A day at the Circus

'The Royal Circus is in your town till Dec 3rd only, so please tell all your friends and relatives to come and visit'. This was an attempt at Viral marketing by the Royal circus marketing department. Since I am not sure how the traditional virus is working so I am using this blog shamelessly as a marketing tool for Royal Circus.

Yesterday I took my kids and some friends of theirs with the mothers to see this circus. It was happening in East Delhi which to all South Delhi people is back of beyond and then some distance. The idea was that kids see the circus and attempt to understand what outdoor live entertainment was for their parents.

The first thing that my son was kicked about was the Elephants munching their food in their enclosures and the camels and horses tied nearby.

The show had trapeze, cycling, Dog and elephant tricks and some russian women doing gymnastics with props. I am sure some of them would have been ex Olympic gymnasts the way their bodies contorted and did impossible tricks.

It was a 3 hour show which I thought was long by 1.5 hrs. I think Circus as an art/entertainment form is slowly dying and in this fast paced and multi entertainment world of ours they face a losing battle to appeal to the minds and senses of the children.

If I ask my kids where would they like to go for a movie or circus they might still say circus but the attached parapheranalia of popcorns, burgers and other stuff was not available in the dusty circus tent. Smarter marketing would also need more color and more show, whether the quality of the audio or the fact that the seating ensured that everyone was not able to view the show , all these need to be checked and acted on.

But my children enjoyed for 2 hrs plus and I would seriously encourage every person to take their kds and show these artistes wh do all these deth defying stunts which we will not be able to do on flat earth.

So folks reading it, the show is on till Dec 3rd only and so go and show your kids what it was to live in the seventies and eighties, OSO be damned.

Festivities never end

If you are an Indian in India you would have noticed how every month has some holiday or other due to our being a secular state. So in addition to the Diwalis, Ids and Christmas we have our Valmiki Diwas also. The only major religion whose festivals are not holidays is Judaism. Why I have no clue! If I was a jew it might make a good case of calling up some TV News channels, gather some goons and proceed to burn some buses. For good measure call this an exercise in Secularism and presto you will give us another holiday on Hanukkah perhaps.
But Come September the Holiday mood grips this vast country of ours as from all corners of India there is something or the other. I am counting Onam also in Sept as the lovely Mallus keep shifting the dates from Sept to August. Then the gujjus do Navratris when the best place in the world to be is in Ahmedabad ( this is true for condom makers and pvt investigators too ). Navratri is followed by Durga Pujo where all Bengalis, the resident and non resident, all go out to buy their annual quota of new clothes and come out wearing the same without ironing them. Ironing means the creases go and then how will people know that the clothes are new. Ak-dom un intelligent - I tell you.
Diwali follows soon after and that signifies the binging on sweets and getting upset stomach to breathing foul polluted air with more NO2 then O2 and becoming unwell.
In Delhi, the city I live, Diwali also means card parties. Till a decade or two back these were friendly events where a group of friends got together and played a bit of card to usher in the goddess of wealth. Now these are bonafide events which have budget of several thousand dollars and where the winner can take home some serious money. There are urban legends where people bet their cars and houses. Draupadi is just waiting in the wing to happen.
I unfortunately dont play card and also dont hknow enough whos who to get invited to such parties but the scale and size baffles me and also brings introspection.