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Bikaner. - Today, the Amar Circus is in town. A circus in India - what an unbelievable experience
this will be! Snake charmers who insert a living snake into one nostril until it comes out through the mouth, fakirs who pierce unimaginable body parts without any sign of pain, the Indian rope trick? The show starts off with a group of dancers, girls from five to fifteen years of age. No one is announcing the act - or any of the following for that matter. They all just start. The dancers chat with each other while they are trying to stay in rhythm. Well, it is not working and none of the girls are smiling. They are actually all looking rather bored, maybe understandably so since it is already the third of four long daily shows. There are moments when the girls are laughing, but only when one of them is cracking a joke to the others. The reaction from the audience is indifference - throughout the whole evening. Sorry, this is not quite true. People are laughing when the dwarfed clown with sadly deformed legs hits one of the other clowns. On the other hand, a dangerous motorcycle stunt where two motorcycles drive at the same time inside a metal sphere 5m in diameter does not illicit any response from the audience, nor do the trapeze artists, nor the fire juggler who is the same dwarfed clown, nor the jump of a jeep off a ramp at the edge of the arena. Every once in a while the dance troupe returns for another display of uncoordinated activities. The undisputed highlight of the show is the appearance of the well-advertised hippo. It comes trotting into the arena - slowly as expected from a hippo. The circus lights reflect off its freshly hosed skin while water drops silently fall down to the sandy ground. Step by step, the hippo completes one amazing circle through the arena, at the end of which, the hippo opens its mouth. A bunch of bananas is thrown into it. The mouth shuts, the hippo turns around, and lumbers out of the circus ring as it came. Then, it is time again for the group of dancing girls ...
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