ‘Jadoogar Abhay Samrat’.
We stopped to see a makeshift swing driving people crazy.

Almost in despair and lost hope, I begin to go back to the parking and woosh! the Old tent with new poster ‘Jadoogar Abhay Samraat’ was in the front.
After some thoughts, We went to the ticket counter to buy two tickets. The counter person looked happy. We were the first customers. 60 rupees for two people! he said. I gave him a 100 but he had no change. So he said he will pay back after the show. By that time, the curtain opened for the people outside the magic show tent to have a glimpse of the magician. And there he was, in his same style, dancing to the beats of the latest Honey Singh songs, luring people into his magic show. The curtains closed again.
We had the tickets so we went inside. We were the only spectators present. Another person later joined. In hope of more people joining in we waited for 15 minutes. No one came. I went out and asked for Abhay/Lucky, the magician, telling him that I was a friend and went back to my seat.

In some time Abhay came and sat next to me. He remembered that I did a photo shoot of his show three years back. For him and his family, I was only present for an hour. But over the three years, I have spent hours on post-processing the images, writing about them, getting the prints and showing them around. I also sent all the images to him so that he could get them on his banners.
He himself started telling that he no longer worked full time with the family and he only came to this show because his uncle called him. He followed by saying that the show no longer worked and no one came to watch them. The seats were empty and remained empty.
He started travelling with his new friends to set up their tent in villages for 15–20 days. During that time he performs and then moves to another village. He has also started going to the birthday parties and small events.

Reunion photo.
He asked me if I got married to which I said no.’its good as I am also still single’. later he said that if at all I get married I must invite him to do a show.
He went back for a short break. I started thinking how could I be of some help to him. His magic tricks were just average. They were the age-old techniques with much older props. I wondered if I could give him CDs of magic tricks tutorials.
He came back and handed over my 100 rupee note. The only income of the show was also returned. I asked him to keep him but he refused. Same thoughts were still flowing in my mind so I asked him on how can he formally learn magic and how other magicians improve themselves. He said most learn from their families but there is a Magician’s academy in Pune. I asked him about the details. He said they charge about 40,000 for a six-month course. I wondered if there were some in Gujarat as well
.
He asked me how old I was, I said 24.
“birthdate.?’
November 15th, I said
“then I am older than you by a few months”

At that time I realised that both of us were of the same age. How different our lives were and How different paths we took over the past three years. In a way, both of us were doing the same thing even now. He is still doing his magic shows and I am still taking photographs.

“Maybe I should get him enrolled in the magic academy, or maybe I find three more people to contribute 10k, “
I said to Satish while sitting on the pillion as we glided our way on the dark road back home. Bike ride in the dark open grasslands is surreal. It feels like you are stationary in a huge dark box with wind gushing on your face. I closed my eyes. It was difficult initially as I have trust issues on the bike. what if I lose my balance? what if a speed breaker come? What if we hit a car?. Keeping all these thoughts aside, I managed to close my eyes to feel the push of strong winds. I observed the flow of air on my face, the flutter of my jeans, the instability of the cap I was wearing.

“I will also put in 10” Satish replied, breaking my few seconds of wind meditation.

I went home to check on the internet if there was some magic school like Hogwarts in Pune but couldn’t find any. The search is still on.